George Gershwin Inducted Into DownBeat Hall of Fame

George Gershwin's An American in Paris

In his August 2017 article on George Gershwin that accompanies his selection by the Veterans Committee to the DownBeat Hall of Fame, John McDonough writes that Gershwin is the most important figure in the literature of the jazz repertoire. He notes that if one looks at the list of the 100 most performed songs there are 11 titles from Gershwin (starting with "Summertime" and ending with "S'Wonderful." The next closest composer is Duke Ellington with seven and then Cole Porter with four. Simply look at "I Got Rhythm," and the structure and changes of it has "served as the harmonic support chassis for more original jazz titles — contrafacts, as they're called — than any song ever written."

 Here George Gershwin plays "I Got Rhythm."

The timelessness of Gershwin's music is seen and heard from the Broadway adaptation in 2015 of the 1951 film, "An American in Paris," was made into an exuberant Broadway Music with brilliant choreography as well as the timeless music. I had the pleasure of seeing it on Broadway, although it is now on tour in the North American (and will be at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC over the holidays this winter). Of course this composition is echoed in Bud Powell's classic "Parisian Thoroughfare." 

Here is Billie Holiday 1939 recording of "The Man I Love,"

Of course, "Rhapsody in Blue," first performed at Paul Whiteman's Aeolian Hall concert in 1924, is a classic of American Music.Let us continue to enjoy the legacy he left over the next century. And here are some more samples of this legacy.

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong performing "Summertime."

 Here is Charlie Parker performing his "Anthropology," a contrafact of "I Got Rhythm."

Finally here is Duke Ellington's "Cotton Tail," featuring Ben Webster on tenor sax 

and also a contrafact of "I Got Rhythm."

DownBeat's Hall of Fame Celebrates Eubie Blake

Eubie Blake in Berlin in 1972 playing several of his most famous compositions, 

Charleston Rag, I'm Just Wild About Harry and Memories of You.

Among the three individuals selected by the Veterans Committee for DownBeat's Hall of Fame was James Hubert Blake (February 7, 1887 - February 12, 1983), known as Eubie Blake. Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans. Among the compositions he is still remembered for are  "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find a Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie!, which opened on Broadway in 1978, featured his works.

Blake was born in Baltimore of two former slaves, and the only one of eight children to survive infancy. He worked first in a bordello, then a Black and Tan Club and then on a medicine show circuit. Blake said he composed the melody of the "Charleston Rag" in 1899, when he would have been only 12 years old, but it was not committed to paper, however, until 1915, when he learned to write musical notation. In 1912, Blake began playing in vaudeville with James Reese Europe's Society Orchestra, which accompanied Vernon and Irene Castle's ballroom dance act. 

After World War 1, Blake first joined with Noble Sissle to work as a vaudeville act, and then they worked on Shuffle Along. The Blake-Sissle partnership ended in 1925, but Blake continued to evolve. In 1930, he collaborated with Andy Razaf on Blackbirds, which introduced, among other numbers, “Memories Of You” and “You’re Lucky To Me.”

Louis Armstrong's classic recording of You're Lucky To Me.

After decline in interest in ragtime, his career went on an upswing in the 1950s when interest in ragtime revived and Blake, one of its last surviving artists, found himself launching yet another career as ragtime artist, music historian, and educator and recording with 20th Century Records and Columbia Records. Additionally another ragtime revival engendered by the 1973 film The Sting—along with the 1978 musical Eubie!—helped to elevate Blake’s profile during his final decade. 
Through the last decades of his life lectured and gave interviews at major colleges and universities all over the world, and appeared as a performer and clinician at top jazz and rag festivals as well as appearing on television as a guest on the Tonight Show with John Carson and Merv Griffin, and was featured with orchestral performances conducted by Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Fiedler.

A 1932 film of Eubie Blake and His Orchestra that includes the Nicholas Brothers

Terry Waldo, author of This is Ragtime, said of Blake "He lived long enough to convey to later generations all of his knowl- edge about the whole history of American music, and the ways in which black music was entwined within it.” Furthermore, in the DownBeat article accompanying his selection to the Hall of Fame, Ted Panken observes that "younger musicians imbued with an “all jazz is modern” aesthetic, such as vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant and pianist Ehud Asherie, continue to find inspiration in his works. It is quite a legacy.

The material in this appreciation is taken from Blake's Wikipedia entry and Ted Panken's article in the August 2017 DownBeat. We close with a clip of Eubie Blake with John Denver as Eubie plays and they announce the Best New Artist award on the 1979 Grammy Awards TV show.

Herbie Nichols Honored In DownBeat Hall of Fame

Herbie Nichols recording of The Third World

"It's about time" was a common comment on Facebook regarding the selection of Herbie Nichols to DownBeat's Hall of Fame. Nichols was one of three selected by the Veterans Committee (the others being Eubie Blake and George Gershwin) and it is gratifying that he is receiving such recognition so long after his early death from leukemia in 1963 at the age of 44.

Perhaps at the time of his passing, he was perhaps unfairly compared to his friend Thelonious Monk. I became acquainted with his story from the chapter devoted to him in A.B. Spellman's classic book,Four Lives in the Bebop Business. Recently we are fortunate that Mark Miller wrote a full biography of Nichols, Herbie Nichols: A Jazzist's Life. 

Herbie Nichols recording of Lady Sings the Blues.

He was born in San Juan Hill area of Manhattan and grew up in Harlem. Wikipedia succintly observes  that "During much of his life he took work as a Dixieland musician while working on the more adventurous kind of jazz he preferred, and he is best known today for these highly original compositions, program music that combines bop, Dixieland, and music from the Caribbean with harmonies derived from Erik Satie and Béla Bartók." 

The quirkiness of his compositions perhaps leads to superficial comparisons to Monk. He became friends of Monk while working at Minton's, although he was not fond of the competitiveness of that venue. He became friends of Monk then and was also a journalist who was perhaps the first to write about Monk.

Herbie Nichols playing 2300 Skidoo.

After serving in the Military during World War II, he pursued his career as a composer and pianist. Mary Lou Williams was the first to record his compositions, and after "several years of to persuade Alfred Lion at Blue Note Records to sign him up, he finally recorded some of his compositions for the label in 1955 and 1956, some of which were not issued until the 1980s. His tune Serenade had lyrics added, and as Lady Sings the Blues became firmly identified with Billie Holiday. In 1957 he recorded his last album for Bethlehem Records." His Blue Note Records are compiled on The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Herbie Nichols, and his Bethlehem recordings available on Love, Gloom, Cash, Love.

His efforts to work as a modern musician were limited, and as noted he often had to play Dixieland, which is where he met Steve Lacy and Roswell Rudd, both who were champions of his music after his passing and who were involved in various recordings of his compositions, including a number that were not recorded during his life. Miller notes his music was viewed by his contemporaries as a bit out and also his straight personality contributed to him being outside the jazz scene at the time. 

Misha Mingelberg is heard leading a group playing Herbie Nichols music.

Spellman's chapter is well worth reading nearly five decades later and Miller's biography fleshes out his remarkable, if tragic, life. A sampling of his recordings and an interview with Miller discusses his life and music is on an archived radio broadcast, http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/herbie-nichols-world/.

In 2015, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art presented the US Army Blues to celebrate the music of Herbie Nichols. A couple days later, the US army Blues presented the same program. This second performance was broadcast on video, which is available on youtube. They have presented the Music of Herbie Nichols additional times as well. in 2019, it is likely the Take 5 series held at the Museum of American Art will have another celebration of Herbie Nichols and his music.

Don Cherry Honored By DownBeat Hall of Fame

Congratulations to Don Cherry for his selection in the DownBeat Critics Poll to the magazine's Hall of Fame. Cherry, with his pocket trumpet was an important part of Ornette Coleman's "Change of the Century." In addition to being a vital part of Coleman's pioneering group, he later played with Sonny Rollins, recorded with John Coltrane, as well as joined Steve Lacy for an album devoted to Thelonious Monk's Music. He was a member of the New York Contemporary Five with Archie Shepp and John Tchicai and recorded with Albert Ayler and Gato Barbieri. He also recorded for Blue Note as a leader including the albums Complete Communion and Symphony For Improvisors.

With Coleman alumni Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Eddie Blackwell, he was a member of the group Old and New Dreams who had four albums on Black Saint and ECM. He then became involved in world fusion music, including the "world jazz" group Codona, a trio that consisted of Don Cherry (trumpet, melodica, organ), Collin Walcott (tabla, sitar, percussion), and Nana Vasconcelos and recorded 3 albums for ECM. 

Cherry also recorded duets with Eddie Blackwell and several world music albums under his own name including Brown Rice, and MultiKulti. He passed away from liver cancer at the age of 58 in 1995. 

Here are several videos to celebrate his music. First the Don Cherry Trio in Paris in 1971.

Here is Don Cherry in a group performing in 1980.

And finally Don Cherry's "MultiKulti" in 1991.