By Nick Catalano
The ninth season of Jazz @ Lincoln Center began with a talk show "Beyond Category - The Recorded Legacy of Duke Ellington" - a program of reminiscences with Geore Avakian and Teo Macero (veteran Columbia record producers of Ellington music) telling often humorous stories about Duke's record sessions. The writer Nat Hentoff hosted the discussion after being introduced by Rob Gibson - the managing director of Jazz @ Lincoln Center - a figure long overshadowed by Wynton Marsalis, and hitherto virtually unknown to the subscribers.
As Hentoff alternated questions and commentary between Avakian and Macero, the audience was treated to a rare inside glimpse of an important facet of Ellington's career. The producers mentioned the microphone positionings for the various sessions and indicated their disappointment at modern mixing and recording techniques of Ellington reissues which they felt distorted the original sounds of the band. In a reference to the famous Ellington at Newport 1956 live recording, the producers indicated that the liner notes of a new reissue of the concert gave false reports of what actually happened, and in other ways distorted the circumstances of the hour. As the discussion drew further away from Ellington, Macero became adamant at the decisions of contemporary producers to include alternate takes of any recording session and Avakian cited a court case which gave a favorable verdict to an artist who forebode such alternate takes.
Punctuated by some exciting Ellington compositions played for the audience, the evening was informative as well as entertaining i.e. the aforementioned humorous anecdotes - and illustrated, once again, how this "Jazz Talk" programming of J@ LC is a vital cog in the center's mission - to educate contemporary audiences in jazz history.
A couple of evenings later J@ LC presented its season opening night concert series with a show dubbed "Rocking' In Rhythm: The Small Band Music of Duke Ellington." The concert continued a year long J@ LC celebration of Duke's life and music on the centennial of his birth. During this opening concert, young trumpeter Nicholas Payton served as host and guest conductor and led the band through little heard and often forgettable compositions that Ellington created throughout his life. What was particularly important about the show was its focus on individual soloists, a practice which early on became an Ellington trademark.
Just as Duke had steadfastly trotted out his great musicians - Rex Stewart, Cootie Williams, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges and many others to perform in compositions he had specifically designed for their individual styles, so also the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra displayed their soloists - Joe Temperly, Victor Goines, Ryan Kisor, Wynton Marsalis and others in new arrangements of those old small band pennings. The LCJO soloists sought to re-create the solo stylings of the original Ellington sidemen - a practice that has drawn considerable criticism from critics who abhor this repertorial approach - and the meetings, growlings, grindings and note bending of these players did much to reconstruct the atmosphere of the original band. The audience, many of whom had never witnessed Ellington's performances, was certainly grateful for the opportunity to hear his ideas interpreted by LCJO musicians who have become world leaders in repertorial jazz performance.
A highlight of the evening was the vocalizing of Diane Reeves who sang up a storm. Her clarity and confidence in performing some spurious blues music was astounding. I have never heard her sing with as much authority and improvisational imagination.
One further note, after the show, press, VIPs, new subscribers and what seemed like the entire Alice Tully Hall audience were treated to a lavish post-concert party in the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse. It seems odd for a reviewer to mention such an event but the party was the showcase of a new climate in jazz which J@ LC has created. Gourmet food and white-gloved hosts serving open-bar cocktails provided by international corporate sponsors is a bit strange for a writer who first listened to jazz in tiny smoke-filled niteries often peopled by drug addicts and other nefarious characters. But this is the millennium and things are different - and perhaps better in these ways. At any rate, the J@ LC producers are certainly aware of the contemporary jazz patron and his needs. It is a wise approach and one that can only help the cause of the music - which is really the most important item.
