Ben Allison, Steve Cardenas and Ted Nash Play the Music of Herbie Nichols on "Tell the Birds I Said Hello"

Tell the Birds I Said Hello: Ben Allison, Steve Cardenas, and Ted Nash
: Sonic Camera Records

Herbie Nichols was a promising, enigmatic piano player/composer who lived from 1919 to 1963. His premature death at forty-four years of age from leukemia always left his followers with the feeling that somehow this brilliance was cut short. The lingering question here is-What more tantalizing inventions could this under-appreciated artist have come up with had he just had more time to explore his art?

The bassist Ben Allison has been one the stalwart supporters of Nichols' music. Allison, along with the late pianist Frank Kimbrough, started their Herbie Nichols Project in 1992. Kimbrough had been fascinated with Nichols's music since 1985 when he transcribed several of the pianist's works. Besides Allison on double bass and Kimbrough on piano, both members of the Jazz Collective, the HNP included, at various times, Jeff Ballard, Matt Wilson, and Tim Horner on drums, Michael Blake and Ted Nash on saxophones, Wycliffe Gordon on trombone and Ron Horton on trumpet. The ensemble released three albums from 1992-2001. Love is Proximity (1997), Dr. Cyclops Dream (1999), and Strange City (2001).

Herbie Nichols (photo credit unknown)

The music of Nichols has always been a magnet, a lodestone for artists looking for inspiration from this artist's individualistic approach to melody, harmony, and rhythm. Thelonious Monk and Nichols were both enigmatic artists, who were contemporaries and friends. But where Monk's body of work was more readily appreciated and mainstreamed into the canon, Nichols's work-perhaps because of his premature death- became less publicized and mostly preserved by a select group of avid admirers.

Nichols was born in the Juan Hill Section of Manhattan but descended from parents who emigrated from St Kitts and Trinidad in the Carribean Islands. Nichols' music is said to be an amalgamation of influences from West Indian folk, Dixieland, bop, and swing with classical overtones that find their way via Bartok and Satie. His sometimes fragmented lines feel to be directionally unpredictable. There is a jaggedness to his approach and his melodic development hints at an unstructured almost free flow. Some believe his music was a precursor to the free jazz movement. In support of this premise, progressive avant-garde and free jazz artists like soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonist Roswell Rudd, Dutch drummer Hans Bennik, and Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg have all found Nichols's music worthy of being preserved and reinterpreted.

                  Ted Nash, Ben Allison, and Steve Cardenas (photo credit Kasia Idzkowska).

With this history in mind, the latest album Tell the Birds I Said Hello -released on Sonic Camera Records this month- is from the trio  Ben Allison on double bass, Steve Cardenas on guitar, and Ted Nash on saxophone. This is the fourth album released by these three creative modernists. This eight-song gem of an album includes eight Nichols' compositions never-before-recorded by the composer, six of which had been inexplicably stored away since the nineteen fifties and so have never before been recorded by anyone. For Nichols fans, this is like finding some hidden treasure. For anyone who loves creative music, this is a treat.

Nichols had composed over 170 different compositions many of which, like six of these songs, he never recorded. His first recording was The Herbie Nichols Quintet, which may be out of print. It included Danny Barker on guitar, Chocolate Williams on Bass, and Shadow Wilson on drums and was recorded in 1952. From 1955-1957 Nichols recorded and released just four albums. The two Blue Note albums Prophetic Herbie Nichols Vol 1 and Volume 2 with Art Blakey and Al McKibbon (1955); The Herbie Nichols Trio with McKibbon and Teddy Kotck alternating on bass and Max Roach on drums. (1956); The Third World was a Blue Note release that combined the first two recording sessions in a twofer album; and  Love, Gloom, Cash, Love with George Duvivier on bass and Dannie Richmond on drums (1957).

The music on Allison/Cardenas and Nash's Tell the Birds I Said Hello opens with "She Insists," a five-minute stroll that features the trio playing synchronous patterns of jaggedly ascending notes that they execute with beautiful precision and sensory aplomb. Allison's bass is big and buoyant. Cardenas' guitar lines are sinewy and supple and Nash's tenor tone is warm and Getzian. How much skill does it take to reimagine what basically was composed to be played by Nichols as a piano-based composition and skillfully reimagine it in a pianoless trio setting? The added colors and tones that the instrumentation brings to the table here seem to add a new dimension to Nichols' work.

"The Aferbeat" has that strong implied bop swing feeling that is almost a Nichols' trademark. Nash's tenor opens up strongly stating the melody. Allison's bass solo has a firm,  probing sway to it, and Cardenas' light electric guitar lines flow off his fretboard like warm maple syrup onto hot pancakes, never failing to surprise.  Nash comes back at about the three-quarters mark and adds his own distinctive tonal approach through the coda. Just a very satisfying piece of music that these guys play with such comfortable command.

The album's title song is Nichols' "Tell the Birds." Opening with Nash's brief plaintive saxophone and harmonic tones off Cardenas' fretboard, the song has a folk-like storytelling quality to it. The group states the sinewy melody line in concert before Cardenas' is the first solo musical orator. His delicate harmonic approach is Jim Hall-like-gorgeous, understated, and yet inventive. Nash comes from a lineage of reed men who played in Henry Mancini's orchestras, so his sound is attuned to cinematic expressiveness here. Besides anchoring these procedures, Allison offers a brief plucky bass solo that always adds to the trio's dynamism. 

"Enrapture" opens with a staccato line from Allison's bass. The trio follows the chicanery of Nichols' melody line with unruffled precision. These guys weave their aural ideas with an uncanny sense of intuition. It's a delight to be absorbed by the interplay from about the 2:30 min mark, as the three just seem to have telepathy and yet continue to push each other's inventiveness to the edge. "Enrapture" and "Swan Song" are the only of Nichols' compositions that Allison and his Herbie Nichols Project had previously recorded. 

On "Swan Song"  Allison's ostinato bass line sets up this one. Nash's saxophone lines serpentine plaintively and with expression. Cardenas counterpoints with jagged chording comps. When he solos his guitar has some bite and slight fuzzy distortion that adds to the urgency of the whole feel. 

"Van Allen Belt" is a jaunty piece that repeats the unpredictable lines with a distinctive bop feel.  "Games and Codes" is another shifting walk through the disjointed world of the music of Herbie Nichols. The music always has a destination but the direction is hard to predict. "That Moanin Blues" is the final cut on the album. It is probably the easiest for the casual listener to relate to, a simple blues with a little syncopation and a little change in time for good measure.

Herbie Nichols creates a slightly unfamiliar musical world for some. It doesn't fit the usual rules of music for most, yet intrigues those of us who revel in creativity and fearlessness. Ben Allison, Steve Cardenas, and Ted Nash not only know how to navigate Nichols' coded map they can reimagine it in modern and exciting ways! 

Demonstrating the Enduring Importance of the Musical Legacy of Henry Mancini as one of the best Song writers in the last seventy years.

I have long been an admirer of the work of composer/arranger/conductor Henry Mancini. Of all the most prolific music writers for soundtracks of big-screen or television productions, Henry Mancini, and his musical work stands at the apex of that profession. I am going to try to make a case that his iconic and enduring music makes him one of the most important music writers of the last seventy years.

Enrico Nicola Mancini, was born in Ohio and raised predominantly in western Pennsylvania. He studied the piccolo from the age of eight. His first encounter with what would later become a fascination with movie music was his exposure to a Cecile B. DeMille film titled The Crusades from 1935. In 1942 he attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (Carnegie Mellon) and then Julliard in NYC. eventually studying piano, composition, and orchestration. In 1943, at the age of eighteen, Mancini enlisted in the US Army Air Forces and played with the 28th Air Force Band through the end of the war. 

After being discharged, Mancini worked with a reestablished Glenn Miller Orchestra as a pianist and arranger before he joined Universal-International's music department working on film scores. Here he began a prolific career as a major contributor to the music of over one hundred movie soundtracks. His score for The Glenn Miller Story won an Academy Award nomination.

In 1958 he became an independent composer/arranger where he scored his first television series, the producer Blake Edwards's show Peter Gunn. From there Mancini's career never looked back.

To recall some of Henry Mancini's memorable music tracks from both television and film is to appreciate just how important this man's music was to our musical heritage.  A short list of his more memorable music includes the scores of TV shows Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky. Television movies like The Thorn Birds and The Moneychangers. Television theme songs for shows like Newhart, Hotel, and Remington Steele. Film scores included Breakfast at Tiffany's, Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, The Pink Panther Series, and Victoria Victoria, just a few that he did just with director Edwards. He also scored Charade, Arabesque, and Two For the Road for director Stanley Donen. This list goes on with scores for films by Martin Ritt, The Molly Maguires; Howard Hawks' Hatari, and Man's Favorite Sport? ,  Stanley Kramer's Oklahoma Crude; Vittorio de Sica's Sunflower; Arthur Hiller's Silver Streak, and a score to Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy that was ultimately not used.

Mancini's songs have become standards that retain their appeal to this day. They include Mr. Lucky, Peter Gunn, Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses, Charade, The  Pink Panther Theme, A Shot in the Dark, Two for the Road,  Theme from Hatari, Baby Elephant's Walk,  Dreamsville, and perhaps my favorite Lujan also know as The Slow Hot Wind which was originally released in the Mr. Lucky Goes Latin album from  1961. 

My Contention is that one of the true benchmarks used to judge the importance of a composer's work is to see just how many fellow musicians choose to sing and/or play that person's work. Clearly Mancini meets this benchmark.

Let's just use one of my favorite compositions from Mancini. Lujon (also recorded as Slow Hot Wind from the lyrics by Norman Gimbel), is the name of the percussive instrument used in the artist's original release. Though it was not related to anything in the show Mr. Lucky despite being part of the album Mr. Lucky Goes Latin, it did have a durable and endearing effect on the world of jazz music. Here are several different takes on this superb song. Let me know what is your favorite version.

The original from Henry Mancini :

Here is one of the definitive vocal performances of this great song by the inimitable voice of Johnny Hartman with Norman Gimbel's lyrics from his album from 1994.

Here is another version from the album Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 with Lani Hall doing her most seductive vocals on the Gimbel lyrics.

Sarah Vaughan is the kind of vocalist who could do whatever she wanted. Her voice was exquisite and she often chose songs that others could only dream of doing justice to them. See for yourself

Who better to express this song's nuanced emotionality on his solo guitar than master artist Pat Metheny from his album What's It All About from 2011. 

The Harmonica and Vibraphonist ace Hendrik Meurkens did a seductively emotional version of this song on his album Hendrik Meurken's Cobb's Pocket from 2013. The group included drumming great Jimmy Cobb, Mike LeDonne on B3 Organ, Peter Bernstein on guitar, and Meurkins on chromatic harmonica. Just Beautiful

Ted Nash is a descendant of two of Mancini's original band players.

Both his uncle saxophonist Ted and his father trombonist Dick Nash were active Hollywood studio musicians and often played in Mancini's bands. If anyone can be true to the master composer/arranger's intent then certainly Ted can do so and do so with his own unique read on the song.

Here from his Ted Nash The Mancini Project is Lujon. 

There is a terrific instrumental jazz version of the song performed by the underappreciated multi-reed player Gerry Niewood from his album Slow Hot Wind from 1975 w Bill Dobbins, piano; Gene Perla, bass; Lew Soloff, trumpet/flugelhorn; Bill Reichenbach, trombone and Gerry Niewood, Alto, Tenor, Soprano and Flute. I have it, but unfortunately, I couldn't find a clean youtube to post but trust me it's great.

If these tremendous renditions of this beautiful composition by such an esteemed and talented group of artists are not enough to make you acknowledge Henry Mancini's sustained impact on our world, maybe a few movies that have chosen to use this song in their soundtracks like Sexy Beast, W.E. and Two Lovers and this more famous one may change your mind.  

Multi-Reed Artist Ted Nash and his Quintet at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola

Ted Nash Qunitet live at Dizzy's Coca Cola  Plastic Sax Records

Often musicians come from musical families and so is the case with the saxophonist/composer/arranger Ted Nash. Both his father and uncle were accomplished jazz and west coast studio musicians. Father Richard “Dick” Nash’s work can be heard on albums by discriminating arranger/composers like Lalo Schifrin, John Williams and Pete Rugulo. Perhaps his most important association was as Henry Mancini’s favorite trombonist, playing with the maestro for over forty years from 1959 through 2000.  Ted’s uncle and namesake, Theodore Malcolm “Ted” Nash, was also a studio musician who played with Les Brown and was also favored sideman in Mancini’s band. Here is a recording the brothers did together.

With this pedigree, it is no wonder that our now modern-day Ted, a seasoned fifty-eight year old professional musician, should follow in these imposing footsteps. Not only has Nash made his own mark as a first call multi-reed artist - for the last nineteen years he has been a key member of Wynton Marsalis' Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra- He has established himself as a top rate composer and arranger. In 2010 Nash's Portraits in Seven Shades, a creative work of seven movements, each depicting the modern painters Chagall, Dali, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Pollock and Van Gogh, was nominated for a Grammy. In 2017 his ambitious Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom won two Grammy awards, one for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album and one for "Spoken At Midnight" for Best Instrumental Composition. 

Nash is the consummate musical explorer, he has never let his love for big band music get in the way of his playing creative improvised music in a myriad of settings. He has been an integral part of projects like his work with bassist Ben Allison on The Herbie Nichols Project or the trio with Allison and guitarist Steve Cardenas that celebrates the music of Jim Hall and Jimmy Giuffre on Quiet Revolution.  Not to be pigeonholed as a pure traditionalist he made his own free jazz explorations of the music of Ornette Coleman on his Quartet album The Creep.

With such an unquenchable thirst for ever expanding his musical horizons its nice to hear Nash play “live” on his latest album Ted Nash Quintet live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. The line up is superb with trailblazers like Warren Wolf on vibes, Gary Versace on piano, Matt Wilson on drums and the glue that holds it all together the veteran bassist Rufus Reid.

Nash and company offers up seven delightful compositions two of which, the opener “Organized Crime” and the next to last song “Sisters” are Nash originals. The remaining fare is a thoughtful assembly of songs by Chick Corea, Herbie Nichols, Thelonious Monk, Johnny Mandel and Henry Mancini.

The pace quickens right from the opening lines of Nash’s “Organized Crime.” Reid’s bulbous bass notes accentuating the rhythm under Wilson’s polyphony of bombs and crashes. Wolf offers a distinctive solo before Nash plays a searing, Coleman-esque alto solo.  Wilson’s playful antics are fill the air with electricity. The energy is palpable.

The band moves on to Corea’s masterpiece “Windows,” this time with Nash on flute reminiscent of the work on this by the great Hubert Laws. Wolf’s vibes and Versace’s piano lend an airy feel to this as Reid’s steady hand is probing with authority. Nash has wonderful intonation on the instrument. Versace, a pianist who deserves greater recognition, dances with superb sensitivity along with Reid in a gorgeous display of intuitive grace that is a highlight of the album.

Herbie Nichols, a cult figure on the piano known for his unique style, composed the next tune “Spinning Song.” Nash on alto and Wolf on vibes play the main theme in step. As the song changes to a slow swing Wolf again shows why he is a master of invention. The song has interesting breaks which the group navigates with effortless polish. Nash’s alto tone is rich and luscious as he trades notes with a lone Reid holding the line. Nash finds a delicate balance between a classic and modern tone. His playing brings you to the precipice at times but you never feel like you re in danger of falling off. 

What would a set list be without at least one Monk tune. The one Nash chooses is “Epistrophy,” brilliantly lead off by Wilson and Reid and played in unison by Versace, Wolf and Nash on alto. Monk would be shaking his leg in approval. Nash wails on his alto expressing a deep affection for the changes here and showing how well he has absorbed the tradition. Wolf loosens up the tune with his own excursion, a fountainhead of ideas, while Reid relentlessly lays down the powerful bass line. Versace’s piano solo is a marvelously twisted piece of invention as Wilson lands bombs and crashes behind him. This one is just a delight.

Nash takes to the microphone to explain how the next piece, Johnny Mandel’s beautiful ballad “Emily” is a dedication to his transgender daughter once Emily now Elias. This is a special moment for Nash, a man publicly acknowledging his unconditional love for his child. Played gorgeously by Gary Versace in duo with Nash’s transcendent clarinet, this one is special. Nash and Versace make beautiful music together and from Nash’s reaction that is caught on mic, Versace surprises him at times with his spontaneous and nuanced inventiveness. 
I recently praised a duo album by Fred Hersch and Anat Cohen using the same isntrumentation where I thought the two showed remarkable afinity for each other. Nash and Versace reach that same unfathomable simpatico here and it is just a treat to behold. You can tell by the complete and utter silence that the two command the room. The audience is spell bound. Bravo gentlemen!

Another Nash original, "Sisters," finds the saxophonist returning to his alto with relish and gusto on this quick paced swinger. Reid's bass line is in double time and flawless. Nash, Wolf and Versace all take turns burning down the house with their fleet, adreniline-paced inventions. 

The Nash-Mancini connection is inescapable and so it was appropriate to end the set with Mancini's playful "Baby Elephant's Walk." Nash plays the piccolo, an instrument rarely heard in jazz. Like the legendary Pied Piper, Nash leads the group on this rousing blues with joyful abandon, ending the show and the album on the perfect high note.

Live albums can at times be spoty or unisnpired, but Ted Nash Quintet live at Dizzy's Coca Cola is one of those rare recordings that has captiured a special moment in time, a moment when all things were working at the highest level and the only regret is that you weren't there to witness this for yourself.

My Best of Jazz 2012

Every year it is a right of passage that  reviewers compile their "best of" picks from the previous year's crop of offerings  Some reviewers amazingly are able to review hundreds of cds in a year! The pool from which they pick their best of lists are admittedly more extensive than mine, but nonetheless I have heard some fantastic performances both "live" and on cd this year and the ones I have found exceptional certainly deserve recognition, even if its only from me. So in no particular order here is my top picks from 2012
with some links to listen to selections from each album where available. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

 Jack DeJohnette's: Sound Travels                                              
 Check out "Dirty ground"

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Kenny Garrett's : Seeds from the Underground
Check Out "Wiggins"

        Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts : An Attitude for Gratitude                                                                         
         Listen to  "The Cruise Blues" 

  Gary Smulyan's : Smul's Paradise
  Listen here to Gary's version of "Sunny"

 Ralph Peterson's: The Duality Perspective
  Listen to "Bamboo Bends in a Storm"

 Vjay Iyer's : Accelerando
 Listen to "Optimism"

       Tom Harrell's : Number 5        
        listen to the beautiful
        "Journey to the Stars"

     John Abercrombie's Quartet : 
     Within a Son
     John and Joe Lovano on "Wise One"

              Scott Robinson's Docette : 
              Bronze Nemesis
              listen here to the eerie "Mad Eyes"

 Carmen Intorre Jr. : For the Soul

      Marc Johnson/Eliane Elias
      Swept Away
      "One Thousand and One Nights"

  Ryan Trusedell's; Centennial : Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans
"The Maids of Cadiz"

     Kathy Kosins: To the Ladies of Cool
     A montage from the album "here"

         Markus Burger Trio: 
         Accidental Tourists                                                                           
         The L.A. Sessions
         "Grolnicks"

       Amhad Jamal : Blue Moon

                                                                                        The hypnotic "Invitation"
                                                                                       

Michael Campagna: Moments
"Dear John"

        Chad Wackerman: Dreams, Nightmares and Improvisations
         "Monsieur Vintage"

 Jonathan Blake : The Eleventh Hour
 "Time to Kill"

                             Sabrina Lastman: 
                             The Candombe Jazz Sessions

  Tec Nash: The Creep
   Listen to Ted live on "The Creep"

      Torben Waldorff : Wah Wah
       listen to   "You Here"

      Sam Rivers, Dave Holland & Barry Altschul 
      Reunion: Live in New York

                   Bill Evans Trio:
                   Live at the Top of the Gate
                   Promo video "here"

   Chick Corea: Further Explorations
   " Peri's Scope"

                           Wes Montgomery : Echoes of Indiana Avenue
                            Promo video "here"

    Denise Donatelli : Soul Shadows
    Her live version of  "Another Day"










Maybe I am, in the Christmas spirit already but I just listened to two newly received releases that I really enjoyed so let's add these two to the mix:

Jeff Babko : CRUX
"The International Client"

Barry Romberg's Rndom Access : Crab People 
"Epilogue"