Bill Commerford

Live Jazz Watercolors Hank Jones and Joe Lovano

Usually it's a quiet evening, something good I'm listening to and I'll go through some of the
watercolor shorthand notes and work into them. Here it is almost Thankgiving and now
I've got this deep mahoghany image of Hank.... The lean and sway visible in many of the
of the other 'notes' gave me the feel and others the piano. And an evening remembering.
"Hank never repeats himself, and the first melody sends him into a beautiful meditation
on the song he's playing," says Joe Lovano. "He reharmonizes every chorus."

These watercolor shorthand notes were struck during the evening's tribute to Hank Jones.
Like pianist Ran Blake, who was there, perhaps in his respect less is so much more.

Hank Jones and Joe Lovano at Harvard Sanders Theatre in Thanking Hank:

Tom Everett directs the Harvard University Jazz Bands in A salute to Hank Jones:
"Hank Jones was influenced early on by the independent use of hands of Earl Hines,
the Harlem stride mastery of Fats Waller, the linear motion and effortless playing of
Teddy Wilson, and the technical endowment and harmonic palette of the 'god' of
solo piano, Art Tatum." is how Tom began the evening's concert program notes.

Here are Hank Jones and Joe Lovano with the Harvard University Band finishing up the evening
with a Buck Clayton's 1990 tune commissioned for the Jazz Band "Sittin' in With the HUB

During this same week Ran Blake tucked himself into that corner of NEC's Jordan Hall
surrounded by friends, George Russell others, to listen to his 70th Birthday Celebration

......
to end the evening Ran and Dominique Eade gave us "winter in Madrid"

Two Nadine Chase watercolors
Both were created live at Dalias in Brookline's Washington Square. A Wine Bar
and Bistro where you'd hear Nadine's great Jazz Songbook intimately rendered.
I've come believe chances to hear this brilliant Jazz singing is here in Boston.
What we need is a way, a place, a site where we could hear and see a preview.
Posting the styles,players and choices to create collectives of jazz listeners.
From Zeitgeistian explorations to where in jazz vocals on "A" trains took us.

Wes Matthews, piano, and RAKALAM Bob Moses, drums,
Zeitgeist was the performance place for both these images and RAKALAM wondered 'if?'.
They hadn't.....I've digitally image-ned them together in this CD cover art.
I've cropped and lifted RAKALAM out of the Ragib Hassan performance watercolors.
Wes Matthews from his solo performance in a Zeitgeist piano players night.

The New England Conservatory Jazz Orchestra 10-28-4 has
Ken Schaphorst conducting his own arrangements of Oliver Nelson's
Stolen Moments, his own pieces: Amnesia, Subterranean,
and an arrangement of Cole Porters 'just one of those things' he titles Lacy's Things.

Miles Davis', Last Time in Boston
My son Liam gifted me the tickets for Miles' last time live in Boston.
The wonderful night in the resulted in a series of ink brush drawings.
This is one arrangement of 50 or so individual quick brush strokes representations,
could be more, depending on how I'd count when 2 figures were on one card.

Bob Young's photographer got a shot of me arranging, seeing groups, clusterings,
of the Miles'Sketches. The Boston Herald Jazz Critic wandered by my print display
and was enthused enough to introduce my work to his Herald readers in December of 1993.

ROSWELL RUDD......BARRY ALTSCHUL......DAVE DOUGLASS also Brad Jones on bass
In the early sixties 'JB' [Jack Bernstein] with the MIT Jazz Club brought Archie Shepp
into Kresge Auditorium with Beaver Harris, on drums, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and
Roswell Rudd, trombone. I taxied all but Archie around both towns in my
'64 white Ford Econoline window van during the day of the gig.

......Jimmy Garrison visited for supper at the Ashford Street home and studio.
He loved and I gifted him a small pinkish 2x4wrap raw canvass painting.
On my Koss earphones he closed his eyes and wept while he listened, heard after
Coltrane's death, the recording of their Playing of 'My Favorite Things"
for his first time in our living room. At Kresge, there were delays backstage,
Garrison came out with another brilliant solo intro until Shepp, Rudd and Harris
took the stage and smoothly began to play with him.
We recently had this chance to enjoy Roswell Rudd's braying trombone again
this time with the trumpet of Dave Douglas, Charlie Kolhase brandishing saxaphones, at Harvard's Sander's theatre.

STEVE LACY/ TEN OF DUKES

STEVE LACY and IRENE AEBI at the MFA

STEVE LACY at the MFA,TEN OF DUKES solo

STEVE LACY at the Near East

STEVE LACY plays Chagrin during the NEC Charlie Parker Festival
Cover of the Parker Festival watercolors catalogue.

Posted by bill at September 25, 2004 02:18 PM