The Phillies & The Baron

OFF TOPIC ALERT!






I’ve been a Philadelphia Phillies fan since childhood. My boyhood heroes were Robin Roberts and Richie Ashburn.

My dad took me to several games at the old Connie Mack Stadium in North Philly. I don’t remember much about the experience except for the long crowded subway ride up Broad Street and the overwhelming greenness of the playing field. I would stare in awe at the field as we walked into the grandstand.

In the early 1970’s I was working at the Harrisburg ABC Television affiliate as a news reporter when the opportunity presented itself to move over to the Sports Director chair. I made the switch and enjoyed a multiple year run doing two sportscasts a night.

One of the tips my predecessor passed along was that Phillies PR Director, Larry Shenk was a good guy always willing to come up with information, quotes and (most importantly) game tickets & press passes. Being a fan, I made sure that the Phillies were prominently featured near the top of the sportscast and occasionally availed myself of those tickets.

Shenk indeed was good to deal with and helpful when I was looking for a story idea. However, he could do nothing to help my ignorance of some of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ happenings with the Phillies.

This was especially true when I learned that Hall Of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton would be coming to Harrisburg as part of the annual Phillies Winter Caravan. I called Larry and begged him to bring Carlton to the studio for a live interview during my show. Larry, to his credit, simply said he would see what he could do.

I took this to mean the interview would happen. Imagine my disappointment when Carlton never walked through the studio door. It was only years later that I would learn of Carlton’s ongoing boycott of the press and his blanket refusal to do interviews! No wonder I never saw Lefty!

Fast forward some 30 years and my wife and I are attending Sunday afternoon games at Veterans Stadium. We were pleased to be part of the crowd that bid farewell to the Vet in an on-field ceremony that was masterminded by the same Larry Shenk.

As I write this, the Phils are playing in the waning days of the 2007 season. It is an open question whether they will finally make it to the post-season.

However, what is not in question is the fact that this will be Larry’s final season as the Vice President of Public Relations for the Phillies. Retirement, or semi-retirement, is calling. Sure would be great to send “The Baron” off with baseball in October. Maybe I could score some World Series tickets!

Talking With Eric Alexander

(Compiled from 2002 phone interview)

“We’ll play some original music and probably some standards. It’s going to be the kind of gig where people can ‘dig in,’ really listen and relate to the music.”

Saxophonist Eric Alexander was on the phone from his New York home in advance of an appearance for the Central PA Friends of Jazz in Harrisburg, PA. Piano legend Harold Mabern, young trumpeter Jim Rotondi, drummer Tony Reedus and bassist John Webber joined Alexander.

With its sax and trumpet front line, the Alexander/Rotondi Quintet may remind some of the classic Art Blakey quintet featuring the sax and trumpet of Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard.


Alexander’s recording, “Man With A Horn” on the Milestone label and featured trumpeter Rotondi on three tracks. Much in evidence on the disc is Alexander’s penchant for stirring up things both in the recording studio and on the bandstand.

As the saxophonist puts it, “Every tune by its very nature forces you to approach playing in a certain way. I like to choose tunes that will give me a variety of approaches.”

Alexander feels it important to include music from such composers as Johnny Mandel, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer; music commonly referred to as standards. “I think the reason why standards are so important is because they’re really a barometer,” said the saxophonist. “They allow the listener to measure your performance against other players whom they admire.”

When he was a student at New Jersey’s William Patterson College Alexander entered the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition at the suggestion of a faculty member. Alexander finished the competition as runner-up to Joshua Redman.

More importantly the competition gave Alexander a well-deserved infusion of self-confidence. However, he modestly said “I heard some of the things that the other musicians were doing and realized there were things on which I needed to work.”

Coming within days of the deaths of legends Milt Jackson and Art Farmer, much of Alexander’s conversation centered on his admiration and respect for the music and it’s creators. He said, “It’s pretty scary because when I started really get serious about jazz and being a professional there were still enough guys with links to the real bebop era around so I could have a perspective on the music.”

“They were always like a balance for the music because you had ‘fly by night’ young cats who got a got a lot of notoriety and then sort of fizzled out. But then you had these fixtures on the scene who were so great, nothing could diminish their reputations.”

“They always played at such a high level and could set the record straight as to what the real deal was. It’s kind of scary that there are fewer and fewer of those cats around. Nobody can really fill those shoes. So when those guys are gone, that’s it!”

Wynton

I’ve had the good fortune to talk with Wynton Marsalis on several occasions over the years. At least two of those occasions were telephone interviews organized to promote upcoming appearances in the area.

Initially I found Marsalis to be a little cool and reserved. The first interview did not yield a wealth of quotes for the article I was writing. As you’ll see below, the second interview produced some great quotes and I felt good after the phone call.

The two times I met Wynton I found him to be warm and genuine. On one occasion I was able to observe him bantering with some students. He gave each youngster unlimited time to ask their questions and allowed them to handle and inspect his horn. To me, this interaction was as impressive as any of his high-flying improvisations on the trumpet.

Jazz fans may not always agree on Wynton’s public pronouncements or on the way he conducts the business of Jazz At Lincoln Center. However, you cannot argue his sincerity nor diminish his skills and talents.

Here’s the article that resulted from our second interview with some additional quotes from the interview notes.

“I always love coming there to Harrisburg, always. It’s a big jazz community and people love swinging there.”

Trumpeter, bandleader and Pulitzer Prize winning composer Wynton Marsalis is on the phone from New York talking about his concert tour.

For the tour Marsalis is working in a small group format as opposed to the 16 member Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He serves as the orchestra’s Music Director and has devoted the majority of his performing time over the past decade to the group.

Marsalis says he’s touring for the playing opportunities that come with a smaller group and to spread the band’s music as widely as possible. As he put it, “Like what I always tell the guys in the big band, with the big band every instrument is an extension of the other instruments. So with a smaller band it is much more flexible because there’s less people. It’s kinda like the difference between a small family and a big family. It is much more fun if you have a lot of people.”

Even though his tutoring goes on ‘behind the scenes' Marsalis has become widely know as a mentor of young jazz talent. He said, “A lot of kids come back stage after every gig. I was just saying that I heard a lot of kids that could play when we were out on the last tour. A lot of teenagers showed up who were really interested in playing. So it goes on always after gigs and kids come to my house too. But I don’t do a lot of formal teaching.”

“Through Jazz at Lincoln Center we have a lot of educational programs. The education programs can travel much more frequently than you can as an individual. You know I’ve been in many schools of course and I still love to teach.”

Marsalis doesn’t buy the notion that jazz is an art form that cannot be taught. He said, “Any thing can be taught. Anything that a person can do can be taught to another person. You can’t teach someone to become a type of genius.”

Marsalis continues, “That’s like saying someone can’t be taught how to write. They can be taught how to write. But that’s not going to make you Hemmingway.”

“One thing is for sure being taught something will make you much more advanced than if not being taught. Is that an argument for ignorance or something?”

“When Jazz is the subject there always seems to be an argument for the value of ignorance.”

“One things for sure there are many people all over the country who are not being taught and we know none of them can play. That’s not something we have to speculate on. We don’t have to speculate on what happens when you’re not taught.”

It is apparent that Marsalis has given a great deal of thought to his craft and the reasons he continues to routinely hit the road with his fellow musicians.

“I work for the people who come to the concerts. That’s who I’m working for and I’m there to see that they have a good time. I’m a musician and I try to see that they have a good time by playing music.”

“The whole thing is you’re there because the people are there. I’m very clear on why I’m playing concerts and that’s because the people are there. I work for the people who come to the concerts. That’s who I’m working for and I’m there to see that they have a good time. I’m a musician and I try to see that they have a good time by playing music. But to just acknowledge that fact that it is for people and not just you and you’re doing them a favor by playing and all of that prima Dona stuff. I don’t believe in that. Because there is a lot of other stuff they (the audience) could just as soon be doing and paying a lot less money for it too.”

“You know there is something you want to say and you can’t get to it because the words aren’t complete. Music is much more complete because there is a component of music over which you don’t have control. That component is the quality of the ability to transmit internal qualities of your consciousness and your emotional life. You don’t actually control that. Like a musician doesn’t control their sound. They can get a bigger sound or a smaller sound but what was in the sound of somebody like Joe Henderson or somebody like Lester Young, they didn’t actually control that, that was just their sound.”

Listening to & talking with Kenny Barron

I first heard Kenny Barron a few years ago while in New York for a jazz convention. I’d been told that Bradley’s in Greenwich Village was an ideal place to have a meal and listen to great live jazz.

Thus, dinnertime found me walking into the restaurant/club/neighborhood saloon. The first person I saw was the great bassist Red Mitchell, who was setting up his instrument. Kenny Barron soon joined him.

I was seated in the general vicinity of the piano with a table of non-English speakers to my right and a rather boisterous party to my left. Thus the announcement of Bradley’s “quiet policy” during performances fell upon deaf and uncomprehending ears.

To say that I was distressed was to put it mildly! Great music was being created a scant 10-feet away from me and I could barely hear it!

To my rescue came an observant waitress who asked if I wanted to move closer to the music. My enthusiastic reply resulted in my relocation to a small table literally at the foot of the piano. I had to duck my head down and peer under the open piano lid in order to see Barron as he worked.

I don’t recall the music that the duo played that evening. However, I do recall that every note was wonderful.

Several years later, after Bradley’s had closed; I was able to tell Kenny the above story while interviewing him in advance of a local performance by the group “Sphere.” Segments of that interview follow below.

While reading you may want to click on the link below to hear an early recording by Kenny Barron.

"Blue Monk" from the album Peruvian Blue

Talking with Kenny Barron is much like listening to his music. The pianist’s words are honest and grounded in a heartfelt modesty. Even Barron’s lifelong goals are, by his own admission, modest.

On the phone from his New York home the pianist described his goals in an almost casual manner, “My goal never really changed from when I was living in Philly and learning about music. What I wanted to do was just come to New York and play music. I never really thought beyond that.”

Under the group name “Sphere,” Barron, along with drummer Ben Riley, bassist Buster Williams and saxophonist Gary Bartz performed Sunday November 28, 1999 in Harrisburg, PA

Sphere, dedicated to continuing and preserving the music, and spirit of Thelonious Monk, was formed in 1979 by Barron, Riley, Williams and saxophonist Charlie Rouse.
They performed and recorded to the delight of fans and critics alike until Rouse’s untimely death in 1988.

“Sphere” remained just a fond memory for the three musicians and their fans for the next ten years. Then in 1998 the trio brought saxophonist Gary Bartz into the fold, recorded a highly acclaimed album for Verve and hit the road.

Barron is well aware of the importance to Jazz of groups like Harrisburg’s Friends of Jazz. He said, “Those organizations are really great. Not only do they provide a real place for us to work, but they also provide a place for people to hear the music. “

Well-traveled performer that he is, Barron finds what he termed “these little jazz organizations and jazz societies” in the most unexpected locales. He said, “they’re in the strangest places. That’s probably because they don’t have a lot of clubs and anything they want to happen, they have to make it happen.”

Places for jazz musicians to ply their craft continue to disappear. As Barron put it, “Most of the work we do is concerts and travelling overseas and that’s unfortunate. When I was with Dizzy Gillespie in 1963 we would be out on the road for three or four months, just working clubs. Now, in terms of a nightclub tour if you can book two weeks you’re doing good.”

Along with live performances, recordings are the lifeblood of a musician's career. Barron’s name can be found within the credits of many significant and important recordings in the jazz library.

When asked as to the number of his recording credits, the pianist confessed ignorance of the exact tally saying, “I think in terms of sideman dates I’ve been on at least 300, maybe 400 recordings. As a leader I’ve done maybe thirty or thirty five sessions.”

“Michael Fitzgerald, a former student of mine, put a discography of my recordings on the Internet. I didn’t even know it was out there until I was in Europe and somebody gave it to me. It was pretty large”