Suga' in My Bowl
Hank Williams
Sunday 9/18/2016 Show: Ibrahim Maalouf
Photo: Ibrahim Maalouf | Photo Credit: Jean-Paul Lesage, 2014 Pleins Feux Festival
The next show will air on Sunday, September 18, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This broadcast features an interview with trumpeter and composer Ibrahim Maalouf.
Ibrahim Maalouf discovered the trumpet with his father Nassim Maalouf – a former student of Maurice André and the first Arabic trumpeter to play Western classical music. He studied modern, classical, baroque and contemporary concertos, and at the same time was surrounded by Arabic classical, ethnic and traditional music. All those types of music were based on makams (Arabic modes), and Ibrahim could reproduce them thanks to his father’s invention in the sixties – the quarter-tone trumpet (with a fourth valve). The music that comes out of this particular trumpet is the expression of an age-old culture. Nobody before his father had thought of paying tribute to it by adapting the Arabic musical language to the trumpet through the real quarter tones system.
As a boy, Maalouf used to dream of becoming an architect in order to rebuild Lebanon. Instead he built his life around the rich and mixed heritage which he can communicate through his music.
After a prestigious classical career with several international awards (France, Hungary, Finland, USA), the 1er prix of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, and after having collaborated with many symphony and chamber orchestras, as well as various ensembles throughout the world, Maalouf became a well known figure on the music scene thanks to his collaboration with singers such as Sting, Amadou and Mariam, Lhasa de Sela , Salif Keita, Vanessa Paradis and many others who wanted to use his sound and his unique playing style to color their music.
Maalouf has long been one of the most sought after musicians to accompany such artists in a wide variety of styles, not only in the studios but also onstage. And yet despite the pleasure and rich artistic experience gained from working with these artists, Maalouf hasn’t been sidetracked from his own priorities: composing and developing his work in a highly personal manner so that the extent of his gifts as an instrumentalist – and the diversity of his own influences – can express themselves fully.
Maalouf was rapidly recognized by the Jazz world and his five albums were unanimously acclaimed by the national and international press. After Diasporas (2007), Diachronism (2009), Diagnostic (2011), Wind (film soundtrack-2012), and Illusions (2013) for which he received from the French Music Awards the prize of Best World Music Album.
Maalouf also composes music for symphonic orchestras, different ensembles, and film scores. His film credits include the soundtracks of Prey to the Wind, Smart Ass, Yves Saint Laurent, and Red Rose. Additionally, he teaches improvisation to all instruments in a Conservatoire Supérieur in Paris.
In 2006, Maalouf created his own label to produce his albums but also more recently to produce other projects and artists.
His release Kalthoum (2015) is a celebration of women who changed the course of history and whose artistic influence has had an impact even in our present lives. Maalouf says “I chose a symbolic figure, a true landmark in the history of the Arab people, and is also the voice that I heard the most since my infancy: Oum Kalthoum.”
Kalthoum is based on “Alf Leila Wa Leila” (“One Thousand and One Nights “), one of the biggest hits of the Egyptian diva Oum Kalthoum. Maalouf and pianist Frank Woeste “translated” the suite into a fairly conventional jazz suite, but kept its innovative blending. This 1969 song composed by Baligh Hamidi is a suite of about an hour, with a chorus of 3 minutes and couplets from 5-25 minutes. Maalouf says: “Improvisation, in the original version as in this version, is important, but this result is mostly a series of scenes in which the staging was exciting to transcribe.”
Recorded and mixed in New York with the same team as the 2011 Wind album, Kalthoum continues his collaboration with Larry Grenadier (bass), Clarence Penn (drums), Mark Turner (Saxophone) and Frank Woeste (piano).
Red & Black Light (2015) focuses on strong women using primarily an electro-pop style. The personnel features Eric Legnini (keyboards), François Delporte (guitar) Stéphane Galland (drums).
Bio adapted from the Impulse! Records description of Kalthoum and other sources.
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones. Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Ibrahim Maalouf will be making a rare US appearance at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room on September 30th and October 1st. He’ll also be at the Monterey and San Francisco Jazz Festivals and have standalone concerts in Columbus OH; and Montreal and Quebec City, Canada. See his website for dates.
Web Extras
Watch Maalouf play “Red & Black Light” in this live clip.
Watch this swinging live clip of “Khaltoum”.
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Sunday 9/04/2016 Show: Richard Bona
Photo: Richard Bona | Flickr user tom.beetz. Some Rights Reserved. Creative Commons CC-NC-BY-ND.
The next show will air on Sunday, September 4, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This broadcast features an interview with bassist and multi instrumentalist Richard Bona.
Fans call him “The African Sting,” critics call him a pro, but it’s his unique and electrifying style of connecting with his audience that titles him what he really is—a true musician. Richard Bona’s seemingly effortless voice, fierce skills on the bass, unique songwriting/arranging expertise and ability to learn just about any instrument simply from watching, position him as a rare African artist to have established an unscalable reputation on an international platform.
Originally from Cameroon, Bona remains true to his roots, with African rhythms reflected in each of his seven albums; the first three, Scenes from My Life, Reverence and Munia display his unique approach to storytelling through sounds. Seeking inspiration from his origins, the themes of Bona’s albums address international issues which mirror his desire of using music to take a stance on issues affecting the oppressed. As an artist with a purpose, he expanded into new musical territories and teamed up with Congolese star, Lokua Kanza and Antillais singer/composer Gerald Toto to create the 2004 collective, Toto, Bona, Lokua on which Bona wrote four tracks.
The trio then hit the road and toured across France; however, Bono remained in Europe to tour with guitarist Mike Stern and guest star on Japanese guitarist Kazumi Watanabe’s album Mo Bop 2. Shortly after, the pair embarked upon a tour of Japan, providing Bona with the opportunity to incorporate the culture and sounds of a new territory into his work. Furthermore, he toured with Pat Metheny and appeared as a guest on two of Bobby McFerrin’s albums, along with numerous notable collaborations.
He later garnered recognition at the Victoires du Jazz Awards where he won the trophy for “Best International Artist of 2004;” such a prestigious award confirmed his ability to appeal to a multitude of audiences ranging from jazz, pop, bossa nova, traditional, afro-beat and funk. In 2005, Bona guest appeared on Mario Canonge’s album Rhyzome and contributed to the soundtrack for Pascal Plisson’s film Massai, les guerriers de la pluie. Also known for his role in the group, Steps Ahead, Bona has performed on many stages such as the Adelaide International Guitar Festival and with many luminaries such as John Legend for his album, Tiki, which was also nominated for a Grammy in 2007 for “Best Contemporary World Music Album.”
Despite the fact that he spent the entirety of 2008 and 2009 on a non-stop tour, Bona released The Ten Shades of Blues, which illustrates his experience with different shades of the blues that he interacted with during his tours throughout locations such as the Sahel, Brazil, India, United States and Cameroon. Shortly after, Bona was honored by the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal with the Antonio Carlos Jobim Award; as one of seven recipients, he is distinguished as an artist in the field of world music whose influence on the evolution of jazz is widely recognized. He also received the prestigious SACEM Jazz Award (Grand Prix Jazz SACEM) in 2012 for the Jazz Grand Prize. Additionally, his certified Gold 2013 album, Bonafied, demonstrates a fusion of cultures in which he is continuously developing into a new album that will be toured internationally. With numerous awards, performances, and years of expertise, Bona has become one of the most accomplished and sought-after musicians of this generation. As he continues to redefine his sound, Richard has released his Afro-Cuban project Mandekan Cubano on June 2016 with his new album Heritage.
Bio from Richard Bona’s website.
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones. Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Bona will be appearing at Club Bonafide from September 9-10 with Mandekan Cubano.
Web Extras
Watch Bona in a live version of “Teen Town” with a great solo at the beginning.
Watch another amazing Bona solo.
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Sunday 8/21/2016 Show: Connie Crothers Memorial
Photo: Connie Crothers at Vision 21 2016 | Joyce Jones. Some Rights Reserved. Creative Commons CC-NC-BY-ND.
The next show will air on Sunday, August 21, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This broadcast is a memorial to the late pianist Connie Crothers.
Connie Crothers expressed her musical life as performer, recording artist and teacher releasing feeling–her source–through spontaneous improvisation. This edition is a memorial broadcast in honor of Connie Crothers by guest contributor Chris Becker, who provides an interview he recorded for his book released earlier this year titled Freedom of Expression: Interviews with Women in Jazz. Additional remembrances will be provided by Arts for Arts/Vision Festival organizer Patricia Nicholson Parker, percussionist/drummer Warren Smith and trumpeter Lewis “Flip” Barnes.
As a solo performer, she appeared in the Berlin Jazztage, Jazz at Middleheim when she received a feature article in Knack, the Toronto International Jazz Festival, and at Carnegie Recital Hall, presented by Lennie Tristano. Tristano wrote on her first record, “Perception,” SteepleChase, “Connie Crothers is the most original musician it has ever been my privilege to work with.”
Crothers recorded duo with Max Roach as part of his historic duets recording project–”Swish,” New Artists–and performed duo with Roach in Tokyo, Bologna, New Orleans and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. They were honored by Harvard University as Visiting Jazz Artists; during the ceremony they performed with the Harvard University Band. For this concert, Anthony Braxton wrote a composition for them.
Bio excerpts from Connie Crothers’s website.
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones.
Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Details for a memorial service haven’t been released yet. We’ll be sure to share them when they are. Watch our Facebook page for details and we’ll be sure to announce it on upcoming On the Bandstand segments, which also appear weekly on our blog.
Web Extras
Watch Crothers talk about the value of art in this short promo clip for the 2015 Vision Festival.
Watch Crothers lead a quartet at Brooklyn’s Roulette in this live 2014 clip.
Watch Crothers and Max Roach in a 2000 live performance from Bologna, Italy.
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Sunday 8/7/2016 Show: Will Calhoun
Photo: courtesy of Motéma Records
The next show will air on Sunday, August 7, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This broadcast features an interview with drummer and percussionist Will Calhoun. Hard-hitting Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun continues in his Jazz roots on his soon to be released Celebrating Elvin Jones. Join us while we discuss the journey that lead to this recording.
Will Calhoun, the widely acclaimed drummer from the Bronx, New York, graduated from the Berklee School of Music in Boston, where he received a Bachelors degree in Music Production and Engineering. He was also the recipient of the prestigious Buddy Rich Jazz Masters Award for outstanding performance by a drummer.
For all you Living Coloür fans, the band has been working on new material under the title of Shade and is scheduled to release in 2017.
Celebrating Elvin Jones, Calhoun’s second project on Motema, includes former Suga’ guest Christian McBride and has a release date of August 19. Signed copies of this recording will be available as a thank you gift for a pledge amount of $25, which also includes a year’s WBAI membership. Also, there are still a few copies of 
Geri Allen, David Murray, and Terri Lyne Carrington most recent project Perfection, recorded under the MAC Power Trio group name. This CD is available as a thank you gift for a membership pledge amount of $25 to ten (10) listeners. There are also a few autographed copies of Quincy Jones’s Miles and Me book available for a $35 pledge. All of these make great holiday/ birthday/ special occasion gifts — if you can resist keeping them for yourself!
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones.
Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Will Calhoun will perform work from his new Celebrating Elvin Jones CD at a free outdoor performance in Harlem at Marcus Garvey Park on August 12 as part of the Jazzmobile series. You can catch him in a totally different vibe on the 28th with Living Coloür at the Afropunk festival in Brooklyn’s Commodore Barry Park.
Web Extras
Read our reviews and coverage of Will’s shows on our blog.
Watch the video preview of the Celebrating Elvin Jones with Will and other band members.
Watch Calhoun light up the room with a drum solo at a Living Colour concert.
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Sunday 7/24/2016 Show: Geri Allen
Photo: Geri Allen at the 2016 Vision Festival | Joyce Jones. Some Rights Reserved. Creative Commons CC-NC-BY-ND.
The next show will air on Sunday, July 24, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This broadcast features an interview with Geri Allen: an award winning pianist and composer who is also an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan. In this installment of the show, we’ll explore a bit of Allen’s life and incredible talent.
Professor Allen is currently Director of the Jazz Studies Department at the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a master’s degree in ethnomusicology.
Geri Allen, pianist/composer, bandleader, educator and Guggenheim Fellow, is the first recipient of the Soul Train, Lady of Soul Award for Jazz. In 2011 Geri Allen, was nominated for an NAACP Award for her Timeline, Tap Quartet Project. Allen is the first woman, and youngest person to receive the Danish Jazz Par Prize. She is a cutting edge performing artist, and continues to concertize internationally.
She is a product of the Detroit Public School System, Howard University and the University of Pittsburgh. Allen moved to NYC in 1982 after completing an advanced degree in ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh, and for the past thirty years has recorded, performed and collaborated with some of the most important artists of our time including Ornette Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, George Shirley, Dewey Redman, Jimmy Cobb, Sandra Turner-Barnes, Charles Lloyd, Marcus Belgrave, Betty Carter, Jason Moran, Lizz Wright, Marian McPartland, Roy Brooks, Vijay Iyer, Charlie Haden and Paul Motion, Laurie Anderson, Terri Lynn Carrington and Esperanza Spalding, Hal Wilner, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Dianne Reeves, Joe Lovano, Dr. Billy Taylor, Carrie Mae Weems, Angelique Kidjo, Mary Wilson and the Supremes, S. Epatha Merkerson, Farah Jasmin Griffin, Howard University’s Afro-Blue and many others.
Allen is a recent recipient of the Howard University Pinnacle Award presented by Professor Connaitre Miller and Afro Blue. Ms. Allen has been a faculty member at Howard University, the New England Conservatory, and the University of Michigan where she taught for ten years.
In 2014, Allen was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Music Degree by Berklee College of Music in Boston. The Honorable Congressman John Conyers Jr. presented the 2014 Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Jazz Legacy Award to Ms. Allen.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra commissioned Geri Allen in 2013, to compose new works for the 50th Anniversary celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. She composed a piece “Stones & Streams” a work for orchestra, chorus, piano and narrator.
She is the musical director of the Mary Lou Williams Collective, recording and performing the music of the great Mary Lou Williams, including her sacred work, Mass For Peace. Allen collaborated with S. Epatha Merkerson and Farah Jasmin Griffin on two music theatre projects, “Great Apollo Women”, which premiered at the legendary Apollo Theatre, and “A Conversation with Mary Lou”, which premiered at the Harlem Stage, as an educational component for the Harlem Stage collaboration. The featured artist was Carmen Lundy, and Allen’s long time trio members Kenny Davis and Kassa Overall). The University of Pittsburgh hosted the first ever Mary Lou Williams Cyber Symposium where ViJay Iyer, Jason Moran, and Allen performed a three piano improvisation from Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pittsburgh, in real time using Internet 2 technology.
Geri Allen is the product of a family of educators. Her father Mount V. Allen Jr is a retired Detroit Public School Principal, and her mother Barbara Jean was a defense contract administrator for the U.S. Government. “Our parents insisted my brother and I go to college. We took their advice. I pursued a career as a jazz performer, and completed my undergrad degree at Howard, and my master’s at Pitt. Mount pursued a career as a jazz advocate and presented, completing his masters at Lehigh University. He is currently Director of Operations, at the San Francisco Jazz Center.”
Geri Allen, a mother of three, acknowledges her family for making it possible for her to sustain longevity in a sometimes challenging and always changing field of the music industry.
Allen has enjoyed a very successful over thirty-year performing career as a NYC jazz musician. She has now returned to Pittsburgh to continue her legacy as a cutting edge pianist/composer, recording and performing artist. Allen is just as passionate about her work with her undergrad and graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh, and she firmly believes that “meaningful access to music is one of the keys to success in any field, and music informs our sensitivity to others”. She is a fierce advocate for all children of all ages to have direct hands on access to music, and the creative and empowering process jazz inspires.
Allen’s most recent recorded project is titled Perfection with other former Suga’ guests David Murray and Terri Lyne Carrington under the group named the MAC Power Trio. This recording will be available as a thank you gift for a membership pledge amount of $25 to ten (10) listeners. There are also a few autographed copies of Quincy Jones’s Miles and Me book available for a $35 pledge if you missed out on that last time.
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones.
Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Geri Allen is at the Village Vanguard from August 2-7.
Web Extras
Watch Geri Allen’s trio perform “Dark Prince” in this 1998 live performance in Germany.
Watch Allen perform “Our Lady” Live in 2014 at the Berklee College of Music’s commencement concert.
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Sunday 7/10/2016 Show: Mino Cinelu
Photo: Mino Cinelu at a 2016 practice session | Joyce Jones. Some Rights Reserved. Creative Commons CC-NC-BY-ND.
The next show will air on Sunday, July 10, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This broadcast features an interview with percussionist, guitarist, and vocalist Mino Cinelu.
As child, Mino Cinelu first learned to play the guitar. He discovered the drums and percussion and then became professional musician at the age of sixteen. Traveling between London and New York, he collaborated with a huge number of musicians, both in the studios and onstage, people whose origins (jazz, funk, rap, electro, flamenco and pop) were as diverse as Mino’s associations with them were prestigious (Miles Davis, Sting, Weather Report, Herbie Hanckok, Lou Reed, Vicente Amigo, Stevie Wonder, etc…) As a composer, multi-instrumentalist, programmer and producer, Mino has left mark on many kind of music, and his reputation has earned him the status of “a man of all talents”. He has 2 solo albums “Mino Cinelu” and “Quest journey” and the CD of the soundtrack of the film “La Californie”, Prize nominated, Cannes Film Festival.
Today, he is a renowned composer, producer and band leader. The World Jazz Ensemble showcases his maturity as a musician and his boundless passion for new sounds.
(Taken from Mino Cinelu’s blog and website.)
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones.
Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Mino Cinelu will be at at Superfine Bar in Brooklyn’s DUMBO on Friday July 15.
Web Extras
Watch Herbie Hancock introduce a live solo by Cinelu at the Montreaux Jazz Fest.
Watch Cinelu in a short live percussion solo.
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Sunday 6/26/2016 Show: Andrew Cyrille part 2
Photo: Andrew Cyrille at 2016 Vision Fest | Joyce Jones. Some Rights Reserved. Creative Commons CC-NC-BY-ND.
The next show will air on Sunday, June 26, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This broadcast will wrap up our coverage of Vision 21 with part two of an interview with composer and drummer/percussionist Andrew Cyrille. This concluding half of the conversation will focus on Mr. Cyrille’s career from his time with Cecil Taylor until the present.
Andrew Cyrille, born in Brooklyn on November 10, 1939, studied with Philly Joe Jones in 1958 and then spent the first half of the 1960s studying in New York at Juilliard and the Hartnett School of Music. At the same time, he was performing with jazz artists ranging from Mary Lou Williams, Coleman Hawkins, and Illinois Jacquet to Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, Walt Dickerson, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, among others. He also played with Nigerian drummer Babtunde Olatunji and worked with dancers. In 1964 he formed what would prove to be an eleven-year association with Cecil Taylor, a gig that brought him new acclaim and established him in the vanguard of jazz drumming.
Starting in 1969, Cyrille played in a number of percussion groups with notable drummers including Kenny Clarke, Milford Graves, Don Moye, Rashied Ali, Daniel Ponce, Michael Carvin, and Vladimir Tarasov. Cyrille formed his group Maono (“feelings”) in 1975, with its fluid membership dictated by the forces his compositions called for rather than vice versa. Since leaving Taylor’s group, he has also worked with such top-flight peers as David Murray, Muhal Richard Abrams, Mal Waldron, Horace Tapscott, James Newton, and Oliver Lake, was the drummer on Billy Bang’s A Tribute to Stuff Smith (Soul Note 121216), notable for being the last studio session of Sun Ra.
An artist-in-residence and teacher at Antioch College (Yellow Springs, Ohio) from 1971 to 1973, Cyrille has also taught at the Graham Windham Home for Children in New York and is currently a faculty member at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
(Taken from Drummersworld – Top 500 Drummers)
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones.
Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Web Extras
Read/view our expanded coverage of Vision 21 on our blog, where we have daily reviews, photos, and more!
Watch Cyrille with saxophonist Kidd Jordan and bassist William Parker in a live performance at the Vision Festival.
Watch Cyrille with TRIO3 collaborators saxophonist Oliver Lake and bassist Reggie Workman in a live performance at the Vision Festival.
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Sunday 6/12/2016 Show: Andrew Cyrille
Photo: Andrew Cyrille at 2016 Vision Fest | Joyce Jones. Some Rights Reserved. Creative Commons CC-NC-BY-ND.
The next show will air on Sunday, June 12, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This broadcast will wrap up our coverage of Vision 21 with part one of an interview with composer and drummer/percussionist Andrew Cyrille. Part one of this conversation will focus on Mr. Cyrille’s career up to his time with Cecil Taylor.
Andrew Cyrille, born in Brooklyn on November 10, 1939, studied with Philly Joe Jones in 1958 and then spent the first half of the 1960s studying in New York at Juilliard and the Hartnett School of Music. At the same time, he was performing with jazz artists ranging from Mary Lou Williams, Coleman Hawkins, and Illinois Jacquet to Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, Walt Dickerson, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, among others. He also played with Nigerian drummer Babtunde Olatunji and worked with dancers. In 1964 he formed what would prove to be an eleven-year association with Cecil Taylor, a gig that brought him new acclaim and established him in the vanguard of jazz drumming.
Starting in 1969, Cyrille played in a number of percussion groups with notable drummers including Kenny Clarke, Milford Graves, Don Moye, Rashied Ali, Daniel Ponce, Michael Carvin, and Vladimir Tarasov. Cyrille formed his group Maono (“feelings”) in 1975, with its fluid membership dictated by the forces his compositions called for rather than vice versa. Since leaving Taylor’s group, he has also worked with such top-flight peers as David Murray, Muhal Richard Abrams, Mal Waldron, Horace Tapscott, James Newton, and Oliver Lake, was the drummer on Billy Bang’s A Tribute to Stuff Smith (Soul Note 121216), notable for being the last studio session of Sun Ra.
An artist-in-residence and teacher at Antioch College (Yellow Springs, Ohio) from 1971 to 1973, Cyrille has also taught at the Graham Windham Home for Children in New York and is currently a faculty member at the New School for Social Research in New York City.
(Taken from Drummersworld – Top 500 Drummers)
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones.
Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Web Extras
Read/view our expanded coverage of Vision 21 on our blog, where we have daily reviews, photos, and more!
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Sunday 5/29/2016 Show: Vision Festival 21 Preview
Photo: Bassist Henry Grimes — 2016 Vision Festival honoree
The next show will air on Sunday, May 29, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This membership/fund raising broadcast will preview the 2016 Vision Festival and feature interviews with pianist Geri Allen (in her first time Vision appearance), guitarist Marc Ribot, drummer Andrew Cyrille and composer/vocalist Lisa Sokolof honoring the career of bassist Henry Grimes. As usual, we will hear from organizer Patricia Nicholson Parker.
WBAI is media sponsor of Vision 21, New York’s longest running jazz festival. It starts June 5 with films on the Sun Ra Arkestra at Anthology Film Archives and moves to Judson Memorial Church from June 7 through 12 for nightly live avant garde jazz, poetry, dance, and visual art. See the full schedule at their site.
During this membership program, Arts for Art has generously donated 3 one-day passes to offer as thank you gifts for those who support WBAI-FM. You can pledge online or call in during the show. Suga’ will also offer 7 autographed copies of Quincy Troupe’s Miles & Me as a thank you gift for a pledge to help WBAI-FM/Pacifica Radio in New York continue to provide programming you enjoy.
From the publisher’s description of Miles and Me:
Quincy Troupe’s candid account of his friendship with Miles Davis is a revealing portrait of a great musician and an intimate study of a unique relationship. It is also an engrossing chronicle of the author’s own development, both artistic and personal. As Davis’s collaborator on Miles: The Autobiography,Troupe–one of the major poets to emerge from the 1960s–had exceptional access to the musician. This memoir goes beyond the life portrayed in the autobiography to describe in detail the processes of Davis’s spectacular creativity and the joys and difficulties his passionate, contradictory temperament posed to the men’s friendship. It shows how Miles Davis, both as a black man and an artist, influenced not only Quincy Troupe but whole generations.
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones.
Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Web Extras
Watch the trailer for Vision 21:
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Sunday 5/15/2016 Show: Miles and Me
Photo: Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe |
The next show will air on Sunday, May 15, 2016 from 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM Monday Eastern Standard Time on WBAI, 99.5 FM in the NYC metro area or streaming online at wbai.org. This membership/fund raising broadcast will feature interviews with poet/writer, Miles Davis biographer Quincy Troupe and Margaret Porter Troupe, who is the founder of The Gloster Project. In addition to talking about Quincy’s book Miles and Me which covers his relationship with Miles Davis, we will discuss an upcoming Harlem Arts Salon fundraiser to benefit The Gloster Project on what would have been Miles Davis’s 91st birthday on May 26.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Quincy Troupe is an awarding-winning author of ten volumes of poetry, three children’s books, and six non-fiction works; Earl the Pearl: My Story, a memoir of legendary NY Knicks basketball star, Earl Monroe, (Rodale, April 2013) is Troupe’s newest non-fiction work. In 2010 Troupe received the American Book Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. Among Troupe’s best-selling works are Miles: The Autobiography of Miles Davis and his memoir, Miles & Me, which is under development as a major motion picture.
Margaret Porter Troupe grew up on a farm in rural Amite County, Mississippi, on the outskirts of Gloster. In addition to enjoying careers in acting, in advertising, as a published writer, Margaret started several businesses including Porter Troupe Gallery, a contemporary art gallery; VeVe: Visual Environments for Visual Education, an award-winning nonprofit arts education organization providing after-school arts programs for children in San Diego, and Margaret Porter Troupe Arts Projects which administers the Harlem Arts Salon and The Gloster Project.
Suga’ will offer 10 autographed copies of Quincy Troupe’s Miles & Me as a thank you gift for a pledge to help WBAI-FM/Pacifica Radio in New York continue to provide programming you enjoy.
From the publisher’s description of Miles and Me:
Quincy Troupe’s candid account of his friendship with Miles Davis is a revealing portrait of a great musician and an intimate study of a unique relationship. It is also an engrossing chronicle of the author’s own development, both artistic and personal. As Davis’s collaborator on Miles: The Autobiography,Troupe–one of the major poets to emerge from the 1960s–had exceptional access to the musician. This memoir goes beyond the life portrayed in the autobiography to describe in detail the processes of Davis’s spectacular creativity and the joys and difficulties his passionate, contradictory temperament posed to the men’s friendship. It shows how Miles Davis, both as a black man and an artist, influenced not only Quincy Troupe but whole generations.
Troupe has written that Miles Davis was “irascible, contemptuous, brutally honest, ill-tempered when things didn’t go his way, complex, fair-minded, humble, kind and a son-of-a-bitch.” The author’s love and appreciation for Davis make him a keen, though not uncritical, observer. He captures and conveys the power of the musician’s presence, the mesmerizing force of his personality, and the restless energy that lay at the root of his creativity. He also shows Davis’s lighter side: cooking, prowling the streets of Manhattan, painting, riding his horse at his Malibu home. Troupe discusses Davis’s musical output, situating his albums in the context of the times–both political and musical–out of which they emerged. Miles and Me is an unparalleled look at the act of creation and the forces behind it, at how the innovations of one person can inspire both those he knows and loves and the world at large.
This program is hosted, engineered, produced, and edited by Joyce Jones.
Listen for our On the Bandstand segment with NYC metro area appearances of Suga’ guests at the end of the first hour with Associate Producer Hank Williams.
Web Extras
Listen to Troupe discuss Davis’s “Blue in Green” on NPR’s News and Notes.
Hank Williams is assistant producer for Suga’ in My Bowl and produces the weekly “On the Bandstand” segment as well as running the show’s website and blog, where he has reviewed several jazz festivals. His writing has also appeared in Left Turn magazine and American Music Review. He teaches at Lehman and Hunter colleges in the City University of New York system.
Suga' in My Bowl 