"I haven't a great jazz band, and I don't want one." - Glenn Miller

Glenn Miller isn't one to waste words. And he doesn't waste any describing the music his band is playing these nights at the Hotel Pennsylvania here. Soft-spoken, sincere and earnest in his conversation, Miller is now finding himself at the top of the nation's long list of favorite maestri.

"We leaders are criticized for a lot of things," says Miller. "It's always true after a band gets up there and is recognized by the public. Some of the critics, Down Beat's among them, point their fingers at us and charge us with forsaking the real jazz. Maybe so. Maybe not. It's all in what you define as 'real jazz.' It happens that to our ears harmony comes first. A dozen colored bands have a better beat than mine.

"We Stress Harmony"

Our band stresses harmony. Eight brass gives us a lot of leeway to put to use on scores of ideas we've had in mind for a long time. The years of serious study I've had with legitimate teachers finally is paying off in enabling me to write arrangements employing unusual, rich harmonies, many never before used in dance bands."

Glenn isn't fooling either. How he was the first to use a clarinet lead above four saxes is fairly old stuff at this late date. He went on from there to experiment with trombone-trumpet combinations to achieve entirely original ensemble effects. That's keeps the Miller band a step ahead of competition.

Did Not Gripe about Chester

In recent weeks reports blossomed forth that Miller, hearing Bob Chester's band, which employs a somewhat similar instrumental style, "hit the roof" and demanded that RCA-Victor drop the Chester band from its list of recording combos. No report could be more untrue. Leonard Joy, Victor chieftain, denounced the rumor.

"Neither Glenn nor any member of his orchestra has ever approached RCA-Victor regarding the Chester band," said Joy.

Small talk irks Glenn. He's no tin god, and he has his faults like all of us, but he isn't the kind to bellyache about competition. He's had plenty of it, all down the line, and until eight months ago-when his platters started clicking and sent the band's stock up bullishly-he was a pretty sad and disillusioned guy.

"I thought I had swell ideas, and wonderful musicians," he recalls, "but the hell of it, no one else did."

Then All of a Sudden...

Then it happened. Glenn remembers the night, and so does his wife. "We were playing the Meadowbrook early last spring," he says, "and up front, all of a sudden, the band hit me. It was clicking. For the first time I knew it was playing like I wanted it to. It sounded wonderful. I didn't say anything-just drove home and told my wife. But I prayed it would last."

Later on, the second spurt hit the band the same way.

"We were then at Glen Island Casino, and it hasn't been long ago," says Glenn. "Bang, again the boys hit me hard. They sounded wonderful, better than ever before, better than any band I had ever heard. When I drove home that night I knew we had hit the top. And believe me, from that night on everything broke right. My problem now is to keep it there. I don't expect any more bangs coming right off the stand at me."

Glenn thinks Benny Goodman is the hardest working leader in the business. His admiration for Benny, as a friend and as a clarinet-playing leader, isn't easy to restrain. Glenn today will do battle arguing that BG is the greatest clarinetist ever to lick a reed. The two get along great, and why not? They've known each other 15 years, shared rooms, split dimes to eat, and risen to fame.

Actually, this Miller man is a quiet sort of guy. He does little back slapping; employs less loud talk. When he discusses his band, you feel a subtle sarcasm behind his words, because for nearly two years he worked like a fool, borrowed money, traveled constantly, and fought like a wild man to keep his band-and his ideas on dance music-intact. He doesn't gloat about victory today. He's too big a man, and he is wise enough to know that a great group can slip fast in a hurry. He's proud that he has a band of virtual "unknown" kids in his crew; kids which he found himself and which he has taught personally. Most of them are in their early twenties; all of them have become professionals since Goodman made his historic rise.

Trouble with "Styles"

I had a time with some of them," he declares. "Take Hal McIntyre on alto. He phrased, breathed and played in every respect like he was playing with Benny's band. I pointed out that maybe there was another way to play sax in a section, and we slowly worked out the style we use now. Sure it was tough, but all the boys know what I want and they're fast to learn."

Result? Miller's saxes are the most famous in the land today.

For the record, Miller was born March 1, 1905, in Clarinda, Iowa. But he didn't stay in corn country long. His parents moved to Denver, and out there, in the land of the Rockies and "tall" air, Glenn learned to play trombone. He was still a moppet when he started playing professionally.

Rose from Noble Band

Glenn first became prominent, nationally, while with Ray Noble's first American dance band five years ago in New York. It was a great outfit-Miller, Spivak, Mince, Cannon, Freeman, Irwin, Thornhill, D'Andrea, and a lot of other terrific musicians-all were members. And it was with Noble that Glenn worked out his early ideas on harmony. He also played with the Dorsey Brothers' band. His decision to form his own crew was somewhat sudden; he hadn't, as the storybooks say, "always dreamed" of leading his own outfit.

Glenn doesn't claim to be a star soloist on his horn. Not as long as Tommy Dorsey lives. Tommy to Glenn, plays the greatest tram in the business. But as a section man, Glenn Miller's on trombone don't bob up often. That's why Glenn chose to organize a band which stresses excellent musicianship and perfect ensembles rather than a band which gets by on one soloist jumping up after another to take hot choruses.

Men All "Great" Guys

The men in the Miller Band? Once he starts talking, Miller won't stop. They're all great. And they were "great" before last Christmas eve when they all got together, pooled their money, purchased a huge shiny new Buick Roadmaster for their boss, and presented it to him in the lobby of the Pennsylvania Hotel a few hours after the band had broken a 14-year attendance record up in Harlem at the Savoy Ballroom.

But Gordon (Tex) Beneke-the young and hungry tenor man whose name rhymes with "panicky" except for the "a" in the latter-is Glenn's fair-haired boy. Miller claims Tex, in another year, will be acclaimed by even the righteous guys as a great man as Hawkins. Already Glenn says Tex is the greatest white tenor alive.

Harmony above Rhythm

But back to the music....Glenn doesn't want a strict jazz band. Of course he likes the pure stuff himself, and he admits Louis Armstrong's old Hot Five and Hot Seven discs of the early 1920's have given him a lot of ideas which he used to advantage. "But the public has to understand music," he says. "By giving the public a rich and full melody, distinctly arranged and well played, all the time creating new tone colors and patterns, I feel we have a better chance of being successful. I want a kick to my band, but I don't want the rhythm to hog the spotlight."

Just one more slant on Glenn Miller's way of thinking. Smart? Not long back he pulled Tommy Mack out of the band to make him manager of the band. Tommy plays trombone. So when Glenn, rehearsing for a record date or a broadcast, wants to step into the control room to check balance, intonation and the like, Tommy drops back, sets up his sliphorn, and no time is lost. The band sounds exactly as it will sound with Glenn riding along with the other three trombones later.

Remember Winchell's Advice

Glenn Miller deserves every break he's gotten. Plenty of the big guy's refused him help when he needed it. He's had to fight for every break. Now that he's at the top he can look back and grin, but he doesn't hold a peeve for anyone.

Meanwhile, he's working harder than ever. He remembers reading in Winchell's column a few years back that you meet the same people on the way down that you met on the way up. Some of those people Glenn doesn't want to mix up with again.

An interview with Eden Atwood

East with Eden - Falling for Jazz

When I was a kid, tall, blue-eyed babes with beautiful hair and skin were called 'vivacious' if they were models, and 'vulnerable' if they were actresses with the same qualities. It was crap of course to be so sexist and to pigeon-hole any girl or dump otherwise unseen and imagined qualities on her, but I kinda know what they meant.

Difficult to sum up in one word the qualities of a beautiful woman who when you see her for the first time, you just want to gather her up in your arms andโ€ฆwell, you know the rest!

There are girls like that who suddenly loom into view,and you have to close your mouth and quit drooling as your built-in babe detector over-rides rational behaviour and has you staring like the village idiot at someone you couldn't get close to in 100 years.

Don't matter how vulnerable she might be, your beer belly, receding hairline, bad teeth and Robert Redford wrinkles ain't gonna hook this or any other sighted babe!

Eden Atwood is one of those girls. You get talking to her and listening to her and suddenly you're back to the days when you were a lovestruck teenager obsessed with Marilyn Monroe in 'Some Like It Hot' or with Doris Day in one of her goofy movies.

Ms Atwood has that quality.

A powerful beauty which at first gently eludes you as you scope each other out, engage in polite introductions and attempt to make sensible conversation. But as the interview progresses, as she unfolds in full-on, intelligent conversation, her beauty manifests itself almost in a variety of personalities somehow, a quality which can hypnotise mere music hacks, her audiences and passing strangers.

And I fear she done hypnotise a few over the years, what with her movie-star good looks and effervescent personality.

The one we see anyway.

As she reveals herself in conversation and on stage, there is an honesty in the lady, and compassion and humour and intelligence, and for one so young, more than a hint of wisdom.

Combine those qualities with simple good looks and you find beauty as nature intended it to be.

Breathtaking and intoxicating!

But I digress! You want to know if she can sing and swing, fronting her band at the Sheraton Grande.

Eden favours ballads and sings with a passion and delivery reminiscent of days gone by, when jazz singers were jazz musicians too. And she has the groove thang nailed, for sure!

She evokes an era when 'jazz' singers were idolised by millions, with hours of worldwide radio play everyday, singing the hits of the day or killer arrangements of those same songs.

It was not named jazz then. What we call jazz today, was once just very good, very popular music, the songs played and arranged by the very best musicians of the day.

And that's where Eden Atwood comes from. That time when singers delivered a song - any song - with feeling, with passion, with expression, with heart. She works with a melody, often using her own arrangements, to remind you that you are listening to that most beautiful of jazz instruments - the human voice.

But the singer and her style are deceptive too. Neither grabs you by the throat immediately, but the subtlety and elegance of her delivery and careful, faultless phrasing pull you in, and in a very short time you know you are in the company of a special voice which knows exactly what is expected of it; a voice that has clearly paid its dues and comes to us from a place way, way down, deep in the heart of jazz.

Word has it that Eden knew from a very early age that she wanted to sing, and at the tender age of three, was doing just that with her father, the late, great Hub Atwood, a valve-trombone player, composer and arranger who worked with artists such as Frank Sinatra and Harry James. Her mother too encouraged Eden's love for popular standards of the day - tunes that she delivers with such authority, elegance and style today.

At age 19, Eden was drawn from her home in Montana, where she is still based today, to Chicago to savour the city's once-great jazz scene, gigging at the legendary Gold Star Sardine Bar, first as a fill in and later as a headliner.

Ever since, she has been touring and recording, and building a reputation today as one of the world's finest jazz voices.

And you can bear witness to that fact here in the Big Mango from 9 pm every night at the 'Living Room' at the Sheraton Grande, Sukhumvit.

Philadelphia-born pianist McCoy Tyner burst onto the jazz scene in 1959 in Benny Golson's and Art Farmer's group, Jazztet. A year and a half later, he joined the John Coltrane Quartet, cutting a number of recordings for Impulse and Blue Note during his five-year stay.

Throughout the '70s, Tyner heightened his reputation as a leader and composer, recording various small groups for Milestone. In 1980, he put his arranging skills out front, forming a big band that continues to impress to this day. This interview was conducted in 1994


Bill King: Is your approach to orchestrating for big band an extension of your style of accompaniment?

McCoy Tyner: Yes, I would say it's an extension of my piano playing. I look at it in various ways, but it's essentially that.

B.K: Was "Greensleeves" from Coltrane's "Africa Brass" album your first recorded orchestration using French horns and a trumpet?

M.T: Yes, it was. I didn't even get credit for it on the record. I wrote for three French horns and a trumpet. It was great to hear it back. John was trying to get me to do more writing. He recognized I had talent in that direction and really encouraged me.

B.K: Are you less conservative with your writing today than you were in the early days?

M.T: I know more now. Obviously, I'm concentrating on it right now because I have the big band, but I really never planned on having such a unit. I always thought I would put one together just for special occasions.

We don't actually work that much, but enough to keep us functioning. We've done three tours of Europe and a lot of the festivals in the U.S. The logistics of touring with this band are complicated. It's like moving a small company, so it's very expensive.

Europe has been quite accomodating and financially capable of supporting us, but in the U.S., it has been a lot more difficult. We've done the Playboy, Monterey and Newport festivals, but have had none of the long runs like we have in Europe.

B.K: Do you have a configuration of instruments you prefer writing for or are you always searching for fresh combinations?

M.T: Actually, the band is set now because I like the particular sound we have. A lot of guys double. I can reach deep into the band and get man combinations.

B.K: You're diplomatic with the arranging chores allowing fellow musicians and orchestrators a hand at shaping your sound. Have you always been so generous?

M.T: I involve the musicians in the fabric of the band so they can feel comfortable. If the bring in a composition that works, we use it. Even though I've written quite a few pieces for the band, I think we now have the repertoire to the point where I'll have to do more writing. On the next album, there's a certain concept I want to see happen, so I'm going to have to write it myself. I won't alter the basic sound, but it will be different.

B.K: Do you still listen to composers like Stravinsky and Debussy for inspiration?

M.T: I've always liked strings. "Fly With The Wind" was my first major project with them. It was something that was always in the back of my mind; an accumulation of all the other music I'd absorbed.

I would like to do more string writing and work with voices as well. My previous projects showed me I could handle it. I've been a pianist all my life, but I've always tried to develop in other directions.

B.K: Do you do a lot of pre-production for your recordings?

M.T: Well, I know what type of album I want to do for my next project. That much is clear. I just completed a recording of duets with Bobby Hutcherson for Blue Note, but my next one is be more contemporary.

B.K: Much has been written about Coltrane's revolutionary recordings of the '60s, but the same could be said about your trio albums, especially "Reaching Fourth". While the industry was focused on Bill Evans, do you think they missed the importance of these trio dates?

M.T: I don't know. In my mind, the press does what it wants to do. Magazines focus on who they want to promote. I don't pay much attention to that.

I think the press is very important, and has been very kind to me over the years, but when they decide to hype someone, you see that person everywhere. It all depends on who's the choice that year. I was one who was always determined never to let things like that affect me.

B.K: You play with such physical strength. How have your hands been able to survive the wear and tear?

M.T: It's the extra skin on some of the fingers.

B.K: Do you do most of your playing in concert, limiting practice time?

M.T:I don't really practice. I mainly use the piano for composing. I'm always working, so I get to play a lot.

B.K: What importance does spirituality play in your music and life?

M.T: I believe it depends on the individual. Spirituality has to be part of one's personality. I'm not really a religious person. It's just a level of consciousness.

B.K: For many people music can be an affective way to channel one's creative energy often producing magnificent results. Do you think more emphasis should be placed on investing in the arts as a means to raise the self-esteem of disaffected youth?

M.T: I think Europe has set the precedent. I'm not speaking of England, but the rest of the continent which has invested a lot of money in presenting the arts. Even with the current economic situation, the Europeans never forget the arts. It's not the last thing to be considered. Over the years, I have thought about spending more time there. I have met many American musicians I never even know existed. Blues singers and jazz artists who are playing there, but can't make a living in the US. (ACMENEWS)

It's the winter of 1964 and Wayne Shorter, a graduate of New York University, is holding down the coveted saxophone chair in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. He has, for some time now, been receiving overtures from Miles Davis to join the trumpeter's band. In the meantime, Davis has gone through George Coleman and Sam Rivers in an attempt to fill the void left by the departure of John Coltrane a couple of years before.

Davis even goes as far as phoning Shorter backstage during one of his Jazz Messenger gigs in an attempt to convince the 31-year-old improviser from Newark, New Jersey.
Finally, after calls from Davis' new pianist Herbie Hancock and new drummer Tony Williams, Shorter relents, putting the finishing touch on what would later become the most celebrated and most influential small group in modern jazz history. At last, after four years of searching, Davis had found his man.

Says Shorter of his experience with Davis: "It wasn't the bish-bash, sock-em dead routine we had with Blakey, with every solo a climax. With Miles, I felt like a cello. I felt viola. I felt liquid. Dot-dash and colors started really coming. And then a lot of people started calling me: 'Can you be on my record date?' It was six years of that."

Hancock remembers Shorter's impact on the band: "The master writer, to me, in that group, was Wayne Shorter. He still is a master. Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles that didn't get changed."

In 1970, when Shorter left what was one of the most important assignments in the jazz world, he took what was considered to be a huge risk in forming the experimental unit Weather Report with another Davis associate Joe Zawinul. The pair's tenure with Davis set the tone for the band's progressive nature and opened the door to a multi-year deal with Columbia Records. The relationship produced two decades of extraordinary critical and commercial success.

Since leaving Weather Report in the late '80s, Shorter has received an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music and won three Grammys, including one for his solo on J.J. Johnson's Heroes from last year, and one the year previous for his CD, A Tribute To Miles.
Shorter is currently working on his upcoming release and continues to keep a busy touring schedule that includes duet concerts with his former bandmate Herbie Hancock.

Herbie Hancock

He was a child prodigy in the true sense of the phrase, but Herbie Hancock's early accomplishments (performing with The Chicago Symphony at age 11, leading his own ensemble while still in high school, playing with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins by the time he was 20) could not have fully prepared him for what lay ahead, becoming the pianist of the Miles Davis Quintet in 1963.

Recalls Hancock: "I got a call from [drummer] Tony Williams and he told me that Miles was going to call and ask me to come over to his house and play.
Miles called me up. He asked me if I was busy, if I was working. I was at the time, but I told him no, so he asked me if I would come over to his house the next day. Next day I went over and Tony was there with Ron [Carter] and George Coleman. We ran over some things while Miles walked around and listened. Philly Joe Jones stopped by too. Then Miles called up Gil Evans.

He said, 'Hey Gil, I want you to hear my new drummer.' After we rehearsed the next day, he told us we were going to do a record in two days. I was wondering what was going on; he hadn't even told me whether I was in the group or not. So I didn't say anything, and we did the record Seven Steps. Then we had another rehearsal, and he mentioned a job at Bowdoin College. I said, 'Wait a minute, Miles. You haven't told me if I'm in the group or what.' And he said, 'You made the record didn't you?' So I said, 'Yeah, OK.' That was fine, I was jumping through hoops."

It didn't take long for Hancock to prove himself and become an integral part of Davis's creative process. Of all the Davis disciples, Hancock exhibits the free sprit side of Davis and continues to express his genius without being tied to one stylistic post.

Hancock adds to his well-documented reputation this year with a series of concerts with an all-star acoustic group featuring two other of Davis's former prot้g้s, Jack De Johnette and Dave Holland. Also expect the summer release of a new electronic set which will be Hancock's debut on Transparent Music, a label Hancock co-founded. The project, which is being described as an extension of his groundbreaking work during from the 1980s, was several years in the making, and includes contributions from Wayne Shorter and Bill Laswell.

Ron Carter

The epitome of class and elegance, Ron Carter has been a world-class bassist and cellist since the '60s and is among the greatest accompanists of all time and probably the most recorded: Carter has over 1000 album appearances to his credit.
Carter is a brilliant rhythmic and melodic player who uses everything in the bass and cello arsenal, and is nearly as accomplished in classical music as jazz, with a recorded tribute to Bach to his credit, along with performances with symphony orchestras all over the world.

Carter began playing cello at 10. But when his family moved from the Motown suburb of Ferndale, Michigan to Detroit, Carter ran into problems with stereotypes regarding the cello, and switched to bass. In 1959, Carter relocated to New York after receiving his degree from the Eastman School of Music and played in Chico Hamilton's quintet with Eric Dolphy while also enrolling at the Manhattan School of Music (where he earned his master's in 1961). When Hamiliton returned to the West Coast in 1960, Carter stayed in New York and played with Dolphy and Don Ellis, cutting his first records with them. That was followed by work with Randy Weston and Thelonious Monk and pianist Jaki Byard in the early '60s.

Carter also toured and recorded with Bobby Timmons' trio, and played with Miles Davis band member Cannonball Adderley before he was tapped to become a member of Miles Davis' band himself in 1963.
Carter's led his own bands, at various intervals, since 1972 using a second bassist to keep time and establish harmony so he's free to provide his wonderfully melodic solos. Carter even invented his own instrument, a piccolo bass to facilitate his approach.

Carter won a Grammy for his participation in one of the groups featured in the Oscar winning film, Round Midnight in 1986.The most recent of his 30-plus releases is the luscious When Skies Are Grey, a Latin-influenced agenda that pairs Carter with drummer Harvey Mason, percussionist Steve Kroon, and pianist Stephen Scott. All provide exceptional support for Carter's subtle and passionate style with uncommon imagination on a collection of standards such as "Besame Mucho" and "Corcovado" as well as originals from the band's book.

"We had a great time recording this album," says the 63-year-old Carter. "Steve had been on my case for awhile to make a record like this where the Latin element was the focus. But I kept arguing that there were plenty of other guys who had more experience. I had done a Brazilian album and that worked really well, but Latin? I figured that I had played in a Latin jazz context enough times that we could pull it off by bringing a strong jazz mentality into the sessions. All of the players on this album are jazz musicians so we could bring in other harmonic choices and not wear out the Latin basics."