Happy Father’s Day jazz fans. This week I thought it would be fun to look at some Father-Son legacies in Jazz. But also, I think there is likely something significant about Fathers and Sons with regard to coming to appreciate Jazz. Many of us have found our way to Jazz because our fathers or our uncles loved jazz. And of course some of us because our mothers loved music…but its father’s day today!
John and Ravi; Duke and Mercer; Albert and Gene; Don, Dewey and Joshua—Jazz flows through the generations. Below the orange squiggle is quite a bit of music, some of which by artists for whom I could write entire diaries. In some cases, I have every intention of doing just that in the future. So today is not heavy with biographical/historical information nor is it heavily political.
If you are finding me for the first time, I do my best to publish a jazz diary every Sunday evening. I goofed last week and didn’t publish my diary until late Monday morning…bad choice on my part as it got very little attention. I’ll “republish” that diary at a later date. Sorry if anyone looked for a Jazz diary last Sunday and then didn’t see it appear on Monday. I really appreciate everyone’s readership and support, so I feel bad that one got lost in the shuffle. I made sure most of this diary was written on Saturday so as to avoid that problem today.
Please enter through the great squiggle of orange
I love Chris Rock, but I disagree with something he said. “Papa was a Rolling Stone” is NOT the only song for Dads.
If this were 10, 20, 30 years ago, thousands of musicians would be playing Song for My Father at their Sunday brunch gigs today. Sadly, the number of “Jazz brunch” gigs in 2014 is woefully low.
Sons have been following their fathers into Jazz for quite some time. For instance, Mercer Ellington (March 11, 1919 – February 8, 1996) played trumpet in his father’s band and took over leading the band after Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) passed away. Mercer also wrote a few compositions himself. Such as this well known tune…
My father was born in 1943. My grandfather played the saxophone, but I’m unsure if he ever did gigs. I don’t think he did. But I know that not only did my grand-father love music, but his brother was also a huge Jazz fan. The way the story has been told to me is that my grandmother, who just adored Liberache like so many did back in the 1950s, wanted my father to play the piano so that he could be “the life of the party” when he got older. Dad—and his buddy who would become my Godfather—turned 16 in 1959 and the popular culture that captivated him was Jazz and not Bill Haley or Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry.
Albert Ammons, September 23, 1907 – December 2, 1949, was one of the great boogie woogie pianist.
His son, Gene “Jug” Ammons, April 14, 1925 – July 23, 1974, becomes one of the great Tenor players of the 1950s and his moves into a kind of soul jazz in the 1960s are successful.
Through his work with organ groups, one might be inclined to say Gene Ammons was playing “soul jazz” back in the 50s.
This next one was covered on Santana’s third album. It’s a shame Gene didn’t live longer to benefit from the financial rewards this should have brought.
Here in Jersey, we hear a lot about the Pizzarelli’s. If you are in the tri-state area around NYC, you probably have heard John recently on your TV.
Bucky Pizzarelli was born on January 9, 1926 and is still alive! Bucky joined The Tonight Show Orchestra in 1964. I can’t find the year he left the band…perhaps he never did? There was another guitarist listed in addition to Bucky as having been the tonight show guitarist, and I’m unsure how all of that played out.
His son, John Pizzarelli-Martin born April 6, 1960, has been a successful guitarist and singer.
John can play. His singing probably helps him get more work.
Currently, John is performing in a commercial advertising Foxwoods Casinos, a Native American casino in Connecticut which happens to be one of the top five most successful casinos outside of Vegas or Atlantic City. I see this commercial and think “ca-ching! Alright John!” Jazz is hard, performing in a major television advertisement (possibly writing the song as well) tends to pay well.
One of my favorite stories that my dad and Godfather will tell is how they saw Coltrane at Randalls Island in NYC in 1961 and how my grandfather drove them there…meaning my grand-father also saw Trane.
John had a son by his second wife, Alice, and named him Ravi, born August 6, 1965. If I’ve learned anything whie writing this particular diary it’s that I need to listen Ravi Coltrane much more often than I do.
Here he is playing some Latin Jazz.
Monk's great ballad Ask Me Now
Fathers seem to hand down Jazz the same way that many men have found The Honeymooners or The Marx Brothers through their fathers. Sometimes its a legacy of art. Sometimes its from boys just trying to find a way to hang around their fathers. And yes, this applies to women as well…but jazz can be a very macho world. I’ll go into that a bit more next week. Thing is, its not always fathers. Sometimes it’s uncles. The appreciation of jazz lets some have things to discuss with their fathers or their uncles.
I have one uncle up in New Hampshire. He is the widower to one of my mother’s older sisters. He loves jazz. I havn’t sent him a link to any of these diaries yet. He’s in his 80 and was a Barry Goldwater republican back when there was a Barry Goldwater. Yes, as you can imagine he is lost to Fox news and GOP internet sites. When I do speak with him—especially during the W years—it is easy to avoid all politics and just talk Jazz.
Don Redman, July 29, 1900 – November 30, 1964, was a major band leader, composer, arranger starting in the 1920s. If I’m not mistaken, Phil Schaap from WKCR radio contends that it is Don Redman who set the standard for the instrumentation of a Jazz orchestra: sax section, trumpet section, trombone section, rhythm section.
Here he is featured in this Warner Brothers short from 1934
Don is uncle to Dewey Redman May 17, 1931 – September 2, 2006. Dewey came to prominence playing first with Ornette Coleman and then with Keith Jarrett. He is often associated with the Free Jazz movement
This is live with Keith Jarrett from 1973. Dewey was a part of what was called Keith's American Quartet from about 1971-1976
From 1990....
This is a clip from a documentary made about Dewey's life. I have no idea where one can find the full film.
Dewey’s son is Tenor Saxophonist Joshua Redman, born February 1, 1969
I met Joshua briefly years ago. My friends did a few sessions with him when we were finishing Jazz college. In 1991, Joshua won the competition sponsored by The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. My friend Eric Alexander came in second. I don't envy the judges who had to decide between the two.
This one from 1996 includes someone else I knew many years ago, guitarist Pete Berstein.
Live with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, featured along with James Carter
Another live clip
This next one, Soul Dance, is on Josh's new recording which is supposed to be released on Tuesday, June 17th.
Back to my uncle…I have considered (I’m serious) asking him to suggest a right wing blog where I could repost these Jazz diaries. I’m not sure I want to put in that sort of effort, but appreciation for jazz crosses the political spectrum; especially when we get to folks of a certain age. Of course there are serious contradictions in that notion…but it is an interesting thing to consider when trying to bring the GOP back to reality.
This next family…or more specifically the patriarch in this family….will get a full diary sometime soon. He raises a whole set of issues about race and the march towards desegregation. For now, just a little of Dave Brubeck December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012 and his sons, Darius, Dan, Chris and Matthew Brubeck.
By the 1970s his band featured his sons.
Darius Brubeck born June 14, 1947
Dave received Kennedy center honors shortly before he died. This next clip is the whole presentation including a performance by his son.
Is/was Dave Brubeck a national treasure? He probably does deserve that accolade. Like I said, I have every intention of doing full diary on Dave and I’ll save all of his details for that. He certainly was successful. He certainly could play. He definitely did much to fight segregation. His was the first desegregated band in the US Army. But if Dave is a national treasure..let’s not forgot who else might be and might just still be alive
Ornette Coleman born March 9, 1930, is still alive and his son Denardo, born April 19, 1956, is a drummer who began recording with his dad when was 10
Faithful from the empty foxhole
from 1968
1979’s Of Human Feelings is often considered one Ornette's best from this later period. Dernado lays down the funk....
Growing up, one of my friends’ fathers was also a huge jazz fan. Senior year of high school, one thing we would do (after…um…exercising freedoms only legal in Colorado and Washington State today) would be to go down into his basement and play pool and listen to his father’s recordings of Ornette and Monk. Or The Psychedelic Furs….it was 1984. My friend—Bash was the nickname we called him—would sometimes get scolded if we left the records out of the sleeves, but Bash’s dad was kind of proud that we were listening to Ornette and not Prince. Though, if girls were around the Prince might come on…or more Psychadelic Furs, depended on the young women.
Sometimes in Jazz, men get mentors who are older men. It happens quite a bit in music and other fields. I’ve alluded to this next man a few times in past diaries and I’m preparing to write a diary about him and George Coleman largely because of what they both mean to me and to hundreds of Jazz musicians who have passed through NYC over the last few decades. Sometimes I think everything I ever needed to know in life I learned from my one time piano teacher, Harold Mabern, born March 20, 1936.
That clip is actually two-fer. On drums is the fantastic Joe Farnsworth, born February 21, 1968. After I spent a disastrous alcohol fueled and emotionally complex year as an engineering major at Rutgers University right out of High School in the 1985/86 season, I left to study Jazz at William Paterson College. My first “combos” were with Joe Farnsworth. Joe swings his ass off and is one of the best drummers from my generation playing straight ahead jazz today, at least he is as far as I am concerned.
And I know that Joe got into Jazz because his father was a musician. Joe has 3 or 4 brothers all whom became jazz musicians (sadly, one past away not quite 15 years ago).
Before I end this diary, I can’t leave without mentioning perhaps the most well known father-sons in Jazz today. The father and certainly two of the sons warrant an entire diary. Here’s just a touch.
Ellis Marsalis, Jr was born on November 14, 1934. Trumpeter Wynton was born on October 18, 1961 and his brother Branford on August 26, 1960. Trombonist Delfeayo was born July 28, 1965. The youngest Marsalis brother, dummer Jason, was born March 4, 1977.
Ellis has been around for a while
But much of his recording career has come after his sons became well known
Here are some of the whole family together.
I can’t remember a time in my life without Jazz. I’ve been listening to my dad play since before I was born. And I was dragged to so many big band concerts as a kid in the 1970s. I started playing piano at age 3, but I spent many years playing Alto sax. My Godfather gave me lessons and often told me about Paul Desmond and Phil Woods. Both my father and my Godfather are still alive, both 71 years old. My father has retained his political sanity (though like too many in Jersey, he did have an appreciation for Chrissy Christie for a little while there). My Godfather has been suckered in by right wing talk radio and I honestly wonder if he has gone out and bought a gun…because reasons. The good thing is that when he spouts right wing nonsense and I tire of saying “how can you say that? Because……” I can change the subject to Cannonball Adderley and the GOP crazy washes away. Jazz heals the mind as well as the soul.
And many of us would not have jazz in our lives without our fathers.
Thanks for listening everyone. Again, I am sorry that last week’s diary on Latin Jazz in the 60s was posted late and got lost in the diary shuffle. Next week I expect to operate with a slightly expanded definition of what is Jazz in order to write what I intend. But that’s next week….
Please support your local Jazz musicians and all local live music. You keep the market for live music alive.