Pepper Adams Blog: Dale Fielder to Perform the entire Adams songbook

Pepper Adams Blog: Dale Fielder to Perform the entire Adams songbook: Saxophonist Dale Fielder will be the first musician to ever play the entire oeuvre of Pepper Adams--all 43 compositions--in four concerts, ...

My Friend: Paul Cohen

Last night, as I stood on the stage of the Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill for Paul Cohen's CD Release party, I turned my head to watch and listen to Paul's drumming during a spirited romp of Grant Green's composition "Jean de Fleur".  I thought to myself with amazement how strongly Paul was pushing the music and that to my ears how he sounded very much like the late, great Joe Morello.  I felt so proud of my friend because Paul has now accomplished his objective of the past year or so, to restore his once formidable drum chops.  Then on the next tune he totally flipped the script and sang "My Ship" sounding so beautifully, --not unlike how Chet Baker would have sang that tune . . . all the while playing the drums!  My Man is so talented!

Paul is my hero.  And I relate so strongly to him for he is totally uncompromising about jazz music.  And like me, he works a day job so that he can afford to deal with the music he loves totally on his own terms.  And not cater to the "business of music" that has virtually killed true creativity in all of the arts.   I reject the notion that you cannot work and be a full-time musician.  I've been doing it for 31 years and because I have a firm financial base, I've kept a band together for 17 years and  put out 14 albums!  The "business of music" has also stymied real collaboration amongst artists through division and competition that has also slowed the advancement of new works and ideas.  We are not "business" jazz musicians; we are "heart and soul" jazz musicians who do what we do not to be rich and famous, but because we love it and want to contribute to the music because we have something to say and can contribute.  LA is fortunate in the endless amount of world-class jazz musicians that live here.  I truly think that NYC does not hold the edge over us in this regard.  Paul is one of them, and his story should be told.  As the subject of this blog, I'd like to contribute to this.  A great way to do it is to share the wonderful liner notes to his new CD, Î WANT YOU BACK, written by Greg Golden.  Here it is:

Paul Fred Cohen is a guy with a day job.  He’s a drummer dressed in a pressed shirt and Brooks Brothers suit who regularly heads downtown to argue the law before judges in black robes.  What he hears in his head while he’s making his case is the melody, the harmony, and the rhythm.  He’s laying down the time, counting out the beat, coloring in the ellipses.  He’s been doing that, dressed that way, for almost fifty years.  Which isn’t nearly as long as he’s been playing drums…with some of the greats.

       As a kid in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a client of Paul’s father (an attorney, too) got into a minor scrape and ended up leaving a drum kit at Paul’s home.  That’s when Paul picked up the sticks, age twelve.  The man came to fetch his set, so Paul started tapping away at the furniture and kitchen bowls.  His dad bought him an inexpensive drum set, and by the time he was fifteen, he was making a bi-weekly four-hour train ride, solo, to New York City to take lessons from Henry Adler.  At seventeen, he was sitting in with Tony Scott, Ben Webster, Kenny Burrell, Jimmy Knepper, and Bill Evans.  This was the mid 1950s, when bop, hard-bop, and free jazz, were rewriting the charts, and the kid from Harrisburg was in demand as a sideman.  He worked with Charles Mingus, played with Bill Evans and Eddie Gomez in Gunther Schuller’s Beaux Arts Quartet at the Circle in the Square.  When Archie Shepp phoned and said, “Hey, man, I’m making a record tonight, do you want to be on it?” Paul was there, on the saxophonist’s debut, album “Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet.” (Savoy 1962)

       He was gigging around Manhattan on weekends, going to law school weekdays.  A day job, he decided, was easier than a lifetime of late nights as a musician.  Paul thought his calling was to head south to Washington D.C. to work for Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty  Today, nearly fifty years later, having never laid down his sticks, he’s recorded his first sessions as a leader.

       Not just as a drummer, as a singer, too.  Maybe all those years of constricted courtroom talk forced him to sing, to uncork the words bottled up like the bubbles in champagne.  Paul himself isn’t sure why he started singing.  He only knows that back in the early 1990s, he began to study voice with Ira Lee, the legendary vocal coach.  Meantime, under the guidance of Freddy Gruber, who’s taught a who’s who of rock and jazz drummers, he learned “how to get music out of the drums.”  Still, the two passions stayed apart.  To sing, he’d step out from behind the drums.

       And then one day, as they say, all that changed.  Jane Getz, a prodigy whose career began as a piano player with Stan Getz and Mingus suggested that Paul sing and play the drums at the same time.  “It’s really difficult,” Paul says.  “You have the melody you are singing in your head a bar ahead or behind of the bar you’re playing on the drums.  Your brain breaks in half.  It’s an out of body experience, almost a schizophrenic act.”  That’s hard, and it ain’t easy.

       Getz, who went on to record an LP titled “No Relation,” is the muse behind the music.  She wrote “A Little Thing Called Love” and after watching Paul dance around the studio, she penned “I Want You Back.”  Jane plays piano on all the songs and, with her husband, two-time Grammy honoree Bob Tucker (the producer who also plays guitar on “I Want You Back,” “A Little Thing Called Love,” and “Blues In The Night”), she co-produced the record.        The voice, like the man, is wry, intimate, clever, and knowing.  There is a hint of Dave Frishberg here, mixed in with Chet Baker, the sharp-tender pitch of a reed on top of brushes rubbing skins.  The songs resonate with the journey, love and love-lost and love-regained, but not without a necessary trace of rebellion and irony.

       Listening to Paul, whether on the Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer standard “Blues In The Night,” on Irving Berlin’s cheeky “The Best Thing For You (Would Be Me),” or Johnny Frigo’s bluesy “Detour Ahead,” you can hear the train rides from Harrisburg, the gigs in Greenwich Village, the chiding repartee among the players.  Bill Markus (who’s played and recorded with Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Billy Higgins, Kevin Mahogany, and Michael Feinstein), gets that incomparable room-filing sound bowing and plucking his 200 year-old bass; Dale Fielder (himself a renowned composer, band leader, and ethno-musicologist), perfectly renders that unbearable, apres-midnight, glow of fulfillment on baritone saxophone; Jane Getz makes her piano whisper in hushed, knowing incantations.  You can still pick up the chatter and see the smoke rings across time, from another era when the music once flowed as easily as the life around it, when no one needed to think they were at the center of the universe, because where else could they be?

       Welcome, and listen.

My Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Quintet Project of 2011 - Part I

Donald Byrd and Pepper Adams

Dale Fielder and Nolan Shaheed

 It's the middle of spring 2011.  And as I look around my world of music and entertainment, I see the news of the day that people are concerned with involves Lady Gaga's new HBO documentary, Eminem, Lil B announcing he's gay, Ashley Judd, Tyler Perry vs Spike Lee's spat over Madea, how rap music inspires Lybian freedom fighters to defeat Ghadaffi, how Flavor Flav's fried chicken restaurant in Iowa is closing.  And the biggest concern in American entertainment is who will win American Idol or The Voice?  These are the things most people are concerned about in music and entertainment in the spring of 2011, not to mention the big royal wedding that bores everyone to tears, yet can't stop watching!  Okay!  So I'm watchin' a little too!  So in the midst of the year 2011 in the George Jetson 21st Century, why am I concerned with the Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Quintet of 1958-1961?  The main reason is that the music by the Byrd/Adams Quintet reflects my belief that good music is timeless.  It's forever.  And my recent performances of this great body of music that I've so fortunate to be a part of totally verifies this. From our first performance at L.A.'s World Stage, the audience reaction amazed me.  There is a clip on my activities website (www.dalefielderactivities.com) in the music section where you can hear the crowd going along with us: "Yeah!", "Woo", "Blow your horn!"  Also I'd like to invite you to watch my YouTube video clips of "Out Of This World" and "Each Time I Think Of You" to witness for yourself how joyful the music of the Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Quintet truly is.  I am honored to assist in keeping it alive and well in the 21st Century, 50 years after it was first performed!  Wow!

The Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Quintet of 1958-1961 was one of the premier groups of it's time.  They played an endless cycle of gigs starting in February of 1958 at the Five Spot in New York and ended in October of 1961 at Jorgie's in St.Louis.  Well actually it was the following week in Kansas City.  But the club closed on them and the band wasn't paid, so we won't count that one. Point is, that this band was well loved by the average jazz fan of the time because they made many local appearances in 'your hometown' as it were.  The music they played had the perfect balance of cutting edge jazz, while being funky and groovy; music that also entertained audiences after a hard week of work.  This was jazz music of the highest level that also spoke directly to the people and the average person.  This band also built bridges between black and white cultures, the two dominating American cultures of the time, and was personified in the personages of the band's two leaders, one black, one white.  At the end of an era of racial divisiveness, the band was living proof that the two races could worked together well. The band was a huge success with the public, but was over-looked and ignored by the 'powers that be' of the time by being overshadowed by all the other great jazz groups in what we now can look back and see was a 'golden age' in jazz, the likes of which that will never be seen again.  You had: the birth of the John Coltrane Quartet, the Miles Davis Quintet, Ornette Coleman's ground breaking quartet, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Charlie Mingus' bands to name just a few.  And these groups were critically and historically important jazz groups that altered the course of the music.

To briefly recap the band's history, the band began it's existence as conversely the Pepper Adams Quintet or the Donald Byrd Quintet each featuring the other with top notch sidemen such as Bobby Timmons, Doug Watkins, Elvin Jones, Don Friedman, or Wynton Kelly. The birth of the band can actually be nailed to a specific time and place: February and March of 1958 at the venerable jazz club, The Five Spot.  Also unique was the fact that the band's early performances were recorded and released by Riverside Records on April 15, 1958.  As is the case with most jazz musicians, Byrd and Adams spent the better part of 1958-1959 freelancing with other band leaders such as Benny Goodman, Thelonius Monk, Johnny Griffin, Chet Baker, Charles Mingus and Woody Herman among many others to survive.  There was the occasional gig such as the Village Vanguard for a week here and there, but they manage to keep their band and concept together in the recording studio, primarily through Byrd's first two recordings for Blue Note records: "Off To The Races" and "Byrd In Hand".   These two recordings were hugely successful at the time and established the partnership of Byrd and Adams in the minds of the jazz public.  So by the time the band began it's extensive touring schedule officially as "The Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Quintet" in San Francisco during January of 1960, the listening jazz public were hungrily ready for them due to the success of Byrd's two Blue Note recordings.  The band traveled and performed non-stop throughout the U.S and Canada for the next two years with their final gig being in Kansas City on Oct 29, 1960 when the club closed up on them, didn't pay them, stranded them and Byrd and Adams exhausted their savings to get the band back home to New York.  Throughout this period, the band recorded several albums, each being immortal, on several writer's "desert island lists' and still selling in 2011.  All recommended: the live recording: "Live At The Half Note Cafe" is the most unique of them as it was originally released as a single LP and has since been released as a double album with several new previously unreleased, flawless compositions.  It gives you a good idea what this band sounded like live as well as how versatile they were from numbers such as the complex "Child's Play" to the soulful "Pure D Funk".  How can you not love such a band!  Their other albums were: "Out Of This World" on the Warwick label introducing to the world the young pianist Herbie Hancock, "Catwalk", "Chant" (which was not released until the 1980s for some unknown reason) and their last and in my opinion, best LP: "Royal Flush" (check the tune"Shangri-La" for sheer jazz excitement!) all classic Blue Note recordings that you can still find on iTunes.

 In my private moments throughout the years, I have often turned to listening to these fine recordings to restore my sanity or simply to just feel good about music.  THAT'S what the Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Quintet were all about:  playing good music that people enjoyed because it makes them feel good.  Byrd/Adams taught me that the purpose for mastering a musical instrument was to use it in a way that lifts people's consciousness in a positive and beneficial way.  Technical mastery should never ever leave your audience feeling cold and aloof, such as today's jazz artists who are definitely technically superior to jazz artists of the past. Listening to Pepper Adams' technical mastering of the baritone sax was enjoyable for the average listener because at the same time, Adams communicated by swinging so hard, any listener is totally unable to stop nodding their heads or tap their feet.  The music was extremely compelling and caused the body to move.  As per the Art Blakey idict: "When I look out at the audience and don't see them moving their heads and tapping their feet, I know I'm not doing my job!"  The Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Quintet reflects my personal belief and experience that jazz music is ever current, relevant, alive, not dead or headed to the museum, because once the 'freedom of the swing' is released . . . the body can't help itself!

The Sound Of Pepper Adams

I first heard the sound of Pepper Adams when I was six years old back in 1962.  My brother, who had just returned home from a 4 year stint in the U.S. Airforce, was a saxophonist and moved into my bedroom.  Seeing my interest in his Mark VI Selmer alto and his extensive jazz record collection, he allowed me access to his records, teaching me the correct way to hold the LPs and not scratch them and thus opened a whole new world to me.  He came back from the Airforce with a Voice Of Music stereo component system with separate speakers, -truly state of the art for 1962!  After exploring the wealth of Blue Notes, Prestige, Columbia etc., LPs I settled on 3 records as my first favorites because I was mesmerized by the sound of the saxophones I heard on them.  The very first was Sonny Rollins, “Newk’s Time” and I wore out the grooves of “Surrey With The Fringe On Top” much to my brother’s dismay.  The next 2 records featured trumpeter Donald Byrd and were: “Off To The Races” and “Byrd In Hand”, which of course featured Pepper Adams.

I still remember first listening to those “sounds” from the “Byrd In Hand” LP.  I immediately fell in love with the sound of the trumpet when I listened to Donald Byrd play “Witchcraft”, but before I could pick up the needle to play it over again, this passionate, deep and beautifully gruff sound leaped out of the record player at me!  It froze me and literally grabbed me by the throat, so powerful, so masterful and so masculine!  What was THAT???!!!  I took my hand off the needle and grabbed the album cover.  Pepper Adams, baritone sax.  My life has never been the same since.  I fell in love with the sound of Pepper Adams, and looked for every LP in my brother’s collection that had him on it.  There wasn’t a whole lot of them back there in 1962.  So my whole Pepper Adams experience at that point consisted of 3 LPs: “Off To The Races” where I relished Pepper just eating up the changes to the title cut, of course “Byrd In Hand”, but to my delight, I discovered a non-Donald Byrd session with Pepper: The Regal label “2 Altos” by Art Pepper and Sonny Redd with only 2 long tracks featuring Pepper Adams with Sonny Redd, Wynton Kelly, Doug Watkins and Elvin Jones!  On those 2 tracks: “Watkins Production” and “Redd’s Head”, was a whole universe of jazz excitement for a young kid of six years of age!  “Watkins Production” continues to this day to haunt me, the blend of Pepper and Redd was so sensually perfect with the drive of that rhythm section of Kelly, Watkins and Elvin!  And I was cool with just these 3 albums.  It would be years before I heard any more Pepper Adams.  But I knew right then, this man was special especially when I heard other recordings of baritone saxophonists.

No baritone saxophonist truly could command  my attention like Pepper, except for the single exception of Charles Davis on Kenny Dorham’s “Jazz Contemporary” on the Time label; the record we called ‘the white album’ due to it’s reverse negative cover.  For me, for the single exception of Charles Davis, nobody could touch Pepper and I couldn’t for the life of me understand what all the hooplah was about for Gerry Mulligan.  To my young ears, his baritone playing sounded almost amateurist compared to Pepper.  HE”S suppose to be the top baritone player?  Why not Pepper? It was only many years later as an adult that I came to appreciate Mulligan.  But even still, I was more interested in Mulligan’s concept; his arrangements and compositions spoke more to me than his playing.  For sheer baritone sax excitement, I to this day cannot get enough of Pepper Adams.

To my now adult ears, Adams is the perfect extension of Charlie Parker more than any other saxophonist, and unlike most other saxophonists, Pepper Adams did this on the baritone sax.  This to me, is no small accomplishment.  This is why I say that Pepper Adams up until this point in time, is the greatest baritone saxophonist who ever played this music.  Now, this statement has gotten me in some trouble.  For many say it is Harry Carney.  A very justified argument.  I say Pepper extended Carney’s foundation.  I’m sure Hamiet Bluiett would have a problem with my statement and will probably tell me so to my face when he sees me.  And he would have a good argument too, but we would just have to agree to disagree.  All the other great baritone players whom I love and appreciate: Payne, Brignola, Cuber, Smulyan would, I believe, might agree with me.  On baritone sax, Pepper Adams was such a force of nature.  What does it for me is his sound.  One of the most unique and instantly identifiable sounds in jazz.  His sound is the way I think a baritone should sound: deep, strong and powerful.  A baritone sax should sound like a baritone sax.  Why would you play a baritone all sweet and soft-like?  They got tenor saxes for that!  I think what pushes him over to all-time greatness is that first, he an extension of Bird and Carney.  But what to me makes him so unique is that he is also an extension and fulfillment of Wardell Gray.  To me, this is where his melodic genius comes from.  From Bird and Carney comes the technique, tone, drive and sound.  But from Wardell comes the ability to take all these gifts from these great masters and be utterly melodic, lyrical, and musical with it all.  Had Wardell Gray been able to live out his life, there is no doubt he would have taken his place as one of the greatest tenor saxophonists in jazz history.  We would be talking more about him instead of Dexter, Stitt and Getz.  And Pepper himself says that this is where his influence directly comes from.  I’ve been quoted as saying that Hank Mobley was the most lyrical tenor saxophonist that jazz has produced.  But I think that would be due to default by Wardell Gray’s pre-mature death in 1955.  Listen to the lyricism Gray displays on “Donna Lee” and “Taking A Chance On Love” on those live sessions from the Haig Club in 1952 that is available on CD.  Remember, not only are you hearing supreme lyricism, but you are hearing superior technique, tone and sound and most importantly, drive.  Here is truly where Pepper Adams’ major influence comes from. If you are a true lover of jazz, you will find yourself not getting enough of listening to Wardell’s solos here!  That sense of driving lyricism  is what Pepper picked up from Wardell.

So why was Pepper Adams not recognized as jazz’s greatest baritone player when he first arrived on the national scene back in 1956?  As Adams himself mused, it was because at that time, Gerry Mulligan was hailed as jazz’s greatest baritone player and he totally didn’t sound like him, so something must be wrong.  Adams even said, musicians would come up to him and tell him he was playing the baritone wrong.  It was supposed to sound smooth like Gerry Mulligan and not “hard” and so forceful like he was playing.  Since Mulligan was so universally acclaimed at that time and identified with the West Coast jazz style and scene as well as being perceived as a big success, Mulligan’s style was hailed as the correct way to play the baritone sax, again owning more to his celebrity than his playing. The concept of ‘cool jazz’, west coast jazz, was a new music the public could understand and saw as a relief from the frantic-ness of bop’s frenetic early days.  Mulligan’s concept was so ingrained into the psyche of the jazz consciousness of the mid-fifties that even a teenage Charles McPherson upon hearing Pepper for the first time said, “Man, you sound good!  Just like Gerry Mulligan!” Young McPherson was promptly pulled aside by drummer Elvin Jones who chastised him, “Man, you’re not supposed to say that!  That’s Pepper Adams!”

However, in my opinion, it was due to the big elephant in the room that nobody really wants to talk about when it came to Adams’ sound early in his career.  Later in his career starting in the late 1970s until his death in 1986, the jazz world finally caught up to him; his genius finally understood.  But when he first emerged on the scene in the mid fifties, he was very much misunderstood.  His style was something not heard before and presented a challenging problem for many a listener in those days.  Pepper Adams with his slashing, aggressive playing had what can best be described as a hard bop or ‘black’ sound.  Early in his career he aligned himself primarily with black musicians.  In his own words, Adams always said that he was usually the only white guy in all the bands he played in during those early years.  The beautiful thing was how totally accepted he was by black musicians who realized his genius which even crossed racial barriers. I like the story Pepper told about one time visiting Charles Mingus and finding him on the phone ranting and raging at the musicians union's bias of white musicians over black musicians.  Mingus was yelling,  "You white motherf*$#%ers this, you white mother*&%@ that!"  Then he put his hand over the receiver and said, "Hey Pepper, there's cold beer in the 'fridge!", and went back to cursing out the union guy on the phone.  “He was one of us!” one famous Detroit jazz musician who knew Adams in those days told me.  “He was the first white cat I ever met who was totally without prejudice.”  Because black musicians were assigned the ‘east coast’ sound by jazz critics, by virtue of the hard forceful style of which Pepper shared with black musicians of that period, he was the very antithesis of the laid-back, cool west coast style who’s leader happened to be a baritone saxophonist, one Gerry Mulligan.  Even the Europeans when they saw their first photos of Pepper Adams were surprised because they had always assumed he was a black guy!  Also Gerry Mulligan was looked at as not merely one among many of the musicians on the west coast jazz scene, but it’s leader and most prominent and visual member.  This made it particularly tough on Pepper Adams as well as many other baritone saxophonists at the time.  Mulligan’s playing was seen as the ‘right’ way a baritone should sound: a tenor sax concept.  The west coast sound primarily created by white musicians was seen as ‘successful’, whereas the east coast sound was primarily created by black musicians, which we can easily surmise was not seen as so ‘successful’.  Black musicians were seen as junkies in those days.  In the mid fifties there was a lot of publicity given to black musicians on the east being addicted to drugs despite the fact that many of their white counterparts on the west coast were also involved with drugs.  Did the spotlight on east coast jazz’s drug addiction problem make the public wonder about non-users like Adams or Donald Byrd actually being users?  It’s almost like Pepper was a victim of reverse racism; the powers that be at the time simply didn’t know what to make or do with him.  But ultimately, it can be seen that his initial non-acceptance by the critical jazz community was because Pepper Adams was truly an innovator and ahead of his time.  That more than any other reason is why he filled the heads of the jazz business of his day with question marks.  For example, just look at the dilemma he presented someone like Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records.  Although he gave Adams plenty of dates as a star sideman, why wouldn’t he give him his own date as a leader?

To be sure, Pepper Adams was at his best among his Detroit peers.  Even until late in his career, he continued to perform and record with the likes of Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, Louis Hayes and Frank Foster.  Two of his most important Detroit collaborations were with Thad Jones from 1965 until the late  1970s and with Donald Byrd from 1958 until 1961.  Finally by the late 1970s, he began to attract the acceptance and recognition he deserved as a leader and began to lead his own record dates.

I personally lost track of Pepper from 1974 to 2002 because during those years I was without a baritone sax.  On my blog Frugal Apathy (www.frugalapathy@blogspot.com) from August 2009 on a blog entitled “Baritone Sax Seduction and the Merits of Good Band Directors”, I tell the story of finding an unused, brand new Mark VI baritone sax in the band room of my high school, which I played until I graduated high school.  During those intervening years I was busy learning how to master the alto, tenor and soprano sax.  But in 2002, thanks to Gary Chin at Stein On Vine music store in Hollywood, he gave me an opportunity to acquire a baritone sax through helping me get an endorsement deal with Jupiter Band Instruments.  Blowing a baritone sax again was like coming back to a long lost friend.  A voice I hadn’t heard for over 20 years! When I first pulled the horn out of the case and tried it at the store, I’ll never forget Gary saying: “Damn Man!  You sound just like Pepper Adams!”  It immediately brought me back to Pepper Adams;  -that sound was still there in me after all those years.  It was at this point I began to make a serious study of his work and acquire all the many recordings of his that I had not heard.  Needless to say, my inspiration to play this horn reach the highest level listening to this great man play.  For several years, I stopped playing all the other saxophones, and upset many of my fans by showing up with just the baritone sax.  I needed this time to integrate the baritone to the level of my other saxophones, as well as find out who I was as a baritone saxophonist.  I knew I would come out of Pepper, but didn’t want to be a Pepper clone.  But this focus on the baritone was all worth it and was truly the most fun I ever had musically.  In 2007, I recorded the CD “Plays The Music Of Pepper Adams” as a way to sum up all I learned from my five year intense study of Pepper Adams.  And I am by no means finished.  Currently, I am looking forward to performing my 2011 project: the Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams Quintet Project, as a way of bringing myself back full-circle to my very beginning awareness of jazz in those days as a six year old listening to Pepper’s playing on “Byrd In Hand” and  “Off To The Races”.   For me, Pepper Adams is everything good about what jazz music is.  The music he left us with is truly timeless.  Long may the sound of Pepper Adams barrel down the corridors of time into the limitless future.  For every future baritone saxophonist will owe him the greatest debt of gratitude for lighting,  -no torching the way!  The man spits fire!
-Dale Fielder, February 2011

Special thanks to Gary Carner for giving me the opportunity to rant and ramble about Pepper Adams on this wonderful website!

O Tempora O Mores!

O Tempora O Mores! This famous exclamation by the ancient Roman Cicero adequately expresses the point of this latest blog.  O tempora o mores translates as "Oh the times!" or "Oh what times!"  Indeed, what times we are living in now as we round out the first decade of the twenty-first century.  It has been a while since I have written in this blog.  Things lately have been happening at a pace that is so hard to keep up with, let alone sit down and write about them.  I have begun this latest blog at least five times culminating with the last time about a month ago when I actually almost finished it and hit a wrong button and erased a really good rant!  Sheeesh!  It's taken me until now to get over it!  Let's try again, even though this blog will be totally different.  In the original 'lost blog' I mentioned the theme, "O tempora o mores!' was a famous exclamation by Cicero where he was expressing his frustration with the viciousness and corruption of his times.The rest of the blog went on about the viciousness and corruption of our current era.  I was ranting and raving, -really laying it down.  That was about the time of our last mid-term elections.  Remember back then?  Well, now it's almost year end.  And to show you how the pace of the times are, I don't feel so frustrated now and that things are so hopeless as I felt they were 2 months ago.  On one hand it can be the holiday season and my favorite holiday, New Year's Eve where I get to imbibe my favorite libation of all: champagne . . .  -"let the champagne freely flow!" (and how about Cristalino champagne from Spain???  -closely the equal of Moet and other fine champagnes, but only costs $6.99!!!  God bless those folks at Cristalino!)  But I digress . . . What helped change my mindset was definitely what has happened in American politics at year-end 2010.  How 'bout President Obama and them Dems?   Accomplishing more than any American President and Congress in history!  Only a person who cannot feel at least the tiniest bit of love and joy in their hearts for themselves as well as their fellow man cannot feel uplifted with the repeal of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell'.  With the repeal of this law, I submit that mankind here on earth has taken a step upwards in the evolution of the species and have turned a corner spiritually.  How could your heart not swell when President Obama said upon signing the law: " Don't ask and don't tell?  That's not who we are!  We are a country where all men and women are created equal."  And we can no longer doubt and say that's B.S., because to back it up, Mr. Obama signed those words into law!  IT IS THE LAW OF THE LAND!  Amazing that such a thing should take place!  Unprecedented in human history allowing that gay people are equal to straight people and can equally serve in the military! You want hope?  Well baby, right there is hope for the future!

What needs changing is the mindset.  We've been beaten down for so long as a species that nobody questions the mindset that says "no good deed goes without punishment' or 'nice guys finish last' etc. etc.and on it goes.  It's been said that mind is the builder and that "fear is the mindkiller" (from Dune, -thanks Kevin X!)  We fear that things will never change and life here on earth will always to a certain extent be about gnashing of teeth.  We've all, myself included, have been beaten down with the struggle for survival for so long that what we fear takes up more attention in our mind and inner-self than we'd like to admit.  One of my maxims that I live by is: "Where you place your attention, is where you will find yourself".  In other words, what takes up all your attention actually becomes your focus.  And if your attention is on struggle and survival as most of us are, that becomes our focus and creates the reality we find ourselves in.  My attention has been on what's wrong in the world and what's wrong with jazz and what's in the way of my music, lack of gigs etc. etc., that unintentionally, there is where I found myself.  And it's not like you don't know this.  You actually understand that you've created your own suffering, but the scary part is that you realize how difficult it has recently become to consistently believe and re-focus on what's right in the world when you look around and see so little of what's right in the world.  Or how difficult it's become to focus on what you do want because you are consistently over and over denied it, no matter how hard you work on creating what you want.  Just today I was talking with a friend who is one of the most positive people I know about DADT.  But even this positive person was cautioning themselves to not get too hopeful, saying "Well it's a process", which I understand because gays are not fully equal until they can legally marry.  What a fight THAT'S going to be because they'll have to fight the Christians on that one instead of the Republicans.

Well, yeah I know that things right now are still fucked up (please pardon my french, but the negative point needs to be adequately expressed & felt emotionally) and in a big way, and that we got such a mountain to climb before things really start to get balanced on earth;  -but . . . I'm going to enjoy this feeling of hope right now as we enter the holiday season.  And I do feel hopeful about the future starting in 2011.  I'm looking forward to 3 new projects: my next CD being a double CD entitled "Glimpse Of The Goddess", 2 new tribute projects "The Music of Pepper Adams" and "The Music of Hank Mobley" once I get a couple of performing art centers on board.  And continuing to perform with Jane Getz in the Dale Fielder Quartet, now in our 16th consecutive year; as well as the Angel City Quartet and free-lancing with other artists such as Sandra Booker, Donee Middleton and Sweet Baby J'ai.  So much to look forward to in 2011.  So much to be hopeful of accomplishing in 2011.  And it can happen!  Yes, it can and yes we can make it so!

Taking My Act and Putting It On The Road

On Monday evening, the night of August 23rd, 2010, just for fun, I took a 5 piece ensemble into the San Manuel Indian Casino in San Bernardino, CA and played all of my original dance tunes I have written and transcribed over the last 20 years.  I did this partly because the contractor for this gig, advised me to play upbeat music as slow and pretty music doesn't go over well at this venue.  I too remembered playing in Vegas and how hard it is to pull folks away from the slot machines etc.  Even though casino gigs is great work, ie. a week with a room and all you can eat plus the pay being fantastic; it eventually becomes a drag playing jazz standards to an empty lounge.  You are really wall paper in an environment like that.  So I pulled these old ditties out: primarily my pop/R&B hybrid originals, plus covers of Swing Out Sister, Burt Bacharach & Stevie Wonder tunes and told my bass player Bill Markus to leave his upright at home.  If nothing else, we were certainly going to be "upbeat!"

The band featured Don Littleton on drums, Bill Markus-bass, Jacques Lesure-guitar and Eddy Olivieri on keyboards and myself on saxophones; 5 high energy guys who came to PLAY, not pussy foot around!  We opened with a blues just to warm up and then launched into Frank Foster's "Someone's Rockin' My Jazzboat" (You don't think I chose a tune with that title for no reason at all do you?)  This tune is straight out funk.  From the first note, we all knew something special was afoot.  A lounge that was virtually empty started filling up with people!  We certainly didn't have standing room only-type of an audience, after all folks are there to gamble, not listen to music.  But we kept a respectful audience all night through 5 (Yep! That would be FIVE) sets from 9pm 1:30am.  We even had a few who stayed the entire time and would come up between sets and excitedly talk with us regarding how much they liked the music!  I recorded most of the night on my Zoom H4 and it speaks for itself.  Two nights later, when we were in the dressing room at Catalina Bar & Grill for a straight-ahead jazz gig, Bill and I continued to excitedly talk about that night.  Talk about being pumped!  Finally Bill, who can be very prophetic said, "I still can't get those tunes out of my mind.  I think we all see our new future flash before our eyes!"

I remember years ago back in the 1990s, after fighting and scraping to get a gig on a major LA jazz festival, I finally secured the gig and remember walking out on the stage and surveying a huge audience of over 500 gray and blue-haired jazz fans radiating nothing but love to us.  The medium age had to be 62-65.  But this was my audience, and they were waiting and anticipating my performance.  They get it, what it is that I play.  The more hard core straight-ahead jazz it was, the more they liked it!  And we brought it!  And it was a great concert!  Standing there looking at all these people, I wondered what am I going to do in 10-20 years when this audience is no longer around?  After all, to be blatantly honest, all of us are racing toward making death ourselves one day.  Well, that day arrived about 5 years ago when it began getting harder and harder to secure these type of lucrative straight-ahead jazz gigs.  There was less and less work and then the bookers started no longer being older jazz lovers, but began to be increasingly younger people who really didn't understand jazz or really liked it and as soon as they could, began hiring non-jazz bands that reflected the music THEY liked.  The jazz of THEIR generation was truly smooth jazz or instrumental R&B.  For instance, to tell one of hundreds of tales:  the owners who booked a great new "jazz" venue in Pasadena were overheard telling one band leader about their new club downstairs: "Yeah, you can bring any kind of band here, as long as it's not jazz!"  I used to sub there a few times and always seem to do well.  After all, I am a professional.  (Big Laugh)  The audience liked it, the owners smiled in my face and said, "good job! We have to have you come back with your band".  Of course I give 'em a CD and press materials, but would never hear back.  And this would happen over and over every time I subbed there.  I couldn't understand it until the guy I subbed for pulled me aside one day and said, "Dale, they really don't want saxophone here.  The owner told me that once.  They like guitars etc."  I realized as I did at other venues my dilemma of being a hard-core (as opposed to smooth-core) straight-ahead jazz saxophonist in these kinds of establishments.  The saxophone is a premier, front-ground (not background) instrument in jazz that commands attention and in the hands of a hard core player, the attention is taken away from socializing, drinking and ordering food.  Or at least they'll do less of that, hurting the club owner's bottom line.  And this is true.  I first saw this during what was supposed to be a long residency at Crustaceans in Beverly Hill where the audience loved the music, and started coming for that, not for ordering food and drink  When they fired us, I got it.  They don't want no jazz fans who'll nurse a beer all night long!  They want someone to be ordering Lobster etc.  I'd play one note and the manager would run out and tell me to lower the volume even though I had no mic or amplification of any kind, we were playing a ballad and the drummer had brushes!  I realized it was the intensity of our improvisations that made us 'front-ground' music instead of backgound music and hence we soon were history no matter how much the audience loved us while nursing their beers and ordering appetizers!

One thing I really missed that happened during the San Manuel gig was playing for dancers.  My original jazz/pop/R&B music (sheeesh! what am I gonna call it?) is not too different from the jazz that I compose for one important exception: it has the backbeat (in it's various forms and varieties) and people can dance to it!  This was a win-win situation for me for 1.) I play just like I always do in that with beautiful, slightly more complex changes and chord modulations, separates my saxophone style from the smooth jazzers with the nanny-goat saxophone style.  It sounds new and fresh to people's ears and 2.) It's funky as hell and with a drummer like Don Littleton putting his foot into it all night, folks can't help but get up and dance.  Thus, I'm experiencing people actually liking the music instead looking like I'm from Mars when I play straight-ahead jazz like "Tones For Joan's Bones"!  And it's not that there's something wrong with "Tones For Joan's Bones".  It's simply because they can dance to my improvisations and have a good time.  They are eating and getting drunk and the owners are happy.  So, I think I'm going to go this way for a while and see what happens.  No worries, I'm not giving up playing straight-ahead jazz, but simply adding this to all that I do.  For unlike my jazz experience for the last 5 years with more diminishing opportunities, maybe with this I can take my act and put it on the road!

Where I Stand

Where I stand, is a sweet place indeed.  At my station in life, where I have less days yet to live than more days that have been lived, I can truly say that I am happy and content.  I live in a great idyllic place, about to marry a wonderful lady, got many friends that I care about and who care about me and while not financially rich by any stretch of the imagination, I'm not starving nor worrying if I can pay all my bills every month.  More importantly, I have music and a career that gives me a sense of purpose, momentum and dreams of things yet to accomplish.  I have truly lived the artist's life, -the life I've chosen to live.  And I have accomplished what I have set out to do with music which is to (1) find my own unique voice on four of the primary saxophones: soprano, alto, tenor and baritone.  (2) find my own voice as a composer and (3) do all of the above in the arena of my own bands and ensembles as a band leader and have been blessed with 2 great bands: DFQ, the Dale Fielder Quartet with Jane Getz now going on 15 years and the newbie, ACQ, the Angel City Quartet which started in July of 2008.  I grew up idolizing Duke Ellington and how his band was his muse.  I tell you that last one is a doozey!  That's not the excepted way to progress in jazz; you have to start out as an apprentice in other people's bands and eventually make your name with established master artists, then you start your own band.  Not me!  I guess I was too young and dumb to know better.  In my thick-head, I never wanted to work in anyone's band, even if they were great.  I had the opportunity to work for many great artists: Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Woody Herman among others, but didn't simply because I really didn't want to.  I've always wanted to play my own music and lead my own bands. I got bit by the leader's bug early.  I got a taste of that co-leading a quintet with my brother, Guy Fielder back in the mid-70s, the band that featured young, yet unheard, soon to be master Geri Allen on piano when I was 19-20 years old.  I found that more attractive than being a sideman in somebody's band.  And as I began to meet some of these great folks who's music I grew up admiring, I realized that they were human beings with all the faults that humans have.  I sure didn't relish being stranded on the road somewhere with the leader running off with all the money as many of my friends experienced even though they were working with legendary musicians.  I even had to loan some of them money!  I realized early in my career that it was more fulfilling to write and play your own music as Thelonius Monk, Tadd Dameron, Gerry Mulligan and Gigi Gryce did.  Monk was my guiding light on this bit.  So I did it 'my way' by taking the long road, and by 1996, -after twenty years of being a band leader, I hit my first 'successes': top-ten recordings and headlining at venues and festivals across the country and as far abroad as Asia and Europe as a band leader, -not as a sideman working for someone else, playing other people's music.  I accomplished this through the dedication and merit of my own music and vision alone.  I'm just not a financial, big money, big hype success.  Even though a little moolah would be nice, I'm not interested in all that, -just the music please!  Even if I don't get written up in the press and get all the notoriety and ego gratifications, as long as my guys and gal in my 2 bands are willing to continue to play and hit the bandstand with me, I'm a happy camper! Nothing can compare to the feeling of writing something and hearing it played at the next gig.  For me nothing can beat that feeling!

I'm saying all of this to counter-balance my last blog which touched some nerves in  the LA jazz community.  I am not an 'angry, racist and frustrated black saxophonist', as one person put it, 'who is unhappy with his lot in the jazz world because [I'm] hung up on the older styles and jazz has moved beyond bebop and it's African-American roots'.  I would answer being frustrated as: maybe so, if I couldn't get a gig any place.  But that's not the case.  I continue to find work, people continue to want to hear my bands and musicians continue to want to work with me.  As for being hung up on the older styles and that jazz has moved beyond it's African-American roots, I would answer: Who is being angry, racist and frustrated?  That is just plain nasty.  And this is what's wrong with the current scene.  So much nastiness born out of selfishness and self-interest.  So what if you [this person] likes Vijay Iyer and the newer movements in jazz.  So do I.  But that doesn't mean I have to play the way they do.  I like what I like, just as you like what is attractive to you in jazz.  Why do you have to put down something different specifically because it's an older style?   Why would I want to give up Bird, Joe Henderson and Pepper Adams in my saxophone playing for the newer styles?  Are you seriously saying that Rudresh Mahanthappa and Eric Alexander are playing more saxophone than Bird, Joe and Pepper?  I don't think they are.  And that's just my opinion, but . . .  C'mon, Son!!!  (thanks Jacques!)  Yeah, I'm not done with Bebop and I don't possess the blazing saxophone techniques of today's saxophonists, but you know what?  I'd rather have less technique and be saying something with my horn than having tremendous technique and seeing question marks over the heads of my listeners.   I'm reminded of a statement the great tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin made many years ago when asked about the future of jazz and where does it need to go.  He said, 'People say that the future of jazz is threatened because there are no giants any more.  Others say that jazz has to move forward to survive.  But for me, the music doesn't have to go forward - it's there already.  It is a fundamental point that, when people evaluate classical music, they may say that there has been nothing new since Bach or Beethoven -and nobody wants to change their great music; but with jazz, people keep talking about progressing.  They are not prepared to rest on what great jazz creators have done -such as Parker, Lester and Armstrong.  Why must everything change?  What is wrong with playing Billie's Bounce twenty years from now?"   Indeed.  If you are a saxophonist and are bored or can't find anything new to say playing Billie's Bounce, then I would re-evaluate myself as a saxophonist.  Until I master that, I have no business moving past that.  Being my own man and not being beholding to anyone, puts me in a place where at my age, I feel I can say what's on my mind and be the voice that champions my beloved jazz music.  Because more people seem to want to kill it, give up on it and pronounce it as dead.  Not a few are even ashamed of it! What's wrong with jazz? NOT A DAMN THING!  There's never been anything wrong with the music itself.  It doesn't need to be 'improved' or 'evolved' or 'updated'.  The people involved with jazz who actually don't play or write?  Well, there you have it!  Anything human beings touch, there's bound to be confusion and distortions of the truth.  Hey, just look at every major religion on the earth.  It's starts with a pure message from an enlightened person, but through all the human filters down through the ages, the message ends up being distorted and unclear.  Indeed. We need to change this idea that old music is irrelevant and old fashion. Methinks this happened to funnel more money towards so-called new or contemporary music to make sure folks spend their money where it is easily exploited and pockets can be lined.


I was just watching a clip on YouTube on Branford Marselis from the movie, "Before The Music Dies".  He was asked what had he learned from his students.  His reply was "that students today are full of shit!  That's what I learned from my students.  All they want to hear from you is how right they are and how great they are.  And they are not willing to do the work it takes [to be a true original].  We live in a country that is in a massive state of delusion, where the idea of what you are is more important than you actually being that [idea].  And it actually works as long as everybody's winking at the same time!"

What's wrong with our civilization?  Like Branford said: It's the winkers!!!  They are winking to promote and fulfill their own self interests.  That's why the music industry only promotes so-called 'new music'.  They can't make money off of older and wiser artists where the royalty rights are secured the way they can take and exploit a young artist before they wise up.  Why can't we wake up?  Because of  human selfishness.  Human selfishness 'is the progenitor, the creator, the ancestor of all human negativity'.  For this reason, The Christ came forth as did The True Buddha and others to save mankind.  And look at what we did to them!  And for thousands of years now we haven't learned to fully utilize the great gift of music as it was intended to lift us up and aspire us to create a greater and greater world to live in for each generation.  So we've become confused regarding the idea of creativity and genius through letting the winkers run amok.  They tend to be suspicious of any so-called genius in music, by virtue of it being so different and unattainable to the average person.  All through our so-called music history, look at how we've treated our musical geniuses:  Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Will Marion Cook, Bird and Monk.  Heck, just look at what we did to Michael Jackson, concentrating more on his 'star power' being more interesting than his actual music.  Took him to die, before folks went back and took an accurate assessment of his music.  Here in 2010, we've let the winkers kill the idea of true artistry and champion the artist that can more easily relate to the 'common man', the 'average person'.  Thus, we idolize and reward music that's about partying and having a good time, drinking, getting high, spending our paycheck on all of that so we can have sex with the object of our affection.  Music that is about anything else is simply ignored . . . . how dare that artist think him or herself above what the masses of humanity is about!  Its about power and control because such an artist, cannot be controlled and exploited.  This is where I stand and is my rant for the month of May 2010.

Saved by Geri Allen Only To Be Marooned In LA

Pianist Geri Allen warned me about staying in LA.  I can remember the concern on her face.  "I dunno . . ." she said.  "You really like it out here?"  She had that look when you disagree with a friend and want to tell them something they really don't want to hear.  She looked at me like my life was about to be over.  "Oh no!"  I said.  "The quality of life out here is so much better than New York!".  "I dunno . . ." she said, "You know LA's not about any serious music.  I wouldn't do it myself.  You should come back east.  It'll be better for your music.  I'm just afraid of what might happen to you if you stay out here."  That type of concern for her friends is typical of Geri.  I owe her a lot.  In fact if it wasn't for her, I would not be a musician at all today.  She saved my music career back in 1977 when we first met.  I had left Pitt and was working in the steel mills of Pittsburgh and had completely quit playing because I was so disillusioned by my first exposure to the nasty, cut-throat business of music.  And Geri begged me to come out of those steel mills and play with her as she had heard about me, had gigs lined up and wasn't satisfied with the others saxophonists she was using.  I was a young pure-hearted 21 year old who only wanted to realize his dream of playing the saxophone like his heroes, Hawkins, Young, Parker, Coltrane, Rollins and Mobley.  I was totally absorbed in making and writing music and was shocked to realize that that alone was not enough to make it.  To make it I had to be as nasty and cut-throated about the music business as everyone else and that turned me completely off.  After forming one of the most successful jazz groups in Pittsburgh history, 'the red-hot Fielder Brothers Quintet' (as they called us and whose eventual pianist was Geri Allen) with my older brother Guy on tenor, we worked every jazz venue and festival in the tri-state area.  We eventually were entrenched at the Crawford Grill for over a year every week on the same stage that Miles, Coltrane, Mingus and other jazz greats stood on.  Yet I watched all the inroads we had attained wither away, as we were black balled by jealous club owners, 'music industry people' and undercut by other bands lowering their price to steal our gigs etc.

22 years later, Geri's words come back to haunt me.  In this case, now I ask myself, how does one who keeps a steady, world-class band together for 18 years, puts out 13 well-received, internationally released recordings, one of which was a national top ten CD and 4 others in the top-twenty, continue to pack venues and builds a large, loyal fan base . . . have to continue to beg to get a gig and go largely ignored in a city tailor-made to exploit such success?  That would be LA!  And I'm by far not alone.  I have a lot of company!  I know I may be getting myself into trouble for saying it, but if you pick up any issue of the LA Jazz Scene newspaper, (a great paper chronicling jazz in LA on a monthly basis) you'd think that no black people played jazz in LA!  I remember when the great Harold Land was alive, I felt he should have gotten more coverage as well as gigs.  Even today, the great Charles McPherson is in San Diego.  Why is it that we don't see him much in LA.?  He's playing cutting-edge, up to date jazz, not rehashing the glory days of the 50s cool jazz period, which is why venues in New York, Europe and Asia want Charles and book him there.  Now I don't really think this is a racial thing so much as it is a clique-ish thing happening with jazz in LA.  Unless you are in with one of the established studio or ex-studio scene, you are ignored.  I think Geri was referring to this huge clique syndrome with jazz in LA.  To work in the studios or these venues, you have to be seen to be in with these cats.  Be one of them and part of  that scene.  Woe behold to those who dare think they can create any other scene here in LA, like those of us who tried to in Leimert Park at Jazz Etc, The World Stage and 5th St. Dick's.  And they don't care if you are the great Billy Higgins or Horace Tapscott.  Those of us who remain outside of  'the clique' and labor within the black community in venues that once existed like Jazz Etc., 5th Street Dicks, The Howling Monk, Billy Higgin's World Stage, never get the coverage that venues such as Charlie O's does.  I remember the late Richard Fulton of 5th Street Dick's lamenting about this before he died.  And of course when he died, what did LA do? The LA Times writes a feature article on him about how great he was and what he did.  Same with Ken Moore's Howling Monk, THE best straight ahead jazz venue and scene in LA in the new millennium.  Ken too lamented about the lack of support and coverage he was getting, and worried without that, he wouldn't be able to take it to the next level and may have to close which unfortunately he did.  Marla's Memory Lane, Jazz Etc., Cabrini's Jazz Alley . . . on and on it goes.  Yet the 'Hollywood' jazz community continues on like a juggernaut even through venues coming and going and now even have agencies and foundations to help them as well as the Local 47 Professional Musicians Union (who does nothing for our community~THAT's a whole other story!).  But those of us in the black community who play jazz have always relied on 'the street', 'the grapevine' and plain word of mouth as our only source of support.  And it has stood us well.

The reason why I'm "going there", is because of my own situation recently.  As many of you know, I had a very successful CD Release Performance here in LA at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in January 2010.  And I have to really give credit to Merle Kreibich of In-House Music for having the courage to book me at a time I specified would be optimum.  And bless her heart, for she had her concerns and doubts about me.  I had to agree to not concentrate on playing too many originals and include some standards (which I always do) to get the gig.  This is what Geri Allen was referring to about jazz in LA.  'LA Jazz' is more about standards, easy-listening, scotch & slippers jazz rather than some hard-hitting, as serious as your life jazz like they play back east (and is what I grew up with and is what I'm used to).  This is probably why I'm ostracized in LA for playing this type of  'hard jazz' (as opposed to 'smooth jazz'?).  But Merle is an exception (thank God for the exceptions!) and she had the courage to overcome her concerns and book me.  As a result, we had a packed, overflowing crowd that came out who were starving for this type of jazz.  The staff had to go in storage to pull out more chairs etc. to accommodate my audience who came out not only to listen to the music, but bought dinners and drank like fishes for all 3 sets on a Thursday night!  That venue made a lot more money that Thursday night than they are used to I'm sure.  I have put together an unbeatable promotional team with 'Head Hipster' Robert Carmack (ex-president of the Atlanta Jazz Society and now back in LA), my main man, photographer Craig Johnson and my lovely fiancee Patricia who together put the word out via phone and emails.  So what's the problem?  Why is it that venues we 'beg to' for a gig still lack the confidence to book me?  Because, as Geri said, here in LA, it's not about the music, it's about the 'business of music'.  A case in point is what happened to my gig at the Biltmore Hotel.  For over 10 years, I have worked in accord with 4 managers, because 3 of them were real jazz lovers.  However the new manager is a young guy of twenty something, so right away you get the feeling that you'll have to soon say goodbye to real jazz there.  All of us who worked there knew it was a matter of time before we'd be out the door.  Because younger folks are more concerned with music to party by and entertain.  They never experienced serious music as being entertaining.  I'll never forget the time I went to Catalina's Bar & Grill to see McCoy Tyner early one evening.  McCoy was up there just burnin' and these 2 young guys walk in and stand at the door to listen for a minute.  After a bit, one guy says to the other, "Sounds pretty good.  Let's go to the beach!"  Typical LA!  And . . . . Frugal Apathy!

Stellar Moments ~ The Aftermath and In Want of Billy Harper & Randy Weston

I have to admit it, I hate sales.  Always have, always will.  This is truly my Achilles' Heal, for I've always felt disingenuous in tooting my own horn.  As those who know me know, I'm not exactly an introvert; however I'm nowhere close to having an extroverted personality.  Let's face it; in our modern society, the extroverts tend to do well on their own, while those who aren't, don't.  How I wish I could promote myself more!  Countless times over my career I have tried, failed, tried again, had more doors slammed in my face, had my ego bruised, picked myself up and tried again really harder.  But after 30+ years of it, you get kinda burnt-out, you know?  For instance, why does it take 50 phone calls just to secure one $100 per man gig?  You get tired of what seems like begging all the time for a gig.  And you're willing to give whatever it takes to keep working and to keep a venue happening, but nobody seems to really know what they want.  Nationally syndicated jazz radio host, Bob Parlucha commented, "These days, the business of jazz often gets to be more business than jazz".  For instance, club owners want you more for ambiance, to be seen more than heard and constantly tell you to "keep it down" so the customers can talk -even when you're playing completely acoustic, with drums using brushes, horn and piano without a mic or any amplification.  They don't want the music to be too intense.  'Jazz business people', ie. club owners, jazz critics, radio and industry types constantly complain about there's nothing new coming out there and musicians keep playing the same old stuff.  So you give them something new and original and then they complain that because you're not a big name, nobody wants to hear that; -people want standards and stuff they are familiar with.  Yikes! Who has the stomach for all this?  The extroverts do!  They have a thick skin and strive off of that kind of stuff, and love every opportunity to tell you how great they are.  It's a very ego-invested position.  Not that there's anything wrong with that (Seinfeld smile)!  Unfortunately for me, I just don't have that 'gift'.  I'm too aware of my limitations and actually feel humbled that someone would even listen or buy my CD!  Boy, what a recipe for disaster, eh?


In the aftermath of releasing Stellar Moments, I find myself in a new unique situation.  Releasing a CD in the 'New Economy' (Yeah, lets start using caps for that!)  It has forced me to change the way I normally operate.  It forces me to 'suck it up' and get out there, beat the pavement and promote this CD.  In the past, I always felt that the integrity of your work should speak for itself and that was enough.  If people liked good jazz, they'd buy it.  So I always made sure I had money to at least pay for radio marketing as a way of getting my music heard by those who like good jazz.  But with decreased cash flow due to the New Economy (or the 'New Normal' if you like) for the first time after releasing 13 of my own recordings over the last seventeen years, I have absolutely no money to promote and market this CD!  How I used to preach about never even starting a project unless you have all your capital lined up from recording to marketing.  So it looks like promoting Stellar Moments will be a sho 'nuff - grass roots-guerrilla push affair. 

Maybe this time with my usual tactics forced to change, things might actually go better for me.  (Yeah right! -but then I AM the eternal optimist!)  When I really think about it, even with all the dollars behind my past projects, over the last 2 or 3 CDs, the outcome has been rather bleak.  These are the same game plans I have successfully used since I started marketing my CDs in 1993, where they brought successful outcomes and every CD charted and one even breaking the Top Ten, bringing me bonus $$$.  That was after all in the 20th Century, however.  In the new millennium, my last few CDs never charted and remained on the chart-bound list until I ran out of money.  One of the problems is because the recording business has drastically changed and has for some time been in a long period of fluctuation.  A lot of the old jazz audience has left the planet to be replaced by a younger audience whose idea of jazz is Kenny G and Boney James.  Jazz music has become even more marginalized to well under 3% of the music-buying marketplace.  A lot of this has been due to the advent of the internet and digital downloads where customers began to purchase their music instead of record stores.  Witness the closing of Tower Records and the like, forcing the diehard audiophiles who still want CDs and LPs to have to purchase them over the internet on sites like True Blue Music, Amazon or Dusty Groove. 

But the real problem is actually the glut of product now hitting the marketplace.  It's hard to be heard when everybody and their mama has a new CD out.  Improved technology has made it easier for anybody to make a CD these days.  You can sing or play out of tune and hit a button and presto chango,  - you are now in tune!  JazzTimes magazine had an article not long ago addressing this problem by calling it "The Dentist's Girlfriend Syndrome".  You know, where the wealthy dentist is out catting with his mistress who fancies herself a jazz singer.  So to keep her happy, he finances a first class recording project for her.  She's actually a competent vocalist . . . not bad.  Problem is with unlimited bucks behind her, she can afford the best in jazz to back her.  Maybe someone like Kenny Barron, Ron Carter and Roy Haynes (let's pretend) is now on her CD.  That combined with endless dough to market and advertise (and let's not forget -she's a real looker) her face is everywhere.  She must be legit, look who's on her CD!  She easily gets heard (I mean~who wouldn't want to hear Kenny Barron and all?), her CD charts and her music is quite pleasant enough.  But eventually  the radio programmers loose interest because here comes another new chick (or cat) and boy they've got Roy Hargrove and Eric Alexander on their CD! And on and on it goes the cycle of real interest and curiosity to eventual boredom because there's not much beef or anything that hasn't been heard before.  Hence we now find ourselves living in the age of mediocrity in the jazz world.  I remember a time not long ago, where there was always some great jazz artist coming to town you HAD to go and hear.  What happened to that?  Eventually the jazz media becomes suspect of any jazz artist they haven't heard. THEY become burnt out because there's always some new artist coming out with a CD that never lives up to all the hype.  They just can't keep up with the glut of stuff coming out.  Poor 'jazz business people', they've become so ambivalent.  On the one hand, they love the music and don't want to miss out on the next new thing.  But to keep their jobs, they have to follow the corporate line that forces them to go with the 'safer-proven' route; standards and the same old proven (boring New York-based) artists.  They now find themselves burnt out and unconsciously disillusioned from having to go through all the mediocrity when a new CD comes across their desk; they are now suspect before they even hear the music.  That joy of discovery is gone.  And you can't really blame them.

Yet there are still really great jazz artists out here who if given the chance to be marketed and heard, would be able to create a very viable new market for jazz just waiting to be tapped.  Problem is that most of these artists are older artists.  Artists like Billy Harper and Randy Weston (pictured above) for example.  Why is it that it is believed that only young audiences can drive the music industry?  Everybody eventually gets old.  What about those folks 40 to 70 who have the money to support recordings and performances by artists like those mentioned above?.

This is such a tough time for any creative artist to put their product out in the marketplace no matter what medium.  It is especially a tough climate in the jazz world today with so many factions vying against each other.  Yeah Bob Parlucha is right that the business of jazz often gets to be more business than jazz. In this kind of climate, I'm almost content this time to not enter the fray but to try to find another way to advance.  One that is more honest and is simply about bringing back and instilling the joy and love of good jazz music for audiences.  And can we please hear more of Randy Weston and Billy Harper?  A new recording?  Somebody?  Any label?  Maybe even (pray tell) a little tour?  Pretty please?

The Making and Releasing of "Stellar Moments".

On Monday October 12th, 2009, Columbus Day, I finally delivered my master for my new CD Stellar Moments to the pressing plant. As I await the three weeks or so until the actual product is in my hand, I am filled with not a few emotions. I can't help but think that my determined endeavor to produce Stellar Moments personifies the plight of so many 21st Century independent jazz artists: the struggle to get your music out there and be heard.  The release of this my thirteenth CD, took thirteen months before it's release. Hhmm . . . I can't help but think and hope that maybe 13 might be a lucky number for me. After all, I feel about this CD the same way most artists feel of their latest work, that Stellar Moments, in my humble opinion, is my best recording so far. What's so special about it in my mind is: 1) that my style has matured and this is the first recorded example of that. 2) the playing of a new collective of great musicians, the Angel City Quartet and 3) it is the first professional studio recording since my 1996 release of Dear Sir: Tribute To Wayne Shorter, which was a top ten jazz recording for nine weeks back then.

I feel in the past year or so, after 35+ years of performing, that my style has finally matured. As I listen to this recording, the one thing I notice is that I have slowed down quite a bit in my playing. I'm no longer trying to play everything there is to play as the "hot young player" used to do. I guess you can call it being 'seasoned with age'.  I seem to now concentrate more on melody, playing a good line and communicating a meaningful statement with every phrase I play. I am seeking to have more of a conversation and interpreting the music as a singer would.  I really feel that every note I play has more of an emotional connection then before; as the great Lester Young would say, "Sing me a little story". This is something I have strived for so long to do and I'm very proud that after 35+ years, I have finally accomplished doing this in my playing. No more intellectual running of patterns of meaningless notes! In fact, there is nothing intellectual or theoretical about my playing at all.  I'm more of a 'throw back'; a 'dinosaur' if you will.  I've been called that!  . . .of which I'm very proud.  I'd rather be aligned with a generation that spawned so many creative greats in jazz rather than this current era of "McMusic" and "McJazz".  Have you seen the latest ads for Bony James?  Yeah!  He's the new Coltrane!   I feel more in common with somebody like a Scott Hamilton than I do with the current top saxophone players.  I was always impressed by what Sonny Rollins said about the older he gets and the more evolved he becomes as a player, he finds himself trying to make his playing more 'primitive'; to zero in on the primal, more emotional level.  I can truly say that Stellar Moments is the first recorded example of my "mature" style.

I am also impressed by the interplay of the group: Angel City Quartet, especially the rhythm section.  Branford Marselis made a great point in a recent article.  He said that America's experiment in social narcissism has contributed to a narrowing of intellect.  And how it affects jazz is whereas the music used to be a cultural celebration of group unity, it has instead become a celebration of the self, embodied in the solo.  I agree.  I think that so-called social narcissim in jazz is the single most contributor to the music's demise and disconnect from the public as it goes against the very principles that jazz was built on when the first musicians learned ensemble improvisation.  Because of so-called social narcissism amongst jazz musicians, no great groups and bands exist like there use to be as now everybody wants to be a star or do their own thing.  It's hard to get individuals to submit to a group concept.  And trust me, I feel very blessed to have had the support of Jane Getz, Trevor Ware and Thomas White in the DFQ for 15 years.  In fact, that band is the single most reason why I stayed in Los Angeles and not returned to NYC.  So here again, I find it very gratifying to find simpatico with a new pianist as I have with Greg Gordon Smith.  In fact, in June of 2008 we recorded a live performance just as a duo.  The first time I've ever done that.  I think the genesis that brought the success of Stellar Moments came out of that duo performance Greg and I did.  I really hope to somehow find the means to release that duo performance.  It's really great and Greg is a great, unique and singular pianist.  Having Bill Markus back for the first time since 1998-99 was special also.  Like myself, Bill's playing has grown and matured over the years.  He came to the recording session with 'the big girl', his 7/8 sized concert bass.  Bill, who is also a recording engineer in his own right, brought his own special microphone.  You can hear the results of his foresight.  Bill's bass sound is incredible on this CD!  So rich and full.  I doubt you will ever hear a better bass sound on any other recent jazz recording.  The rest of the jazz world is starting to see what I've always known about our drummer Thomas White. He is an unique percussionist who is extremely versatile and sensitive.  Pianists love him for the piano trio situation.  We call him "Mr. Taste."  Thomas is a combination of Roy Haynes and Elvin Jones.  He plays extremely loose.  To my ears he is the Jack DeJohnette of his generation and I am blessed to call him my friend and to have worked with him for over 15 years.

As I have mentioned, this is my first professional studio recording since my 1996 release of Dear Sir: Tribute To Wayne Shorter, my most successful CD.  The wildfire success of my first three CDs, basically brought me to the attention of the jazz public internationally.  They were outstanding CDs that were recorded with exceptional sound quality.  Those early CDs from 1993-1996 were recorded by the legendary Jim Mooney in his famous Sage And Sound studios.  Jim, who was called 'the Rudy Van Gelder of the West Coast," recorded all the greats from Sarah Vaughn to Sonny Stitt to Ella Fitzgerald and all of the best Hollywood studio jazz artists.  Unfortunately for me, after Dear Sir, Jim went into retirement and I have been searching for someone like him all these years.  Enter Bob Wayne from Sunburst Recording in Culver City.  I met him at an AES Convention in 2000 and somehow sensed he might be the right guy.  I made a mental note of it but didn't get the opportunity to record with him until eight years later!  And as you can hear from the sound quality of Stellar Moments, this is a really well recorded CD!  Having a well recorded CD is crucial for me because in the interim, seven CDs were recorded on location.  They were live recordings.  When you record live, you open yourself up to a variety of challenges, for example, no opportunity to edit anything performance-wise or production-wise.  Most important is the acoustics of the room being able to translate into decent recording quality.  I had an excellent on-location engineer, my dear friend Jim Merod of BluePort Jazz.  This guy is as good as it gets, so I wasn't too worried about losing Mooney in the interim.  Check the sound quality on my Romance Serenade CD.  This was the best sound quality that Jim Merod recorded for us because the acoustics of that room were pretty much perfect.  However, even a master engineer like Merod is limited to how good the acoustics of the room is.  You can hear what I'm talking about on my most ambitious CD and what I consider until now with Stellar Moments  to be my best performance on a recording; this would be the double CD Howling Monk.  I've often said that I could die happy now because my best composition, the eleven movement jazz suite, Suite: Clarity was recorded as the second disc on Howling Monk.  Even the first disc is slammin' what with the excellent and passionate playing of pianist Danny Grissett, now with Tom Harrell.  At a jazz industry convention there was a panel discussion for jazz radio about what should or should not be played.  A radio DJ from San Diego held up my Howling Monk CD and said, "This really kills me.  I'd like nothing more than to play this CD because the playing is exceptional.  However the sound quality just does not translate well over radio!"  Some jazz critics even thought it was recorded on cassette!  This hurt my reputation as well as Clarion Jazz's rep so bad that ever since, every release of mine got more comments on the sound quality than the music itself.  They ignored the music and just zeroed in on the sound and mixing.  Critics love being critical and to give them fuel is very self-defeating.  I knew I had to get back into a good studio to do a recording, but needed someone who understood the genre and what I wanted.  In Bob Wayne I found it all: an old-school engineer to give me that 'Blue Note-Rudy Van Gelder' sound and be an engineer who owned a solid studio.  With Stellar Moments, I'm back to the sound quality that Clarion Jazz has become known for. 

I anticipated this CD being released in the fall of 2008. Indeed, we [Clarion Jazz] can be credited with the swift release of most of our recent recordings. My previous CD, DFQ Plays The Music Of Pepper Adams  was recorded in June 2007 and released in late July 2007.  Stellar Moments then, was recorded in August 2008.  In point of fact, one year ago in October of 2008, the radio marketers were alerted and waiting to push the CD on over 300 jazz stations coast to coast, the CD release performance was booked for LA's posh Millennium Biltmore Hotel, and we had conducted our first interview in anticipation of the release of  Stellar Moments. However financial difficulty due to the new economy forced us to postpone pressing even though all else was in readiness. This for me was a very frustrating turn of events.  All of a sudden, the flow of money coming in from live performances just vanished.  The gigs were in the process of drying up throughout the summer into late 2008. I'm used to getting 2 or 3 major, big score bookings a year and in 2008 there were none. There wasn't even a festival gig during the summer 2008. That's a first for me, even though I did do a few as a sideman with [vocalist] Sweet Baby J'ai's band. There were none for Angel City Quartet or DFQ [Dale Fielder Quartet]. Things didn't pick up until summer of 2009 for me, and it's still kind of slow to be honest. But that's just the point of what faces the 21st Century jazz artist.  We do what we do out of a sheer sense of 'calling'.  There is a sense that it's critical that this music survives and remains on the planet for future generations.  There is a sense that they will possess a more evolved facility to appreciate, receive and utilize this music more properly than our current generation.

Here are the particulars:

Release anticipated on or about November 16, 2009
[CD Release engagements pending.  Go to www.dalefielder.com for updates]

Dale Fielder
Angel City Quartet
Stellar Moments
Clarion Jazz CJ-80910

Dale Fielder - soprano, alto & tenor saxophones
Greg Gordon Smith - piano
Bill Markus - bass
Thomas White - drums

Stellar Moments / The Quickening (A Divine Moment) / Patricia's Flow / Punjab / Escapade With Ese (Pronounced Es-say) / Yes And No / The Night Has A Thousand Eyes / Mulu / I Mean You  63:48