Musics Summary

Few would deny that Charles Mingus (1922-79) was, with the exceptions of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, the most accomplished composer in jazz. But the bassist and bandleader’s actual compositions are played much less frequently, mostly because one really needs a large, Mingus-style band to play them. Since his death, the composer’s widow, Sue Mingus, has kept his art alive both by making sure his recordings are still available (several packages, including previously unreleased concert recordings, are due out later this year), and by assembling no fewer than four official Mingus bands to play them.

Two of those bands, the Mingus Big Band and the Mingus Orchestra, will spend much of February commemorating the legend’s 90th birthday. It makes sense that they’re doing so in a jazz club (Jazz Standard), a church (St. Bartholomew’s) and a school (the Manhattan School of Music), since Mingus’s music was profoundly spiritual and he was, in his own way, an educator who shared his unique ideas about art and life with the world. Here’s a look at some of the events coming up.

Ranny Reeve is a Kings Park music legend who has become a mainstay at the community’s annual jazz festival. This year will be no different, except that the show will bear his name.

After six years as the Kings Park Jazz Festival, the show has been renamed the Ranny Reeve Jazz Festival, in honor of the musician who has for generations helped keep jazz music alive in Kings Park. This year’s show is scheduled for Feb. 17, at 7 pm at the R.J.O Intermediate School in Kings Park.

Steve Weber, a volunteer at the Kings Park Heritage Museum — which hosts the festival — and founder and facilitator of the Kings Park Jazz Festival for the past six years, took the stage last year to announce the name change.

“I could have cried because somebody gave a damn,” Reeve said in a phone interview.

Reeve, 86, said his love affair with jazz began when he was just 11 years old.

“I heard this song called “Let’s Dance” and there was an excitement that happened in my big toe,” he said. “I was hooked, and it’s been like that for 75 years.”

Reeve has a storied career as a performer playing jazz music throughout the New York area. But in Kings Park, he’s known for bridging the gap with younger generations by teaching them how to play jazz music, as well as the history of what Reeve said is the country’s “classical music.”

Over 40 years ago, Reeve began giving music lessons and having improv “jam sessions” in his living room, which he has since called Jazz in the Living Room. He recalled the first session taking place during Christmas time when he and his wife, Georgia, would play Christmas carols in their living room. He said someone came with a trumpet, and they started to play jazz music and thus the tradition was born.

Reeve has played an influential role in shaping young musicians throughout Long Island for decades. One of those musicians is John Scarpulla, a saxophonist who played with Billy Joel at his last performance at Shea Stadium before it was torn down, the Last Play at Shea.

Reeve is still producing his own music and recently posted new songs on YouTube.

The musician said he doesn’t have a favorite part of the jazz festival, but rather enjoys the chance to play with musicians and educate younger people about jazz, something they aren’t otherwise exposed to. “All you hear now on the damn TV is rock and roll and pop music. You don’t get much jazz.”

Weber said museum staff made the decision to rename the show because of Reeve’s dedication to the festival.

“He’s been affiliated with the museum for many years,” Weber said in a phone interview. “He brings seasoned musicians [together] with students to get them to play together.”

Weber said Reeve still has the ability to connect with younger crowds to teach them about jazz music.

“He shows an example through music and educates the children of our district,” Weber said. “It shows that jazz music is something that bridges all gaps,” including age, religion and race.

“He’s an old fella, but what he pulls out of kids and how he gets them to play music is amazing,” said Lois Vulpis, a volunteer at the museum. “Ranny is about keeping jazz music alive in the younger generation. If it dies with our youth, we’re not going to have it anymore.”

Some people may ask, “why should I spend so much money on an outdoor kitchen when I have one inside my home?. One answer to that question among many, is convince. If your family is the type who spends most of their time outside, then this is the thing for you. Do you love hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill? How about barbecued steak tips? With an outdoor kitchen, you can cook any meal outside.

With a grill, you can cook your meats outside. Usually you have to go back inside to cool the vegetable and the side dish. Between bringing the food outside to your family and bringing beverages and condiments, you will find yourself running in and out of the house several times. After everyone has finished eating, you must clean the grill outside and clean up inside from the cooking that you did in there. Between the running back and forth, inside and outside, you barley have time to enjoy your meal. The outdoor kitchen could be exactly what you need. The outdoor kitchen idea is just like the kitchen in your home. If you have the outdoor kitchen, you will no longer need to cook in two different places again.
The outdoor kitchens have several designs to choose from. You can choose a traditional kitchen set up. You ban also purchase or design a bar-style kitchen or an island-style design. Your outdoor kitchen can be mounted to be permanently stationary position. The kitchen can also be on casters if you wanted to roll it, for example, in and out of your garage or shed. Normally, if an outdoor kitchen owner plans to keep the unit outside all year they will purchase the stationary model. Purchasing the mobile model is useful only if you plan to move it regularly.

You can choose to have a roof on your outdoor kitchen if you want to cook in the rain. Your outdoor kitchen will have cabinets. These cabinets are made out of WearEver wood. This is a wood that can withstand the rain and other elements. It is a wood that does not rot or warp. You can keep dishes in your outdoor cabinet so that you are not running plates and bowls in and out of the house. Your outdoor kitchen will also come drawers. You can use these drawers for utensils so that you won’t find yourself running back in the house to get an extra fork. The outdoor kitchen is designed to give you all of the comforts of the kitchen in your home. Some of the top of the line outdoor kitchens will even come with a built in fireplace to sit by on a cold night.

Joe Sealy is a man who has worn many hats throughout his impressive career including musician, composer, music director and recording artist. He was at the Brock Centre for the Arts this weekend, bringing his Africville Suite to the stage, a work that won him a Juno for best contemporary jazz album in 1997.

The musical masterpiece is based on the community of Africville located on the Bedford Basin in Halifax which was Canada’s oldest black community and where Sealy’s father originated from.
In between tinkling the ivories during rehearsal, he spoke to IKFADTV about his jazz roots.

“Well my Dad always appreciated jazz saxophone so I guess that would be my first influence. He had a lot of music from guys like Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, The Basie Band, The Duke Ellington Band and Earl Bostic. So I sort of got used to the jazz style and then when I was about 11 years old he took me to see jazz at the Philharmonic which was a great show. It was like the 10 ring circus of jazz that used to come around nationally.”

Being at the right place at the right time also assisted Sealy in getting involved in the jazz scene himself. He talks about his first mentor.

“When I got into grade 8 I was 13 years old and there was a young aspiring jazz musician who decided that I looked like a young Charlie Parker and so he approached me and said do you play an instrument? I said yeah I play a little piano. Then he said do you know the blues changes and I said no. But he was so into it and we started listening to these great records together.”

The friendship and common love of music ended up with the pair trying to imitate some of their favourite artists including the vocal harmonies and Sealy says it was the beginning of what was to be an extremely successful career. He jokes: “My Dad wanted me to be a doctor or a minister because they always worked but I’ve managed to keep pretty busy as a musician.”

Sealy’s career has not only kept him busy though. It has also thrown lots of variety his way including a stint playing for rock band Blood Sweat and Tears in the 80’s. He talks about how that evolved.

“I was playing at a jazz club in Toronto and front man David Clayton-Thomas was in town and he wanted to form a band of mostly Canadians this time.”

Sealy says he came out to a jazz club called Yellow Fingers to hear him play and the rest is history.

Another interesting swerve his career took was working with the Kids in the Hall for their Brain Candy Movie and creating the hilarious song “I’m Gay” with star Scott Thompson. Sealy explained how these wacky opportunities presented themselves to him.

“My wife was a special effects hairdresser on SCTV, Kids in the Hall as well as CODCO. I remember the first time I got involved with it, the director of SCTV said we need a piano player to play for the show and my wife said well my husband’s a piano player and he said well have him come he’s hired.”

Shift time to now and Sealy’s acclaimed work as a jazz artist is something near and dear to his heart. Especially when it comes to Africville Suite. He reminisces.

“It was a real labour of love I wrote about the community. Because my Dad always, even though he moved to Montreal, thought he would like to go back but he never did. As an emotional response I wrote this piece of music in his honour.”

Sealy’s performance at Brock featured Africville as the “nucleus” of the performance embellished with the performances of singer/ narrator Alana Bridgewater, bassist Paul Novotny, saxist Perry White and drummer Daniel Barnes.

There are (at least) two musical sides to Robert Glasper, but it’s not hard to jump back and forth, the pianist says.

“My playing is still the same; both (styles) are a natural part of me,” he said in an interview from his New York home before embarking on a North American tour that includes Winnipeg.

Winnipeg fans get to see the Robert Glasper Experiment side on Feb. 19 at West End Cultural Centre as part of Jazz Winnipeg’s winter concert series. The Robert Glasper Trio performed here in June at the TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival.

The trio is Glasper’s more mainstream, conventional jazz configuration or, as he puts it: “My version of traditional jazz.”

The Experiment, on the other hand, is the band he uses to explore a blend of jazz, hip hop, soul and R&B.

Glasper describes the Experiment’s musical mélange as a “natural progression — music that is influenced by what’s going on in the street at the time. That’s what changes jazz.” The music has moved through “bebop, hard bop, free jazz, fusion; jazz shouldn’t be held down by anything,” the pianist says.

“Miles (Davis) was good at making that move — whatever the new sound was,” the 33-year-old Glasper adds. “I’m just making the music of the society I live in, people my age.”

The Experiment draws a younger, college audience that is conversant with hip hop and soul, he says. “The trio gets the same crowd, plus an older jazz crowd.” But then “the trio is not your average jazz trio. There is something for everyone in the trio,” Glasper adds.

Jazz audiences are getting younger, the pianist says. “Certain people bring out a younger audience with what they play. Some people attract an older audience. If you put out a carrot, you’ll get rabbits,” he says of younger fans.

But he warns: “Don’t put random stuff in your music, like hip hop, because the audience will know. Don’t do it just to try to be hip. Just play whatever you honestly like.”

Glasper is also writing for a jazz orchestra, what he calls a one-off project. “That’s a whole lot of work and writing, but I work at it when I can.”

The Experiment is releasing its first stand alone recording this month, Black Radio. Glasper’s 2009 release Double Booked was half a trio disc and half an Experiment disc.

The Robert Glasper Experiment performs Feb. 19, 8 p.m., at West End Cultural Centre. Tickets, $25 advance/$30 door, are available at www.jazzwinnipeg.com, 989-4656, at the Jazz Winnipeg office (007-100 Arthur St.) or the West End Cultural Centre.

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Help the Keith Price Trio kick off a western Canadian tour on Tuesday, at Mardi Jazz at Centre culturel franco-manitobain, 8:30-11:30 p.m. Guitarist Price recently released Gaia/Goya. The trio will perform Wednesday in Brandon then travel to Edmonton, Kelowna, Field, B.C., Lethbridge and Calgary.

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The Yves Léveillé Quartet, led by the titular Montreal pianist and composer, performs 8 p.m. Thursday at West End Cultural Centre.

Léveillé — along with saxophonist Roberto Murray, bassist Adrian Vedady and drummer Alain Bastien — recently released a new CD, Chorégraphie, the pianist’s sixth as a leader.

The CD has some great playing by all band members and good writing and arranging by Léveillé, which bodes well for a fine concert here.

Tickets: $16 advance / $20 door from West End Cultural Centre, Ticketmaster, Music Trader and The Winnipeg Folk Festival Music Store.

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Montreal saxophonist Christine Jensen and Winnipeg vocalist Lianne Fournier join the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, Feb. 12, for a little pre-Valentine’s Day romance with L’amour, Toujours, L’amour.

Jensen’s latest recording, Treelines, by the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra won a 2011 Juno Award. Fournier performs with her band Trivocals as well as a solo career.

The WJO performs at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Feb, 12. at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Tickets, $29.50 / $15, are available from winnipegjazzorchestra.com, 632-5299, McNally Robinson Booksellers and at the door.

‘Welcome to my office, my art gallery and my dosshouse…’ Sir Paul McCartney gives a jovial personal greeting at his HQ in central London. His appearance and the quirky art-filled room (paintings and photography; a modernist sculpture wearing a balaclava) are a relief after the forebodingly clinical reception a few floors below.
It is also surreal: a smart-casual 69-year-old with chestnut-brown hair, instantly recognisable for some of the most celebrated songwriting in pop history, as well as some of the most international press attention, McCartney sweeps an arm towards the window, overlooking the Soho sprawl: ‘I like the view of the garden,’ he adds in his steady Scouse drawl.
McCartney’s ‘dosshouse’ is clearly a hive of activity; the former Beatle and Wings frontman has been a prolific recording artist since the early 1960s and he hasn’t slowed down in recent years, although his latest solo album, Kisses On The Bottom, is a whole-heartedly old-timey affair.
The cheeky title comes from a line in the first track, I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter: a 1930s jazz standard originally performed by Fats Waller. The album mostly centres on crooner covers from that period (including It’s Only A Paper Moon and Irving Berlin’s Always), along with a couple of original songs penned by McCartney and featuring guest musicians Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder; he’s smoothly backed throughout by Diana Krall’s band. McCartney created a similar, seamless mix of covers and originals on his 1999 rock’n’roll tribute album, Run Devil Run.
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On Sunday, Jazz enthusiasts were treated to an afternoon of smooth sounds and delightful music at the Leon County Public Library.

For the next two weeks, the downtown library will be the home of the “A Fine Romance, Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-1965.” The exhibit, made of six panels featuring various jazz musicians, is on the second floor of the library.

Musicians within the exhibit include Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. The exhibit will move on after Feb. 18 to the next stop in its countrywide, 55 city tour.

To celebrate the exhibit’s new home, the library hosted a show with Florida State University’s Jazz Combo on Sunday. The group played for about an hour — much to the delight of about 50 audience members.

Steven Lewis, who played alto saxophone, said he was hoping the audience would leave the library having learned something. By the time the performance was done, the audience experienced about 50 years’ worth of music.

“We just wanted to give them some background,” he said. “Not just the history of the songs but also by playing and giving them an example of the way musicians are continuing to play this music.”

The audience looked quite engaged with the lesson.

Listeners either tapped their toes or bobbed their heads to the music. A few were so engrossed in the musical selections that they just sat with their heads bowed, smiling and only occasionally giving a nod or two of approval.

A few of the audience members were already familiar with the songs in the showcase.
Eunice Saunders, a 78-year-old music lover, said although she wouldn’t describe herself as a “jazz enthusiast,” she appreciates the music and always learns something at a performance.

She also had a few questions about the composition of the music after the performance was over. She surprised the band by quickly noticing the “workhorses” of the group — the bass player and the drummer who were constantly playing.

“Being in this kind of setting allowed me to really concentrate on those instruments,” she said. “I go to the symphony and I’m always listening. I find specific instruments.”

Tim Blackmon, the band’s trumpet player, said the audience’s engagement contributed to the fun he had on stage. He was able to look out and see some older members of the audience singing lyrics to some songs they were playing.

“It’s about swinging,” he said, flashing a smile. “It’s about having fun. If that ain’t happening then why are we up there?”

Jazz artist Denis DiBlasio will teach and perform at the two-night Princeton Jazz Festival beginning on Friday Feb. 10.

The annual event features high school and middle school jazz ensembles from around the state and will take place at the Princeton High School Performing Arts Center.

“The festival continues to be one of the largest jazz education events in New Jersey,” PHS Studio Band Director Joe Bongiovi said. “It provides students with great performance experience and great feedback from some of the best professionals in the field. We hope that this year’s performances will help open students’ eyes to new forms of jazz and provide a great weekend of learning, music and fun.”

The festival is a fundraiser to help the Princeton High School band program offset the cost of trips and uniforms for students in need and to provide additional musical experiences for the students in the band program.

In addition to individual concerts by DiBlasio, the festival will feature band competitions and a series of jazz clinics, during which performers will share their expertise and provide mentoring to students.

Tickets are $10 per evening for adults and $5 per evening for seniors and students and are available online at www.princetonjazz.org.

The jazz clinics will begin at 5 p.m., followed by the band competitions at 6 p.m. On Friday, DiBlasio will appear in concert at 9 p.m. On Saturday, he will perform at 9:30 p.m. The award-winning PHS Studio Band, which played at the 70th Commemoration of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii last year and placed first at the Berklee College of Music’s High School Jazz Festival in Boston, will perform with DiBlasio.

DiBlasio is currently the director of the jazz department and conducts the Jazz Lab Band at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J. He is also the executive director of the Maynard Ferguson Institute of Jazz at Rowan. He has produced nine recordings of his own and is especially known for his inspirational connection with young musicians.

Once upon a time, book royalty contracts stipulated royalties based on a simple percentage of all books “sold,” and royalty accounting was a minor part of a publisher’s overall accounting workflow. If 10,000 books sold in a year, and the author’s contract stipulated a royalty rate of 20%, the publisher would cut a check for $2,000. That simplicity is long gone.
In today’s bookselling landscape, even the most simple book contracts involve a mind-boggling number of calculations. In each of the basic categories of hardcover, trade paperback, and mass-market paperback, there are separate calculations for print, e-book (both wholesale and agency), physical book (again, both wholesale and agency). Each of these specific segments of a book’s sale demands its own royalty calculation. In practice, a single book can span several of these sales categories.
On top of this segmentation between “types” of sales, the majority of book contracts involve sales thresholds, or “escalators.” These allow for a separate and differing royalty rates to be paid, depending on the numbers of books sold. For example, an initial royalty rate may be set on the first 10,000 sales of a book. Once that benchmark is hit, a separate rate – an “escalator” – may kick in.
Keeping on top of royalty contracts is critical for publishers, for both profitability and regulatory compliance. However, without an efficient way to run the major bookkeeping operations involved, managing royalties can eat into time that should be spent on finding great new books to bring to market, and working with authors to do so. Publishers need specific tools to manage royalty processing, so that they can focus on the core functions of their business. This is why dedicated royalty processing software is becoming ubiquitous in publishing, for organizations large and small.
How Good Royalty Software Works
Good royalty management software supports multiple or unlimited royalty recipients per contract, and author splits, so that managing dozens or hundreds of royalty recipients per contract is automated. Many books attribute royalties to more than one author, and publishers can’t spend time hammering out separate royalty amounts for multiple authors on a single contract. Flexibility in parceling out royalties can be a huge time-saver in the long run, and the ability to slice up royalty calculations in many ways within a single contract is one of the very first, and most time-saving benefits of using royalty software. In addition, royalty contracts will typically have clauses for when books get sold at discount prices. Given that so many books do end up with a discounted retail price, automatically re-calculating royalty rates based on final sale price is another area in which royalty software proves it’s worth. A good royalty management system will be able to easily incorporate any changes in actual sale price of a book; and if at a later point an author wants to pore through their royalty earnings, data on when discount prices were set, and how they affected royalty payments, is all documented.