again that mutual giving and receiving of love that emerges whenever an admiring crowd is galvanized by a jazz star truly worthy of respect. As she said before a Portland appearance this winter, “It has been my audiences that have kept me going all these years.” In a recent interview, Ron Steen observed that “Coltrane and all the great bands always had a great dummer,” and his point about the rhythmic foundations of jazz rang with percussive truth throughout the weekend. Airto Moreira’s magnificent performance Friday night opened as the Brazilian appeared alone on stage with only feathered gourd rattles and his voice raised in a chant-like song punctuated by cries, whistles, and bird-calls, demonstrating the roots of jazz in simple percussive instruments and the human voice.... From then on, Airto propelled the group — with the dramatic addition of Flora Purim’s colorful singing and captivating stage presence — through some of the most pliant, multi-voiced Latin- and jazz-influenced popular music being made today. And that was only the beginning; the percussive foundation surged along with Dexter Gordon’s drummer Eddie Gladden providing the strength and timing necessary to perfectly complement the master until he left Gladden alone on stage to solo into the stratosphere.... And then on Saturday afternoon, Tootie Heath used quicksilver control to deftly add color until he came kicking through the ocean swell of Bobby Hutcherson’s flowing group sound to assert himself in a solo of flying feet and hands. But Heath was perhaps most impressive in the way he carried the rhythmic swirl of Hutcherson’s intelligent music, using lots of press rolls that seemed to boil one phrase over into the next like tide pools filling. Ah. That night, like a boulder bursting into flower, the round head and broad shoulders of the powerful Jack De- Johnette rose on the stand to match Sonny step for step by the sheer force of his playing. There wasn’t much dancing at the festival, but when Rollins launched a Caribbean-flavored tune, people leaped to their feet, shaking to the African foundations laid down by DeJohnette. Buddy Rich was one of the main box office draws of the festival, and after his TV shows, Hilton Hotel appearances and 14 years playing Disneyland, some people who hadn’t heard him recently feared a less-than- spectacular performance. Not a chance. Over sixty years old and still driving a hot big band of hungry young musicians, Buddy Rich reminded us that not only was he on some of Charlie Parker’s most important recordings, but that he’s been a successful band leader for years with no intention of letting up. He exploded in a virtuoso exhibition, his band roaring full-throat along with him, that took the festival to its rhythmic peak. Efes Jon Hendricks, formerly of the pioneering vocal group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, is used to working on a team, and his latest, Jon Hendricks & Company, was honored in a 1982 downbeat critics’ poll. At his Sunday afternoon appearance here, however, he stood stage center alone, complimenting the Mel Brown Trio (with George Mitchell and Phil Baker) for staying right with him although they’d never played together before. This came as no surprise to anyone familiar with the high standards of these three sensitive local musicians, but that gesture revealed a lot about the gracious, collaborative approach that has brought Hendricks to prominence. Hendricks’ delivery is direct. He even showed flashes of the scatting speed that helped make his earlier work famous, but most impressive was his respect for the material and the jazz tradition in which he works. Even his stand-up comedy routine in the middle of “Gimmie that Wine” (“I was so ugly that I had a job sitting outside a doctor’s office making people sick!”) didn’t take away from the music, and he managed to involve the small afternoon crowd by asking them to “join together in a community sing-along....” "Unhand that bottle!” they shouted to Hendricks’ “Gimmie that wine!” “I want to dedicate this next number, ‘Bright Moments,’ to Rashan Roland Kirk, who died,” he said midway through his set. He sang several spirited choruses, then stopped the band again: “Now we all know that nobody ever dies; they just leave here. So Rashan Roland Kirk is looking down on us right now....” He paused. “OK, repeat after me ...” and he launched the chorus with the audience repeating "b r igh t moments” after him to close out the song. Backstage, Hendricks was attentive to everyone who wanted to talk with him, the perfect spokesman for the “jazz messiahs” like Louis Armstrong, Lester Young and Charlie Parker he honored in his closing medley, “Evolution of the Blues.” Musicians like Rashan Roland Kirk will never die so long as performers like Jon Hendricks keep them alive. Jaszz ta M atron [pDae® “We considered country music, but didn’t feel it was right for the area and found that acts are very expensive. Rock music was also discounted for that reason, plus we didn’t want to get involved in crowd-control problems. Dance was just too esoteric for a major event. We just kept coming back to jazz." John Keyser, President Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz E verybody wants to have a Hoijazz festival,” Sonny Rollins said in a recent interview, and since the 1950s, when there was only Newport, Monterey and Montreux, jazz festivals have proliferated every summer across the USA, Europe and Japan. Many top jazz musicians fill a number of “spots” at these successive events, and the strain of travel and the demand for “peak” performances in every city obviously wears on them. “Basically, it’s just a job now to most of the musicians,” Ralph Gleason wrote sadly in a 1972 review of the Monterey Jazz Festival. Yet at the end of the Mt. Hood Festival, I was saturated with great jazz music, as much as I would ordinarily hear in a whole year of concertgoing in Portland. And it appears that this festival will indeed become an annual event. Those of us who admire jazz as an art form, and to whom its primary message is as spiritually uplifting as it is viscerally exciting, must stop to remind ourselves that in a capitalist economy, the market becomes the only link between performers and their audience. The Festival provided a graceful, well-produced forum, and in the process established a beachhead for jazz in the suburbs. And that’s not something to be taken for granted. As Betty Carter said, “ ... the one thing about this country is that it makes you fight for what you really want; it’s not going to come easy.” ■ A MUSIC LESSON The inestimable Dr. Johnson, as those of you English lit types out there will know, reminds us that knowledge is of two distinct types: knowledge we ourselves possess and knowledge we have of where to find out more about something we know little of. How, you ask, does this relate to Tower Records? Simply put, if you want to expand your knowledge of music in Category A above, the smart thing to do is to realize that one of your best resources (Category B) is Tower Records. Now anybody can have a facile appreciation of popular music just by listening to AM radio and checking out the Top Forty Record Rack down at the mall. But Tower Records is an entirely different kettle of fish: we try to stock every LP and cassette currently in print (and many that aren't) in every conceivable category of music. Interested in aboriginal music of the Northern Australian outback? It's available at Tower. How about Pinetop Smith's legendary piano boogie-woogie from the 20s? Rare, historic recordings by operatic greats such as Callas and Caruso? Early Frank Zappa? Frankly, we think you can get a better musical education just walking down the aisles at Tower and reading the liner notes than you can at many universities. And at a cost that is significantly less. Put us to the test: we've got your music. OPEN 9AM TO MIDNIGHT ■365 DAYS A YEAR w RIMS MSI I Portland 4100 SE 82nd AVE IN EASTPORT PLAZA 46 Clinton St. Quarterly
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz