City Paper's Michael West on Christian Scott's "Yesterday You Said Tomorrow"

Washington City Paper's Michael West, in the comments section on Lerterland, David Adler's blog:

But yeah, I prefer to focus on YYST, which I believe to be the first great album of 2010.

» Full blog post here

Rapper Nas' father is jazz coronetist Olu Dara

Who knew? From Wikipedia:

Olu Dara Jones (born Charles Jones III in Natchez, Mississippi on 12 January 1941) is an American cornetist, guitarist and singer. He first became known as a jazz musician, playing alongside avant-garde musicians such as David Murray, Henry Threadgill, and Art Blakey.

OluDara.info

DC's Club Bali

Club Bali at 14th & T in DC is one of the places Keter Betts talked about a lot in the conversations we had in 2005, when we were set to work on a project together. He said Club Bali was the spot for a time, where everyone played and everyone went. He told me he played there with Ella, and it seemed as if he really enjoyed the time he spent there.

It's crazy to think that in the early 1980s when I worked at Charlie's Georgetown, a jazz club where Keter often played, it never occurred to me that he was someone who had actually played at Club Bali. But that's probably true of many of the artists who performed at Charlie's.

Here's some cool historical information about Club Bali, and some amazing photos.

• Photo of Charlie Venture at Club Bali


• Photo of Louis Armstrong


• Photo of Sarah Vaughn


• Advertisement for the New Bali Restaurant


• Advertisement for Club Bali

How artists and tweeps can work together (or Atane's piece on Regina Carter's new album, Reverse Thread)

The Twitterverse moves at breakneck speed and sometimes events take shape and move forward before you've even had a chance to process what's going on.

That's what happened when Regina Carter's team contacted me with show information for Regina's March performance at Black Rock Center for the Arts, to post on my DC Jazz Shows blog.

I told them about our network of jazz lovers and jazz supporters on Twitter, and how we tweet and retweet information about the music, the musicians, performances, releases, etc. I pressed my case to receive a copy of the new CD in order to have a review written. They were in short supply of physical copies, so I was not able to get one, but I was able to get access to the songs online. Because of Atane Ofiaja's love for African music (it's what he and I bonded over), and because of his wealth of knowledge of hidden African musical history, I knew I wanted him to write the review. Thankfully, he graciously agreed to write it.

It's good. I hope you'll read it — Album Spotlight: Regina Carter – Reverse Thread

Atane posted the review on his own blog The Sophisticated Audiophile; I wrote about and linked to his review from the DC Jazz Shows; and I'm writing about it once again here. Atane tweeted a link to his review. I retweeted it. Others in our network will also retweet it. I'll also be submitting Atane's review to Digg.com, where jazz tweeps have met up to promote jazz-related content. And through all of this, we, the real fans of this music, get to participate in getting it the exposure it deserves.

The Persistence of Dreams

I stumbled into a dream when I was a kid. 14 years old, playing percussions, got to audition for Duke Ellington School for the Arts. I got in. First girl drummer. Wallace Roney was in my band class. Debbie Allen was teaching dance there. Totally creative environment. I loved it.

But I and many other students were turned away from our dreams by unscrupulous people. I was suckered into walking away from the one thing I cherished.

1990, motherhood, my son is born. I never pushed him towards music, just tried to expose him. But since the age of 14 he's pursued it with such amazing intensity, I'd swear those unfulfilled musical dreams were birthed into him.

By 6th grade (his 2nd year of playing) he could read more music than I ever could. And by 7th grade, it was obvious something was up with that kid. He had the goods. He really had potential. He had a couple of odd traits — memorizing pieces of music after he saw them a couple of times, and also a strong interest in what was going on around him musically. He would come home going on about what the flutes were doing in a particular song, or about the clarinet parts. And, this was classical music. He's never had a strong interest in classical. But he put himself into it completely, even though he was dying to play jazz in those days.

That told me the kid was really a musician. He could have done what I did in band class at those ages — tune out. He didn't. And today at 20, he's still the same way. Puts himself into every piece he plays.

And the dream that I walked away from at 14, continues.

Bad Brains - from Jazz to Punk

One of the best jazz bands I've ever seen, went on to become one of the greatest punk bands in history, according to many fans of punk music — particularly fans of DC Hardcore.

Bad Brains were called Mind Power when they were a fusion band, and they played music similar to Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever. I hung out with them for a bit when Bad Brains were just starting out, and I visited their house and heard them play jazz — amazing jazz. And while part of the ethos of the punk movement said that anyone could start a band, even without musical skills, Bad Brains stood out among punk bands as guys who could really play their instruments.

Darryl Jennifer (bass), Earl Hudson (drums), and Dr. Know (guitar — he more recently worked with Mos Def), were phenomenal young musicians — some of the best in the DC area at the time. They grew up in the Landover area of PG County (Maryland), at that time a very white county. Among the black kids who lived there, there seemed to be a universal love for fusion — people like Tommy Bolin, Billy Cobham, and Lenny White. The DC area had been known for such beastly musicians as guitarist Wilbur Harris and drummer TC Tolliver, and kids knew that if they were going to pick up an instrument, they'd better practice and get good. This is the environment that Bad Brains grew up in, so it's not surprising that while they embraced the sounds of punk music, they rejected the idea that being a good musician didn't matter.

» More on Bad Brains

Remembering Keter Betts, Bass Player for Ella Fitzgerald for 24 Years

Keter played at Charlie's Georgetown often — the jazz club I worked at in the early 80s. But I never actually met him back then, and it wasn't until shortly before he passed away that I finally had the chance to get to know him.

We were set to work on a project together, but he passed away 2 days before our first meeting. I did get to talk to him by phone a number of times in preparation for our meeting. Those phone calls weren't very productive — I was worried about organizing a very difficult project, but after Keter found out about our Charlie's Georgtown connection, all he wanted to do was tell me stories. And I was very eager to hear them.

Jazz stories, all of them. Keter talked about Ella, about the shows they played, places they'd been, and about the rich musical history of Washington, DC. Once he got started, I couldn't get a word in. And I didn't care. I loved listening to Keter's stories, and hearing the delight in his voice from re-membering so many great events in his life. And about how he got his name — people called him Sketer ('mosquito') when he was young, and at some point Sketer became Keter.

One of the last times I saw him, we were both attending a garden performance by a traditional African group from Rwanda — a group that I later became manager of, Samputu Ingeli. Keter loved the group, and was fixated on and fascinated by the drummers, and at one point I heard him say "now see, he's not just PLAYING the drums, he's BECOMING the drums."


Here's a shot of Angela Bassett, me, and Samputu Ingeli (from Memphis, Tennessee, at the 2004 Freedom Awards.)

» About Keter Betts