Scaling the dizzying heights of Gillespie's horn

Continuing my efforts to highlight the great musicians of bebop, today marks the 90th anniversary of the day trumpet great John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie took his first full-cheeked breath. (The image at left is a portrait of Gillespie taken by photographer Carl Van Vechten on Dec. 2, 1955).

Even jazz novices would recognize Diz for the remarkable, almost impossible reserves of air he maintained in those rubbery membranes around his mouth. Dizzy had a unique instrument in both looks and virtuosity. The bell of the horn pointed heavenward, he shepherded the early bebop jazz sound playing with all the legends of the form.

Gillespie also helped give birth to the Afro-Cuban jazz genre that merged Latin rhythms with bebop . He was a world traveler and a jazz ambassador, captivating audiences around the globe with his trademark style and play. Here is a 1958 live performance of A Night In Tunisia that I found on YouTube ...

Marvelling at Monk's style and grace

October 10th marks yet another milestone on the time line of musical history — today is the 90th anniversary of the birth of bebop pianist Thelonious Monk. A member of my personal pantheon of jazz idols, Monk was known for his quirky humor, fondness for fun hats, and dynamic and irregular style of play.

As with most innovators, Monk's brilliance met with uneven commercial success. At first the industry was looking for more conventional keyboard work, but eventually the times caught up with his genius and it was allowed to burn brightly. Unfortunately he flamed out too soon, taking an early retirement from music and the world.

Here's a wonderful video of Monk performing Don't Blame Me live in 1966, which I found on YouTube. It's amazing to watch because of its closeups of Monk's fingers at play. Seeing them channel the musical spirits his mind is conjuring — gracefully stepping, leaping, pausing, twisting — it's easy to lapse into a meditative trance with this great player.

My travels with Perry & Jimmy

One of the fringe benefits of having musicians for friends is you get to meet many very talented folks and experience scores of amazing performances. My percussive pal, jazz drummer Jimmy Bennington, has arranged for clarinet great Perry Robinson to grace this small corner of Chicago we call home. They'll be playing a few gigs together over the course of the next few days, and I'll do my best to tag along on their physical and aural travels.

Perry Robinson is an avant garde performer with a wide range of influences — from folk to swing, bee bop to klezmer, classical to free jazz — and a long list of famed fellow performers. He's also the author of the acclaimed autobiography The Traveler (available on Amazon.com), where he documents his never boring journey through this adventure we call life.

If you're in the Chicago area and want to try to keep up with these two sonic wayfarers, here's the road map:

• Saturday, August 29, 9pm, Velvet Lounge, 67 E. Cermak Rd., Chicago


• Sunday, August 30, 8pm, Morseland, 1218 W. Morse Ave., Chicago


• Sunday, August 30, 10pm, The Hungry Brain, 2319 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago

One of My Favorite Things: Happy Birthday John Coltrane

On September 23, 1926 jazz great John Coltrane blew his first note. I'm not conversant enough in the idiom of bop to put into words the beauty of his playing, so I'll let his sax speak for itself in this clip of his classic take on "My Favorite Things" ...

Building up a Sunday: Jazz, Ennui, Portraits and Silhouettes

Last week I wrote about an excellent jazz show, featuring Jimmy Bennington and Julian Priester, that I witnessed at the Velvet Lounge on the southside of Chicago (see Night time is the rite time for Jazz). Today I got some good news: Jimmy has invited Julian to sit in on his regular Colour and Sound gig at the Ennui Café right here in the neighborhood.

Maybe it's the collaborative nature of the genre, but my experience has been that jazz musicians are some of the most generous folks on the planet, and Mr. Priester is certainly displaying a grand level of graciousness in allowing us locals an opportunity to witness his trombone play. It's not often that you'll get the chance to see a musician of such renown play in such an intimate setting. Here's an excerpt from an article on Mr. Priester from All About Jazz:

... Julian Priester was born and raised in Chicago. His musical education was steeped in his study of bebop, but was seasoned by his exposure to the blues and the music of Sun Ra. Spontaneous improvisation was the focal point of Sun Ra's music, and it planted a seed of creative exploration that has stayed with Priester throughout his career. It took some years for Priester to truly understand what he had learned from his Sun Ra experience, but it was valuable indeed in the musical situations in which Priester would soon find himself. ...

Read the full article

Of course we in Rogers Park have gotten spoiled by the weekly sessions of free jazz (in price and style) that Jimmy has been arranging at the café every Sunday between 7 and 9pm. Jimmy's career has already covered a lot of territory and his expertise on the kit demonstrates that experience. All About Jazz did a nice interview with Jimmy a couple years back (see Meet Drummer Jimmy Bennington), and here's a snippet from the intro to that article:

... Having spent two years between 2000-2002 working as a drum tech for Elvin Jones touring the United States and Europe, Bennington is a drummer with a distinctive playing style and he has had the opportunities to work with a diverse array of artists from the jazz and improvised music communities including Gordon Lee, Art Resnik, and Michael Vlatkovich. ...

If you're going to be in Rogers Park on Sunday, make sure you get over to the Ennui Café (located at 6981 N. Sheridan Rd.) at 7pm to be a part of this event. If you're not, find a way to get here. As an added bonus, you'll be able to purchase their new CD — Portraits and Silhouettes.

Night time is the rite time for jazz

Last night, I ventured out with a small group from the neighborhood to visit the Velvet Lounge on the south side of Chicago, where our friend Jimmy Bennington is playing two dates on drums with the Julian Priester Trio. We've been checking out Jimmy regularly at our local coffee haunt the Ennui Café, where he plays a couple sets of amazingly evocative rhythms every Sunday evening.

Seattle trombonist and Chicago native Julian Priester, who give his name to the combo, has played with such jazz and blues legends as Muddy Waters, Dinah Washington, Sun Ra, Lionel Hampton, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner, among others (check out the Wikipedia article on Mr. Priester for a more complete list of his accomplishments and some good links to more info). Rounding out the group, and making the trip up from Missouri, is bassist Eric Warren who blew away the audience with his mastery of every part of the instrument.

I know some folks don't appreciate Jazz, especially when it branches into more abstract territory, but for me the experience of sitting in a darkened room listening to the primal rhythms and ethereal tones verges on the transcendental. As some might find the sacred in the intonations of religious texts, I encounter a very vibrant spirituality in these blues tinged notes.

Last night, I had a seat in the front and center of the room, and staring up at the commanding, spotlit figure of Mr. Priester, his trombone slide pushing out at me in mesmerizing jabs, I felt myself transported back to the church pew of my youth. Bathed in the liquid, thumping bass notes, the winding, pulsing brass melodies, and the shimmering, cascading drum beats, my mind was cleansed of everyday distractions and transported to a meditative calm that helped me appreciate life a little more.

Tonight, the Julian Priester Trio will work their magic for one more night. If you can make it down to the city's near south side, I highly recommend it.