#Wayne Escoffery

[jazzandother-blog]

Rick Germanson - piano

Wayne Escoffery - tenor & soprano sax

Jeremy Pelt - trumpet

Gerald Cannon - bass

Ralph Peterson Jr. - drums

Carolyn Leonhart - vocals

Album - Intuition

Recorded at Nola Recording Studio, NY 2003 by Bill Moss

2004 Nagel Heyer Records

[diyeipetea]

The Wayne Escoffery Quartet (19è Mas i Mas Festival / Jamboree, Barcelona. 2022-08-04) [III/V] Por Joan Cortès [INSTANTZZ]

The Wayne Escoffery Quartet (19è Mas i Mas Festival / Jamboree, Barcelona. 2022-08-04) [III/V] Por Joan Cortès [INSTANTZZ]

Fecha: Viernes, 05 de agosto de 2022 Lugar: Jamboree (Barcelona) Grupo: The Wayne Escoffery Quartet Wayne Escoffery, saxo tenor David Kikoski, piano Josh Ginsburg, contrabajo Sebastian de Krom, batería Tomajazz: © Joan Cortès, 2022   19è Mas i Mas Festival en Tomajazz Cyrus Chestnut & Piero Odorici Quartet (19è Mas i Mas Festival / Jamboree, Barcelona. 2022-08-04) [II/V] Por Joan Cortès…

[tristan-v-saxophone]

Losing History in Modern jazz music

Most of the topics I write about, I choose to do so in a relatively lighthearted manner, but this topic is different. As a white musician who’s very new to the scene, I have been surprised and appalled with what I have seen and continue to see among the new generation of musicians. 

I intend to particularly narrow in on the music itself, rather than jazz as a scene, but a bit of context is necessary 

Every jam session I have been too has had almost entirely white musicians, every modern quartet I have seen has been entirely white, something 95% of the top trending jazz musicians on social media are white. More people are exposed to jazz through white musicians like Paul Desmond, Michael Brecker, and Frank Sinatra then the black musicians who created this music, like Coleman Hawkins, Fats Navarro, Oscar Pettiford, etc.

Let me be clear, this has always been an issue. During the big band era, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller were far more popular than Duke Ellington and Count Basie, during the bebop era, Stan Getz and Chet Baker were more popular than Clifford Brown and Sonny Stitt, during the hard bop era, Gerry Mulligan was more popular than Leo Parker. The list can go on forever. Today I can think of a dozen white saxophonists that are FAR more popular than black saxophonists who are, in many cases, far better musicians.

Now, the issue is not just about the musicians who are seen and heard, in which white washing is a substantial issue, but it also affects the music being played.  You see, Jazz is an African American art born from the aural tradition of music from Africa being intensified when African slaves suffered from American slavery. The music evolved from 5 types of songs used by slaves, either for communication or for community: Sorrow Songs, Field Hollars, Work Songs, Gospel, and Blues. As these 5 aural traditions survived as slavery was abolished and African Americans were given freedom, evolving into the style now recognized as Jazz. 

But many modern jazz musicians, especially white jazz musicians, do not properly learn, understand, or respect this history. Through the age old push among jazz musicians for more and more complex music, somewhere along the way, the history has gotten clouded. People don’t play the blues anymore, not like they did. Cats today take more from late white musicians like Steve Grossman, Michael Brecker, and Chris Potter (all phenomenal musicians in their own right) and ignore the build to that. As a result, the virtuosity may be higher than ever, but it is without the soul, the spark that made this music so unique to begin with. Musicians like Ben Webster, Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Forrest and Gene Ammons aren’t ever looked at, their music is not heard by the modern musicians. 

There are a number of reasons behind this. 

The Aural Tradition has been lost. People still learn stuff by ear, but it’s all through the scope of wester classical music theory. Every melody and rhythm notated in western notation, even though it *never* quite matches accurately.

New Musicians don’t have the patience to explore the whole history, and often start with their favorite musician, often times getting the language and vocabulary of mostly one or two newer musicians without the context of how that language was developed.

Most importantly, the systemic suppression of black musicians who do continue to play the history. Musicians like Jesse Davis and Wayne Escoffery, who are absolutely incredible, struggle to get gigs frequently while musicians like Chad LB are winning awards and making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The history is being lost.

[rich4a1]

Wayne Escoffery ALONE

WAYNE ESCOFFERY ALONE Smoke Sessions Records Wayne Escoffery, tenor saxophone/composer/arranger; Ron Carter, bass; Gerald Clayton, piano; Carl Allen, drums. Wayne Escoffery’s sultry, bluesy, tenor saxophone melody slides off my CD player like oil on glass. His sound is smooth. I’m immediately captivated by the melody of his original song titled, “Moments With You.” When Gerald Clayton enters on…

[theloniousbach]

LIVESTREAM: BLACK ART JAZZ COLLECTIVE (Wayne Escoffery, Duane Eubanks, James Burton III, Victor Gould, Ugonna Okegwo, Brian Richburg Jr), SMALL’S JAZZ CLUB, 19 APRIL 2024, 7:30 pm set

This all-star band is celebrating a decade of playing together, though there is an inevitable revolving door to complement the core. Wayne Escoffery formed the band with Jeremy Pelt (in the earlier publicity for this gig Wallace Roney Jr was going to play trumpet), James Burton III, Xavier Davis (but I’ve only seen Victor Gould as the pianist), Dwayne Virdon???? (I think Rashaan Carter is the regular bassist but Escoffery drafted Ugonna Okegwo as a fill in), and Johnathan Blake. I don’t think I’ve seen Brian Richburg Jr in previous gigs, but he was the one who impressed me with both drive and subtlety under a big band.

Gould too have power and taste in his own solos and in support of the three horns. On other occasions he was the most pleasant surprise, but this time he was no surprise and didn’t get from under the rest of the band. Eubanks was all taste and restraint; Burton III had the affable patience on trombone, a big sheepdog of an instrument. His first solo was poorly mic’ed but he was a bigger presence as the night wore on.

It was Escoffery who wore thin. I have liked his power and swagger but it struck me tonight as a bit much, throwing off the balance of the rest of the band. It felt like he went on a chorus too long just as his patter did too. Still he’s an articulate man and the history of this band is worth recounting both in his leader’s comments but also in the tune selections which include works by all the founding members except Pelt. I liked Xander Davis’ Black Heart because it had a harmonic richness that Gould could appreciate and dig into. The band played in Harlem the previous evening and this set was the first of four at Small’s. If they are indeed evoking their history, then catching this very first set is a treat.

[mostlymonk]

Straight No Chaser

Mike Stern Group

Wayne Escoffery – sax Mike Stern – guitar Joao Barradas – accordion Alex Blake – bass Jerome Jennings – drums

[ulrichgebert]

Die Berichterstattung hinkt schon wieder arg hinterher. Die extrem gelassene Herren vom Black Art Jazz Collective spielten bereits am Montag wieder kollektiv kunstvollen Jazz, und einmal mehr denkt man: “Eigentlich kann das nicht sein, daß das auf der Wiese gleich hinterm dem Friedhof stattfindet.”

[dustedmagazine]

Black Art Jazz Collective – Armor of Pride (HighNote)

The metaphorical catchphrase “young lions” has been floating around jazz circles for nearly sixty years. Its earliest appearance was in the service of embodying the community of hard-boppers that came of out Philadelphia, Chicago and New York that included Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons and Wayne Shorter. An eponymous album on the Vee-Jay cemented the sobriquet. Several decades later, Wynton Marsalis and those in his orbit assumed the mantle both as homage to their predecessors and as an encapsulation of a neo-classicist agenda. Armor of Pride presents players from another generation, arguable all-stars in their own right, whose music mines jazz tradition, but with ears open to associative idioms of later provenance. Young lions could also loosely fit their aesthetic, but they opt against metaphor for the more explicit appellation of the Black Art Jazz Collective.

All six members of the sextet are HighNote/Savant recording artists either as leaders or sidemen on a host of other projects with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and tenorist Wayne Escoffery remaining the most prolific. Here they fit naturally into a flexible frontline with trombonist James Burton III while pianist Xavier Davis achieves a similar synergy with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Johnathan Blake. The studio set is short, but concentrated, with tunes from all but Archer starting with Blake’s “Miller Time”, a coy tune title containing some cool-toned extemporization by Pelt and Davis. Escoffery’s title piece launches from a tenacious unison horn motif and a churning stop-start beat stamped by individual statements while Pelt’s “Awuraa Amma” steers the band into tranquil ballad straits that bring to mind Herbie Hancock’s classic “Maiden Voyage” through an analogously lush blending of instrumental voices.

Pelt’s spouse Cheryl pens an essay that in conjunction with a pithy Langston Hughes quote espouses the ensemble’s fealty to African American cultural preservation and propagation. That degree of defensive focus may feel a little redundant in this age where jazz is still revered as one of America’s only indigenous art forms, but questioning the complacency that can come with that kind of assumed canonization also seems to be the point. The arts writ-large are under attack on both overt and ulterior fronts and the BAJC’s (to coin an acronym) mission to assert themselves a stop-gap to any erosion makes perfect sense in such an antagonistic environment. Such efforts would be instantly ineffective without the musical merit to back them up. These players have stores of that credibility to spare and the creative capital they invest in this ego-deferring venture is well spent.

Derek Taylor

[riffsstrides]

Wayne Escoffery Quartet Live in Nisville 

Wayne Escoffery Quartet Summer Tour 2015 Live at  Nisville. Nis, Serbia with Wayne Escoffery, David Kikoski, Darryl Hall and Ralph Peterson

[curtjazz]

My Favorite Jazz Albums of the Year: 30 for '20 (Part 1 of 3)

New Curt's Jazz Cafe Blog Post! My Favorite Jazz Albums of the Year: 30 for '20 (Part 1 of 3) #jazz #bestjazzalbums #curtjazz #curtjazzradio

Man, this has been one strange year! (Insert your own “no kidding”, or some variant, here) Though I was fortunate enough to host a Zoom-based jazz talk show (Conversations with Curtis), thanks to JazzArts Charlotte, I heard less live music, this year than at any time, since my teens. I also somehow managed to hear less recorded music than any year, in recent memory. I feel less comfortable than…

[diyeipetea]

Albert Bover -piano solo- (19è Mas i Mas Festival / Jamboree, Barcelona. 2022-08-20) [V/V] Por Joan Cortès [INSTANTZZ]

Albert Bover -piano solo- (19è Mas i Mas Festival / Jamboree, Barcelona. 2022-08-20) [V/V] Por Joan Cortès [INSTANTZZ]

Fecha: sábado, 20 de agosto de 2022 Lugar: Jamboree (Barcelona) Grupo: Albert Bover Albert Bover, piano Tomajazz: © Joan Cortès, 2022   19è Mas i Mas Festival en Tomajazz Gonzalo del Val “Tornaviaje” (19è Mas i Mas Festival / Jamboree, Barcelona. 2022-08-13) [IV/V] Por Joan Cortès [INSTANTZZ] https://www.tomajazz.com/web/the-wayne-escoffery-quartet-2022/ Cyrus Chestnut & Piero Odorici Quartet…

[padovajazzclub]

Wayne Escoffery 4et

[stelly38]

Ten Random Songs

Another one of those lists going around...  These are ten random tracks from my favorites on spotify.  Here’s what it grabbed:  

1) Waking Dream by Kurt Elling

2) Burn for You by INXS

3) Butterfly on a Wheel by The Mission

4) Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack

5) Queen of the Minstrels by Mr. Day

6) Hesperus by Wolf People

7) Jimmy, Mimi, and Me by The Night Alive ft. Wayne Escoffery

8) Hearts & Bones, Paul Simon

9) There’s a Lull in My Life, Cecile McLorin Salvant

10) So In Love, Jill Scott

Tagging anyone who wants to play.  

[theloniousbach]

ALMOST COUCH TOUR: RACHEL Z with Jeremy Pelt, Steve Wilson, Jonathan Toscano, and Ben Perowsky, SMALL’S JAZZ CLUB, 22 SEPTEMBER 2023, both sets

I went almost a week without streaming even a set before having a whole subdued day to myself. To get back into it, I returned to the other, first, night of the last thing I saw, RACHEL Z’s Wayne Shorter tribute. What I saw before was the second night without Jeremy Pelt who was, I thought, a big part of why I wanted to see the gig. I didn’t know about the Shorter angle going in and getting to know alto/soprano player Steve Wilson better helped me place his melodic, linear playing (not Parker, not Konitz) in this context. So this first night allowed me to hear Pelt’s contribution.

It was also a chance to hear basically the same tunes again but with different stories. This time she closed the second set with a Depeche Mode tune mashed up with Footprints rather than the Saturday first set closer of a Coldplay song and instead of Fall from Nefertiti. Otherwise it was that same mix of Witch Hunt (written in the ‘50s when Shorter thought he was going to be drafted into the Army during the Korean War), Iris, and ESP from the ‘60s recordings. Also in the first set was The Three Marias, leading to a second set of ‘80s tunes which I didn’t know—On the Milky Way Express and Over Shadow Hill Way.

Having Pelt along was illuminating and worth the reprise. I have seen him mostly in drummerless trios at Mezzrow’s which are tasteful and intimate, but also with Wayne Escoffery and Victor Gould in the Black Arts Collective where he shows that he can bring muscularity too. Here he was thoroughly himself while inhabiting tunes that Freddie Hubbard mostly but Miles Davis too put their stamp on. One couldn’t help but hear the echoes. It also served as a reminder that Shorter heard the trumpet in his own music.

Z’s own tunes, like the latter day popular tunes she covers, also illuminate Shorter’s own later work—they are riffy and rhythmic but with lots of rich space for soloists. She is not a deep as the maestro, but who is? They are fine tunes, period. This made the second set in particular a showcase for drummer Ben Perowsky to embellish and make multidimensional the grooves in Shorter’s later music. Wholly acoustic, but a chance to remember that behind the bombast and orchestration of Joe Zawinul’s bank of keyboards Weather Report was a jazz band that advanced the music.

These were valuable sets and I am back to the music.