Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Gary Bartz collaborated with the UK-based ensemble Maisha for Gary Bartz & Maisha—Night Dreamer Direct-To-Disc Sessions.
(Photo: Elaine Groenestein)With or without lyrics, the conversation had to happen.
“Some of the musicians didn’t understand, so they felt uncomfortable, especially when I say, ‘I won’t raise you and your children no more.’ Coming from England, they didn’t know I was talking about the mammies that would suckle the so-called white babies, when the mammies had their own kids to suckle.”
That conversation led to a larger discussion on intention. The inclusion of “Uhuru Sasa” on Night Dreamer begged the question: How might a shift in context affect the music’s message?
“We thought, majority white musicians from the UK playing that song in the time that we’re playing it maybe doesn’t make sense,” said Long. “But Gary felt that [the] song can transcend.”
During their discussions, Bartz shared a memory from years ago when he was performing in Germany. He received a pointed declaration from a number of listeners citing dissatisfaction with his NTU Troop repertoire, because they didn’t really understand it.
“I said, ‘Well that’s OK. I understand if you didn’t really like it,’” said Bartz. “‘I wasn’t really writing that music for you. I was writing it for my community, my people.’”
Three days at Artone studio in the Netherlands yielded five tracks teeming with texture, lyrical storytelling and a pervasive heartbeat—at once refined and raw. And while Bartz and Maisha credit the album’s organic nature with deep listening and a sensitive understanding of each other’s tendencies, they’re looking forward to further developing a sound of their own.
Long hopes Night Dreamer will serve to whet the listener’s appetite for what’s to come.
“The reason I’m so excited to get back on tour is to build up that band relationship [with Gary] and develop a really strong concept,” Long said, “as opposed to a moment in time captured in performance.” DB
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
“With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.
Jan 2, 2025 10:50 AM
On Musho (Intakt), her recent duo album with pianist Alexander Hawkins, singer Sofia Jernberg interprets traditional…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
