Boulder and Longmont Guitar Lessons by Joseph Brenna

Sunday afternoon and evening I returned to the main stage for the festival’s final three sets. First up, Holland’s 9-piece ICP (Instant Composer’s Pool) Orchestra, led by Misha Mengelberg, and anchored by his forty-plus years collaboration with drummer Hans Bennink. This set was a revelation. ICP plays free music interspersed with rigorously arranged pieces. Their range was astonishing, from the avant-garde classical sounding sub-group of piano, violin, cello, and acoustic bass, to full on 40’s big-band jazz, from outrageous cacophonous growls and hollers to superbly melodic post-bop solos, from chaotic textures in which each musician seemed to be inhabiting his or her own universe, to a tightly swinging unit. ICP showed more dynamic and textural range by far than any other performance I heard during the festival, as well as a good deal more humor. They explored the most challenging fringes of music while keeping the audience riveted and entertained.

Next up was 8 Bold Souls, led by this year’s Chicago Jazz Festival Artist-in-Residence, reedist Ed Wilkerson Jr. A horn heavy octet which also includes a cellist, this group largely eschewed traditional swing rhythms in favored of rhythm section grooves unique to each song. Wilkerson debuted several new compositions, which struck me as a risky move in this setting, and the band took some time to find its groove. Each song had a strong narrative form, so that the set as a whole felt like a series of short stories. Near the end of their set, Dee Dee Bridgewater joined the band for a pair of songs – another first for 8 Bold Souls – and brought down the house. A consummate vocalist with a smoky, powerful voice and showmanship to match, I was especially struck by the uniqueness of her scatting, evocative of mythical birds and insects. That’s right, insects. Mythical insects. It was crazy good. The band chose to play one final song after Dee Dee’s departure, which I thought was going to be a horrible mistake. But they pulled it off, with an energetic, idiosyncratic bluesy composition featuring superb solos by Wilkerson on tenor sax and Robert Griffin on trumpet.

Last up, the festival’s closing set with Ornette Coleman’s quartet, featuring Ornette on alto sax, violin, and trumpet, his son Denardo Coleman on drums, acoustic bassist Tony Falanga, and electric bassist Al McDowell. What can I say about Ornette, the prophet of free jazz, who’s music in the 50’s was so outrageous that he was frequently assaulted in clubs, and who last year won the Pulitzer Prize? His set was as challenging, and as rewarding, as ever. The curious combination of basses led McDowell to play virtually the entire show in his upper register, sounding more like a guitarist than a bassist. Denardo was the group’s engine, playing a constantly shifting arsenal of rhythms and textures. Falanga showed his range with a reading of Bach’s solo cello prelude in D major on the bass (!) while the rest of the band improvised freely, with Ornette scraping the violin in violent contrast to the bass. Cacaphonous, sacrilegious, and wholly appropriate, the beauty of Bach and its dissonance in the modern world were evoked simultaneously. Ornette’s tried and true folk/jazz melodies and vocal sounding saxophone gestures were all on display, as was his tendency to crack, spit, and sputter out of tune notes on the trumpet and violin. Some of my friends at the show were Ornette virgins – their response seemed representative of much of the audience: astonishment, enjoyment, and the feeling that they were watching a mad professor frequently trying to sabotage his band.

We were rambling about town most of Friday, so we missed some terrific sets, including Dee Dee Bridgewater’s with Mulgrew Miller and Ira Sullivan (I had a chance to hear Dee Dee on Sunday night, more on that in my report part III). But we returned to Grant Park and the Petrillo Music Shell in time for the Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band’s closing set. Four decades into his career, pianist Palmieri is one of the most celebrated Latin Jazz musicians in the world. He and his band of 3 percussionists, upright bass (electric) tenor sax, trumpet, trombone took the stage by storm. Unfortunately, they were blowing for the rafters, and the solos suffered, devolving shrilly into histrionics and showboating. I thought I was in for a long set. But Palmieri slowed the tempo down in the second song and the band found its pace. The remainder of the set featured a salsa-heavy repertoire with playful, virtuosic, and well-constructed solos by the horns, anchored by the solid percussion, and Palmieri’s rhythmic comping, spiced with a good deal of chromaticism. His piano solos were also adventurous and chromatic, true to the requirements of the form, while stretching out harmonically and melodically.

The sound at the Main Stage was adequate throughout the festival, but left a lot to be desired. There was a great deal of clarity, no small feat in a large outdoor space, especially when mixing acoustic bass, which has a tendency to sound thin in such settings. But the sound lacked warmth and depth. Chalk it up in part to the inevitable effect of running acoustic instruments through a PA. Still, the sound engineers made it worse by consistently mixing solos so far out in front of the bands as to obscure the interplay which is the heart of jazz.

I spent Sunday morning alone at the Art Institute of Chicago, visiting the fantastic exhibit of drawings and collage acquired by Chicago collectors, and the collections of American art. A perfect morning! I was lit up with a surge of vitality and inspiration, enough for a boatload of songs. There’s a way in which visual art wakes my senses that is unlike anything I experience in music, nature, or society.

In mid- morning I slipped out of the museum for a stroll to the Jazz at Jackson stage to hear local pianist Bob Dogan’s earthy solo piano set of chestnuts like “Golden Earrings”, pop tunes including “Here, There, and Everywhere”, and standards such as “September Song” and Ornette Coleman’s “The Blessing”. Dogan was all about harmony and melody, his set was very tame rhythmically. Which made me admire more the way he drew the audience in without any sort of flash or showy tricks. His understated, soulful playing, contrasting starkly with the flow of traffic proceeding down Michigan Avenue behind the stage, cut right to the heart. I looked around at the audience, and saw many people rapt and visibly moved by Dogan, who radiated mastery and humility simultaneously.

More to come about the festival in my next blog post, Chicago Jazz Fest Report part III!

During Labor Day weekend, my wife Rachel and I had the pleasure of spending three and a half days in downtown Chicago at the historic Palmer Hilton, just blocks from Lake Michigan, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Grant and Millenium Parks, site of the Chicago Jazz Festival. The festival, like so many arts and music festivals that take place during the summer in Chicago, is absolutely free to the public. I say”kudos” to Mayor Richard Daly, the City of Chicago, and all of the festival sponsors for an enlightened approach to support of the arts, and public participation! The feeling downtown throughout the weekend was one of community, celebration, and joy.

In addition to enjoying the festival, Rachel and I were in town to celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday, do some architecture tours, visit the Art Institute, and just generally relax and enjoy the end of summer with friends, so this was not a mission to catch every set. (Remember Jim Hall’s admonition to practicing musicians, which I paraphrase: if you want inspiration, mix it up with life. It’s as important to get out of the practice room as to get in it). We dropped in and out of the festival throughout the weekend, therefore what follows is not an exhaustive rundown, but rather notes on some of the highlights we enjoyed.

The Chicago Jazz Festival features a mix of national superstars and local, hard-working musicians, some well known nationally and some not. Chicago has one of the most vibrant jazz scenes in the country, with deep roots, a storied history, and a distinct local character. I was impressed and deeply moved by the many local players I heard, heretofore unknown to me, whose mastery and dedication to their art was on full display.

We arrived in Chicago late Thursday night, too late to catch the festival’s opening set by Sonny Rollins. Friday morning we strolled down to the park and visited its centerpiece, Frank Gehry’s startling Pritzker Pavilion, along with the reflective “bean” sculpture, and the whimsical water park. Making our way to the Jazz on Jackson stage, we caught the last couple of songs by Isotope 217, a quintet that shares three members with the band Tortoise, including Jeff Parker on guitar. The drums and percussion were laying down a furious latin beat, to which Parker and cornetist Rob Mazurek added alternately funky and jazzy solos.

Parker stayed on stage for the next set, a “Jazz Guitar Summit” featuring some of Chicago’s top guitarists: John Moulder, Buddy Fambro, Curtis Robinson, and Parker. I have to admit, I was wary of this set, having experienced similar showcases in the past where 28 strings (including acoustic bass) and drums just didn’t meld, and one-upmanship overpowered musicianship. Happily, this set was a different story. Robinson mc’d the set and led the ensemble through a number of standards, including On Green Dolphin Street, Things Ain’t What They Used to Be, Caravan, and others.

Moulder and Parker played what looked to me like Gibson Es-335s, while Fambro played a full bodied Ibanez (similar to a Gibson Es-175) and Robinson played a “Robinson”, or so he called it. Looked to me like a Gibson Es-175 with tape covering the Gibson logo on the headstock, but what do I know? Weigh in if you have an inside scoop on this! I found it curious that all four players used Fender Twin Reverb Amps, until Rachel remarked that they all just drifted away from the stage with their guitars after the show. So perhaps the amps were provided by the festival. Moulder had the fattest and most personal tone, standing out notably from the other 3 players.

All four guitarists acquitted themselves admirably as bona fide bebop guitarists – not necessarily their bailiwick in their own projects (as is evident from listening to Tortoise and Moulder’s CD “Trinity”), but clearly showing their roots here. Moulder and Robinson stood out, Moulder for the melodic inventiveness of his lines and his ability to develop an idea through many permutations, and Robinson for his Wes Montgomery style octave melodies and chord solos. There was terrific dialogue between all four players throughout the set.

I’ll post more about the fest in my next blog entry, Chicago Jazz Fest Parts II & III!