The trumpeting to herald the Louis Armstrong stamp (available on September 1) and celebrate this jazz centennial era will kick off at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe on Monday, Aug. 28. All week, from Monday through Sunday, Sept. 3, a host of great trumpet players and their bands will pay tribute to the genius of Armstrong.
The Impressive line-up of trumpeter leaders includes young and old, natives and visitors: Monday, Gregg Stafford; Tuesday, Kermit Ruffins; Wednesday, Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton as well as the Algiers Brass Band for a grand celebration; Thursday, the Percy Humphrey Band with Duke Hiekter (Humphrey’s band will perform without its namesake, following his passing on July 22); ‘Friday, George Finola; Saturday, Lionel Ferbos; and Sunday, Leroy Jones. With players like these in our midst, we feel secure that the music that Armstrong helped create lives on, and its future is bright in New Orleans.
On Friday, September 1, the official celebration begins at the Main Post Office at 701 Loyola Ave at 10 a.m. A brass brand parade will march down Loyola to Rampart Street to Armstrong Park where the festivities, including a speech (and possibly a performance) by trumpet great Wynton Marsalis, will be centered in front of Louis Armstrong’s statue, starting at noon. Also, there will be a grand trumpet tribute, undoubtedly including many of the aforementioned horn players.
Other activities in the park will include an Armstrong exhibit in the Black Hall of Fame in the Perseverance Hall building as well as a panel discussion on “The Life & Music of Louis Armstrong.” On the second floor of the building, an hour-long video, “Satchmo in New Orleans,’ which was produced by and aired on WYES, will be shown repeatedly.
As trumpeter Doc Cheatham says, the issuance of a stamp in tribute to Louis Armstrong is “way overdue,” but better late than never. And it took fighting tooth and nail by some very dedicated people, most notably Don Marquis of the Jazz Museum in the U.S. Mint, to make sure this stamp was first issued here instead of New York City (New York City?!?).
It’s not your usual -goings-on at Snug Harbor on August 3. Not your trumpet-led quartet, sax-led quintet or organ trio. No, on this first Saturday in August, the leader will be performing on a rather unusual instrument in the jazz world-a bassoon. James Lassen, who is familiar to those in classical music as the principle bassoonist of the Louisiana Philharmonic and who has gotten a rather high profile in jazz performing with Charles Neville’s Diversity, will debut as leader at the Frenchmen Street club. He will be joined by bassist James Singleton and guitarist Steve Masakowski in a drum-less trio.
Though the bassoon has been played by jazz musicians such as multi-reedmen Yusef Lateef and Illinois Jacquet, it wasn’t their primary instrument as it is for Lassen. And there aren’t many musicians (Wynton Marsalis and Marlon jordan aside) that are serious players in the realms of jazz and classical music. However, Lassen has been involved with both musics for most of his life, having performed in symphony orchestras since high school (including those in Chile, Nashville, Alabama, and Memphis) and playing jazz since about that time, both on piano and bassoon. He was also a member of the Tennessee Bassoon Quartet, which was heard on Peter Schickele’s Grammy-winning PDQ Bach series.
This gig gives Lassen the opportunity to spotlight his instrument in a jazz setting .and will rely heavily on original material as well as some standards. Lassen says that, given the ability of the people on the gig, they’ll also go for a taste of free improvisation. Also listen for a Harold Battiste composition, “Beautiful Old Ladies,” a tune which Lassen recently recorded with Jay Weigel. “I’m turned on by all the wood that will be on the stage,” says Lassen, speaking of his bassoon, the upright bass, and acoustic guitar that will be utilized.
The August 5 booking at the House of Blues is being called “A Night on the Town” and features an eclectic group of superstar musicians. The artists include keyboardist Herbie Hancock, guitarist/vocalist Gil Scott Heron, saxophonist Gerald Albright, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and more,. What this will end up sounding like remains a mystery that’s certainly worth checking out.
The Todd Duke Trio has taken over Tuesday nights at the Columns Hotel. Consisting of Todd Dub on guitar, Mark Anderson on bass and Carl Budo on drums, the group will be holding down the spot through August. Blues, bebop, and modern jazz are in order in this, one of the city’s loveliest settings.
The last words on the Essence Music Festival are… please come back. There really was some fine jazz going down at both the Essence and jazz superlounges throughout the three-day affair. Some of the women particularly excelled, with a super-fine set by vocalist Cassandra Wilson, who to our pleasant surprise had Terri Lyne Carrington with her on drums. She was strong. Wilson used more conventional instrumentation than she did at her House of Blues gig, with Eric Lewis on piano and Lonnie Plaxico on bass-a move most everyone agreed was a good one. Even though they’ve been heard together before at Jazz Fest and even though it has been written numerous times, it still seemed to come somewhat as a surprise that David Torkanowsky, Chris Severin, and. Steven Masakowski are in Diane Reeves’ band. Interesting, though, I’ve rarely if ever seen these guys, particularly Torkanowsky, lay off as much as they did behind Reeves-they definitely act as accompaniment. Not a complaint really but an observation-after all, she’s the star.
It was a shame to see the great jimmy Smith, Mark Whitfield (whose young son, of four or so, nearly stole the show playing a tune on drums) and Donald Harrison and some of the other acts in the jazz lounge . playing to such small audiences on the fest’s first night. I think the trouble was three-fold. For one, the Essence crowd isn’t necessarily a jazz crowd but an urban contemporary crowd. Secondly, the jazz lounge was situated behind the main stage, meaning that there was no direct access from the Dome’s floor to that particular area of the lounge floor-you wouldn’t “stumble” across the jazz lounge in search of food, for instance. Bigger, better, and more signs leading to the lounges would have helped.
Things got better later in the weekend when people discovered these areas. Stanley Turrentine had no trouble drawing a crowd, that’s for sure. Just hoping that New Orleans gets to try it again….
