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