Bob Boilen | March 9, 2022 It’s less a concert and more witnessing a master thoughtfully creating an atmosphere, a vibe. And for 13 short minutes, I feel seated in Abdullah Ibrahim’s home in Chiemgau, Germany, witnessing seven decades of experience slowly dripping from his fingers and touching my soul.
Abdullah Ibrahim, now 87, has witnessed the horrors of apartheid. He grew up in South Africa and composed what would become known as the “anti-apartheid anthem,” “Mannenberg.” Nelson Mandela called him “our Mozart.” He also successfully made music under the name Dollar Brand, and worked with jazz legends including Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Don Cherry and Archie Shepp. In 1968, he converted to Islam and changed his name from Dollar Brand; more recently, he became an NEA Jazz Master. In my 18 years directing All Things Considered, I’d often reach for his music to play between news stories to give the audience a chance to think and reflect. His music is like that; it’s mind-opening.
And here he is seated at his piano, his white hair luminous, his fingers delicate, while he reflects on the past and helps clarify the present. The music is from his newest album Solotude, a recording made to an empty concert hall in southeast Germany during the 2020 lockdown, which for me became a source of calm when it was released toward the end of 2021. To witness this Tiny Desk (home) concert, I suggest you take these next 13 minutes, turn off your distractions and discover the strength in delicate reflection from a gentle man who has some much to share.
SET LIST “Blue Bolero” “Signal On The Hill” “Once Upon A Midnight”
MUSICIANS Abdullah Ibrahim: piano
CREDITS Director / Director of Photography: Tobias Corts Sound Engineer / Edit / Grading: Florian Epple
TINY DESK TEAM Producer: Bob Boilen Video Producer: Joshua Bryant Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin Tiny Production Team: Bobby Carter, Kara Frame, Maia Stern, Ashley Pointer Executive Producer: Keith Jenkins Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann
THE CHICK COREA AKOUSTIC BAND WITH JOHN PATITUCCI & DAVE WECKL. JULY 28, 2018. JAZZ SAN JAVIER 2018.
Nineteen years after his long remembered performance with the group Origin and Gary Burton during the second edition of the festival, Jazz San Javier is pleased to present the return of Chick Corea. With a most brilliant career which began in 1966 as leader of his own projects, with 20 Grammy Awards to his name, and 51 Grammy nominations, Chick Corea is one of the top piano players of his generation, alongside Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett. An innovator with his electric projects like “Return To Forever” and the “Elektric Band”, he also shows his best facet as brilliant pianist through his acoustic projects, the brightest of which is the Akoustic Band, a meeting which is perceived as the jazz event of the year, with two other jazz greats, John Patitucci and Dave Weckl.
LINEUP: Chick Corea (piano) / John Patitucci (bass) / Dave Weckl (drums)
Pianist Chick Corea has lived many lives as a musician, from post-bop wunderkind to free-jazz maverick to fusion explorer to chamber-jazz eminence. That imprecise tally leaves out a lot in an expansive career — but, more to the point, it creates the false impression that Corea compartmentalizes his musical output, when the truth suggests something far more holistic.
Jazz Night in America caught up with Corea during a recent gig at Scullers in Boston — just across the river from Chelsea, Mass., where he was born and raised. He was on tour with a new trio he calls Vigilette, with Carlitos Del Puerto on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums. The set list combined songbook standards like "On Green Dolphin Street" with originals like "Rhumba Flamenco," each number delivered with Corea's brand of articulate flair.
A few days after the performance, Corea sat down with Christian McBride — our host, and his longtime musical collaborator — for a collegial and far-ranging conversation. They discuss the first time Corea saw Miles Davis, an experience that changed his life, and one he recalls with absolute detail. Corea also reflects on the role of an artist: "We have a mission to go out there and be an antidote to war, and all of the dark side of what happens on Planet Earth," he says. "We're the ones that go in and remind people about their creativity."
This performance was recorded live by Antonio Oliart at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, MA, on Sept. 19, 2018.
In 1962, jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald gave a concert in Berlin, which was recorded but the tapes were lost. The previously unheard concert recording has been released.
September 16, 2020 | Suraya Mohamed -- Look to the left of Nubya Garcia's Tiny Desk (home) concert and you'll see a hanging plant swaying right above the keys. It never stops moving during the next 23 minutes, and it's for a bizarre reason. Garcia's (home) concert took place on a boat — a first in Tiny Desk history — because she was in between homes. Before the pandemic hit, the London-born jazz saxophonist and composer was booked for an extensive global tour that started in February 2020, and it was expected to continue through the end of the year. Because she was only going to be in London for a very short time, she gave up her flat, planning to stay with family and friends for short breaks. It seemed like a good idea until March, when COVID-19 shut down most of the world and the tour, too.
Garcia and her band are at Soup Studio, a recording facility built on a decommissioned floating lighthouse moored on the River Thames. It's also where Garcia recorded her excellent new album, SOURCE. This set features three songs from the record; the title track starts it off with a reggae, dub vibe. Garcia skillfully uses the entire range of her tenor saxophone, hitting convincing low and high notes with ease and resolve. Throughout the set, her tone is gorgeous, her musical intuition perfect. She projects rich and full melodic lines with refined solos that leave just enough space to take in the expressive sincerity of the music. There are no lyrics but her music conveys a message of staying grounded, being present in the moment and appreciating the comforts and feelings of what it means to be home.
SET LIST "Source" "Pace" "Boundless Beings"
MUSICIANS Nubya Garcia: tenor saxophone: Joe Armon-Jones: keys; Daniel Casmir: double bass: Sam Jones: drums; Richie Seivwright: vocals; Cassie Kinoshi: vocals
CREDITS Video by: Fabrice Bourgelle; Additional Cameras: Lou Jasmine, Israel Wilson; Audio by: David Holmes; Mixed by: Kwes at Soup Studio; Producer: Suraya Mohamed; Audio Mastering Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Video Producer: Morgan Noelle Smith; Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey; Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann
Sept. 14, 2018 | Colin Marshall -- During his setup, GoGo Penguin's pianist Chris Illingworth asked if he could remove our piano cover to "access the inside" and, after a few rotations of a screwdriver, he soon handed me a long plank of black painted maple, which has no convenient place to rest in the NPR Music office. If you look closely at the piano innards during "Bardo," you can see a strip of black tape stretched over a few strings, opposite Illingworth's bobbing head. It mutes a group of strings, turning them into percussive jabs and dividing the instrument into more explicit rhythmic and melodic sections. What you can't see: GoGo Penguin's audio engineer a few feet to the left of frame, dialing-in reverb effects on the piano, which we heard in the room. These two elements, in tandem with bassist Nick Blacka's precise canvasing and drummer Rob Turner's charged and delicate pulse, have heavily contributed to the sonic identity of this trio - a signal to jazz jukebox listeners that, "Ah yes, that's a GoGo Penguin tune."
GoGo Penguin models closely the leaderless jazz power trio set in motion by forbearers in The Bad Plus, but you can also hear the drippings of electronica groups like Bonobo, and drum-and-bass foundations akin to Roni Size with a bit more acoustic rattle (Turner even fashions his own prepared drum accessories from rope, duct tape, and metal rings, which you can see resting atop his ride cymbal and snare. He tells me he usually has more, but he hasn't made new ones in a while).
But dissecting this music belabors what's certain: this trio has become a reference point of their own for new school instrumentalists, a coveted achievement for any jazz group, though their appeal stretches far outside the jazz ecosystem. In fact, in 2018 alone, the band played some of the world's most notable pop festivals like Bonnaroo and Outside Lands and top-tier international jazz festivals: Montreal and North Sea. This trio found a way to wedge themselves in the middle of the Venn diagram that overlaps musicians and music heads. Among my colleagues at NPR, I witnessed expressions ranging from studious squints to closed-eye meditation, those in the room experiencing GoGo Penguin's tunes like they would a collage: the fine details as valuable as the larger shape.
Set List "Raven" "Bardo" "Window"
Credits Producers: Colin Marshall Morgan Noelle Smith; Creative Director: Bob Boilen; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Morgan Noelle Smith, Khun Minn Ohn, CJ Riculan; Production Assistant: Catherine Zhang; Photo: Samantha Clark
Gordon Parks was seventeen when, in 1929, he first met Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington in the back of the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. A veteran of Harlem’s famed Cotton Club, Ellington was widely recognized as one of the jazz world’s leading figures—and he was in the process of effectively reinventing the genre by blending big-band orchestral arrangements with solo improvisation. By contrast, Parks was living on the streets, playing piano in flophouses, hanging around nightclubs and pool halls, and skipping school. He was enthralled by Ellington’s style, grace, and musical genius.
Ellington became a hero for the young man. Decades later, in 1960, Parks was overjoyed by the opportunity to tour with Ellington’s band, calling it “a trip through paradise” (To Smile in Autumn, 1979). By then, Ellington was the foremost big-band leader, having recorded with John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. In his photographs, Parks revealed his admiration for the musician’s pensive elegance, magnetic personality, and exceptional stage presence.
Bernardo Sassetti Trio ao vivo nas Lux Jazz Sessions em 26 de Dezembro de 2007 com Bernardo Sasseti (piano), Carlos Barretto (contrabaixo), Alexandre Frazão (bateria)
