Higher Ground Relief Fund concert is on now on PBS

[chandra]

The higher ground relief fund concert for Katrina New Orleans relief is on now. It is a live broadcast from the Lincoln center. 30+ performers are slated to perform over the next 3 hours.

Edited September 18, 2005 by chandra

[7/4]

I wish we heard this kind of music on TV all the time!

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Largely mediocre performances and the commentary is pretty bad, but the hands-off presentation of the music itself is quite exceptional. I guess when TV producers have no choice but to show it "as it is" they can do it. But it's a shame that we can't get our jazz straight-up on a regular basis, without being cut or subjected to voice-overs and talking heads.

Mike

P.S. - when Phil Schaap introduced McCoy Tyner as the "last surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet" I wonder what Reggie Workman was thinking - let alone Steve Kuhn and Pete LaRoca.

Edited September 18, 2005 by Michael Fitzgerald

[Kalo]

I heard a bit of this on the radio.

Herbie Hancock was Herbie Hancock. Sonny Rollins sounded good, playing in a trio setting, though he only got a few minutes. I love Abbey Lincoln, but she's really starting to show her age (which is tough on singers).

Did anyone else think that, in this context, it was weird on Bette Midler's part to sing Leiber and Stoller's theatrically jaded, sub-Brecht/Weill cabaret number "Is That All There Is," (made famous by Peggy Lee's hit version)? What was the message there? -- "It was only the worst natural disaster in American History; is that all there is?"

I almost laughed when one of the NPR commentators excitedly mentioned that the arrangement of the Midler number was by Don Sebesky, as though that might make it the highlight of the evening!

I hope I don't sound too jaded or nit-picky. I certainly applaud the participants for doing their part for the relief effort and to educate the public about the role of New Orleans in the formation of American culture. Still, it's silly to say, as Hancock did, that without New Orleans there would be no American music (though I understand why he said it in this context).

Sure there would be American music without the Crescent City. Would it sound different? Yes, very. Would it have been as influential on the world? Perhaps not. But I thought that the old canard about jazz being born in N.O. had been laid to rest. It was a huge influence, but jazz or something very like it would have been born regardless, whatever different path it might have taken and however different it might have sounded.

And I don't intend in any way to belittle the influence New Orleans had on jazz.

Edited September 18, 2005 by Kalo

[Kalo]

Largely mediocre performances and the commentary is pretty bad, but the hands-off presentation of the music itself is quite exceptional. I guess when TV producers have no choice but to show it "as it is" they can do it. But it's a shame that we can't get our jazz straight-up on a regular basis, without being cut or subjected to voice-overs and talking heads.

Mike

P.S. - when Phil Schaap introduced McCoy Tyner as the "last surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet" I wonder what Reggie Workman was thinking - let alone Steve Kuhn and Pete LaRoca.

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Good points, Mike.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Did Sonny Rollins go on before I tuned in - or are you thinking of Joe Lovano (who did play in a trio)?

Mike

[rostasi]

I started somewhere in the middle.

I'm sorry that I missed Herbie (and did Sonny really play?)

Tried to stay with as much as I could,

but I was having a hard time staying awake.

Dull-dull-dull, but glorious in it's dullness!

First time I've heard Wynton in many years

and I'm just amazed at how awful he was -

after all of these years and still some kind of jazz icon?

I applaud the relief effort, but how about putting his horn down and

start picking up a pen and start writing his jazz history that he

seems to want to perpetuate (or maybe a series of pedantic lesson books).

Tavis Smiley is talking to Cowboy Carl now. I think it's time to go to bed.

Edited September 18, 2005 by rostasi

[Michael Fitzgerald]

You may remember discussion here about the recent "Legends of Jazz" TV show on PBS. I have to say that Jon Hendricks and Paquito D'Rivera both were shown in a FAR superior light on tonight's benefit show. (And it seems that D'Rivera in particular has aged 10 years since that Legends taping - I barely recognized him.)

Some people should prevent people like Bill Cosby from speaking in front of people. He rambled on fairly incoherently - people could have made his point better in two well-planned sentences, but people had to endure for what seemed to people like an eternity.

I thought Marlon Jordan sounded abominable and that Terence Blanchard's group did quite well. I do like hearing Cassandra Wilson in a traditional setting, as opposed to what she does most of the time nowadays.

And where was Kidd Jordan - and Branford Marsalis, for that matter?

Mike

BTW, no Rollins on this show.

[BFrank]

P.S. - when Phil Schaap introduced McCoy Tyner as the "last surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet" I wonder what Reggie Workman was thinking - let alone Steve Kuhn and Pete LaRoca.

←

Mike - You don't give him credit for assuming that everyone knew he was referring to the "classic quartet"?

[Kalo]

Did Sonny Rollins go on before I tuned in - or are you thinking of Joe Lovano (who did play in a trio)?

Mike

←

I had the music on the radio in the dining room while I was fixing dinner in the kitchen. So I assumed with half an ear that I was hearing a half-throttle Sonny. Tribute to Lovano? Or my stupidity?

P.S. - when Phil Schaap introduced McCoy Tyner as the "last surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet" I wonder what Reggie Workman was thinking - let alone Steve Kuhn and Pete LaRoca.

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Mike - You don't give him credit for assuming that everyone knew he was referring to the "classic quartet"?

←

I give him credit for reading the copy provided him.

Edited September 18, 2005 by Kalo

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I haven't decided whether Schaap was reading someone else's copy or whether it was his own and there was someone with a choke leash to stop him from blathering as is his wont. His introduction of Cosby was so typical of him that I have to think this is the "new Lincoln Center-ized Schaap" - just as full of hyperbole and inaccuracy but in a friendly time-compressed format.

The Lovano trio piece was "Blackwell's Message" which he recorded on the Tenor Legacy album.

The presence of Idris Muhammad was largely out of sympathy, I guess, because he didn't work at all with Herbie Hancock (lost and clueless on Eye Of The Hurricane - an embarrassment) and he was somewhat better with Lovano, but there were 100 better choices for a drummer on that - except they're not from New Orleans.

Mike

[Kalo]

I haven't decided whether Schaap was reading someone else's copy or whether it was his own and there was someone with a choke leash to stop him from blathering as is his wont. His introduction of Cosby was so typical of him that I have to think this is the "new Lincoln Center-ized Schaap" - just as full of hyperbole and inaccuracy but in a friendly time-compressed format.

←

[Jim R]

I was struck by some of the same things that Mike mentions. At one point, I thought Bill Cosby sounded almost exactly like Irwin Corey, which is very sad, because he wasn't trying to be funny at all. The artist intros were generally terrible. And Paquito D'Rivera- did he suddenly decide to stop using hair dye?

There were a few decent performances (Hendricks sounded good, for one), but I almost wish they had just let Buckwheat Zydeco play the whole show.

[Harold_Z]

I was listening early on in my car on the way to a gig.

Anybody dig Herlin Riley ?

This cat is one hell of a good drummer. This guy plays !

[SEK]

Jon Hendricks was great. I also liked the messages from Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte.

Robin Williams was pretty good. Herbie did "Eye of the Hurricane". Idris Muhammad is certainly no Ed Blackwell. I thought that Laurence Fishburne did his MC/"guide" thing well.

I'm not a fan of Diana Krall, but I thought she came off rather well tonight too. Most of the rest of the performances, I thought, were poor to mediocre.

I've found that virtually everything musical that Wynton Marsalis has a direct hand in has lacked vitality, but I sure appreciate him for using his "good offices" to help bring tonight's event.

[7/4]

I wish we heard this kind of music on TV all the time!

←

At least it wasn't smooth jazz folks.

edit: it's on again at 3:30pm in NYC and will prob get other repeats on other stations.

Edited September 18, 2005 by 7/4

[chandra]

Most of the rest of the performances, I thought, were poor to mediocre.

←

Towards the end, that 'spanish tinge' piece as they called it,(Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra: "Havana Blues with Salt Peanuts" ) sounded pretty good, don't you think? But then I don't really have a basis for comparision, I am just basing it on how it sounded to me.

Edited September 18, 2005 by chandra

[Jerry]

Toni Morrison's reading was surprisingly good. Diane Reeves put in what was probably the best performance of the evening. Tyner's performance was oddly disappointing; I've seen him play way better in recent years. Herbie played well but neither the bass nor drums knew what they were doing. Cosby started out with a promising play of words on 'the people' but somehow lost it and flopped. Nora Jones came off intense, mysterious, and better than I expected. I liked Danny Glover and Belafonte and Robin Williams. Laurence Fishburne was good in spots but way too much of him. Too many people gushing over Wynton. Most of the music was boring. Too bad Elvis Costello and Toussaint didn't get to play more. Costello was just getting warmed up.

[chandra]

Laurence Fishburne was good in spots but way too much of him.  Too many people gushing over Wynton.

←

I thought Fishbourne was OK but he could have toned down the 'chip on his shoulder' demeaner a bit. I agree there was also way too much of him. But he is a good orator especially when he narrated the New Orleans history. I thought his best moment was, in the early part of the show, he was talking about the New Orleans' 'gumbo' of cultures and it being the most integrated city in America and without missing a beat, 'and now, my sister Diana' and transitioned to Diana Krall. I think his emphasis on 'sister' was cleverly played given the subject of his monologue.

On the subject of Wynton, the gushing over him had two manifestations. One, the PBS announcer and Travis kept dropping Winton name way too many times. Once, his name was mentioned two or three times in one breath!! Second, he got to play multiple times when everyone had only one chance. James Taylor sort of took a dig at that humorously "They told me I get only one song, so I picked the longest song".

[7/4]

Well.....I watching/listening to this again. The last thing I remember from last night was the anouncement that James Taylor was going to be on next, a sure bet that I'll mute it and turn over and go to sleep.

Ken Burns gave a nice speech, except he gave it.

Herbie was fine by me.

There seems to be some people that I'm not really too interested in listening to. But WTF, it's a benifit.

I'm about an hour:45 into it, but what I know from last night is that I dug the jazz and the NO beats and I wish there was more roots programing on PBS and other stations.

When will I see Ornette on TV? I can go on, I hope folks here get the big picture.

[rostasi]

Let's have Christiern comment on the PBS jazz program he was responsible for

over 30 years ago. I will remember that series until the day I die - absolutely incredible! -

Maybe today it may not have the same impact,

but, especially for a youngster interested in the creative arts, it left a big imprint...

BUT we have nothing like that now -

no creative music programming that anyone can turn the TV on and see.

Now, we find delight in seeing a cattle call of performers whereby the really most interesting

things to see are the amazing quickness of the stagehands trying desperately to meet the 5 minute deadlines.

If only Chris' series were available on DVD - hell, I'd take VHS, kinetoscope...

[JSngry]

Dude - I saw Oliver Lake on PBS in, I think, 1974. And that was before he became famous!

[rostasi]

Dude - I saw Oliver Lake on PBS in, I think, 1974. And that was before he became famous!

I think I did too - and that's what I mean!

(and it wasn't this):

Edited September 18, 2005 by rostasi

[SEK]

Towards the end, that 'spanish tinge' piece as they called it,(Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra: "Havana Blues with Salt Peanuts" ) sounded pretty good, don't you think? But then I don't really have a basis for comparision, I am just basing it on how it sounded to me.

It's how the music sounds to you that matters most.

To me, FWIW, The Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, at least on that piece, sounded no worse than I would have anticipated; they were competent, I guess, but they lacked fire.

[7/4]

Dude - I saw Oliver Lake on PBS in, I think, 1974. And that was before he became famous!

I think I did too - and that's what I mean!

←

31 years. Sad. It's too bad PBS isn't cutting edge any more.