The New York City Jazz Record

Interview: BARBARA CARROLL

Displayed on 89-year-old jazz pianist and singer Barbara Carroll's wall is an autographed black and white photograph from her friend, pianist Marian McPartland, of the two of them side-by-side. It reads, "For my fellow survivor." The word survivor says everything about this octogenarian woman-in-jazz, as does the phrase "old friend" (from her Sondheim signature song). Carroll is on a best friend basis with the jazz legacy. Carroll's stories of clubs and bands embody the history of Swing and bebop. Her energy as a player encompasses the gracefully pristine, fierce, warmly delicate, penetrating and sassily humorous dimensions of her rich personality. No wonder she's earned the MAC Lifetime Achievement and the Mary Lou Williams Awards. Carroll is at Birdland Saturdays and 92nd Street Y Mar. 20th as part of a Marian McPartland tribute.

Artist Feature: INGRID LAUBROCK

One of the many non-American musicians who have set up shop in NYC, German-born saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock has quickly become a presence on the local scene. But the soprano and tenor saxophonist was already recognized for her playing and writing elsewhere - London's highly competitive improv scene - before she crossed the ocean permanently in 2008. Laubrock is at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center Mar. 3rd, 10th and 24th, The Firehouse Space Mar. 6th and Cornelia Street Café Mar. 14th-15th with Tom Rainey.

Encore: BERTHA HOPE

Bertha Hope is a superb pianist who hasn't been recorded nearly enough during a career spanning over five decades. She remains active as a performer, arranger and teacher, along with promoting the work of her first husband, the late pianist Elmo Hope. Hope is at First Reformed Church Of Jamaica Mar. 1st as part of Lady Got Chops Fest and at Minton's Playhouse Mondays-Saturdays.

Lest We Forget: VALAIDA SNOW

Valaida Snow - trumpeter, singer, dancer - was one of the first women in the jazz world to achieve international success. She was apparently something of a braggart but, in the end, this cannot diminish the facts and accomplishments of an astounding career.

Megaphone: Jazz Times in a New Era

Jazz has always been music of the times, stemming from the blues, field hollers and spirituals, music that had a definite function - to tell the news of the day, a release of shortcomings and celebration of all things good. Whether it was spiritual or secular, it clearly reflected what was going on. Players used music from previous eras as a guide and would add on modern twists from their current time, sometimes before their time, like pianist Mary Lou Williams, pushing the music forward, ultimately creating several different generations, sounds and structures of this music from which to choose. Jones is at Somethin' Jazz Club Mar. 1st with Golden Ratio Project, Smoke Mar. 7th-8th with Tia Fuller and Ginny's Supper Club Mar. 29th as a leader.

Record Label Spotlight: FIREHOUSE 12

Firehouse 12 Records, the New Haven, Connecticut-based avant garde jazz label founded by engineer Nick Lloyd and cornet player Taylor Ho Bynum in 2007, specializes in big things. It lives large. Artists performing this month include Myra Melford at The Stone Mar. 2nd; Peter Evans at The Stone Mar. 4th, 8th and 27th, The Firehouse Space Mar. 9th, Cornelia Street Café Mar. 16th and 61 Local Mar. 29th; Mary Halvorson at Legion Bar Mar. 9th, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center Mar. 10th, The Stone Mar. 13th, Issue Project Room Mar. 14th and Cornelia Street Café Mar. 21st; Tyshawn Sorey at Le Poisson Rouge Mar. 9th with John O'Gallagher, The Stone Mar. 9th, Town Hall Mar. 19th as part of John Zorn's Masada Songbook and Cornelia Street Café Mar. 22nd with Mario Pavone; and Taylor Ho Bynum at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center Mar. 24th.

CD Reviews

(this month's performance venues in parentheses):

1. Kris Davis -- Waiting For You To Grow Clean Feed (Cornelia Street Café)
2. Myra Melford -- Life Carries Me This Way Firehouse 12 (The Stone)
3. Satoko Fujii -- Gen Himmel Libra
4. Kaja Draksler -- The Lives of Many Others Clean Feed
5. Molly Ryan -- Swing For Your Supper! (featuring Bucky Pizzarelli) Loup-garous Prod. (The Players Club)
6. Kristin Slipp/Dov Manski -- A Thousand Julys Sunnyside (Roulette; Ibeam Brooklyn)
7. Simona Premazzi -- The Lucid Dreamer Inner Circle (Korzo)
8. Gunter Hampel -- Shapelifters Birth
9. Katja Cruz -- Hexaphone: The Cosmology of Improvised Music Rudi
10. Tanja Feichtmair/Fredi Pröll/Uli Winter -- Trio Now! Leo
11. Gina Schwarz -- Jazzista Unit
12. Mary Halvorson/Michael Formanek/Tomas Fujiwara -- Thumbscrew Cuneiform (Cornelia Street Café)
13. Sarah Vaughan -- Sophisticated Lady: The Duke Ellington Songbook Collection Pablo-Concord
14. Aki Takase -- Flying Soul Intakt
15. Nina Simone -- Little Girl Blue Bethlehem-Verse/Naxos
16. Helen Humes -- Sings Ballads & Blues Audiophile
17. Ali Ryerson -- Game Changer Capri
18. Andrea Brachfeld -- Lady Of The Island ZoHo
19. Iro Haarla -- Kolibri TUM
20. Angelica Sanchez/Wadada Leo Smith -- Twine Forest Clean Feed (Downtown Music Gallery)
21. Chris Abrahams/Magda Mayas -- Gardener Relative Pitch
22. Irène Schweizer/Pierre Favre -- Live in Zürich Intakt
23. Karin Krog/John Surman -- Songs About This And That Meantime
24. Chick Webb/Ella Fitzgerald -- The Complete Chick Webb & Ella Fitzgerald Decca Sessions (1934-1941) Decca-Mosaic
25. Rudy Royston -- 303 Greenleaf Music (Smoke; Jazz Standard; 92nd Street Y; Village Vanguard)
26. David Berkman -- Live at Smalls (feat. Tom Harrell) smallsLIVE (Smoke)
27. George Cables -- Icons & Influences HighNote (Dizzy's Club; Jazz at Kitano)
28. Max Raabe -- Golden Age Decca (Stern Auditorium)
29. Borah Bergman/Kidd Jordan/William Parker/Michael Wimberly -- Vita Brevis Somerealmusic
30. Abdelhaï Bennani -- Encounters JaZT TAPES
31. Ken Peplowski -- Maybe September Capri (Highlights in Jazz)
32. Duke Ellington -- The Ellington Suites (OJC) Pablo-Concord (Town Hall; Stern Auditorium)
33. Nir Felder -- Golden Age OKeh (Le Poisson Rouge)
34. Chris Speed -- Really OK Skirl (The Stone; ShapeShifter Lab; SEEDS)
35. Chris Speed/Zeno De Rossi -- Ruins Skirl (The Stone; ShapeShifter Lab; SEEDS)
36. Rufus Reid -- Quiet Pride (The Elizabeth Catlett Project) Motéma (Jazz Standard)
37. Brian Charette -- Square One Posi-Tone (Smalls)
38. Jakob Bro -- December Song Loveland (Cornelia Street Café)
39. Ambrose Akinmusire -- The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint Blue Note (Jazz Standard)
40. Seamus Blake/Chris Cheek -- Reeds Ramble Criss Cross (Smalls)
41. Misha Tsiganov -- The Artistry Of The Standard Criss Cross
42. Rodney Green -- Live at Smalls smallsLIVE
43. Alex Sipiagin -- From Reality and Back 5Passion
44. The Moon -- Good and Evil 577 Records (Ibeam Brooklyn)
45. Tom Rainey -- Obbligato Intakt (Cornelia Street Café)
46. Wes Montgomery -- So Much Guitar! (OJC) Riverside/Fantasy-Concord
47. Stan Kenton Alumni Band -- Road Scholars Live Summit
48. Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra -- Artistry MAMA
49. Clifford Jordan -- The Complete Clifford Jordan Strata-East Sessions Mosaic
50. Noah Baerman -- Ripples Lemel (The Jazz Gallery)
51. Brian Lynch -- Unsung Heroes, Vol. 2 Hollistic Music Works (92nd Street Y)
52. Elliott Sharp -- Haptikon Long Song (Roulette)
53. Studio Dan/Elliott Sharp -- In The Pelagic Zone (Live at Porgy & Bess) (Jazzwerkstatt/Lotus (Roulette)
54. Elliott Sharp -- Quintet Clean Feed (Roulette)
55. Pat Metheny -- Kin Nonesuch (Town Hall)
56. Landon Knoblock -- Stellar Power Skirl (Spectrum)
57. David Hazeltine -- For All We Know Smoke Sessions (Smoke)
58. Russ Nolan -- Relentless Rhinoceruss (Jazz at Kitano)
59. Kris Bowers -- Heroes + Misfits Concord (Rockwood Music Hall)
60. Lester Young -- Boston 1950 Uptown
61. Alvin Lucier / MAZE -- (Amsterdam) Memory Space Unsounds (Roulette)

...and Plenty More!

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Thanks so much for reading The New York City Jazz Record, the city's only homegrown gazette devoted to the music.

All the best,
Andrey and Laurence