NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony and Concert tonight, live and online

Go here at 6:30 pm CST (7:30 pm EST) to watch this year's NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony and Concert, streaming live from Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

This year's ceremony celebrates the lifetime achievements of Orrin Keepnews, Hubert Laws, David Liebman, Johnny Mandel, and the Marsalis Family. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis will perform. Several of the honorees will join them, including Liebman, Laws, and the Marsalis Family. The evening will also feature video tributes to each 2011 Master.

The event will take place at Jazz at Lincoln Center and feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in a program dedicated to the honorees' works. Several of the honorees will perform with the orchestra during the event. The evening also will feature video tributes to each of the honorees.

Can't watch? Listen live on Sirius XM Satellite Radio's Real Jazz Channel 70, WBGO jazz radio (NYC) on 88.3 FM or online, and at NPR Music online.

In NYC? The concert is sold out but standby tickets are available today at the JALCO box office, Broadway at 60th street, ground floor. The line begins at 6:30 p.m. If you don't get a ticket, you can watch a simulcast at Rose Hall.

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Information from www.arts.gov

Panel discussion with 2011 NEA Jazz Masters tonight, live and online

The NEA and Jazz at Lincoln Center will present a free panel discussion with the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters tonight, January 10, starting at 7 pm EST (6 pm CST).

The 2011 Masters are Hubert Laws, David Liebman, Johnny Mandel, Ellis Marsalis Jr. (representing the Marsalis Family), and Orrin Keepnews. The discussion will be led by moderator A.B. Spellman and will focus on the artists' careers.

If you're in NYC, you can see it live at the Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Studio in the Irene Diamond Education Center at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th St. The event is free to the public, first come, first served. Doors at 6:30.

If you're not, you can watch and listen live through the NEA's UStream page.

Live jazz to see in Minneapolis-St. Paul: This week’s picks

Are you in your car or near a radio at 8:30 CST on Friday mornings? Tune to KBEM to hear me and Mr. Jones—Jazz 88 "Morning Show" host Ed Jones—talk about these events and more. 88.5 FM in the Twin Cities, streaming live on the Web.

As we look forward to jazz this weekend and beyond, let’s pause to light a candle for the Clown Lounge, the epicenter of improvised music in the Twin Cities for the past 10 years. Both the Clown and the Turf Club upstairs are under new management as of last Saturday. The Turf is scheduled to reopen January 11 (this coming Tuesday). Although talks were reportedly held between JT Bates, Michael Lewis, and new manager Josh James, the Clown’s resident band, Fat Kid Wednesdays (Bates, Lewis, and Adam Linz) has severed its ties with the club. Which won’t be open on Mondays anyway, the night FKW used to play.

JT has promised that FKW will go on, and many people (including this writer) want that to happen. Honestly, I’d open my own basement if I could get a liquor license and a bunch of beer signs. A Twin Cities jazz scene without regular access to FKW is inconceivable and just plain wrong.

Friday-Saturday, January 7-8: Debbie Duncan at the Artists’ Quarter

There are singers who sing with a band, and singers who are part of the band. They use their voices as instruments, they improvise, and they are equals with the other musicians on stage. Debbie Duncan is one such singer; Lucia Newell is another. Lucia was at the AQ last Thursday, and even though the band ran out to move their cars when the tow trucks came, it was a very satisfying show. Debbie Duncan always delivers, and it’s good to see her in the warm, intimate setting of St. Paul’s famous basement jazz club.

9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Artists' Quarter, in the basement of the Hamm Building in St. Paul ($10). Tickets at the door.

On Dave Holland, a jazz class, and a detour to Nirvana

Dave Holland by John Whiting

The Dave Holland Quintet was originally scheduled to play the Dakota on January 24-25. Those dates have now been postponed "due to family emergency." An emergency in Holland's family, I'm guessing, because at Drake University in Iowa, where the quintet was booked to play on January 21, Chris Potter's Underground is stepping in. I wish the very best for Holland and his family, and I hope the Quintet is able to rebook at the Dakota before too long. I always enjoy this enormously inventive group: Holland on bass, Potter on saxophones, Robin Eubanks on trombone, Steve Nelson on vibes, Nate Smith on drums. (Note no piano, one of many things that make this quintet remarkable.)

I follow Holland on FaceBook, and earlier today "Team DH" posted a link to a short documentary about him that I hadn't seen. So I just spent 20 minutes learning more about his life and his music. The film made me like and admire him even more.

Lately I've been listening to Holland's first album as a leader, Conference of the Birds (CM, 1972), and also to his newest recording, Hands (Dare2, 2010), with the great flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela. Hands is completely different from anything I've heard Holland do before. According to the liner notes, Holland and Habichuela first played together in 2007 at a workshop in Sevilla, Spain. As Holland says, flamenco music "was a new world to me." The CD is delicious, richly rhythmic and melodic. Although it includes two compositions by Holland ("The Whirling Dervish," originally recorded on the 1995 release World Trio with Mino Cinelu and Kevin Eubanks, and the new "Joyride"), it's not a jazz/flamenco mashup. I just listened to both versions of "Whirling Dervish" back to back, and while the instrumentation is similar--the earlier recording features Eubanks on acoustic guitar (in a virtuosic performance; his lengthy solo starting at the 2:31 mark is pretty amazing)--the feel of the two pieces is very different. (In the flamenco arrangement, Holland takes his big solo starting at 2:31.)

Jazz on Twitter

All hail the compulsive and accurate list maker, whoever he or she may be. In this case, kudos go to Donna M of the Elements of Jazz website, who has compiled a lengthy list of jazz artists, places, festivals, radio stations, bloggers, writers, and more who tweet, regularly or otherwise.

Ahmad Jamal tweets? Seriously? Okay, he probably doesn't send out his own tweets, but someone else does a very credible job of keeping his twitter followers up to date.

Area artists/venues/sites tweeting include Adam Meckler, the Artists' Quarter, the Dakota, the JazzMN Orchestra, Jazz Police, KBEM, Mary Louise Knutson, the TC Jazz Festival, and yours truly.

Find Donna's list here. If you're not on it and you should be, contact Donna here.

Larry Englund? KFAI's jazz shows? Where are you? Tweeting may seem silly and it can be, but it's also part of the communication puzzle these days.

Changes at the Turf Club, no more Fat Kids at the Clown

The Turf Club on University Ave. in St. Paul closed its doors suddenly and without notice on Saturday, canceling a show scheduled for that night and hanging a handwritten "Closed for Repair" sign in the door. Former manager Dave Weigardt was let go and bartender Josh James was hired to take his place.

I don't actually care that much about the Turf Club, though I'm sorry to learn of almost any music venue closing. But I do care about a small, quirky, beat-up but enchanting little place in the basement of the Turf Club called the Clown Lounge.

Years before I headed down the stairs, I heard of the Clown, the regular Monday-night home of the jazz trio Fat Kid Wednesdays, often featuring guests from out of town. My first time there was in April 2008 to hear percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani. I've since returned several times, but not as often as I wanted, because I do supposedly have a day-ish job and leaving home at 10:30 on a Monday night for music that starts at 11 or later just isn't an option very often. Am I sorry that I missed John Betsch last Monday? Yes, I am, and sorry that I missed many other shows that were spoken of after in glowing terms.

José James sings Coltrane

Earlier this year, while backgrounding José James for a piece I was writing, I came across a video of him singing lyrics to John Coltrane’s “Resolution.”

Until then, the only singer I knew who had tackled this gorgeous beast was Kurt Elling, whose vocalese version (with his original lyrics) sends chills up my spine each time I hear it.

But there was James, singing “Resolution” with different lyrics, and killing it.

What was the story?

In 2006, James made a demo EP that included two original songs (one was “The Dreamer”) and three covers of songs by Coltrane: “Central Park West,” “Equinox,” and “Resolution.” He brought copies to the UK when he went there for a jazz competition, and one ended up in the hands of Gilles Peterson of Brownswood, a UK-based label.

“Equinox” is one of Peterson’s favorite Coltrane songs, and before long, James was signed to Brownswood. In 2007, 500 10-inch, white-labeled, numbered copies of a test pressing including “Equinox” on one side and “Resolution” on the other were issued. Both were supposed to be included on James’s first CD. 

The day before the CD was scheduled to go to the pressing plant, Peterson and James learned that the Coltrane estate would not grant permission for the new vocal versions. The release date was postponed while James wrote and recorded three new tunes.

James later told an interviewer for the London dance club The End, “Alice Coltrane had a lot more say when she was alive, I think it was just her making all the decisions in fact, then after she died things got way more complicated – I think there were six kids or something like that. I was really disappointed actually, and Gilles was heartbroken, man, because that was kind of the whole reason we both wanted to do the project. 

"I was talking to Dwight Trible about the same thing about two weeks ago and he agreed, it seems they want people to remember him and have tributes and stuff, but they don’t really want the work changed, it’s like this whole yes-you-can-no-you-can’t thing…it’s a shame.”

Singer Trible recorded Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” on an EP called “Acknowledgment for J.C.,” released in 2008 on Kindred Spirits.

Side note: Elling secured the rights for his version from Alice Coltrane when she was still alive. He explained at a concert at Gustavus Adolphus college in October 2009: “Mrs. Coltrane did not cotton to people writing lyrics to her husband’s music.” He sent her a tape and heard back: “The first word is ‘God’ and I like that and that’s right, so he can record this—but no more from anybody.”

You can’t buy a CD of James singing “Equinox” and “Resolution.” But you can hear both in their entirety, and Coltrane’s “Central Park West,” with James’ lyrics, on his website. Go here, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, and enjoy. (Just above: an entire concert of James and pianist Jef Neve playing the music of Coltrane.)

Image of 10" pressing #205 from the Breath of Life website, where Mtume ya Salaam and Kalamu ya Salaam love James and his "Equinox."

Photo of José James by John Whiting.

Last-minute picks for a jazzy New Year’s Eve

If you have waited this long to make plans for New Year’s Eve, here’s help in the form of the very latest news about where and when to find jazz tonight. See the live jazz calendar at your right for even more options.

5 p.m. Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, St. Paul. “Fantastic Fogie New Year’s Eve,” a.k.a. “New Year’s Eve for early birds and old buzzards.” A little live music, a little champagne, and home by 10 p.m.—or you could go somewhere else after. Music by Todd Harper, Nathan Hanson, Brian Roessler, and Pete Hennig. Don’t take “old buzzards” too literally; the Black Dog welcomes an all-ages crowd, including kids. No cover. Corner of 4th and Broadway in Lowertown, St. Paul. 651-228-9274.

6 p.m. Honey Lounge, Minneapolis. A New Year’s Eve dinner show with singer Maud Hixson and pianist Rick Carlson will feature “classic female songwriters of the flapper, swing and bebop eras.” You can never, ever go wrong in the company of Maud and Rick. 205 E. Hennepin, Minneapolis. $10 cover, plus whatever you spend on dinner. For reservations, call 612-746-0306.

7:30 p.m. Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. A big shebang of a show with Patty Peterson on vocals, Peter Schimke on piano, Billy Peterson bass and vocals, Bobby Vandell on drums and vocals, Jason Weisman on sax and vocals, and special guest Ricky Peterson on keyboards and vocals. Until yesterday (Thursday), this event was available only as a dinner show ($200/couple) or dinner-plus-room deal ($269) but a show-only option was just added at $25/person, which includes both the 10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. sets. Call 612-596-4663.

9 p.m. Artists’ Quarter, St. Paul. An AQ tradition since 1995, this is a warm and wonderful evening, complete with quirky hors d’oeuvres (usually including Swedish meatballs and Junior Mints), a champagne toast, and party favors. With Gary Berg on saxophone, Phil Aaron on piano, Dean Magraw on guitar, Jay Young on bass, Kenny Horst on drums, and the ever young and luminous Carole Martin at the mic, who will sing (I learned last night) despite an injured hip. The crowd will clamor for Dawn Horst to join her mom, Carole, onstage for “Evil Woman.” $45. 408 St. Peter St., St. Paul. Call 651-292-1359 this minute if you’re interested.

9 p.m. Café Maude, Minneapolis. Patty and the Buttons (with the phenomenal Patrick Harison on accordion) bring in 2001 in relaxed, leisurely style. Maude’s usual late-night leisure hour cocktail prices apply, and there will be a dance floor. $40/person for a lovely dinner of champagne, beer, or wine, smoked salmon tartar, wood grilled pork tenderloin, and shortbread cookies with pomegranate port cream. 5411 Penn Ave. S.. Call 612-822-5411.

10 p.m. Red Stag Supper Club, Minneapolis. The third annual Secrets of the City New Year’s Eve bash features indie/folk/pop man Brad Senne from 11 until midnight and sultry jazzer Sophia Shorai from midnight on. Truffled popcorn, champagne at the turn of the year. No cover. 509 1st Ave. NE, Minneapolis. The restaurant will be open for dinner; call 612-767-7766 for table reservations.