Tony Miceli: Vibes Matter

Tony Miceli is a long-time master vibraphonist who, until a few short years ago, was relatively unknown outside of the Philadelphia area, when he started getting requests to perform and teach all over the world. Now, he is in demand in Ireland, South Korea, Argentina, and Australia, not to mention New York and the West Coast, and the list of places is growing every day. Miceli deserves the newfound renown. He is widely regarded by the cognoscenti, including vibraphonists Gary Burton and David Friedman, as one of the ascending masters of the instrument. His work with groups like Monkadelphia (Monkadelphia; Dreambox Media, 2000) and The Jost Project (Can't Find My Way Home; Dot Time, 2013) are gaining increasing attention from jazz fans, and his new CD with violinist Diane Monroe (Alone Together; Dreambox Media, 2014) is raising eyebrows. Miceli is interested in social networking and is bringing players of the vibraphone together in a worldwide exchange of ideas and approaches. He has established vibesworkshop.com for vibes players to interact, teach, learn, and develop musically with one another. This year, he established the first Vibraphone Congress with Leigh Stevens and Tom Meyers, bringing players together in person to establish a yearly meeting and a community to support their work. We can find inspiration in his philosophy that "Doing good for others is the basis of a successful career. The good comes right back to you." All About Jazz, impressed by Miceli's dedication and incredible ability to transform any sheet of music into beautiful swinging jazz, wanted to find out how he has evolved as a musician since we last interviewed him in 2006. So we hooked up with him at his home studio, which is something like a "situation room" with its vibraphone in the center and an array of computers, amplifiers, recording equipment, and TV cameras, all connected to the internet, allowing him to instantly connect with co-musicians around the world. All About Jazz: What were some of your earliest musical influences? Tony Miceli: I was listening to a lot of rock music when I was growing up. And I was gravitating toward what I considered to be the more sophisticated players. I was thinking about which bands were best. I liked Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. I liked Yes. I was always seeking a higher level musically in all that. Meanwhile, my Italian-American parents were listening to Frank Sinatra, and every weekend we had Sinatra on. So indirectly, I was learning about "standards" which I also liked a lot. I found myself thinking about form and timing and other technical stuff as well. AAJ: Did you have a music teacher? TM: I started off playing guitar, in particular classical guitar. Then in my teens, I had a piano teacher Gene Davise and I had a drum teacher Joe Sher as well. I started playing guitar when I was six. By nine, I had two teachers—drums and guitar—and by fourteen, I had three teachers. Importantly, they were all very passionate about the music. They were actively playing gigs, so they could pass the fire along to you. My teachers would talk about their gigs, which probably helped me later. I think it's important to have teachers who are actively working. Mine were. I remember going to a garage sale and buying the Miles Davis recording, Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959). At first, I was very confused by it. I thought, "This is weird," and I set it aside. Then, a few months later, I tried listening to it again, and that time I got it! It hit me! So then I started getting excited about jazz. The rock music was familiar to me and my friends, but not jazz. But then I started paying attention to jazz and asked my piano teacher for some names and started to listen to it a lot. So I started out with rock, as well as my father's influence with the standards, and then accidentally got turned on to jazz. Sometimes I wonder if there would be more interest in jazz if we exposed kids to it more often. Is musical taste more a matter of nature, nurture, or peer influence? Anyhow, when I went to college at the University of the Arts, jazz became a major influence on me. I grew up in a mostly-white neighborhood, and going to college made me realize that all the stereotypes I had in my head were wrong. In college, I was exposed to European, Asian, African American, and Latino musicians and was impressed by how amazing they all were. AAJ: Were you also exposed to classical music at UArts? TM: I was studying all percussion, and had a classical percussion teacher for that. I played in the orchestra. But getting back to jazz, one of my biggest influences in college in the late 1970s in Philadelphia was saxophonist Larry McKenna. Of course, he's still very active. To me, he's an icon. I would put him up against anybody. Interestingly, I'm traveling a lot now, and every town I visit has an alleged saxophone icon like Larry! But they can't come up to his level of playing. Many of the classical musicians I met were very analytical but not really musical. By contrast, Larry simplified everything for me and emphasized how things sounded. thanks to http://www.allaboutjazz.com/tony-miceli-vibes-matter-tony-miceli-by-victor-l-schermer.php

A two-CD/three-LP of a previously unreleased live recording from 1977

A two-CD/three-LP of a previously unreleased live recording from 1977, featuring pianist Red Garland, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Philly Joe Jones, is being released Jan. 20 by Elemental Music. Titled Swingin’ on the Korner, the show was taped at San Francisco’s now-defunct Keystone Korner. Philly_joe_jones__red_garland_and_leroy_vinnegar_span3 Tom Copi Philly Joe Jones, Red Garland and Leroy Vinnegar The package includes a 44-page booklet with essays by Nat Hentoff, Ira Gitler, Don Schlitten, Doug Ramsey, Benny Green and Kenny Washington, with an introduction by producers Zev Feldman and former Keystone Korner proprietor Todd Barkan, as well as photographs taken during the actual concerts by Keystone staff photographer Tom Copi. Garland and Jones were members of Miles Davis’ quintet in 1955. Garland died in 1984. thank to http://jazztimes.com/articles/145141-two-disc-unreleased-live-red-garland-set-due

Steve Coleman, Saxophonist And Innovative Composer, Named MacArthur Fellow

Composer and alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, 57, has been named one of 21 new recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, commonly referred to as the "genius grant." The award is worth a unrestricted stipend of $625,000 over five years, as dispensed by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Though often classified as a jazz artist, Coleman takes a broader search to improvised music. Since the 1980s, he has approached music through the original concept M-Base, which promotes the creation of structures or languages to better express personal experience (the M-Base acronym stands for Macro-Basic Array of Structured Extemporizations). In practice, Coleman has applied the idea to uncommon formal innovation, inspired often by metaphysics, mythology, natural science and travel throughout the African diaspora and Asia. U.S. cartoonist Alison Bechdel works Sept. 2 in her studio at the castle of Civitella Ranieri, central Italy. U.S. Meet The 2014 Winners Of The MacArthur 'Genius Grants' "If anything, that's what this music is," he told NPR Music in 2012. "It's a lot of different influences, coming from different places — plus, whatever's coming from inside you, which is the main thing." In the process of developing the M-Base conception, Coleman has become an important teacher and community leader. Through frequent residencies and regular workshops, he has mentored many students well beyond the saxophone. His bandmates and collaborators include many major names in modern jazz and improvised music, including several recent MacArthur Fellows: pianist Vijay Iyer, drummer Dafnis Prieto, pianist Jason Moran and fellow alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón. He also runs the non-profit organization M-Base Ways, which provides resources for sharing musical ideas on and offline, and hearkens back to the musicians' collective which pioneered M-Base 30 years ago. "Because Steve Coleman generates his own musical rules, he's had to school musicians in his organizing principles, and his band includes younger players open and smart enough to keep up with the concepts," Fresh Air critic Kevin Whitehead said in a review of Coleman's 2010 album Harvesting Semblances And Affinities. "He doesn't just make music that's brainy and funky. He also helps shape players who develop things still further on their own. That's really giving something back to the music." Hear Steve Coleman and Five Elements live at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2011, and in this short documentary Field Recording.

Remembering Jazz Violinist John Blake Jr.

For decades, John Blake Jr. created a rare role for the violin within the jazz of his eras. A versatile player, he worked memorably with Archie Shepp, Grover Washington Jr., and McCoy Tyner. He released several solo recordings. He taught in conservatories and mentored many outside the classroom. Blake died Friday, Aug. 15 from complications due to multiple myeloma, according to his family. He was 67. In 2001, Blake appeared on NPR's Billy Taylor's Jazz At The Kennedy Center, a program which brought in guest artists for an interview and performance with Taylor's trio. The episode can be heard at the audio link above. Here's the description of the show as it originally appeared on NPR.org: This edition of Billy Taylor's Jazz At The Kennedy Center spotlights violinist John Blake. Blake has worked with saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. and pianist McCoy Tyner, among other jazz greats, led groups under his own name and distinguished himself as a music educator. After opening with an unabashedly swinging reading of Nat Adderley's "Work Song" — which also features Dr. Taylor on piano, bassist Chip Jackson and drummer Winard Harper — Blake, a native Philadelphian, begins discussing the origins of his musical development. He informs Dr. Taylor and the Kennedy Center audience that his first instrument was not the violin but the piano. As with many jazz musicians, his musical foundation came from the European classical tradition. By the time Blake reached third grade, however, he'd discovered the instrument for which he is best known and became acquainted with the work of renowned violinists such as Isaac Stern. Later in his musical studies, Blake discovered Indian music — an influence which continues to inform his approach to the instrument and which finds its way into a uniquely lyrical reading of "All The Things You Are" with Dr. Taylor and his trio. Following this well-received performance, Blake and Dr. Taylor discuss the influence of the late saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. and Blake's five-year tenure with pianist McCoy Tyner. The violinist then delights the Kennedy Center audience with a rhythmically fecund solo reading of Tyner's "Passion Dance." In the course of answering audience questions with Dr. Taylor, Blake is asked the source of his greatest musical inspiration. His mother "playing behind church choirs," he responds, noting that he tries to infuse his playing with the same degree of passion and inspiration. After an appropriately passionate, Latin-tinged interpretation of "Here's That Rainy Day" performed with the trio, Dr. Taylor asks Blake if there is a different technique for teaching jazz rather than classical music. Blake tells Dr. Taylor that a key to introducing students to jazz is getting them to embrace the concepts of improvisation and imagination. Those concepts and more are magnificently displayed in the evening's concluding performance, a robustly swinging rendition of the Dizzy Gillespie classic "A Night In Tunisia." thanks for http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2014/08/21/330762396/remembering-jazz-violinist-john-blake-jr