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The Pace Report: "The 2012 NEA Jazz Masters Cememony Highlights"

Added 01/21/12
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The Pace Report: "The 2012 NEA Jazz Masters Cememony Highlights"

[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 13:32:12 01/21/12
One of the most important jazz events took place at Jazz at Lincoln Center during the week of APAP last week. The 2012 National Endowment for the Arts held their 30th anniversary of the Jazz Masters Ceremony and Concert to a sold-out crowd. The event pays tribute to the architects of jazz music both living and deceased. More importantly, the NEA gives the current inductees as well as music programs and centers all over the country, grants and funding to continue the legacy of providing the community jazz programming and education to keep the music viable to public. Including this year’s inductees, the NEA has celebrated the work and lives of 128 jazz musicians, awarded more than 2,400 jazz grants, and given over $32 million dollars over the last 30 years. A very important feat for the music that very seldom gets the notoriety or praise like other American black music such as hip-hop, soul, and the blues. This year’s 2012 NEA Jazz Masters inductees include: Sheila Jordan, vocalist and educator; Von Freeman, tenor saxophonist and bandleader; Jack DeJohnette, drummer and pianist; Jimmy Owens, trumpeter, educator, and advocate; and Charlie Haden, bassist and bandleader. The festivities kicked off this year in regal fashion as Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts gave the opening comments about how rich the NEA’s tradition of celebrating and commemorating of America’s only art form. 2007 NEA Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis and last year’s inductee Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, also gave opening comments of the historical implications of the 30th Anniversary of this year’s jazz masters ceremony. NEA Jazz Master Phil Woods along with alto saxophonist Grace Kelly played “Things To Come” composed by former NEA Jazz Master Dizzy Gillespie. The two were backed by the stellar Jazz at Lincoln Orchestra lead by Wynton Marsalis. Drummer Jack DeJohnette was inducted by his mentor and fellow NEA Jazz Master Muhal Richard Abrams. Abrams helped Jack as a teen study and play both the piano and drums while growing up in Chicago, Illinois. Through Abram’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Jack developed a love and passion to play both classical and jazz music which helped him decide to play music professionally. In the mid-1960’s Jack decided to move to New York City where he played with the late Rashied Ali in the John Coltrane Quintet. He got his first taste of success when he joined saxophonist Charles Lloyd in his first quartet where he played with a young pianist named Keith Jarrett. During the late 1960’s into the 1970’s, Jack backed and recorded with the likes of Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Special Edition, New Directions, and his long association with the Keith Jarrett Trio with bassist Gary Peacock. Today, Jack is still very active and just released his latest disc “Sound Travels” on the the eOne Music label. NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson gave the induction speech of 2012 inductee Von Freeman. Freeman, who couldn’t make this year’s ceremony due to illness, was given some praise and adoration by his sons Chico and Mark Freeman, who gave his induction speech. Earle Lavon Freeman, Sr, was born in Chicago, Illinois where he’s been a musical icon for the last 70 years. Von comes from that elite class of Chicago tenor saxophonists like Gene Ammons, Clifford Jordan, and the late Johnny Griffin. During the 1950’s he and his brothers George and Bruz were the house band at the famed Pershing Hotel in Chicago. Von played with a slew of great local musicians that included Jimmy Witherspoon, Sun Ra, and Andrew Hill. In 1972 he recorded his debut recording “Doin’ It Right Now” produced by Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Currently Von plays weekly at the New Apartment Lounge and Andy’s Jazz Club in Chicago. Bassist and bandleader Charlie Haden has given the world of music and jazz his unique blend of originality and heart. Since he made his way on the bandstand during the late 1950’s, Haden has been a trailblazer and relentless musician always striving to take music to the next level as well as always create new forms of roots music. From his days with saxophonist Ornette Coleman’s group, the quartet recorded the landmark recording for Atlantic Records, “The Shape of Jazz to Come.” But in 1969 Haden would record one of the most ambitious jazz recordings of the time. “Liberation Music Orchestra” was a record that fused the social themes of the times as well as free jazz that spoke volumes in the jazz community. The music was arranged and composed by Carla Bley and the orchestra has been recording sporadically over the last four decades. In addition to Haden’s orchestra, the three-time Grammy Award winner also fronts Quartet West. Charlie couldn’t attend the jazz masters ceremony due to his recovery from a recent surgery. His daughter Patra read his acceptance speech and acknowledged his many accomplishments on Charlie’s behalf. Vocalist, musical visionary, and NEA Jazz Master Jon Hendricks gave one of the most poignant speeches for his friend and contemporary, vocalist Sheila Jordan. Hendricks praised her accomplishments as a vocalist as well as keeping the vocal tradition alive by teaching the next generation of vocalists. Jordan, a Detroit native, comes from a great tradition and legacy of musicians that have made great and important strides in the world of jazz music. She developed her vocal style while singing in a local group named Skeeter, Mitch, and Jean. But it was her drive and determination that got her to move to New York City where she decided to throw herself into the thriving music scene. When she moved here she learned music theory and harmony by bassist Charles Mingus and pianist Lennie Tristano. Pianist George Russell discovered and recorded her on his “The Outer View” recording in 1962. Sheila made history by recording the first vocal record for Blue Note Records titled “Portrait of Sheila.” Throughout her career she’s recorded and performed with the Steve Kuhn Quartet and Harvie Swartz. Today she continues to teach jazz vocal workshops as well as perform all over the world. Trumpeter and educator Jimmy Owens is having a stellar 2012 so far. His latest IPO Recordings release “The Monk Project” celebrates and focuses on the compositions of pianist Thelonious Monk. In his 50 years in the business, the 68 year-old musician has been on the front lines for the betterment for working jazz musicians. As a board and active member of the Jazz Foundation of America, part of Jimmy’s lifework has been to help musicians seek funding for medical expenses, legal assistance, housing, and steady work. He founded the Musicians Emergency Fund due to the lack of support from the arts community and serve as a means to never negate the lives of many musicians that haven’t had the support or the able means to survive. Musicians that have benefited from this generous program were Odetta, Fats Domino, Clark Terry, Freddie Hubbard, Cecil Payne, and Sweet Georgia Brown. In addition to his dedication to the JFA, he’s also been a supporter and advocate for the Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians here in New York City. It’s Jimmy’s drive and passion that he’s fought State Politicians to repeal the 8.25% admission tax for clubs and major venues and to take those funds and contribute them to the AFM’s pension fund.This and his dedication to education in jazz music is why he’s been honored as one of this year’s NEA Jazz Master Inductees. Jimmy, who hails from the Bronx, New York, was exposed to jazz music when he was kid when his parents played the music. He wanted to play the trumpet and one of his first teacher’s as well as mentor, Dr. Donald Byrd, got him to take the instrument and studying it seriously. Over the years he’d back and play with some of jazz music’s leading innovators and icons. Musicians like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillispie, and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Today he still teaches as well as serves as a mentor to many of today’s current jazz musicians and composers. Some of highlight performances of the evening included two separate duo performances including NEA Jazz Masters bassist Ron Carter and flutist Huber Laws in their rendition of “Little Waltz”/”Memories of Minnie.” Also, Jazz Masters vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and pianist Kenny Barron’s rendition of Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Own Sweet Way.” The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis did an outstanding job in arranging tributes throughout the concert to NEA Jazz Master Horace Silver featuring Dave Liebman, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Candido Camero, and the new trumpet sensation Ambrose Akinmusire. The Benny Carter and Frank Foster tribute also turned a lot of heads featuring saxophonists Frank Wess and Benny Golson. I must add that the National Endowment for the Arts have dedicated to the works and mission to keep the jazz legacy alive via the grants they award every year. Also, they’ve been in tune with the jazz community via journalists, the musicians, and the many jazz associations to help educate and get the word out about America’s only original art-form. The NEA has more info for fans to reach out into their community to support the arts. For more info please visit them on the web at arts.gov.

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Bill Clinton Public Private Cooperation Is A Way Out Of Jobs Crisis

[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 19:00:00 09/18/11
video platform video management video solutions video player Former President Bill Clinton appears on This Week With Christiane Amanpour to talk about the upcoming Clinton Global Initiative and its focus on job creation . I was part of a group of bloggers that got to meet with him a few years ago, and he was talking about green retrofits then. As I recall, the energy savings numbers he said could be created by retrofits were jaw-dropping, so this makes more sense than ever: > AMANPOUR: Now, sir, your mantra right now is jobs, jobs, jobs. What do you think can happen to radically shift the unemployment picture and also pass muster in Washington in these very partisan times? CLINTON: Well, I don't know that I'm the best person to answer the second part of that question. But I believe that we, those of us who aren't in government, can think of ways to create jobs which will reinforce what I believe are the positive suggestions coming out of Washington. Essentially, the president's plan has big payroll tax cuts in it, which will benefit the economy by lowering the average family's tax bill by 1,500 dollars. And then they can have that to spend. That will help. And then by lowering payroll taxes for employers, will make it more attractive for them to hire new people. But those of us who aren't in government, we don't have anything to do with that. So what we should do is focus on possible areas of job creation that will free up some of the corporate money that's in Treasuries now, that could be invested in America, and make bank loans more attractive to create jobs. So that's what we try to do. We try to go around thinking about ways to specifically to do that. And if you look at the way the CGI program is set up this year, we also are trying to create more jobs around the world by focusing on the possibilities of green energy elsewhere, because it's not just in America that the green tech jobs are growing at twice the rate of overall employment. It's -- that's true around the world. And by focusing on trying to empower women and girls, because in many other countries, they're left out of the economy. And that's dragging the economic prospects of everyone down. AMANPOUR: So what will tell the CEOs and the world leaders who come to your Clinton Global Initiative meeting this next week? CLINTON: Well, I will ask them to put aside for the moment whatever their recommendations are to Washington about changes in the corporate tax laws or the trade bills or, you know, the tariffs that are imposed on component parts that some manufacturers use here but have to import from overseas, and just think about where we are now and what we can do now with the resources we now have. For example, I think we'll have an update on an announcement we made in Chicago, where the AFL-CIO and a couple of its affiliate unions are going to put some of their own pension funds into putting people to work retrofitting buildings and doing other things that will create jobs for their members and for other Americans in a way that will actually make more money for the pension funds than just putting it into the stock market will today. And they'll be in partnership with business instead of having a Washington political fight with them. AMANPOUR: Where do you see -- obviously, this is all about this stubborn unemployment rate. Where do you see the unemployment, after all of these suggestions, and if they're implemented -- where do you see it standing this time next year? CLINTON: Well, if you look at the program that the president has outlined, I think if we had the payroll tax cuts and the special incentives to hire the long term unemployed, and we did some of the things that I have been pushing very hard for, to invest building retrofits, which, if we did it right, could create a billions of jobs, the estimates are right across the economic board, including by Mr. Zandy who was an economic adviser to Senator McCain in the 2008 election. All of the estimates that it will create somewhere between 1.3 and two million jobs, and drop unemployment by approximately one percent, maybe a little more. That's if they're implemented. That's -- we can't do much better than that right now, unless -- unless there is an aggressive action, which seems unlikely in Washington's political climate, to clean up this housing mess, because that's freezing too much investment in place. So I think that it's a very good program that he outlined. I think if the Congress seriously takes him up on it and they start trying to work through it and get anything approaching the amount of activity that was recommended, they could put about two percent more on the GDP growth of the coming year, and they could drop unemployment by somewhere between one to two million. Or they can create one to two million jobs. AMANPOUR: You have said in the past that this is not time for Mexican standoff or sort of macho politics. What can be done to make people in this city understand that the country faces a national emergency in this regard? CLINTON: Well, we need a little bit of help from the American people. I mean, conflict has proved to be remarkably good politics. And it -- that sort of thing, you know, that -- it's very hard for the people in Washington, who got there based on pure conflict, pure attack, pure ideology, to take it seriously when their same constituents are saying please do something positive. That's not how they got elected. We live in a time where there's this huge disconnect between the way the political system works and the way the economic system works. If you look -- there are places all over America, believe it or not, that have low unemployment, high growth, strong home prices, jobs being created, a shortage of skilled workers. And in every one of those places, they have networks of cooperation. San Diego has the largest number of Nobel Prized scientists in America. It's become the biotech center of the country. Everybody knows Silicon Valley's back. But look at what's happening in Pittsburgh, where they're trading steel for nanotechnology and other biomedical advances. Look at what's happening in Cleveland, around the Cleveland Clinic. Look at what's happening in Massachusetts, with the recovery of high-tech manufacturing around the MIT area. I can give you lots and lots of other examples. Every place the American economy is booming, cooperation is the order of the day. But conflict is still good politics in Washington. So until the American people make it clear that whatever -- however they voted in past elections, they want these folks to work together and to do something, there's going to be a little ambivalence in Washington. AMANPOUR: Let me ask you this, then: Mayor Bloomberg of New York has said this week that unless something is done to really address this unemployment problem, there could be riots in the street, unrest. Do you -- do you agree with that? CLINTON: I don't know. There have been demonstrations in many other countries where the same thing is going on. But if you -- the most important thing Mayor Bloomberg said recently is to offer land on Governor's Island or Roosevelt Island or the Navy Yard in Brooklyn for a new world-class science and technology research center. And he said that he'll kick in $100 million worth of investment if a group of universities will put one there, because he wants New York, in effect, to rival Silicon Valley as a technology center. That's the kind of thing that works. If you want put people to work, we've got to focus on what works, and what works is not all this back and forth fighting in Washington. I think, as I said, I think that if we can't fix the housing crisis now -- which is probably not politically possible, but should be done -- we can't return to full employment . But if we adopt the plan that the president outlined, according to all this economic analysis, it will create between 1.5, 2 percent increase in GDP growth. It will put a million or two million people to work, and we'll be on the way back. We need some signal out of Washington that they understand that cooperation is good economics, even if conflict is good politics. AMANPOUR: Mr. President, obviously the current situation in various polls are suggesting that people aren't satisfied with President Obama's leadership on this. And there was a special election in New York in District 9 that the Democrats lost after holding it for nearly 100 years. What does that say to you? CLINTON: Well, the New York case is -- I know that district very well, and they were good enough to vote for me twice. But, I think, Mayor Koch had a big impact on that election because of the controversy surrounding Israel and how they're reacting to the proposal of the Palestinians to get the U.N. to recognize them as a state. I think that had a lot to do with it. I also think it's a real blue-collar district that is suffering economically. So, it didn't surprise me. And I don't think -- and the Nevada district was a Republican district. So it's just -- it is what it is. We won not very long ago that district in upstate New York that had been Republican for even longer than this district had been Democrat because of the Medicare plan, and the Republicans have stopped talking about their plan to voucherize Medicare. So I -- there's a lot of upheaval now. A lot of, you know, people are feeling disjointed because they're hurting economically and they don't see the country going forward.