Reviews

"...introspectively reflects on its inner soul...Silverman playing the pauses as well as the notes an approach that makes his program a clinic in the beauty of phrasing, tempo and mood." -Elliott Simon, All About Jazz: New York

"...a multi-talented performer..." -Pastor Dale Lind, Saint Peter's Church, NYC

"...tickles the ivories as a virtuoso and blows the trumpet so sweet..." -Viewpoints Magazine

Playing for a King

Much of my work these days revolves around playing piano for elderly people at nursing homes. I have been employed at the Hebrew Home in Riverdale for almost six years. It overlooks the Hudson River with stunning vistas of New Jersey and the new fall foliage.

One of the world’s finest jazz pianists and educators is temporarily residing there, trying to heal from the effects of a stroke.

Dr. Billy Taylor is still gracious and generous speaking from his wheel chair, putting sentences together in a slow fashion.

I try to visit him each time I go in to work. Here is a man who knew and played alongside Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and many, many others. An educator who brought jazz to NPR, the Kennedy Center in Washington, created the Jazz Mobile in New York, appeared in numerous films, and has performed all over the world.

Needless to say I am humbled. One day I told him that I was getting ready to do a concert at the Riverside Church In New York, but I belittled it compared to what Billy had accomplished. In quiet, searching tones he said,” No that’s awesome, it’s a good gig!”

He simply said, “Play less!” I mentioned that I am 56 years old and I was giving myself to 60 to really say something on the piano. He said in his typically generous fashion,” I think you’re saying something now.”

One evening I decided to take the plunge. Billy seemed not to be listening to any music in his room, and was often unable to attend concerts due to his schedule of physical therapy. I figured I would bring the music to him. Though nervous and a bit uptight, I wheeled my electric keyboard towards his door only to find it closed.

I asked the nurse if he was sleeping and she said no. We opened the door and there was Billy watching TV. I asked him if he would like a tune and he nodded a hesitant, confused,” yes.” I pushed the keyboard into his room and decided to pay Sandu by Clifford Brown, a blues in F. After I finished, Billy seemed happy and also smiled a little. I just hoped that the music had made him feel a little better and more in touch with music and the jazz piano. Another man outside the door in a wheel chair was listening to the music and applauded me as I left. I felt good inside because I was sure that I had just played for a king.

Jazz musician Rob Silverman plays at the Indian Road Cafe in Inwood, Manhattan, on Sunday, Sept. 26.

Each one teach one

They’re imbuing their students with a love of jazz

And no, they’re not Art Blakey or one his famous jazz messengers, but there’s no better way to describe it. Because of guys like these, guys like me know what jazz is. They are musicians who have dedicated their lives to spreading music through education. They bring jazz to places it has never been before, literally.

Riverdalian Paul West’s mother wanted him to be a concert violinist. From an early age, he studied classical music. His approach to the violin was all business. But then he discovered jazz. In 1954, he gave up the violin and started playing bass because, with jazz, the doors were wide open.

Two years later, at the age of 21, he was invited to record for his first time with Ray Charles. He recorded “Drown in my Own Tears” and “Hallelujah I Love Her So,” two of Ray Charles’ classic early recordings. Soon after, something extraordinary happened.

“I got this call from Dizzy Gillespie. This was a totally new experience for me, first of all because of the music itself, and up until that point I couldn’t tell the difference between Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie and I didn’t know. I could tell you about Mozart and Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, but I didn’t know a thing about Dizzy Gillespie,” he told me on a recent miserable rainy afternoon.

With the help of older musicians who were willing to teach him and let him play with them, he developed a style. He was the bassist for Dizzy Gillespie’s last big band from 1956 to 1958 and joined him again for a reunion in 1968.

“The Dizzy Gillespie experience was the Julliard School of music for me. You know, that was the whole educational process,” he said.

When I sat down with Mr. West, I couldn’t believe he ever held a violin. He has big, bass player hands. He was supposed to play the bass. But he also felt he was meant to help others discover jazz.

Beginning in 1969, Mr. West became the executive director of Jazzmobile, an outreach program that organizes free outdoor concerts for new audiences around the city and beyond. In 1970, Mr. West ended up buying an apartment in Riverdale, after he attended a party there and bought it from his host. He still lives in the building.

While living in Riverdale, he became director of the Henry Street Settlement Music School in 1973. For 26 years, he organized workshops for jazz, symphony orchestras and operas. He also conducted a series of tribute shows where symphony orchestras played the music of Dizzy Gillespie.

Mr. West is retired from administrating, but he still plays and teaches. He conducts a big band for senior citizens two days a week in Manhattan. He plays with his trio around New York, playing upstate often. At a gig a few weeks ago, he let a 15-year-old bass player sit in with his band because he said that’s how he learned back in the day, when guys gave him a chance. Now he’ll sit in with friends if he feels like it. Recently, he even sat in for a couple tunes at Ibiza Lounge on 242nd Street, which he thinks was probably the first time he ever played in the borough he’s lived in for 40 years.

Mark Sherman was born and raised in Riverdale. He moved downtown at one point, but moved back to raise a family. Like many parents, when his child moved out to attend college, he changed the room into something else. My parents made a guest room, Mr. Sherman made a small recording studio and practice space. There’s a drum kit in the corner, a line of vibraphone mallets hanging from nails on the wall and a set of golden vibes for him to practice. In his living room, he has a piano.

“I have certain things I do better on vibes than I do on piano, and certain things I do better on piano than I do on vibes, so it’s a constant joining of the two instruments for me,” he said.

I nodded like I knew what he was talking about, but I had no idea. I hardly knew what a vibraphone was. I had never seen one up close in action. He showed our photographer and me his recording room a few minutes later, and after a few notes … awesome.

Now the word “awesome” is overused, especially by me. But it’s a good word if you think about how meaningful it must have sounded before, say, television. The dictionaries say “inspiring awe,” which is a good way to describe the vibes: there’s something awesome about a vibraphone solo, so awesome, actually, that it’s hard to believe people can move the mallets that quickly and with such precision.

Like Mr. West, Mr. Sherman studied classical music at an early age. He started with percussion, but moved on to piano and eventually his principal instrument, the vibraphone. Mr. Sherman attended Julliard as a percussion major and piano minor. There, he met trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who later helped him record his first album A New Balance. Mr. Sherman has recorded and played with numerous world-renowned musicians.

He runs his own record label called Miles High Records where he produces his own releases and records other musicians that he likes. He’s currently on the faculty of the Jazz department at Julliard and New Jersey City University.

You can’t pin him down as a teacher or performer, the two roles have been fused together. Recently, he was chosen as a jazz ambassador for the United States by the U.S. Department of State and Jazz at Lincoln Center. As ambassador, he traveled on the Rhythm Road tour in Russia and Asia, teaching and performing. Many times he’s on the road for months, but always ends back in Riverdale.

“There’s nothing like flying over New York City coming in for a landing,” he laughs, “When you’ve been to Russia and all these places.”

Rob Silverman told me he’s an educator first, but when I met him, it was at the bar between sets at the Indian Road Café. We were eating breakfast.

Mr. Silverman has had a long career as a professional jazz pianist, but now focuses on teaching. He works at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, where he teaches and plays for seniors. In February 2009, one of my predecessors wrote a story about Mr. Silverman and his unique job. A doctor named Ethan Basche, who was born in Riverdale and moved back, read the article and called up Mr. Silverman. They formed a duo.

Two or three Sundays a month, the piano/bass duo plays across the Harlem River in Inwood. You can eat scrambled eggs and listen to jazz standards or some of Mr. Silverman’s original compositions. On a Sunday in September, they played “Eliza,” a song Mr. Silverman wrote for Mr. Basche’s daughter.

They closed that two-hour set with “All Blues,” a Mile Davis tune with a killer bass line. The song was transformed into something entirely unique with just a piano and a bass. Like “All Blues,” most standards are played by quartets and quintets, but these guys do it with a duo. It’s stripped down Sunday morning jazz.

Mr. Silverman said he plays to “create beauty like painters do … create harmony out of chaotic times.”

You can see the Riverdalian duo at the Indian Road Café, located at 600 West 218th Street, on Oct 31, Nov. 7 and Nov. 21 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

I had the pleasure tonight, in Lincoln Center, to see a great tribute to the producer Joel Dorn, who passed away this year. At Atlantic Records he produced records for Robert Flack, Rhaasan Roland Kirk, Yusef Lateef, Jane Monheit, Dr. John and many other greats. Roberta sang the First Time I ever Saw Your Face, the Persuasions sang a great acapella ballad, Jane sang Over the Rainbow and Dr. John and Cornell Dupree played some heavy blues too. The interesting thing is that I got a chance to meet and talk with Joel last year before he passed away. In 2007, I was mixing my latest album Golden Heart at DB Plus Studios on 57th St where several producers from the old Atlantic days were working. The guy that mixed my CD, Gene Paul, (Les Paul's son) did all those great sessions with Aretha and Ray Charles at Atlantic. While I was mixing one of the fast straight ahead jazz tracks, who should pop into the room but Joel Dorn! He said the music reminded him of the great jazz stuff he had done. Naturally I went out to talk with him and he told me he was now producing only pop singers. However when I read that he had died that December, I thought back to this very fortunate encounter I had with him. When Golden Heart was finished I left a copy for all the Atlantic guys at the studio,including Joel Kerr, Joel Dorn, and Gene Paul. I know he will be missed. Robert Silverman NYC August 13, 2008

Self-produced and composed by pianist Robert Silverman, Golden Heart is one of those gems which, for a variety of reasons, seems to only come about in the NYC area. It impresses as a love letter to all the artists, clubs and fans wherein and for whom this wonderful brand of swinging jazz continues to resonate. Silverman is a pianist who is well attuned to the tempo and he hits it square on for each of these ten cuts - never too fast and never too slow, always just right.

His exquisite phrasing is presented within the context of a variety of styles, the funkiness of “Say What?”, the precious blues of “Blues for ML”, the hard swing of “The Search” and the wonderfully paced storytelling that is a part of “The Struggle” and “Starchild”. For this, he has assembled a band that includes one of the world’s foremost reggae session guitarists, Andy Bassford, who here performs on bass. Bassford combines with drummer Scott Hamilton to produce a rhythm section that when joined with Silverman’s touch is to die for. Tenor man James “Doc” Halliday provides the spirit and a slight edge to tunes that, due to their subtlety, in less capable hands would easily become clichéd and stilted. Here, they are presented with warmth and a depth that makes repeated listenings a treat. Halliday shines on the graceful paean to altoist Jackie McLean entitled “Jackie’s Waltz”. Trumpeter Chris Anderson lends his versatile horn to three tunes but is a standout on the aptly named tribute to the great hardbop trumpeter Lee Morgan, “The Cat”. To paraphrase the Harvey Shapiro poem whose simple message solely defines the liner notes, Silverman wants the boroughs to hear his voice like he hears theirs. With Golden Heart he has succeeded and in many ways produced a love letter to the city itself. For more information, visit www.robertsilverman.net. Silverman is at Sugar Bar Jul. 10th and Mannahatta Lounge Jul. 17th.

Joe Lovano enters the Expression stream with just the tenor riffing quietly with bassist Dennis Irwin and the light, feathery magic of drummer Lewis Nash. Before one knows it you are afloat in a complex but soothing sea of orchestral elements and polyrhythms, finally giving way to Joe’s spacious solo and the rising energy of Tim Hagans open, stabbing trumpet solo, moving into a punctuated trombone solo by Larry Farrell. After a brief and melodic piano break by the late, great John Hicks, Joe comes back and then the ensemble rises to the ending climax of Part 1. Cool part 11 starts with muted trumpets and saxophones reminiscent of Gil Evans’ best work. Joe continues to solo with flutes in the background, opening to just the quartet. The secret to the success of this album is changing textures mixed with soloing. The composers and arrangers, Joe, Tim, and later Gunther Schuller, change the energy from the rich orchestral context, to the soloist playing with lots of space with just the rhythm section. In this Cool section all the horns exchange short phrases which seem to revolve in a wide circle through the ensemble. The Birth of the Cool Suite, with Gunther Schuller conducting, starts off in a dark mood but suddenly enters the silky veil of the lush, Moon Dreams-Which transports the listener to a very relaxed, warm place. Joe cuts through with sounds reminiscent of the ballad masters like Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, but is again revealed to just the piano quartet, rocking slowly. The high horn backgrounds provide a gorgeous harmonic foil for Joe’s earthy tenor. Again one hears a hint of Gil’s style of writing for ensemble trumpets that would complement Miles. This time, however, the tenor is out front-ending with a chorale in low tones with a bubbling mood and a slight dissonance leading to a tempo change into Move. This has to be one of the great bop heads and it is grooving here, with Joe riding high on a walking rhythm section, punctuated by punches that remind one of The Thad Jones- Mel Lewis band that so many of these great cats came from. Barry Ries solos admirably here into Steve Slagels alto solo which leads into a short piano solo by the late John Hicks. The ensemble comes back with some burning angular lines that serve to bring the Birth of the Cool way into the language of 2006. There is an almost classical interlude which follows and segues into another favorite of mine, the relaxed Boplicity, the very essence of Miles’ art at that time. The trombone solo is the coolest thing going over that tasty groove, back into those historic backgrounds that let Miles weave in and out so beautifully. Gary Smulyan’s bari solos work well against Joes short complements, and back into the head once again with Barry’s trumpet sweetly shining through.

We now change the mood and direction with Blue Sketches, almost in the somber Trane vein until the rhythm section stars to elevate again- this time with no piano, allowing Joe to investigate outward harmonic places . He stays lyrical at all times allowing for a minute scream that leads back to a Trane feeling, encompassing humility and religious reflection. Buckeyes is a brisk contrapuntal piece by Tim Hagans using pointed, jumping trumpet and sax motifs punctuated by crisp ensemble hits that give the feeling of a large big band, giving way to Lovano’s solo over a loose swinging rhythm section. Joe and Tim Hagan’s solo together and break apart, creating a wave effect, ebbing and flowing. The opening theme is quoted again which brings this section to an exciting close. The Streams of Expression Suite starts again with a clarinet solo by Joe with just the bass and drums, similar to the opening of the CD. This part is Enchantment, and Dennis and Lewis seem to call to mind the Jimmy Garrison-Elvin connection, with the alto clarinet once again echoing the solemn beauty of Trane. The mood switches to a joyous one in Second Nature with a riffing sax soli which cascades up and down opening to the alto sax. Then there is open, layered soloing with trumpet, tenor, and piano-everybody enjoying the freedom- after an Ayler like minute, the ensemble hits back into unison and a drum solo. There are then leaps from the horns in back of a cluster oriented piano solo edging into the bari once again. The tenor breaks out into uncharted waters, soloing brilliantly with complicated avantgarde background lines which become the forefront. Joe premiers the new instrument, the Aulochrome on The Fire Prophets which is a double soprano with a keyboard down the middle allowing him to play exciting bursts and clusters in the style of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Big Ben, a tribute to Ben Webster starts out in a bluesy Ornette fashion, with Joe creating angular lines on the Aulochrome, which sounds like two sopranos played at once. It feels like a duet with one person at the helm! It is totally refreshing and new, as is this entire CD. As they used to say in Downbeat, five stars for Joe and five for the album!

Celebrating Jackie McLean: Interviews with Dolly McLean, Don Braden, Wayne Escoffery, Steve Lehman, Dave Liebman, Don Sickler, Rob Silverman, Sue Terry, Dave Glasser share their ideas and memories.

The next story written about master drummer Al Harewood will be published in the June edition of All About Jazz in NYC.

Beginning and ending with two lusciously blue takes on “Summer Theatre,” Robert Silverman’s Light on Water, with the exception of a rousing version of Professor Longhair’s “Mardi Gras Blues,” is all original music. The selections are compositionally strong and portray a varied look at traditional styles with a heavy dose of the blues. “Fragments of the Self” and “From A Dream” are artfully touching ballads, while the two improvisations, “Light on Water” and “Contemplation” each commence in delicate unhurried fashion before the former builds through several tension filled exercises and the latter introspectively reflects on its inner soul. “Summer Theme In Blue” has Silverman playing the pauses as well as the notes an approach that makes his program a clinic in the beauty of phrasing, tempo and mood.

A Staff writer for AAJ-NY , Elliott enjoys music with energy, chops and tension; whether it be from the mainstream or the outermost fringe. More about Elliott...

This article first appeared in All About Jazz: New York. Download our latest issue for an extended monthly calendar, a club guide, interviews, local artist profiles and more!

In the early 1970's Trinity College in Hartford, CT only had one music instructor who taught Music Theory and Classical Music Appreciation. The beatniks, hippies, bluesers, and young jazz musicians on campus wanted more. We were given the option of traveling to the Hartt College of Music on a free bus and studying music. Little did we know that our African-American Music classes would be taught by one of the true saxophone giants in Jazz History, Professor Jackie McLean.

Jackie turned out not only to be a marvelous raconteur and teacher of Jazz History, but was also a mentor for me as well. His classes consisted of listening to jazz, hearing his unique stories about growing up with Miles, Sonny Rollins, Monk and Bud, and debating jazz and politically related topics as well. The thing that stands out in my mind about those classes was his openness and sense of humor.

Let me elaborate. Jackie sometimes would come to class dressed in a Fez with a tassel, a sweater vest and tie, along with leather clogs on. He had the ability to tell the funniest jazz anecdotes and yet never crack a smile. He told one story about leaving Monk's house before a gig and how Monk was in a very odd position, perched near the couch. When Jackie came back after the gig, Monk was in the same exact position. The class was literally on the floor.

On the more serious side, this man was totally honest with us about his seventeen year stint with heroin and subsequent use of methadone for treatment. He was a living example of how one could turn ones life around. He went from being a genius alto saxophonist addicted to drugs to becoming a Professor at Hartt and fathering one of the most successful citywide music programs, the Artist Collective in Hartford. This program is also run by Jackie's wife Dollie Mclean.

During his stint with drugs, Jackie’s cabaret card, like so many gifted musicians, was revoked for many years. It was only in this 1970's time period, that Jackie got together his powerful Cosmic Brotherhood group to play his first return gigs at the old Half Note in New York. I went to the city to witness one of these amazing gigs. The group consisted of Jackie on alto, his son Rene on tenor and flute, Billy Skinner on trumpet, Fish Benjamin, bass, Michael Carvin drums and Billy Gault piano. The group pulsated in post-Trane like modal grooves driving with intense passion.

One day, back in Hartford, I summoned up the courage to approach Jackie alone before class. I wanted to thank him for my favorite McLean album (still is to this day), called Right Now, with Clifford Jarvis, and Larry Willis. He simply thought for a moment and said," Yes, that was a very beautiful session." It continues to be, and the compositions such as Poor Eric are examples of some of his best writing.

Jackie could put down anybody, outcool them so easily. One student got up and said, “Of course, Miles's best album is definitely Kind of Blue" .Jackie quickly retorted, “Its not my favorite." Discussion ended. One student told him he wouldn't bring in his prize records to play on Jackie's mediocre classroom turntable. Jackie looked at him and said quietly, 'I like my collection too, but I’m going to bring it in!`

The main thing that Jackie left me with was the faith that I could do it in the jazz world. We were asked to write a final paper about our feelings about the course. I wrote about my qualms about becoming a jazz musician because I was white. Jackie gave me an A+ and stated beautifully, “Jazz is a rainbow of colors (citing people like Frankie Trumbauer and Keith Jarret), Go on and make your contribution to the art. I carry this around with me daily.

Several years ago I was Music and Jazz Director at the Dwight School in NYC. I had mentioned this to Jackie. One morning I got to school and turned on my answering machine. It was Jackie telling me how proud he was that a former student of his was spreading the lore of jazz to young students. He said he was planning a big reunion for all of us in Hartford or New York. That’s the kind of caring man he was. He will be missed by many of us who studied with him and got a chance to revel in the power of his music.

Listening to drummer Al Harewood speaking about his life in jazz, is like opening a secret chapter in a special history book that is filled with wondrous swinging grooves and illustrious personalities.

Al is eighty-three years old, but his voice is both powerful and inspirational. He has an acute memory, which makes him a wonderful person to interview.

Al was born on June 3,1923 in Brooklyn, where he currently resides. As a child he was originally a gifted tap dancer who gave recitals, and was affiliated with Bill ”Bojangles” Robinson’s school of Dance. Al’s older brother, Eustace, was the first drummer in the Harewood household, and was Al’s first real influence on drums. Eustace was drafted into the Second World War, thus leaving the drums unoccupied. Al had contracted pneumonia as a child, and at the Army physical, he was declared unfit for military duty. This was the beginning of his fine career as a jazz drummer.

While working at a munitions armory during the war, Al taught himself to play, and found an uncommon aptitude for playing the traps with fire and swing. When his brother returned after the war he was devastated at Al’s ability and growing potential as a drummer. Both he and drummer Arthur Edgehill started recommending Al for club dates around New York. Al began listening to the major percussion innovators of the time: Max Roach, Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, and the new bop stylings of Kenny Clarke.

It was at the Putnam Central Club, where Edgehill was working with Dinah Washington, that JJ Johnson first heard Al, and asked him to join the great Jay and Kai two trombone group, that later made jazz history. The group was rounded out by Dick Katz on piano and Peck Morrison on bass. Miles Davis came into the club one night and could only shake his head in wonder at the young Harewood’s astonishing grooves.

During this time, as I previously mentioned, Al was influenced by Art Blakey, especially his cymbal work. At one point Blakey happened to be late for a Charlie Parker gig. Al happened to be on the scene, stepped in to play, and Bird was amazed. Al learned to play very melodically with rhythmic punches, feeding and supporting each soloist, but never getting in the way of a horn player’s melodic development.

After Johnson’s group broke up, Al became part of the rhythmic foundation for such jazz luminaries as Stan Getz, Carmen McCrae, Mary Lou Williams, the Curtis Fuller-Benny Golsen Sextet, Stanley Turrentine, Shirley Scott and Grant Green, to name a few. His trio record with Grant Green, “Green Street” shows his ultimate sensitivity with brushes and his light, tasty, stick work.

His recording with tenor giant, Dexter Gordon ,“Doin’ All right” is a masterpiece of groove with sensational bassist, Ben Tucker. I called Al the night he gave me that tape, and suggested that it was the best rhythm section I had heard since Ron Carter and Tony Williams.

Al also performed with the Newport Festival All Stars and premiered new jazz and classical works by David Amram with the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He then became an adjunct instructor at the Livingston College of Music at Rutgers University, teaching drums and percussion.

In 1987 I had a piano trio with Al and the amazing Cecil McBee on bass. As a young pianist, I had to keep up with the two jazz masters, and when I called “Ain’t Nobody’s Business”, the two laughed at” the old chestnut” but played it with daring and the utmost respect for the blues.

Also, In the late 80’s, Al created some beautiful explorations with Lee Konitz, teaming up with bassist Lisle Atkinson and pianist Harold Danko playing into the outer harmonic and rhythmic realms of avant-garde jazz. What amazed me was how a “straight ahead player” could sound so contemporary. I realized though, that Al knew and could play the whole history of the drums.

In Al’s opinion, one of his most important collaborations in the 80s and early 90s was with the seminal Charlie Parker Memorial Quintet, with Bird’s, eloquent pianist, Walter Bishop as leader and Paul Brown on bass. The group toured Japan and the States. Al also worked at this time with Benny Carter and Toshiko Akiyoshi.

Al, whose parents came from Barbados, still maintains a home there. He often escapes to the sun during our tough, icy winters, and I was lucky to find him at home for this interview. Even after recovering from a once serious illness, Al maintains a wonderful sense of humor, dignity, and courage. After telling him about my recent hearing of Cecil McBee with the Charles Tolliver Big Band at Birdland, Al said in parting “One of these nights I might just drop into Birdland and hang out with all the cats”. As one of the original creators of modern jazz drumming, Al is really present in these clubs every night.