From: David Richoux
Subject: [CB] Contrabass Master Milt Hinton documentary
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2005 22:58:01 -0700
Hi all,
For those of you who can get PBS where you live I highly
recommend this documentary - one of the few I have ever seen on jazz
bass playing that really tells the true roll of the instrument!
(and the thousands of pictures Milt Hinton took during his career are
very interestingly used in the film.)
Dave Richoux
> PBS looks at jazz great who captured history on film
>
> By Charlie McCollum
> Mercury News
>
> Every now and then, television comes up with a small gem of
a show:
> Nothing big or earth-shattering, just a nice, sweet bit of
TV.
>
> That's the case with Tuesday's ``Keeping Time: The Life,
Music and
> Photographs of Milt Hinton'' (11 p.m., Ch. 9). Airing as
part of PBS's
> ``Independent Lens'' series, ``Keeping Time'' is a glowing
portrait of
> a true jazz giant: a bassist whose work spanned the decades
from Cab
> Calloway in the 1930s to Branford Marsalis in the 1990s.
>
> Hinton, who died five years ago, is a fascinating figure.
He grew up
> in the Jim Crow South, started his career in the Chicago of
Louis
> Armstrong and Al Capone. He played behind artists ranging
from Billie
> Holiday to Barbra Streisand and easily weathered the
evolutions in
> jazz music, as comfortable with fusion as he was with big
band.
>
> What makes ``Keeping Time'' special, though, is that over
the years,
> Hinton chronicled his world with more than 60,000
black-and-white
> photos. He was as creative with his camera as he was with
his
> variation on slap bass, capturing other musicians from
Calloway and a
> young Dizzy Gillespie to Miles Davis and Tony Bennett in
candid
> moments. His casual shots of a legendary 1958 gathering of
jazz greats
> are as revealing as the famous group portrait that appeared
in Esquire
> magazine.
>
> Hinton's photographs also evoke the changes in America that
took place
> during his life. The interviews with Hinton used in the
film make it
> clear that he understood he was watching history being made
and took
> every opportunity to capture it.
>
> Produced by David G. Berger and Holly Maxson and narrated
with flair
> by actor Jeffrey Wright, ``Keeping Time'' owes more than a
bit to
> documentary filmmaker Ken Burns in terms of its style --
which is a
> good thing. The film does a fine job of giving viewers a
sense of
> Hinton's music and his photography and benefits from an
above-average
> set of observations on the man from the likes of author
Amiri Baraka,
> journalist Nat Hentoff, jazz educator Dan Morgenstern and
jazzmen Ron
> Carter, Jon Faddis, Joe Williams and Joe Wilder.
>
> All in all, ``Keeping Time'' is a lovely riff on a man who
holds a
> special place in a distinctly American form of music.
---------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jay and Adrienne Easton"
Subject: [CB] big saxes in Seattle
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 11:30:05 -0700
Greetings!
April is hereby declared National Unusual Saxophone Month.
Let the festivities begin!
Here are some upcoming low saxophone performances in the Seattle
area for those who might be interested:
The University of Washington School of Music's 17th annual
Saxophone Night concert is this Wednesday, April 20th in Brechemin
Auditorium in the music building. It will feature solo and ensemble
performances by members of the UW Saxophone Studio and an orchestra of
many sizes of saxophones. I will be playing a variety of unusual
instruments, including Soprillo (piccolo sax), sopranino, C
soprano, straight tenor, straight baritone, and contrabass saxes,
plus Scott Granlund wil be playing bass sax. Fun for all!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll be playing bass and subcontrabass saxes at:
The University of Washington School of Music Arts Open House on
Friday, April 22, from 2-7pm.
The Arts Open House, which also features the departments of Art,
Dance, Drama, and Digital Arts, is being offered as part of the
Washington Weekend Celebration sponsored by the UW Alumni Association.
The following list highlights some of the many scheduled
activities to be offered at the School of Music Open House:
- Live performances featuring the UW Steel Band, viola professor
Melia Watras, and students from our renowned Wind Ensemble and Symphony
Orchestra
- Unique and unusual saxophones presented and played by doctoral
candidate Jay Easton
- Recent research on Music Theory and Composition presented by
graduate students in these disciplines
- Preview the spring opera, Orphee aux Enfers, with performances
by cast members and and commentary from opera director Claudia Zahn
- Open rehearsal of the UW Symphony Orchestra
All School of Music Open House activities are free and open to the
public. A full list of scheduled activities is available online at
I will be playing new improvised music in the lobby at 2:30
using big saxes. I will be giving a presentation/performance on unusual
saxophones at 3:30 in room 114. Bass and subcontrabass saxes and bass
clarinet will be included. And I will be performing classical and
ragtime music with Northstar Saxophone Quartet at 4:30 in the lobby on
baritone, straight baritone, and subcontrabass.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
And finally, I'll be premiering what might well be the world's
first contrabass sax concerto with band...
Monday, April 25th - CONCERT - MEANY HALL, UW at 7:30.
"Music in Motion"
UW WIND ENSEMBLE
Ballet for Band, Cindy McTee
*Three Episodes for Contrabass Saxophone and Band, Barton
Cummings (Jay Easton, contrabass saxophone - world premiere)*
Ra!, David Dzubay
and more...
-----------------------------------------------------
All the best,
Jay Easton
---------------------------------------------------------
From: "Gordon Hallgren"
Subject: Re: [CB] Low Clarinet Quartet
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 15:26:28 -0400
Terje, how can we buy copies of these works? I would like both.
Gordon Hallgren
----- Original Message -----
From: "Terje Lerstad"
> I can not play in this group, but way back in 1977 I wrote
two pieces
> for only low clarinets.
> Information from
>
***End of Contrabass Digest***