The Lighthouse Omnibook
By Petter Wettre
$35.00
This book of transcriptions is something a bit more than the
usual. Petter Wettre, one of Norway's top saxophonists had studied with Liebman
and like many of his generation was entranced by the Elvin Jones group recording
"Live at the Lighthouse" which featured Steve Grossman, bassist Gene Perla and
Lieb. This recording has become a classic, especially among saxohonists as it is
a primer in the post Coltrane vocabulary of that time. With painstaking care,
Petter transcribed all of Grossman and Lieb's solos, which offer great insight
into a language that has become a mainstay of saxophonists since that time.
Transcriptions of:
Fancy Free
New Breed
Sambra
Taurus People
Sweet Mama
I'm A Fool To Want You
The Children, Save The Children
Brite Piece
Children's Merry-Go-Round
For All Those Other Times
JERRY BERGONZI
With the greatest drummer ever, this record was a high point which set the
direction and tone for young tenor players. It was the new way.
BILL EVANS
That was a classic and pivitol recording for me, and the music was so intense
and played so hard that I was just floored. A completely modern style - you
could feel the intensity in that record.
GEORGE GARZONE
This record is an example of the next generation of Coltrane fanatics, and the
legacy lives on.
STEVE GROSSMAN
It's a good record. I always get, "It's a great record, etc." It was always very
stimulating to play with Elvin. It was the first live thing we did, and I felt
generally good about the music.
PAT LABARBERA
Referring to patterns that Trane had worked out, Steve and David's lines were so
great. An important landmark.
DAVID LIEBMAN
The "Live At The Lighthouse" date was one of the most exciting nights of my
musical life. The energy and enthusiasm of a working band consisting of three
young musicians with one of the greatest masters of all time was for all of us a
once in a lifetime event that we will never forget.
JOE LOVANO
That quartet was such a strong beautiful focus as a collective ensemble that it
gave me a lot of direction at that time. The way that those four cats played
together was very compositional with beautiful interplay, and the weight of the
energy was equal in the group.
BOB MINTZER
One of the consummate saxophone recordings. Ground-breaking on so many levels;
the way the musicians related, the openness of the music. Great record.
CHRIS POTTER
Elvin Jones' classic "Live at the Lighthouse" recordings have provided a
generation of jazz musicians (myself definitely included) with tremendous
inspiration and material for study. Liebman and Grossman raised the bar for what
could be accomplished on the saxophone after assimilating the musical language
of John Coltrane, and Elvin Jones was at the absolute peak of his powers. The
joy these four musicians must have shared playing together still jumps out of
the speakers at you, and it remains a shining example of jazz at its most vital.
Gil Evans & Miles Davis
- Historic Collaborations
By Steve Lajoie
$49.95 (432 page book)
The 1957 to 1962 Evans-Davis
Collaborations in Historical Context
Compositions vs. Recomposition vs. Arrangement
The Importance of the Evans-Davis Collaborations to Jazz Ensemble Literature
Detailed Analysis and Transcribed Full Scores of Blues for Pablo; New
Rhumba; Will OŽ the Wisp; Bess, You is My Woman Now
Recommendations for Further Study and Bibliography
Issued Recordings of the 1957 to 1962 Evans-Davis Collaborations and more
Includes an Interview with Maria Schneider and Fred Sturm
Forward
Maria Schneider, born in Windom, Minnesota, was studying piano and music theory by age five. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree in theory and composition at the University of Minnesota, studied at the University of Miami, and received a Masters degree from the Eastman School of Music. After moving to New York City, she received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to study composition with Bob Brookmeyer.
In 1985 she became an assistant to Gil Evans. Her work with him included assistance for the movie The Color of Money, and Sting's 1987 European tour. At the 1993 Spoleto Music Festival and the 1996 JVC Jazz Festival (New York) Maria conducted the Gil Evans Orchestra in a concert of selections from Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain.
In 1994 she was commissioned to write music for and conduct concerts with toots Thielemans and the Norrbotten Big Band (Sweden). She and Thielemans continue to work together with various orchestras in Europe. She has also conducted the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, Bohuselan Big Band (Sweden), the UMO Orchestra (Finland), the Espoo Big Band (Finland), the Blechschaden Big Band (Germany), the Sunday Night Orchestra (Nurnberg), the Danish Radio Big Band, the Metropole Orchestra (Holland), Orchestre National de Jazz (Paris), Jazz Baltica (Germany) and the Cologne and Frankfurt Radio Orchestras in concerts of her music as well as for various television and radio broadcasts.
In 1994 Maria conducted the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in the commissioned premier of El Viento. She was commissioned to compose Scenes from Childhood premiered by her own orchestra at the 1995 Monterey Jazz Festival. Her orchestra has given televised performances at the opening of the 1995 Macau International Music Festival and the 1996 Berlin Jazz Festival.
Maria has placed in several of the DOWNBEAT and JAZZTIMES Critics and Readers Polls. The 1997 Critics Poll placed her seven times, including first place Arranger and first place Talent Deserving Wider Recognition in Composer and Arranger categories. Her orchestra placed second, and her album coming About placed amongst the best jazz albums of the year. She has also received several first places in DOWNBEAT and JAZZTIMES Readers Polls.
The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra has been performing at Visions in Greenwich Village every Monday night since March of 1993. They have also performed as far away as China, Portugal, Germany, France and Italy. Maria's debut recording Evanescence was nominated for two 1995 Grammy Awards: Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance, and for its title piece, Best Instrumental Composition. She was a nominee for Copenhagen's prestigious JAZZPAR Prize in 1995. Her second recording Coming About, released in June of 1996, received "five stars" from DOWNBEAT and was also nominated for a Grammy Award.
I met Maria Schneider in the early 1980s. we were participating writers in the Eastman School of Music Summer Arrangers Workshop, an intense 3-week institute that was presented annually by Rayburn Wright and Manny Albam in Rochester, New York. Years later, after her study at Minnesota, Eastman, and Miami, those of us that knew this talented young composer/arranger were delighted to see her connect with Gil Evans and Bob Brookmeyer. Before long, there was exciting news that she was fronting a big band in New York.
Within hours after I first heard the Evanescence CD, I called Maria to laud her with praise for both her writing and the superb performances by her band. I purchased most of the music from the album, and her charts soon become regular fixtures in Eastman Jazz Ensemble performances and objects of study in Eastman's advanced jazz composition and arranging courses. Maria returned to Eastman in 1995 to discuss her writing and conduct her works in concert.
The following interview took place in November of 1997.
Fred Sturm
Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media Department
Eastman School of Music
Rochester, New York, U.S.A.
Includes a Kenny Wheeler ECM Discography and a Interview with Kenny Wheeler and Fred Sturm
FORWARD
I first heard the music of Kenny Wheeler twenty years ago. Enamored with the freshness and the sheer beauty of his first ECM recordings, I dissected Kenny's solos and transcribed his tunes. When I began teaching his compositions become regular fixtures in my university classes and ensemble performances. Like so many of my colleagues, students, and professional contemporaries, I discovered that Kenny's voice was exerting marked influences on my own musical vocabulary. Thanks to the international distribution of Kenny's work through a vast array of ECM projects, his contributions as a performer now hold a place of historical significance in the evolution of the jazz improvisational art form, and his compositions are recognized internationally as part of the "new standards" repertoire.
Kenny was born in Canada in 1930. His plans to pursue a career in teaching were circumvented in 1952 when he moved to England with hopes to perform as a trumpeter in English jazz bands. Following a two year stint as a postal worker, be began a fruitful musical association with John Dankworth that continued for six years. His playing and writing skills were heralded in the 1968 Fontana release titled Windmill Tilter, an album that featured Kenny with John McLaughlin and Dave Holland. He later performed with the John Stevens Spontaneous Music Ensemble, the Michael Gibbs Orchestra, The Glove Unity Orchestra, and did an extensive amount of English studio work (including the original cast recording of Jesus Christ, Superstar). Beginning in the late 1960s, he formed the first of his own bands.
Kenny's association with Manfred Eicher and ECM has continued for more than two decades. He has recorded six ECM albums as a leader, featuring Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland, Jack Dejohnette, Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz, Peter Erskine, and Michael Brecker. Other ECM projects have showcased Kenny as a member of Azimuth (with vocalist Norma Winstone and pianist John Taylor), the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, the Dave Holland Quintet, and as a sideman on recordings with Ralph Towner, Bill Frisell, and Pierre Favre.
When I contacted Kenny to discuss his work and influences, I enjoyed his candid response. "The questions will be difficult to answer because I don't like to know what I do or how I do it. I must probably have a system but I don't want to know what it is. But I will try by best." The interview that follows took place in October of 1997.
Fred Sturm Director
Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media Department
Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
Rochester, New York, U.S.A.
Kenny Wheeler ECM Discography
Azimuth/The Touchstone/Depart (Azimuth)
The Widow In The Window (Kenny Wheeler Quintet)
Music For Large & Small Ensembles (Kenny Wheeler)
Berlin contemporary Jazz Orchestra (Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra)
The Razor's Edge (Dave Holland Quintet)
Azimuth '85 (Azimuth)
Seeds Of Time (Dave Holland Quintet)
Rambler (Bill Frisell)
Jumpin' In (Dave Holland Quintet)
Double, Double You (Kenny Wheeler)
Old Friends, New Friends (Ralph Towner)
Deer Wan (Kenny Wheeler)
Gnu High (Kenny Wheeler)
Window Steps (Pierre Favre)
How It Was Then...Never Again (Azimuth)
Angel Song (Kenny Wheeler)
Transcribed by Brian Shaw for Bb trumpet or flugelhorn
(54 page book) $28.95
Transcribed solos from various ECM recordings: Gnu High, Deer Wan, Around 6, The Widow in the Window, Music for Large and Small Ensembles/The Sweet Time Suite, How It Was Then, Never Again and Angel Song.
Songs included : Heyoke Suite, Smatter, Peace for Five, 3/4 in the Afternoon, Solos One, Aspire, Ma Belle Helene, Part III: For Jan, Part VII: Freddy C., Part VIII: Closing, Sophie, Winter Sweet, Nicolette and Kind Folk.
Also includes biography and discography.
Transcriptions are used to develop the ears, to derive technical exercises, and for analysis to gain understanding of the theory and techniques used to construct phrases.
The following solo transcriptions are included as complete examples:
The music presented in these transcriptions holds valuable insight for all musicians, regardless of instrument of ability.
