"Mehliana" Comes to the SF Jazz Center

Over the last few decades, there have been a few notable jazz-rock duos featuring piano/synthesizer and drums; Weather Report's Joe Zawinul and Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu's "Orient Express"; Drummer Bill Bruford's duets with Patrick Moraz, and later Michiel Bortslap, (Bruford would also record and perform simultaneously with six pianists in Colin Riley's Piano Circus!); Happy the Man and Camel's Kit Watkins and Coco Roussel; Marco Benevento and Joe Russo, to name but a few.

Following in their footsteps comes "Mehliana", featuring keyboardist Brad Mehldau; a fabulous player well known by fans of guitarist Pat Metheny, and drummer Mark Guiliana, who like Russo and drumming legend David Van Tiegham before them, hails from NYC's cauldron of forward thinking percussionists. Mehldau comes to the SF Jazz Center for four nights of music, each one unique; a sold out piano solo show on Thursday, a duet with Kevin Hays on Friday, with Guiliana on Saturday, and a sold out trio show, featuring Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard.

The SF Jazz Center notes that, "Over the past two decades, Brad Mehldau has earned a spot in the jazz piano firmament next to Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and Fred Hersch as a supremely expressive improviser who turns performances into emotionally wrought journeys. He’s an ambitious composer and adventurous song sleuth, as likely to interpret an atmospheric Bjork tune as a treasured Irving Berlin ballad, at times seamlessly blending the two. An artist whose wide-ranging vision is impossible to sum up in one sentence or performance, Mehldau settles into the SFJAZZ Center for a four-day residency, stretching out in a fascinating array of intimate settings.

In another and decidedly electrified duo encounter, Saturday sees Mehldau on electric piano and synthesizer, joining forces with the endlessly inventive drummer Mark Guiliana for the west coast debut of their electro-funk Mehliana project. Best known for his long association with bassist Avishai Cohen and his own Heernt and Beat Music projects, the world-funk infused Guiliana has also worked widely with saxophonist Donny McCaslin, vocalist Gretchen Parlato and guitarist Lionel Loueke."

Mehliana may release an album of the duos work next fall; for those wanting a taste of their music before then, there are plenty of videos and music on the internet, from shows in NYC and London. Like Zawinul and others before him, Mehldau uses his vintage synthesizer in a unique, yet "old school" style, with a gift for using electronic textures I didn't know he possessed outside of his well known, acoustic piano prowess . Guiliana's approach to percussion utilizes an interesting variety of cymbals, in addition to some very subtle, yet extremely complex beats and rhythmic figures. All in all, Mehliana has the all the makings for a fine evening of music this Saturday night.




E. "Doc" Smith is a musician and recording engineer, who has worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Madonna, Warren Zevon, Mickey Hart and many others. He is also the Arts & Entertainment editor for Beyond Chron and one-half of Edgetone Records' keyboard and drum group, The Maki-Smith Duo.

Remembering Richie Havens, 1941-2013

One of the most moving concerts I ever attended, was on the Saturday following the tragic events of 9-11. Living in DC at the time, and still in a state of shock, we traveled to Henlopen State Park in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to see Richie Havens.

Rather than cancel, Havens had decided to perform and before the show began, he passionately recounted watching the events unfold from his NJ home, directly across the river from Manhattan. As we were all still trying to make sense of it all, Richie's music was suddenly a moving, and reaffirming measure of the power that music, and Havens himself, have to heal.

Havens' website stated, "Beloved folk icon Richie Havens died Monday morning in his home from a sudden heart attack. He was 72.

Havens first became part of musical history during his impromptu opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. Best known for his distinctive intense, rhythmic guitar style and soulful covers of pop and folk songs, Havens toured and recorded music for over 40 years before retiring from the road 3 years ago. Beyond his music, those who have met Havens will remember his gentle and compassionate nature, his light humor and his powerful presence.

While his family greatly appreciates that Richie’s many fans are also mourning this loss, they do ask for privacy during this difficult time. A public memorial will be planned for a later date."

Havens was humble and gracious after that memorable show, and his presence had a soothing effect on the entire crowd. I'd expected Havens to be performing solo, as he generally did, however Havens actually had a guitarist/bassist, a singer, and a great multi-percussionist that day, which I loved. I didn't expect him to have a back- up combo, and apparently, neither did he. I'd seen Havens many times over last 20 years, and I don't think I can ever remember seeing him with combo; according to Havens, it turned out to be one of those serendipitous moments for everyone.

Sitting backstage after she show, Havens explained that this was an extraordinary week, and that "it's great to have your friends around you, and they said they wanted to perform with me… Man, I still can't believe it, but this is a nice thing, the least I could do.."

USA Today wrote, "Born in 1941, the Brooklyn native moved to Greenwich Village in the early '60s and released his first album, A Richie Havens Record, in 1965. In 1967, he signed with Bob Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, and also landed a deal with Verve Records. His big break came when he played a lengthy opening set at Woodstock, particularly a memorable extrapolation of the spiritual Motherless Child that became known as Freedom.

In 2004, Jack Black told USA TODAY that Havens' blistering acoustic set was an inspiration to his comedy rock duo Tenacious D "because we couldn't believe how hard a guy could rock with an acoustic guitar."

Havens often covered popular songs, his gritty voice and singular strumming style giving them an easily recognizable sound. His biggest radio hit came in 1971 with a remake of The Beatles' Here Comes the Sun, which reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. He released more than two dozen albums and compilations, the most successful being 1969's Richard P. Havens, 1983 and 1971's Alarm Clock. He later lent his voice to several commercials, including one for Cotton Incorporated for which he sang The Fabric of Our Lives jingle.

Havens, who was paid $6,000 for his 1969 Woodstock appearance, returned to the site in upstate New York in August 2009 to commemorate the festival's 40th anniversary. He reprised Freedom for an audience of about 150 in an open field there that afternoon, then performed at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts that night, telling the crowd: "My generation was very, very special, because we had the best-looking generation. We look good ... still." Havens announced his retirement from live performing in 2012, citing health problems…"

Havens was a personal inspiration for me growing up; he and his music opened me up to a world of people I might never have been exposed to in the 1970s and 1980s; Pete Seeger and the boat rides down the Hudson; folk festivals far and wide; and the gift of teaching and giving through music.

We will miss you my man.

Les July's "The Adventures of LJ Horn"

Bassist, trumpeter, and composer Les July, has released his latest CD,"The Adventures of LJ Horn:, which is "dedicated to the continuation of the music Miles Davis was making in his latter years, where his trumpet was featured in different genres of music."

According to July, "22 years is a long time NOT to play an instrument". but that is exactly how long it had been before July decided to return to the instrument he started playing when he was 5 years old. Getting braces at 13 made the trumpet a very difficult instrument to play so July switched to the bass and the guitar. Eventually he began making a living as a bassist, and started working with artists of all genres from Nile Rodgers to k.d. Lang to Dr. Dre to Slash. In 1991, July was close to auditioning for Miles Davis. Unfortunately, Miles died before that ever happened and that is the main reason this record came to exist.

A few years ago, Vince Wilburn, Miles nephew & drummer, invited July to a ceremony honoring Miles at Guitar Center in Hollywood. When he left the ceremony, he passed a music store, saw a trumpet in the window and bought it. He had not played in 22 years but felt a new beginning about to happen. Les thought about where Miles was musically before he died and how he brought the trumpet into modern pop & rock music. He also looked around and saw that no one else had picked up on this concept so he then decided to carry that torch. But first, he had to learn to play again.

“The Adventures of L.J. Horn” traces July’s journey back to playing the trumpet while writing songs in a variety of genres to showcase the voice and concept Miles had left. July related to the years Miles had spent away from the trumpet as well and also had medical setbacks that further delayed him being able to play. This record is an evolution and a real tribute to the music Miles made in the last 10 years of his life. Although covering and blending many genres and styles, it is a complete, well balanced cohesive work that works from beginning to end. The material is all original and if you loved Miles, you will love this record..."

“The Adventures of L.J. Horn” is an instrumental labor of love, an inspired, "Tutu" flavored homage to both Miles, and his father. and a welcome return to his jazz-rock roots. The infectious grooves of "Clocked" and "Black Roses" are a few of my personal favorites; the muted tones of "Waiting for You" and "Dreamland", were both passionate nods to Miles, as were the very funky "Karma Shira"and "What Now?", which was followed up nicely by July's pastoral ballad, "On the Water".

May the adventures continue for Mr. L.J. Horn.

Remembering Donald Blackman, 1953-2013

Yesterday, the music world lost another great keyboardist, Donald Blackman. My earliest recollections of Blackman came during his tours with jazz drummer, Lenny White.  In 1978, I saw Blackman during White's legendary "Astral Pirates" tour, at the now-defunct, Cellar Door, in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown. Blackman was simply amazing; a soulful singer; a fabulous organist and killer keyboardist; he clearly had a soulful style that was all his own; not an easy task in those days, especially in an era that included electric keyboard wizards like Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, George Duke and Herbie Hancock. Two years later, my friends and I waited outside another, now-gone D.C. club, the Bayou; this time to see Lenny White's "Streamline" tour. As fate would have it, there was also a sudden snow storm that night. As the line grew and the snow fell, the upstairs window opened and out popped Lenny and then Blackman who said. "Why don't ya'll come inside? In fact, stay for the second set? On us!"  We cheered, the doors opened shortly, and one of the best shows I'd ever seen was about to begin.

According to his wiki page, "Blackman was born in Queens, New York on September 1, 1953; his neighbor as a child, was Charles McPherson, and while still a teenager, he played in McPherson's ensemble with Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. At the beginning of the 1970s, he played with Parliament/Funkadelic, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Roy Ayers, before becoming a member of Lenny White's groups Astral Pirates and Twennynine, for whom he penned songs such as "Peanut Butter" and "Morning Sunrise". He released his self-titled debut solo album in 1982 on Arista Records, including the songs "Holding You, Loving You", "Heart's Desire" and "Since You've Been Away So Long" that became minor hits in Europe.

Blackman also worked as a session musician, appearing on albums by Kurtis Blow (Kingdom Blow), Bernard Wright, Najee, David Sanborn, Lenny White Roy Ayers, Sting (Brand New Day), World Saxophone Quartet, Janet Jackson's "That's the Way Love Goes" (Remix) and Wayman Tisdale. He wrote the composition "Live to Kick It", which appeared on Tupac Shakur's album R U Still Down? (Remember Me), "Dear Summer" which appeared on Memphis Bleek's album "534" featuring artist Jay-Z, and "Holding You, Loving You" which appeared on Master P.'s album "I Got The Hook Up".

On television, Blackman scored and wrote music for commercials, TV shows, and movies, appearing on Fox Network's New York Undercover, producing and writing the theme song for Nickelodeon's show "Gullah Gullah Island" as well as producing songs for the MTV Network movie "Joe's Apartment" Blackman died on April 11 2013 after being hospitalized with stage four cancer.."

One of my favorite songs by Lenny White to feature Blackman, was the beautiful "I'll See You Soon", from Lenny White's fourth solo album, "Streamline", and the 2nd to feature Blackman following Astral Pirates. Streamline also featured the great bassist Marcus Miller. When I first arrived in NYC in 1980, it was actually getting airplay on the local jazz stations. Like Blackman, it's something I will never forget. Thanks for the wonderful music my man.

The Maki-Smith Duo

Last year, I had the good fortune to have the talented Nora Maki fill in as the keyboardist in my Unidentified Flying Quartet. Nora was great and as it turned out, was eager to venture into the world of the piano and drum "duos" with me. Nora came from a classical and straight ahead background, but was quite familiar with the electric worlds of Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and more recently, Hiromi. Together, we looked at the great Joe Zawinul and Trilok Gurtu duo; the Bill Bruford duos with Patrick Moraz and later, Michiel Bosrtlap; finally, and most recently, the Marco Benevento and Joe Russo Duo.

Each had a style all it's own, a character and an unmistakable identity. My last musical outings were ironically, also borne from duos; first with 7 string bassist Edo Castro was amazing with his loops, Ebow and bass synth; and earlier, with my long-time keyboardist Seth Elgart, sadly an inconvenient three thousand miles away in NYC with his collection of every synthesizer known to man. Fortunately for me, Nora arrived just in time, and eager to delve in the world of loops, samples, sequences, laptops and effects.

Nora was born in Osaka, Japan and started her first piano lesson at age 6. She told me she, "studied classical piano with Katsuyuki Mastui and musicianship with Masaru Adachi at Osaka College of Music." Encountering jazz music in her late teens has changed her way of making music to her own terms. She studied the piano style of Art Tatum; Oscar Peterson with Minoru Ozone. Interested in jazz; American culture, she was exposed herself to a broad range of American music from Miles Davis to James Brown. After immigrating to United States of America in 1989, she went back to school and studied advanced jazz arrangement, theory, harmony & history and jazz combo under the direction of Andrew Speight at San Francisco State University.

Nora's great passion for music has brought her to much broader music communities; sharing the bandstand with many Bay area musicians. Nora is not only working on recording music for our new Maki-Smith Duo album, she's also preparing to record her upcoming all-acoustic, piano and bass album.

I've also been fortunate enough for Nora to agree to reprise her appearance in the UFQ, and now alongside the aforementioned Edo Castro and saxophonist Rich Berman, so stay tuned...