Speak Up for Jazz: Take the Greater Madison Jazz Community Survey

The Greater Madison Jazz Consortium is in the midst of crafting a first-ever action plan that speaks to our local jazz community as a whole. A compelling plan that’s grounded in the realities of the current scene and the wishes of jazz musicians, educators, venue owners, and fans will help point the way to a more vibrant and sustainable local scene and help the Consortium secure the resources needed to begin implementing the plan’s new initiatives.

To this end, the Consortium has been conducting a series of interviews with a few dozen key stakeholders, and is now inviting all other members of the jazz community to express their views through an online survey. To take the survey, simply go to http://www.greatermadisonjazzconsortium.org and click on the category (jazz musician, music educator, or fan) that fits you. (You are welcome to self-identify into multiple categories, and take the survey once in each category that fits you.)

The estimated time to complete the survey is 10-15 minutes, and your responses are anonymous and confidential, i.e., the only data to be released publicly will be aggregate data.

The survey will be “live” through day’s end Monday, May 27th, and the results will be compiled immediately thereafter for the Jazz Consortium Steering Committee’s planning retreat on June 2nd. Please help make this jazz community action plan the best it can be by completing this survey.

Thanks much for your time and your concern for the future of jazz in our community.

Howard Landsman, Convener
Cathy Sullivan, Project Coordinator
Greater Madison Jazz Consortium
Email: greatermadisonjazzconsortium@tds.net

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The Greater Madison Jazz Consortium is a partnership of nonprofit jazz presenters (Madison Jazz Society, Madison Music Collective, Midwest Gypsy Swing Festival, and Wisconsin Union Theater), educational institutions and programs (Madison Jazz Jam, Madison Metropolitan School District Fine Arts Department, and UW School of Music), and supportive media (WORT-FM), with additional support from Isthmus, the Capital City Hues, and the Jazz Institute of Chicago. Its work is made possible by a generous grant from the John and Carolyn Peterson Charitable Foundation.

Wayne’s Music World: Listening To Irakere, Terry Gibbs Dream Band and a Big Disappointment

I found a “new” CD called Essential Irakere.  Irakere is the Cuban band that had Chucho Valdes, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval and Oscar Valdes as founding members in the 1970s.  Not too shabby.  Essential Irakere is wonderful Afro-Cuban jazz but be warned that the material has been released at various times on various labels in various countries since being recorded circa 1989.  Check your collection before buying or downloading.

The album was recorded at a famous London club and named Live at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz House in at least one incarnation.  It was Felicidad another time.  Now it is Essential Irakere.

Truth be told, there is a lot of other Irakere music that listeners would probably judge “essential.”  Nonetheless, the band sounds great, the recording quality is good and the price is cheap: $4.99 when I downloaded it. 

Paquito and Arturo were long gone to the States when these tracks were recorded but Chucho wrote and arranged most of this music, Oscar does percussion and vocals and the entire band plays brilliantly.  Irakere could play proud and loud rock-influenced Afro-Cuban jazz.  On Essential Irakere Chucho Valdes – who last played Madison 12 years ago and is overdue for a return – has the band playing straight ahead jazz with Latin rhythms but no rock overtones.  For serious Afro-Cuban jazz fans most Irakere music is essential.  Irakere is long gone but Chucho’s son Chuchito, who replaced his father as the band’s leader and pianist, will headline Jazz at Five in late summer.

Dennis Mitcheltree comes to Madison

Today’s article is by guest author Joyce Markle.

Heads up! It’s not every day that a great tenor player, well-traveled in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. makes time in his busy tour schedule to visit Madison. Later this week, Los Angeles saxophonist Dennis Mitcheltree makes a rare visit to Madison to play three dates with his friend, UW Professor of Jazz Studies, Johannes Wallmann. All are free.

• Saturday, March 2^nd, 8-11pm, Dennis joins Johannes at his weekly gig at The Fountain, 122 State Street.
• Sunday, March 3^rd, 4 – 7:30 pm, Dennis performs and coaches local players at Madison Jazz Jam at The Fountain.
• Tuesday, March 5^th, 7:30-9:30 pm, Johannes performs a program of original compositions as part of the UW Faculty Recital Series. Dennis and UW Parkside Professor of Jazz Studies trumpeter Russ Johnson are featured. Morphy Hall in the UW Humanities Bldg.

Dex @ 90: Program Schedule Set for Maxine Gordon’s Visit to Greater Madison, March 11-14

The program schedule is now set for Maxine Gordon’s visit to Greater Madison, part of her 2013 world-wide tour to celebrate the life and music of the late great jazz saxophonist, Dexter Gordon, on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Under sponsorship of the new Greater Madison Jazz Consortium, Maxine will conduct the following programs during a four-day residency (3/11-3/14/13) in our community. (Note: Program schedule is subject to change. Check this site as the event dates draw near to verify the schedule, or email us at greatermadisonjazzconsortium@tds.net.)

• MONDAY, 3/11/13, 7:30-9:30 PM: “AN EVENING WITH MAXINE GORDON AND THE UW BLUE NOTE ENSEMBLE” (Location: Morphy Recital Hall, in the UW Humanities Building). One of the three student ensembles directed by UW Jazz Studies Professor Johannes Wallmann – the Blue Note Ensemble – will be learning Dexter’s music during the Spring semester. This evening, they will give a mini-concert of his music, interspersed with live on-stage interviews of Maxine by WORT-FM jazz hosts Steve Braunginn and Jane Reynolds and an audience Q&A. The audience will include members of all of Professor Wallmann’s student ensembles (Blue Note Ensemble, Contemporary Jazz Ensemble, and UW Jazz Orchestra) and students from Richard Davis’ Black Music Ensemble. Free and open to the public. http://www.music.wisc.edu/extensions/eventdetails.jsp?event_id=2496

• TUESDAY, 3/12/13, 6:30–10:00 PM: “ROUND MIDNIGHT” (Location: Chazen Museum of Art). Dexter had the lead role in Bertrand Tavernier’s 1986 film, “Round Midnight,” the fictional story of an expatriate American jazz musician in Paris loosely based on the lives of jazz greats Lester Young and Bud Powell. He also won a Grammy for the film’s soundtrack, while Herbie Hancock won an Oscar for Best Original Score. Maxine Gordon will introduce the movie with her presentation, “The Making of Round Midnight,” and conduct a Q& A following the film showing. This program is free and open to the public.

New jazz club in Oconomowoc seeking house band

We are opening a jazz club in an old 1890s building in beautiful Oconomowoc. We have a basement cellar that is open now but the first floor venue is under construction and will be opening in May.

I am the music director for the house band and booking agent. On a side note, all performances will be recorded to analog tape and put out on vinyl every 6 months. We want a place for folks to be able to talk and enjoy their company and wine so dynamic control is very important to us. There are no TVs in the building, imagine that!

I have open auditions from now until March for the house band.

Thanks,

Jeremy Brockman
612-850-7311
http://www.lakecountryjazz.org
http://www.vinoetcetra.com

Musicians needed for New Year’s Day program to support homeless writers

Want to start the new year on a gracious note? The daytime warming shelter for homeless Madisonians (at 827 East Washington Avenue) is looking for a group of jazz musicians (perhaps a duo, trio or quartet) to kick off a New Year’s Day reading (poetry, short memoir, and more) by writers who use the shelter’s services and come to a writing group hosted by the shelter 2-3 times per week.

The program will begin at 11:00 AM, and the band’s performance would be about 20 minutes long (i.e., until around 11:20 AM). The musicians would be welcome to perform alone or – if they’d like – be accompanied by one or more of the day’s featured poets. Local spoken word poet and producer Heymiss Progress (a.k.a. Sabrina Madison) will be the MC. Refreshments will be served.

The shelter is hoping the musicians will donate their services, but could offer a $50 honorarium to the band if need be. The musicians will need to bring their own equipment, and will be able to plug in to the shelter’s electric service. Participating musicians will be added to the shelter’s Facebook event and a (hand drawn) flyer that one of our shelter family is creating.

If you’re interested, please contact program coordinator Meg Rothstein, megrothstein@gmail.com. And please forward this message to any musicians you know who might be interested in performing. Thanks for considering this request.