Dean Hampton
SPRING
INTO SUMMER
It's summertime again and the jazz is cooking in Kansas City. The
scene began to warm up in April and May, and in the past two months
there have been several great hot licks to report.
Kerry Strayer (left)
and his mentor, Gary Foster, at the Blue Room on April 24. |
An Important
Mentor
On Thursday, April 24, one of the best places in town to hear jazz
was the Blue Room for the formal release of Kerry Strayer's
new CD, Mentor (reviewed in "For the Record").
What a wonderful treat it was to hear the "mentor" himself,
saxophonist Gary Foster, who is both Strayer's former teacher
and a longtime role model.
If you remember the opening theme of the late Dick Wright's Saturday
morning jazz show on KANU-FM, you would have felt right at home as
Strayer, Foster and company kicked off the release party with Gary's
composition, "Saturday 10AM."
Another Foster original, "Sweet Lips," gave Gary the opportunity
to tell the story-behind-the-story -- sometimes one of the best parts
of any CD release event. Foster explained that as a child with his
first clarinet, he would listen to the music of the Glenn Miller Orchestra
on the radio and hear the beautiful clarinet of Wilbur Schwartz. Young
Foster pretended that he was playing the song and always dreamed of
being able to do it just like Schwartz.
Many years later, when doing studio work for the Carol Burnett Show,
Gary and Wilbur shared the reed section work together. Schwartz was
then known as "Sweet Lips," so, upon his death, Gary wrote
this tribute tune for him. (According to Strayer, Gary had recorded
the tune before on alto, but never on clarinet.)
Your jazz collection will be enhanced with fine music when you add
this CD to it. Preview and buy Mentor online (via PayPal) at Kerry's
web site, kerrystrayer.com.
A Sivilized
CD Release
On Saturday, April 26, Gary Sivils and crew also took to the
Blue Room stage to play the set list from Sivils' new CD, Songs
Forgotten in the Morning (also reviewed in "For the Record").
Joining the cornetist were Paul Smith (piano), Bob Bowman
(bass), Ron Vincent (drums) and Hal Melia (saxophone).
If you've ever attended a Gary Sivils gig, you know that you can expect
the music to be unparalleled and the sidebars between tunes to be
just as interesting. That was the case throughout the evening and
the packed house enjoyed every minute of it. Sivils' introductions
of his band members were quite a kick. And many in the audience were
surprised to learn that, even though Hal Melia appears on the CD,
this was his first gig with Sivils. It sounded like they had played
together for a lifetime.
On the other extreme, the musical relationship between Sivils and
Paul Smith has lasted for more than 30 years. (A fan in the audience
pointed out that this is longer than all of Gary's marriages combined!)
Pick up Songs Forgotten in the Morning. You will be delighted.
 |
Great Jazz
on the Web
I recently visited the new Ron Carter web site -- roncarter.net
-- and immediately judged it to be among the very best jazz artist
web sites on the 'net. Both the music and the graphics are fantastic.
Without a broadband Internet connection, however, I might not feel
as strongly. If you do have broadband (cable or DSL), it is worth
a long visit. I could spend hours there just listening to the great
music -- whole albums -- that streams for free. Even without the fast
connection the site is worth a look and a listen. But you'll have
to prepare for a longer download time. Either way, you will also need
the Flash plug-in, which you should have if your computer is less
than three years old.
 |
Jazzpins!
Lately, I've been seen at jazz events wearing various jazzy lapel
pins. A few times I have had to nearly hide them to keep them from
others who would love to take them away from me. These pins come from
Mel and Carolyn Wanzo of Detroit, MI. Mel and Carolyn are great lovers
of KC jazz and visit us at least once a year, usually at the conclusion
of the Detroit Ford Jazz Festival in which Mel usually performs.
Mel, a Grammy winning trombone player, spent over 40 years on the
road playing and recording with many of history's greatest jazz artists,
including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Sarah
Vaughan. He is most widely known as the longtime lead trombonist for
the Count Basie Orchestra (1969-96). Prior to that, he performed with
Woody Herman's Swinging Herd (1966-68) and with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
The Wanzo's collection of over 100 jazz pins -- available at jazzpins.com
-- includes several categories: Artists (Bird, Mingus, Basie, Ellington,
Monk, Dizzy, Lady Day, Ella and many more), musical instruments and
symbols (sax, clarinet, flute, trumpet, trombone, drums/percussion,
vibes, bass, violin, clefs, etc.), festivals, jazz-related places,
and plain (but very attractive) "JAZZ and BLUES" pins.
In addition to wearing them just for fun, at $10 each they also make
great gifts for your jazzy friends. You can start your collection
today, once again at jazzpins.com.
