The free Second Annual John Coltrane Festival: Miles Ahead that was rained out on September 23 (Coltrane’s birthday) has been rescheduled for October 6 (5 p.m.–9 p.m.) at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park.
Once again, the stellar line-up will include NEA Jazz Master bassist Reggie Workman and his band; saxophonist T.K. Blue; trumpeters James Zollar and Wallace Roney, Jr.; saxophonists Alvin Flythe and Patience Higgins; pianist Bertha Hope; saxophonist Bill Saxton; drummer Winard Harper; and special guests. Festival hosts are Lezlie Harrison of WBGO 88.3 FM and Lamon Fenner of WHCR 90.3 FM.
The innovative force of musicians Joe Daley, Warren Smith, and Scott Robinson has unified as a collective to revisit the “Tuba Trio” and celebrate the centennial of the visionary multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers. Their “Tuba Trio Tour” will include a brief but definitive northeast tour playing in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and stops in upstate New York with finales in Erie, Penn., on October 5, and a big celebration on October 7 in Teaneck, N.J., at the newly opened jazz and dinner club Brvsh Cul7ur3 Jazz Club (pronounced Brush Culture; 482 Cedar Lane on New Jersey’s side of the George Washington Bridge).
This trio is the epitome of Rivers’s musical concepts as a performer and composer. Daley, Smith, and Robinson are also multi-instrumentalists whose music runs the spectrum from German classical composer Joachim Raff to Anthony Braxton, Janis Joplin, Gil Evans, Nat King Cole, and Muhal Richard Abrams. Both Daley and Smith played and collaborated with Rivers regularly. During the outspoken loft scene, when jazz danced on the edge of sane impossibilities in the 1970s and onward, Rivers was in the forefront with his Studio RivBea. His friend and band member Smith had a loft called Studio Wis, which also acted as a performing and recording space for young jazz musicians who included Wadada Leo Smith and Oliver Lake.
The Tuba Trio originally consisted of Rivers on soprano and tenor saxophones, with Daley on tuba or euphonium, and Smith on mallets and percussion. For this Tuba Trio celebration, multi-reed instrumentalist Robinson will take on Rivers’s parts. “I am thrilled to play a part in this special celebration,” said Robinson.
Some may ask why the Tuba Trio is playing in Teaneck and not the Big Apple? Well, they did play the “city” earlier in the week, on the Lower Eastside, where the loft scene was formerly in full bloom. The October 7 performance takes place at the new jazz club owned by drummer and composer Rodney Green. “I felt there needed to be a place on the west side of the George Washington Bridge where established jazz artists can mingle with up-and-coming musicians to create that on-the-spot classroom so essential to the music’s improvisational character,” stated Green.
Brvsh Cul7ur3 is the new jazz club on the scene. For reservations for Tuba Trio, visit the website brvshcul7ur3.com.
For some reason, we don’t see enough of drummer and composer Ronnie Burrage, whose sound represents his early days with R&B singer Fontella Bass and as a founding member of the funk/rock/jazz ensemble Defunkt, led by trombonist and vocalist Joseph Bowie. His hard bop attributes are derived from his associations with Sonny Fortune; a three-year stint with McCoy Tyner; and time with Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny, Jackie McLean, and Arthur Blythe. While many are aware that brothers Branford and Wynton Marsalis were members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, some didn’t know they were also members of the Burrage Ensemble, one of the drummer’s earlier groups upon arriving in New York City.
Burrage and Holographic Principle combined all of his musical experiences during his recent one-night-only appearance at Dizzy’s. The only question after his standing ovation performance was why he hasn’t appeared at the noted jazz club before. He has appeared at Dizzy’s on various occasions as a sideman, but this was his debut leading his own group, and it was most memorable!
The ensemble included bassist Nimrod Speaks, tenor saxophonist; multi-instrumentalist Alain Bradette; and pianist/keyboardist Alex Collins. Their repertoire was an array of compositions from band members that was a combustion of fusion, funk, and straight-ahead jazz, plus favorites from Burrage’s Grammy-nominated 2019 CD Holographic Principle: Dance of the Great Spirit (Truth Revolution Records). Burrage, a longtime sci-fi enthusiast, said, “My music takes you on journeys, but you always come back whole.”
The tune “Chanda,” named after his wife, was a bluesy mid-tempo swing with electronic accents (keyboards and bass) and soulful harmonies. Band members extended the conversation in solos and varied melodies. When the audience shouted for “One more,” he followed up with “Ubiquitous,” a tune he noted he had played with Bobby Hutchinson. This tune allowed Burrage to bring an unyielding intensity to the forefront with an infusion of hard-hittin’ jazz flurries and African melodies. The keyboards swung in the spirit of a romping vibraphone.
The tune was from his album Spirit Guides: Truth and Love Music (2011).
After his standing ovation, Burrage closed the set with a rousing version of “Short Subject,” a Harold Land tune. The ensemble was all in with swinging sax, deep bass, and the Burrage drums blazing but yet subdued, never overpowering the conversation.
Let’s hope this is not Burrage’s last swing at Dizzy’s. His debut as a leader definitely warrants many more appearances.
Chester Higgins, Jr. is one of the most renowned photographers in the world. During his four decades as a staff photographer for the New York Times, he made their pages pop with excitement. His memorable photos have also appeared in such publications as Look, Life, Time, Fortune, Ebony, Essence, and Black Enterprise. He is carrying on the tradition of Gordon Parks, James Van Der Zee, Roy DeCarava, and the Smith Brothers (Marvin and Morgan), featuring the life and culture of people of African descent.
Like his predecessors, Higgins has developed a keen intuitiveness that encompasses an emotional reality to his photos—a third dimension that speaks to its viewers.
Higgins’s interest in the African continent has prompted him to visit more than 50 times since first going to Senegal in 1971. His many photos of Africa are a way of sharing the history and culture of our ancestors that is linked to America and the Black experience.
Higgins’s current exhibit, “Portraits of Those Who Speak the Language of Resistance and Solidarity,” is running now through October 28 at the Bruce Silverstein Gallery (529 West 20th Street, 3rd floor).
The distinctive black-and-white telling portraits capture iconic figures from all realms: Max Roach, Melvin Van Peebles (wearing his signature cap), Nelson Mandela, John Henrik Clarke, Sidney Poitier, Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Carmen de Lavallade (in motion), Angela Davis, and Shirley Chisholm, among others.
The exhibit doesn’t feature clinched fists or revolutionary garments but revolutionary activists who continue the struggle in a variety of ways through their own voices in art, music, sports, and politics. Higgins has most dramatically captured their language of resistance in their eyes. Look in their eyes to see the truth, the commitment to solidarity.
“I make my images to bear witness to our presence, to the real and widespread accomplishments of people of African descent—to reclaim the history and glory of Black people that has been so long denied in the public sphere,” said Higgins.
For exhibit times, visit the website Brucesilverstein.com.