Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Jazzy Notes at Newport

Last Sunday I attended the Newport Jazz Festival.  I'm happy to report it was outstanding and well worth the price of the tickets.  I'm a long time fan of jazz and also like to play jazz guitar myself.  So you might think this visit to Newport was just the latest in a series, but in truth, this was the first time I've gone.  Why this time?  The lineup on Sunday was outstanding, my oldest son is also now a huge fan of jazz and it fit our schedule.  So we ate an early breakfast and drove my car down to Newport. 

We had one wrong turn along the way, but still made it in plenty of time to hear the day's music.  We started by staking out a spot on the lawn.   The Fort Adams State Park, site of the festival, literally is a fort.  The main Fort stage faces outward toward Narragansett Bay and the lawn seating surrounds a small island of reserved seats.  We walked to the far side of the stage, close to the harbor, and migrated inward until we found a clear patch and set down our folding chairs.  We were about two hundred feet from the stage, but the sound was very clear and a large screen offered views of the action on stage. 

We promptly left that spot and headed to the other stages.  In this venue, everything is set up in relation to the fort, so we passed one stage set up under a canopy to the left of the fort (Harbor stage) and continued through an opening into the fort to find the last stage (Quad Stage), also set up under a tent.  Clouds from earlier in the day quickly burned off, leaving us with a warm day that required large amounts of sunscreen to fend off the sun and water to stay hydrated.  Hence, the tents were very popular. 

We began our day by taking a seat and listening to the Matt Wilson quartet.  The first song was wild.  Wilson's quartet played very open jazz ala Ornette and was accompanied by a jazz string section, which plucked along to match the avant garde stylings of drummer Wilson and his band.  The raucous music - laid down by the instrumentation of sax, trumpet and bass in addition to Wilson's drums -- built to a crescendo and then backed all the way down to the quartet playing percussion on tiny porcelain tinker bells.  Then the instruments returned and built the music up to a wailing finish.  The music was out there, but clearly good.  Whatever illusion I had that Newport's lineup would be mostly conservative was instantly demolished. 

Next, we returned to the main stage, where a sextet led by pianist Amina Figueroa played melodic latin-tinged jazz that reminded me of the early days of Chick Corea's Return to Forever in their pre-electric days.   The band was excellent and Figueroa's music was easy on the ears. 

During the break, we headed for the concession stands in front of the fort and found a Greek menu to our liking.  My son and I both ordered lamb gyros.  A few minutes later they arrived -- thin slabs of lamb, covered by a bed of salad, onions, tomatos and mint, all covered in a light white sauce, then stuffed into freshly warmed folding buns, shaped like burritos, but much tastier.  We also had mint flavored lemonades and a large combo plate of thick hummus and copious amounts of tabouli accompanied by slices of pita bread.  We walked over to the portion of the lawn by the harbor, found a set of flat rocks to sit on and tended to our lunch.  The food was all outstanding -- easily the best Greek food I've had in years.  So we were well fortified to take in more jazz for the rest of the afternoon. 

Here's a picture of the main Fort stage from where we sat. 

 
 

Next up on the Fort stage was Arturo O'Farrell's Latin Jazz Orchestra. This band truly was an orchestra and had at least twenty musicians playing at all times.  This group played with high energy and extends the tradition of latin jazz groups from bandleaders like Tito Puente and Chico O'Farrell. Arturo was very knowledgeable about the traditions of this music and offered expert commentary to go along with each song.  One of the band's early songs was the result of a commission.  The title: Wise Latina.  This music had a contemporary feel and featured several of the band's fine brass players.   A couple of songs later, jazz trumpet great Jon Faddis joined the group.  His hot trumpet offered the expected stratospheric high notes and rapid flurries of sound, but he also played with a tone which at various times reminded me of either Miles Davis or Dizzie Gillespie.  Later, the band played another composition which Arturo noted was consistent with the band's mission to extend the pallette of Latin jazz, in this case by bringing in Ecuadorian influences. 

There was much more music on this day and I'll write more in my next post. 

Writer's Notebook: Interlude in Paris

I just got back from a business trip to Paris.  It was hectic and I worked a lot of hours, but I still found time to enjoy a few of my favorite things about the city and explore new places as well. 

I stayed in a small village called Malakoff which is located just outside the Peripherique, the highway which loops about the city center.  Malakoff is unpretentious and has reasonably priced hotels and excellent Metro access, so it's a good jumping off point for getting around the city.  It also has cafes, restaurants and open air markets, offering a miniature slice of the more extensive set of options found a few kilometres away in the heart of the city. 

Here's a typical street in Malakoff. 

 

And here's a hint that the political climate here might just vary a mite from that found in the US. 

In the mornings during the week, I stopped in a couple of small cafes with my colleagues and I had a typical French continental breakfast -- cafe au lait, a croissant, possibly a baguette and orange juice.  The coffee in Paris is much stronger than typically found in the US and kick starts the day in fine fashion. 

The evenings offered a chance to relax and pick from a variety of menu choices.  Our first night, a large contingent of us headed to an old style restaurant called Nos Ancetres Les Gaulois on Ile-St.-Louis, just a couple of blocks from the Notre Dame cathedral.  This small island is one of the oldest parts of Paris and our room in the restaurant felt like a cave carved out of stone and brick -- not for the clautrophobic.  The food here was basic.  One would first choose from appetizers which were offered on large tables and consisted of mounds of cheese and sausage to be sliced on the spot, plus a variety of vegetables and breads.  All of this was accompanied by table wine; our group filled small stone carafes as a way to minimize the trips upstairs to refill a glass.  Later, we picked from entrees of various sorts of meat.  My choice was lamb chops, which were tasty, but not prepared in any sort of special style.  Later, the cheese course arrived and again we had a chance to pick off our own slices of soft or hard cheeses.  Dessert was also offered, but by then I was slumping after many hours without sleep, so a few of us returned to the hotel. 

The second evening was more distinctive -- a visit to a jazz club in the famous Montparnasse district called Le Petit Journal.  The concept was a good one: combine the supper club experience with fine food, hearkening back to a number of movies set in Paris where jazz and nightclubs played a prominent role.  And I must say, our fixed price menu did have fine choices and I was able to indulge in my preference for fish in both the appetizer and main course.  But the music was so-so.  The group included about 25 instruments and as a result, musicians packed in tight on the stage.  Most of the group was young, possibly even high school age interspersed with a few veteran jazzmen.  For example, the trumpet player had wild curly gray hair behind a receding forehead, but played credibly in a variety of styles. 

The music was mostly from the Duke Ellington songbook and worked well enough, though the ensemble work was not as tight as I've seen among some award winning jazz groups at Massachusetts high schools.  The main issue was the singer.  After a couple of instrumental pieces, a woman who resembled Carla Bruni-Sarkozy -- at least with her combination of medium length brown hair and rounded cheek bones -- joined the group.  Her breathy vocals -- think of Marilyn Monroe serenading JFK -- stepped through the lyrics, but it sounded like an academic exercise; her singing simply lacked soul.  At one point, I whispered to one of my French colleagues that it sounded like she'd learned the songs phonetically. Still, the combination of fairly good jazz -- from the musicians -- and fine food made the evening work and I thanked our host for setting it up. 

It was a late night and we got on the Metro for our return trip to Malakoff just before the subway lines closed at 12:00 midnight. 

I'll talk more about this trip and further adventures about town in my next post. 

Writer's Notebook: Playing the Blues

I'm taking a break from writing to play with my band, the Basement Blues Band, at a gig tonight.  We play a mix of blues and rock, with a variety of influences, including jazz.  If you are in the southeast Massachusetts area, come join us at the FUSF church in Franklin, MA at 7:30 (Saturday March 13) for the annual Chestnut Street Review.  Here's a link for more details.  There's lots of talented groups and individuals playing, plus great snacks during intermission.  I listened from the audience seats last year and had a great time.  This should be a lot of fun for all. 

RTF Returns

What happens when legends re-unite? 

In the case of the members of Return to Forever, the answer was presented last night in Boston.   The fabled band, last seen together in 1977, played a set of music that was unique and powerful, a summation of all they had done before but also much more than that.  

The band's leader, Chick Corea, is a living jazz legend and wrote most of the songs which RTF performed.  He would be famous even if he'd never played with this group, but only in RTF did he take the jazz fusion vocabulary and greatly expand its pallete.   Last night, he was a dervish at the keyboard, playing guitar-like synthesizer lead lines, lyrical electric piano and a diverse array of other sounds that he somehow coaxed out of his instrument array.  Chick seems endlessly inventive and the group continues to revolve around his musical vision and leadership.     

Stanley Clarke was like a big bear on electric and upright bass.   He hung back a lot and anchored the rhythm section, but also stepped forward and played bass chords, impossibly fast lead lines and a robust vocabulary of whacks and thacks that always fit (or set) the mood.  

Back in the seventies, Al DiMeola was an instant flash guitar legend in his early years with the band.  On the band's last album, Romantic Warrior, he began to add emotion to the flash.  By the time I saw him again at the Montreal Jazz Festival around 1990, DiMeola had become the compleat musician: soulful, intense and generous.  With this group, Al is just a star among stars, but he seemed to revel in this role last night.   On the electric music, he began the night playing legato lines of distorted guitar, that would morph during his solos into a McLaughlin-esque fury, then slip perfectly back into place when his solos were over.  But as the evening progressed, he switched guitars and mixed in lines that were quiet, thoughtful and full of soul, paying attention to each note.  

Lenny White is perhaps the least famous of the group, but holds his own just fine with his musicality and consistent drumming.  Last night the band featured one of his compositions, Sorceress.  He also got a rise out of the crowd when he said they were not just another "boy band", but a "man band".  He can bang out a beat on the tom-toms when the music calls for it, but I was most impressed with his tight cymbal work he joined Clarke and Corea  to play a few minutes of acoustic jazz.   

My favorite pieces last night were from their final album together, Romantic Warrior.  The final piece of the regular set was the title track from that album, where the band proved it can light up the arena with intensity just using their acoustic instruments.  

The song begins with Stanley Clarke bowing out a low pitched set of chords on his upright bass, soon joined by Chick trilling high notes on his piano, sounding like birds getting ready to take flight.  DiMeola began with faint notes on his Ovation guitar and White showed a deft touch on light cymbals and snare.    The music built up and each musician got a chance to play solos against Chick's harmonic structure.   On acoustic, DiMeola played his share of fast licks, but it was more like a mesh of sound than a virtuouso turn.  Then, he turned to comping chords, while Clarke showed his mastery of acoustic bass, in music that at times moved me to tears.  The man played so well -- it felt like he was calling me home.  Then Al stepped away for awhile and Chick played his main instrument, acoustic piano, playing with variation upon variation on the song's themes, alternative delicate and percussive.  This morphed into the trio jazz moment I described earlier, then Lenny White had a chance to play his own solo.   I find drum solos get old fast, but White was tasteful and played with the timbres of his full kit, interspersed with occasional percussive bursts from Clarke or Corea.  As the solo finished, DiMeola rejoined the group and they re-stated the song's fast paced melody time and again, before building to a crescendo and a final thundering group chord.     

By now, it was after 10:30, but we called the band back after they took their bows.   They finished with another tune from Romantic Warrior, Duel Of The Jester And The Tyrant.  This tune is electric and features a whole series of fast runs, where DiMeola's electric lines morph into Chick's synthesized leads in looping fashion.   it was a romp, one more fine ensemble piece from the band that had already given us so much.  

I attended the concert with my son, who has adventurous tastes in music, but had never heard the band before.  He was amazed by the variety of music they played, but had a really hard time hearing the structure in the music, since RTF has advanced far beyond the normal jazz routine of starting with the melody, improvising against chords and then re-stating the melody.  Yes, they did that in a way, but the songs owed a lot to the free jazz of the Sixties, while accented by Chick's lyricism.  

This is music to listen to again and again.   I've played my copy of Romantic Warrior a lot, though not much in recent years.  This concert was a reminder of just how good this band can be.  I must say that I'd love to hear them work on new compositions, since the musicians have all evolved since they did this special thing with RTF during the Seventies.  We got a taste of where that might lead, on a cloudy night in Boston, as their music rang out and brought us, their audience, to a special place for a few hours.