by Glenn Siegel
photo by Maurice Robertson

The one hundred people crammed into the New Africa House Theater on the University of Massachusetts campus on June 12 were filled with anticipation. David Murray and Kahil El’Zabar, two towering figures in creative music, had not been through these parts in over 15 years, and many in the crowd understood how special an event this promised to be. The concert coincided with the annual meeting of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares, which just completed its seventh season presenting some of the finest improvisers on the planet.

Tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist David Murray has been a major figure since he burst on the scene in the late 1970s. Along with Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Steve Coleman and Joe Lovano, Murray is one finger on the hand of the most influential living saxophonists. After decades living in Paris – which might as well be Mars for the average American jazz fan – Murray has moved back to New York and is re-establishing a State-side presence.

There are few artists with a greater gap between importance and recognition than percussionist Kahil El’Zabar. Coming up he performed in the bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Cannonball Adderley, and Nina Simone (for whom he also designed clothes.) He scored and starred in numerous independent and feature films, and was chosen to do the arranging for the stage performance of The Lion King. He is the subject of Dwayne Johnson-Cochran’s complex and celebrated film, Be Known-The Mystery of Kahil El’Zabar. He was knighted by the French government in 2014, when he received the Medal of the Knights of Arts & Letters.

El’Zabar has dedicated his life to his community in Chicago. He was nurtured by, and later served as president of the most important musician-led organization in jazz history: Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM.) His Chicago roots are entwined with some of the most important musicians in the city: Malachi Favors, Ernest Dawkins, Ari Brown, Edward Wilkerson and Fred Hopkins. He was named “Chicagoan of the Year” in 2004 by the Chicago Tribune for his efforts as a musician, educator, and community leader.

El’Zabar rotated between trap drums, cajón, (a box drum used throughout Latin America,) and mbira (an African thumb piano, also called kalimba or sanza.) Murray played tenor saxophone and bass clarinet. They took us on a ride.

They began in 5th gear, tearing into an original at an impossible tempo, throwing down the gauntlet: they meant business. Despite a 500-mile drive from Pittsburgh where they played the night before, and being in their mid-60s, their energy kept us elevated over two sets of spiritual uplift.

They gave us a transcendent performance of “Summertime” (featuring tenor and mbira.) Jazz Shares charter member Jonny King told me he tired of the song a long time ago, but on Wednesday he heard the Gershwin classic as if for the first time. Murray and El’Zabar grounded it in the blues, and imbued the piece with slow release gravitas.

They covered Monk’s lesser known, “Let’s Cool One,” with Murray exposing the rich, reedy underbelly of his bass clarinet and El’Zabar creating buzz with ankle rattles and snare-like effects on his cajón. They were able to anticipate each other’s shifts in mood and tempo, and decided in an instant to stop on a dime. All made possible by their shared 30-year history.

El’Zabar’s vocals provided a special dimension throughout the concert. He sung lyrics of love and cooperation on “One World Family,” he unleashed a rubbery yodeled scat that produced smiles and raised eyebrows, and he moaned and exhorted whenever the spirit moved him.

The cumulative effect was a deep opening of the soul, with all the possibilities that creates. It is inspiring to know that Murray and El’Zabar are spreading that magic day after day, in city after city, during a packed, no-frills tour that will take them throughout North America. Many musicians half their age have neither the stamina nor the drive to consistently deliver those goods. El’Zabar told me he has taken his Ethnic Heritage Ensemble on the road for 46 consecutive years. They are gods in my book, with the whole world of music in their hands.

Coda: Thanks to Jason Robinson and Bob Weiner, who on short notice, put a producer’s mind at ease by agreeing to play some music. As the clock passed 5:00pm and I hadn’t heard from David and Kahil, my vivid imagination got the best of me and I asked Jason and Bob to be on stand-by. Of course, they improvised beautifully on tenor saxophone and drums, while our late arriving guests stretched their legs and caught their breath.

by Glenn Siegel

In a music world that values flash and technique, artists like pianist Ran Blake, who emphasize texture and depth above all else, are easy to overlook. In our spectacle-addled environment, one dense chord, simultaneously satisfying and unsettling, unfurling slowly over time, is an outrageous, even revolutionary, act.

Ran Blake returned to his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts on June 1 to perform with vocalist Dominique Eade in the beautiful Robyn Newhouse Hall at the Community Music School of Springfield. The concert, Blake’s first in the city in 55 years, concluded Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares’ 7th season.

Over two sets of glorious risk taking, Blake and Eade wove startling threads through some familiar themes. The Great American songbook, (“Old Devil Moon,” “On a Clear Day,” “Tea for Two”), Americana (“On Top of Old Smokey,” “Give My Love to Rose,” “Goodnight, Irene”), a string of Monk melodies and a string of songs associated with Stan Kenton, all floated by in various forms of abstraction; sometimes as discreet pieces, sometimes in medley.

Eade began Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” alone. It foregrounded her creativity and craft and gave us a chance to reflect on the poetry of the piece:

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred

Donning sunglasses, Blake sat grinning while he rested his head in his hand. When he finally entered, the crowd of 80 burst into applause.

Most duos of this kind are configured as singer with piano accompaniment. The concert I heard with Eade and pianist Miro Sprague at the Northampton Jazz Festival last year was like that. Saturday’s concert featured a pair of equals. During the sound check, and right through the first set, Eade kept asking for her voice to be turned down in the mix. This was not deference to age or the fact Blake was her mentor at the New England Conservatory. These two instrumentalists were engaged in improvised dialogue with no figure or ground. They took chances, tried to surprise each other, hit notes that were right and wrong.

June 1st was declared Ran Blake Day in Springfield, and we surprised him with a signed proclamation from the mayor. Born in Springfield in 1935, Blake was educated at School Street School, Classical Junior High and until the 11th grade, Classical High School. His mind was sharp and his playing was focused, and although a drive around Springfield revealed his favorite city hangouts long gone (Classical HS is now condominiums), he seemed genuinely pleased to be back.

It is hard to overstate his importance to the music. He is a decorated veteran, recognized with NEA and Guggenheim Fellowships, and a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant. As the long-time director of the school’s Third Stream Department (now called Contemporary Improvisation), he has taught generations of NEC students (Marty Ehrlich, John Medeski, Matthew Shipp, James Falzone and Don Byron, among scores of others.) In addition to many fine solo and ensemble recordings (All That is Tied is a recent favorite), Blake has an illustrious history of working with female vocalists, including Jeanne Lee, Sara Serpa, Christine Correa, and Dominique Eade.

Eade belongs to a small group of jazz vocalists who can both command the stage and mix it up with her bandmates. Her voice is clear, her presence is palpable, and her fearlessness gave the evening drama and weight. Her wordless work on the Monk pieces revealed a jazz musician who happens to sing. Eade is also creating a legacy as an educator at NEC, where she has taught since 1984. Former students include Luciana Souza, Kate McGarry, Lisa Thorson, Patrice Williamson, Aoife O’Donovan, Roberta Gambarini, and many others.

Singing with Blake is neither easy nor straightforward. His voicings, the way he uses pedals, his phrasing, are all distinctive, idiosyncratic and whimsical. Like a good yoga instructor, he makes you bend in ways you didn’t think possible. But the rewards, in terms of expressive range and depth of emotion, were readily apparent to the privileged present.