The West Coast vocal stylist Paula West hit my radar screen, making me a West head for ever more during the period she was accompanied by the brilliant young pianist Eric Reed. That was quite a trio/quartet that performed often in New York City, with performances at the Jazz Standard and prestigious Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel.
West earned a reputation for turning lost songs in the back bushes, most often not even associated with jazz, but her song interpretations and musical curiosity brought attention to such non-standard songs as Bert Williams’s turn of the (20th) century classic “Nobody,” Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” Ella Mae Morse’s “Cow Cow Boogie,” and “If I Only Had A Brain” from ”The Wizard of Oz.”
By the time West began performing with another incredible pianist and arranger, George Mesterhazy, in 2007, her star was already lingering in the galaxy. That collaboration grew into a full partnership, performing with the pianist’s quartet on a regular basis from Gotham to the Bay area. They recorded her first album in 11 years, “Live at The Jazz Standard.”
It’s a rare treat when West visits NYC—we never know what she will have in store for us, other than extremely motivated inspirations with a great deal of swing. Now through March 3, West will grace the Dizzy’s jazz club stage (60th Street and Broadway). She will be joined by pianist John Chin, bassist Sean Conly, guitarist Ed Cherry (longtime accompanist, who was a member of the Mesterhazy quartet), and drummer Jerome Jennings.
For reservations, visit jazz.org.
Wycliffe Gordon, the trombonist, arranger, and composer, is known as a hard swinger. Some of that sweat may have come from his early attraction to Louis Armstrong and the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens. The multi-instrumentalist, who plays tuba, soprano trombone, and didgeridoo, is also a big blues singer—he belts out songs with the spirited potency of Big Joe Turner.
Early on, before developing his singing chops, Gordon performed in New York City as part of the McDonald’s High School All-American Band. He went on to study music at Florida A&M University, where he was a member of the FAMU Marching 100 Band. In 2004, Gordon conducted the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in the unforgettable premiere of his original score for “Body and Soul,” the 1925 silent film directed by filmmaker and novelist Oscar Micheaux.
The Wycliffe Gordon Quintet will bring their fiery sound of blues jazz and original elements of all music that swings to the Village Vanguard (178 7th Avenue South) now through March 3. He will be joined by saxophonist Adrian Cunningham,; pianist, bassist Yasushi Nakamura; and drummer Alvin Atkinson, Jr.
For reservations, visit tvillagevanguard.com.
Through the African diaspora, we learn that dance and music are a continuous flow—moving waters eventually finding their way to the sea uniting as one. Dance is a continuous movement of expression, as music is a continuous wave of expressive sound—united elements that express life experiences of the now and ancestral past.
Now through March 3, Colombia-based Sankofa Danzafro returns to the Joyce Theater (175 8th Avenue) with a program that promotes the legacy and traditions of the Afro Colombian community, using dance to retell their history. Led by Artistic Director Rafael Palacios, Sankofa means “to return to the root,” an African philosophy that proposes the past is a lens through which to view the present.
In “Behind the South: Dances for Manuel” (Detrás del Sur: Danzas para Manuel), the company pays tribute to Colombian writer Manuel Zapata Olivella’s “Changó, el Gran Putas,” which documents the African diaspora to the Americas. The work celebrates the vital force of the muntu (the African people) and their use of the dancing body and live music as a ritual to invoke Changó, the son of Yemaja and the mother goddess, protector of birth in the Yoruba tradition.
For tickets and more information, visit https://www.joyce.org/.
We are living in a society where even the sane seems insane; confused, disillusioned over wars, political strife, propaganda, book banning, voting rights violations, just for starters. It’s time to listen once again to the over-50-year album anthem, Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” It says it all.
One book suggested for this week, just to be clear in the shifting winds of propaganda and the banning books hysteria, is “A History of Negro Slavery in New York” by Edgar J. McManus (Syracuse University Press 1966).