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Riffs <br />
Von Freeman<br />
Master Class: The NEA has announced the<br />
recipients of the 2012 NEA Jazz Masters<br />
Awards. Jack DeJohnette, Von Freeman,<br />
Charlie Haden, Sheila Jordan and Jimmy<br />
Owens will receive a one-time award of<br />
$25,000 during a Jazz at Lincoln Center<br />
awards ceremony and concert at Frederick<br />
P. Rose Hall in New York. Details: arts.gov<br />
Desirable Blanchard: Trumpeter Terence<br />
Blanchard signed on to compose the<br />
original music for the revival of Tennessee<br />
Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. The<br />
show is set to premiere in spring of 2012.<br />
Details: streetcaronbroadway.com<br />
Funk Ed: Stanley Clarke and Ron Carter<br />
have been added to the star-studded faculty<br />
at Bootsy Collins’ Funk University. Collins’<br />
online bass academy gives students access<br />
to a “virtual campus” where they can receive<br />
instrument instruction and industry insight.<br />
Details: thefunkuniversity.com<br />
King of the Blues: The Richmond, Ind.-<br />
based Starr-Gennett Foundation is hosting<br />
its “Battle of the Blues” competition on<br />
Saturday Sept. 10 at the Gennett Walk of<br />
Fame. The winning band will receive a $500<br />
cash prize, along with recording time at M<br />
Productions. Details: starrgennett.org<br />
Starry-Eyed: Renatta DeBlase has released<br />
With Stars In My Eyes, a memoir detailing<br />
her relationships with legendary jazz musicians<br />
and her stride to bring their music to<br />
the forefront during racially turbulent times.<br />
Proceeds from the book will be donated<br />
to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in<br />
Washington.<br />
Rising Son: On June 23, the Delta Blues<br />
Museum in Clarksdale, Miss., unveiled<br />
its Son House retrospective. The exhibit<br />
features the work of Blues Hall of Fame inductee<br />
and photographer Dick Waterman,<br />
and is also part of the museum’s ongoing<br />
Robert Johnson centennial birthday<br />
celebration. Details: deltabluesmuseum.org<br />
jimmy katz<br />
All For One Turns 50<br />
Unsatisfied with the music business in 1961,<br />
saxophonist Harold Battiste formed All<br />
For One (AFO) Records with some of New<br />
Orleans’ best session musicians. This year celebrates<br />
the milestone 50th anniversary of AFO,<br />
revered historically as the industry’s first black<br />
collective record label.<br />
“People forget what AFO brought to the<br />
culture in terms of modern jazz and dealing<br />
with youngsters playing music,” Battiste<br />
said. “I’m concerned with [our] place in history.<br />
Cats like me are old school. I’m concerned<br />
with leaving a heritage of viable contributions<br />
to the music and the industry.”<br />
AFO recorded both jazz and r&b. The first<br />
session produced Barbara George’s “I Know<br />
(You Don’t Love Me No More),” featuring<br />
a cornet solo courtesy of AFO vice president<br />
Melvin Lastie. On the jazz side, AFO<br />
did sessions with the American Jazz Quintet<br />
with Alvin Batiste and Ed Blackwell, the<br />
Ellis Marsalis Quartet with James Black, and<br />
the AFO Executives with Tami Lynn. These<br />
were not only the first recordings of Blackwell,<br />
Marsalis and Black, but additionally the earliest<br />
recordings of nontraditional New Orleans<br />
jazz. They were also the only recordings of<br />
these groups made in the 1960s.<br />
In search of greater exposure, AFO moved<br />
to Los Angeles in 1963, and due to union<br />
restrictions in finding gigs —and the end of a<br />
promising association with Sam Cooke after<br />
his 1964 death—the collective split up soon<br />
after. Battiste kept the label going with sporadic<br />
releases between productions. He and guitarist/pianist<br />
Mac Rebennack—better known as<br />
Dr. John—developed and produced the first Dr.<br />
John records’ arrangements. He also assumed<br />
the role of music director for Sonny and Cher.<br />
In 1989, Battiste moved back to New Orleans<br />
ASCAP<br />
Bestows<br />
Legendary<br />
Prize<br />
Jimmy Heath (left),<br />
George Duke and George<br />
Avakian celebrated Heath<br />
and Avakian receiving the<br />
ASCAP Living Legend<br />
Award at the ASCAP<br />
Gallery in New York on<br />
June 13. Other recipients<br />
included Oscar Peterson,<br />
Mel Powell and Nina<br />
Simone. The ASCAP<br />
Vanguard Award went<br />
to Omer Avital, who<br />
performed at the event.<br />
Harold Battiste<br />
to teach at the University of New Orleans’<br />
jazz studies program. At the same time, he<br />
revived the label with records from Phillip<br />
Manuel, Germaine Bazzle, Victor Goines, and<br />
his Next Generation ensembles, which included<br />
Nicholas Payton, Brice Winston, John Ellis,<br />
Jesse McBride, Rex Gregory and Joe Dyson.<br />
This year, there have been several tribute concerts<br />
in honor of Battiste, as well as The Sounds<br />
Of Harold’s Horn, an AFO release featuring<br />
Battiste’s playing rather than production work.<br />
“I would love to put out more music, but I<br />
can’t see it, with the industry being the way<br />
it is, being affordable,” Battiste said. “But I<br />
thank God that I’m still here to do something.”<br />
—David Kunian<br />
Erika Goldring<br />
Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos<br />
14 DOWNBEAT SEPTEMBER 2011
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