"A Gal A Night Is Enough For Any Man"

            Thirty years ago in June of 1979 trumpeter/ flugelhornist Mark Morganelli founded the Jazz Forum in the East Village. It was a place where both musicians who already had paid some dues and established their names to some degree, and new comers, trying to gain a foot-hold in the highly competitive New York scene, were given opportunities to play in an informal atmosphere for an aware and interested audience.

 

For three years there pianist Barry Harris taught instrumentalists and vocalists every Monday evening before opening his Jazz Cultural Theater as classroom/ public performance space on 8th Avenue a few blocks south of Madison Square Garden.

 

Meanwhile the Jazz Forum was also presenting large ensembles such as Morganelli’s rehearsal band, Chuck Israels’ National Jazz Ensemble, Jaki Byard’s Apollo Stompers and Charli Persip’s Superband, in addition to the jam sessions run by master drummer Jo Jones.

 

When Morganelli moved the Jazz Forum to Broadway at Bleecker Street in 1981 it continued apace into ’83 and was the site of benefit concerts to help out musicians in need; the making of an award-winning film, Music in Monk Time; live radio broadcasts of various groups from one led by George Coleman to a quartet featuring the pianos of John Hicks and Albert Dailey.

 

Bruce Lundvall’s Elektra Musician label recorded sessions there for “live” audiences with the Red Rodney/Ira Sullivan Quintet; and Woody Shaw’s group featuring Bobby Hutcherson. I was at the Rodney/Sullivan date and granted that their chemistry guaranteed real fireworks, the atmosphere created by the Forum and its audience contributed to the great vibe of the LP.

 

After the Forum’s run ended in ’83, Morganelli created Jazz Forum Arts, now in its 24th year. Many veteran listeners will remember the outstanding series he presented in Riverside Park on Manhattan’s West Side. This was followed by the long-running Jazz at the Music Hall in Tarrytown, NY and many other events at venues in adjacent areas. Every summer he presents 50 free concerts in Westchester County. In recent years he has produced at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater where, on June 22, the Jazz Forum’s 30th Anniversary was celebrated.

 

The evening’s nexus was built on piano trios led by some of the music’s finest keyboard practitioners: Barry Harris, Kenny Barron and Cedar Walton; top-shelf bassists Ray Drummond, Rufus Reid and George Mraz; and pre-eminent percussionists, Leroy Williams, Louis Hayes, Al Foster and Jimmy Cobb.

 

Other luminaries included Lou Donaldson, alto sax and vocal; George Coleman, tenor sax; Joe Lovano, tenor sax; John Scofield, guitar; John Hendricks & Co.; Paquito D’Rivera, clarinet & alto sax; and Claudio Roditi, trumpet.

 

The last two named were joined in the horn department for the grand finale by producer Morganelli, with a couple of mellow flugel choruses, and a young trumpeter, surname Rivkin. I didn’t catch the agnomen but Rivkin riffed well.

 

It was certainly, from the standpoint of pacing and quality, a gala night and to quote Groucho, “A gal a night is enough for any man.”

 

The gal at Carnegie Hall two nights later (the second of two successive concerts) was Diana Krall, surrounded by her sidemen—guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Jeff Hamilton—and backed by no less than a 41-piece string, woodwind, flute, brass and percussion orchestra led by Alan Broadbent who, at one point in the proceedings made it 42 by taking a turn at his piano.

 

The sound at Carnegie, with which I usually find something to carp about, was basically okay except for the high end of La Krall’s piano that sometimes was tinny.

 

She was anything but, whether backed by sumptuous sound and taste of the huge ensemble on “Where Or When” or swinging blithely with the quartet on “The Frim Fram Sauce.” There was no intermission but the evening moved along seamlessly with the moods well mixed.

 

Congratulations to Diana, all the musicians and producer George Wein for filling some of the gaps left by his not being able to present his annual festival, and on the occasion of the announcement (that I picked up on the internet while covering the Italian jazz scene in July) that there will be a George Wein NY jazz festival in the summer of 2010.

 

Speaking of Italy, from where I am writing this column, I have two CDs to recommend on the Italian label, abeat, that can be reached through its website at abeat.com

 

They both involve the fine pianist Dado Moroni, who has appeared in New York many times. Solo Dado (the title is self-explanatory) is the first; the other is Humanity, a duo with Tom Harrell. ‘Nuff said. Ciao ‘till September.