Torn Between Two Lovers
Miles or Middletown? – another hard choice for 8495 jazzheads
The Yale University Jazz Ensembles Big Band kicks off the celebrations of the Miles Davis centennial Wednesday night in New Haven with big band arrangements from Birth of the Cool, the 1949 sessions that took jazz in a different direction. (File photo)
Sorry if that headline planted an earworm; though, all things considered, the mid-1970s was a fascinating time for radio, in which songs diametrically opposed in style and substance like “The Boys Are Back In Town” and “Afternoon Delight” could both inhabit the top of the same charts simultaneously. And Mary MacGregor’s lament about polyamory certainly fit that era’s confessional folkie motif to a T (speaking of folkies, the song was co-written by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary – you learn something new every day).
But to get to what needs getting at: Wednesday night exemplifies the embarrassment of riches we have around here jazzwise. Two wonderful jazz happenings, separated by about 25 miles and 30 minutes up I-91, are taking place simultaneously, and the 8495Jazz staff is finding it hard to pick. The options:
At Yale University in New Haven, the Yale Jazz Ensembles Big Band gets a head start on celebrating the centennial of Miles Davis’s birth (May 1926) with big band arrangements of the classic album, Birth of the Cool. The show, at Yale’s Sprague Hall, starts at 7:30 pm, and it’s open to the public and free.
And in Middletown, CT, at Conspiracy, New Haven Jazz Underground founder and managing director Nick Di Maria and his band (guitarist Anthony Carabello, bassist Eneji Alungbe and drummer Matt Rousseau) will be laying down Volume 2 of a live set, starting at 7. Cover is a mere $10 – and it gets you a copy of the record. BTW, space is limited, so both Nick and Conspiracy suggest calling or DM’ing the venue for reservations.
So whatcha gonna do? They both sound like a wonderful night out.
I checked the Internet for Miles centennial celebrations, and there are a lot for next year listed already, but the Yale show may be the first. And the show will feature world premieres of big band arrangements by Westport resident Michael Philip Mossman, including “Boplicity,” “Budo,” and “Deception.”
Simply put, Birth of the Cool, recorded in sessions between 1949 and 1951 and collected together in 1957, is like Kind Of Blue and Bitches Brew: one of those Miles albums that turned the entire jazz ecosystem on its head and sent it in another direction. Let’s let Miles’s official site give us the thumbnail: “Its reserved, emotional affect was its most recognized aspect: a laid-back reprieve from the unfettered frenetic energy of bebop that seemed a perfect fit for the insouciant, dark-sunglasses-at-midnight spirit that was shared by the likes of Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz and other purveyors of the Cool jazz sound.”
The record, done by a nonet, was a kind of bridge between the big bands of the swing era and the small combos of bebop, but also a new bridge to new post-war ways of musical expression that still resonate; listen to “Boplicity” on Birth of the Cool, and then listen to Brooklyn-based trumpeter Takuya Kuroda’s “It’s Okay,” recorded in 2022, and tell me you don’t hear the thread.
Michael Mossman, a trumpeter who is a professor of jazz studies at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and of jazz theory at Juilliard, said the album was the initial illustration of the “cool” sound of linear expression conceived by arranger Gil Evans and players like Mulligan and Lee Konitz.
“To hear all those lines and complex harmonies, they had to kind of tone down the rhythm section from what the bebop era had been doing,” Michael, who has arranged numerous shows for Yale already, told 8495Jazz. “And people started labeling it ‘cool’ because there was a more laid back approach to the rhythm section.”
In terms of what he did to transfer the sound of Miles’s nonet to the Yale big band, Michael said “when you have a nonet, it’s kind of like all hands on deck most of the time – everybody is playing all the time so you have a similar sound most the time. But with a bigger band you can divide things up, like between brass and woodwinds. And to me, a bigger band usually means you add some content also, depending on what the band is capable of doing.”
As a trumpet player, Michael was of course influenced by Miles – “His sound and phrasing is just one of those big pieces of the stylistic language that all trumpet players assimilate, like part of your DNA,” but never played with him and was short and sweet when he met him.
“I said, ‘Hi, Mr. Davis, thanks for your music,’ and let it go at that.”
Now, as for Nick Di Maria’s gig in Middletown – Nick tells 8495Jazz it’s a sort of capturing, or maybe re-capturing, a be-here-now ambience.
“The live record is a live recording of my band that has regularly played Conspiracy since 2018,” Nick told us. “We already have volume 1 out and this is volume 2. We simply record a live set at the bar where we get the audience’s ambience. Ten dollars gets you in and when the record is finished, you get a digital copy of the record. It was such a fun time the first time around, we wanted to do another.”
Here’s the sampler for Volume 1.
And don’t forget the other gigs happening Wednesday night – like the long-standing jam at Blackeyed Sally’s in Hartford and the newly established first Wednesday jam at Park City Music Hall in Bridgeport. And check the links to the various jazz organizations below to see what they have going on Wednesday and every other night. So much music, so little time.
Gerry Mulligan, who was one of the original nonet that cut Birth of the Cool, re-visited the songs in 1992. The trumpet on this is played by Wallace Roney, whom Miles cosidered his one true protege.
We bring you a bonus vid this week. Drumming legend Jack DeJohnette died Sunday. Just as Miles brought in a new direction for jazz with Birth of the Cool, he did the same 20+ years later with Bitches Brew, with Jack behind the kit. This is touted as the very first recorded version of “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down,” at Newport in 1969. Saxophonist Wayne Shorter got stuck in traffic (imagine that, bad traffic in Newport) and the group went on as a quartet (Miles, Chick Corea, Dave Holland on bass, and Jack on drums). Had I a time machine, wouldn’t a Cream/Miles double bill, with Ginger Baker on drums for Cream and Jack with Miles, be a killer show?
Out and About with 8495Jazz
These listings are a curated sampling of shows in the region. As an independent resource for jazz news, 8495Jazz does not receive any consideration, free tickets, or affiliate fees for these listings. Please confirm events are still happening directly with the venue.
We are slightly tweaking the gigs listings; we’ll now go out to the Sunday following publication. That will give you a full week instead of a couple hours to ponder whether you would like to go listen to some fine music.
8495Jazz Wild Card Gig of the Week
Yale University, New Haven, CT
Ellington Series, New Jazz Underground (combo), Friday, Nov. 7, 7:30 pm. GA $26 - $36.
8495Jazz Spur of the Moment Gig TODAY
The Falcon, Marlboro, NY
Jimmy Greene Quartet (sax, combo), 7:30. Suggested donation of $30.
Other Shows This Week
Jazz Forum Arts, Tarrytown, NY
Houston Person Quintet (sax, combo), Friday, Nov. 7 and Saturday, Nov. 8, 7 and 9:30 pm. GA $43, students $37.75 including service fee.
Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT
LCP Najee Jazz (sax, combo), Friday, Nov. 7, 8 pm. GA $73 including service fee..
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA
Kenny Garrett: Sounds From The Ancestors (sax, combo), Saturday, Nov. 8, 8 pm. GA $49, including service fee.
VFW Post 399, Westport, CT
Steve Johns Mythology CT CD release event (drums, combo), Thursday, Nov. 6, 7:30 and 8:35 pm. GA $10.76-$20.76, student/vets $15.76 for 7:30 show.
Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT
Kenny Warren’s Sweet World (trumpet, combo), Friday, Nov. 7, 8:30 and 10 pm. GA $20 for 8:30 show, $15 for 10 pm show.
The Side Door, Old Lyme, CT
Zaccai Curtis Quintet (piano, combo), Friday, Nov. 7 and Saturday, Nov. 8, 8 pm. GA $59.75, students $27.98 including service fee.
Palace Theater Poli Club, Waterbury, CT
David Finck and Alexis Cole (bass, vocals), Friday, Nov. 7, 7 and 9 pm. GA $40 including service fee.
Aquila’s Nest Vineyards, Newtown, CT
Mighty Soul Drivers (soul combo), Sunday, Nov. 9, 4 pm. GA $23.18 including service fee.
Linde Center for Music and Learning, Stockbridge, MA
Ulysses Owens, Jr. and Generation Y (drums, combo), Friday, Nov. 7, 7 pm. GA $43, students $15 including service fee.
Scullers, Boston, MA
Mark Morganelli and the Jazz Forum All Stars celebrate Brasil (flugelhorn, combo), Friday, Nov. 7, 7 pm. $42.45 - $64.85 including service fees.
Elicit Brewing Co., Manchester, CT
Hartford Jazz Orchestra, Monday, Nov. 3, 7:30 pm. Free.
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
UConn Jazz Lab Band, Sunday, Nov. 9, 3 pm. GA $16.30 including service fee.
Jams
Cafe Nine, New Haven CT
New Haven Jazz Underground jam, usually 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month: free admission
Saturday jazz jam most Saturdays, 4 pm. Free.
Blackeyed Sally’s, Hartford, CT
Jazz Wednesdays, featured set 7 pm, jam session afterward.
Carmine’s, East Hartford, CT
Paisley’s All Star Memorial Jam, 3rd Tuesday of the month, 7:30 pm. House band set followed by jam. Free.
Mahoney’s, Poughkeepsie, NY
Poughkeepsie Jazz Project, every Tuesday, 7 pm. Free.
Park City Music Hall, Bridgeport, CT
Scott Cushman and Friends followed by jam, first Wednesday of the month.
Jazz Societies and Organizations (great info on events, festivals, and more)
Jazz Society of Fairfield County
Jazz Fridays at Three Sheets New Haven 1st/3rd Fridays from 6-9pm
Jazz Thursdays at The Cannon New Haven every other Thurs from 7-9pm.
8495Jazz takes its name from the two Interstate highways that cross our region, I-84 and I-95. Within short driving distances from either, you can find incredible entertainment, from local jams to world-famous festivals in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. 8495Jazz: From Newburgh to Newport!
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