Faddis, Mingus & Dizzy

Any conversation with Jon Faddis eventually evolves into two topics. . .one being the importance of the big band in jazz, the other topic being the immortal Dizzy Gillespie.

During a telephone interview Faddis discussed the important place in his musical development held by big bands. He said, "When I was ten or maybe eleven my trumpet teacher used to take me to rehearsals of big bands and tell me to 'sit here and listen and stay out of the way!' It was really good for me being in the middle of a big band and hearing it from such a young age."

The road to his present status within the music community wasn't without pitfalls and problems for a then teenaged big band trumpeter. One of Faddis' early employers was the bassist and composer Charles Mingus.

Spending time in the presence of such a musical giant can be an awe inspiring experience or as Faddis described it "It definitely was a treat but I was too young to appreciate what a treat it was, I was only 18."

When asked if he'd ever incurred the not inconsequential wrath of the mercurial Mingus, Faddis replied succinctly, "Yes, once and it scared me to death."

Faddis continues, "But we got along after that one incident, I think we were okay. I always remember his laugh. He had a gorgeous laugh and I remember his constantly saying 'Jon Faddis tell me a joke, Jon Faddis tell me a joke!'."

When queried about the place the late Dizzy Gillespie held in his musical life Faddis instantly replied "He was the reason I got into Jazz. I first heard him in person when I was twelve but I was too shy to say anything when he came over to the table. So I decided that the next time when I would meet him I was going to say something. So the next time I took all of my records of him along to the Monterey Jazz Festival. We sat there and he autographed them and we talked about all the records."

"A couple of weeks after that I got a chance to sit in with his group. From that moment on I knew that jazz was what I wanted to do with my life."


Gillespie's infectious joy of life and living earned him the nickname 'the clown prince of jazz' and spawned many a legend, some of them true. As Faddis put it "Dizzy had a good time wherever he was, yeah that was Dizzy."

The trumpeter recalled, "I remember one time walking up the street with him. It was about six blocks and it took us about an hour because he would stop in every store and people would stop him. With Dizzy it was like he had all the time in the world. He always had a good time. I think even when he was having a bad time he was having a good time."

Jane Bunnett

Even before Dizzy Gillespie teamed up with his Cuban colleague Chano Pozo, jazz musicians have been drawn to what Jellyroll Morton called “The Spanish Tinge.” We listeners have followed suit over the years, snapping up latin-themed albums by everyone from Gillespie to Stan Kenton to the Buena Vista Social Club.

Then why does it come as a surprise that a recent champion of the music of that Caribbean island nation is a female Canadian sax and flute player? Jane Bunnett is that person and the music couldn’t be in better hands.

In a phone interview Bunnett described a film project which she and husband Larry Cramer completed to illustrate the music’s attraction saying, “We just finished a documentary film called “Spirits of Havana.” It’s kind of a road trip where we collaborated with musicians all across Cuba. The diversity of the music we encountered was just unbelievable. There’s so many styles because there’s so many influences.”

No latecomer to the Cuban music bandwagon, in 1991 Bunnett’s first recorded exploration of the genre won a Juno, Canada’s recording arts award. Her Blue Note release, “Ritmo + Soul” is the saxophonist’s seventh such recording.

Bunnett quickly points out that each recording has explored a different facet of the many-faceted music saying that in the current session, “We work in an idiom that hasn’t been really experimented with or used as a source of inspiration until now. It’s the one that most interests me mainly because it seems so ignored. Even in Cuba when I was there it was very marginalized.”

The saxophonist is quite aware of the dangers of over commercializing or anglicizing what is at its core an artform with its own set of traditions. She said, “In terms of Afro-Cuban folkloric music we’ve been working pretty heavily with very traditional music. For example the percussionist who is with us, Pancho Quinto, his music is a very traditional form of rumba that’s only learnt at the docks or the places that the musicians tend to live. You can’t really go to school and learn that particular music.”

Bunnett described her involvement with the specific style of Cuban music documented on the album as a long-standing one saying, “I’ve always been on this course with this particular form of Cuban music, even though I work in all the various forms of Cuban music. But it has been the one that I felt that lent itself to the particular way that I play & inspires me.”

Politics is an unavoidable byproduct of any discussion of Cuba. Bunnett wonders what might have been saying, “I can’t imagine what it would have been like if John Coltrane had gone to Cuba and discovered this music, it would have been pretty amazing.“

“I often think of Coltrane’s “Africa Brass” session and some of the things that Pharaoh Sanders did, they were in the same groove as some of these rhythms. If there hadn’t been an embargo at the time some pretty incredible things could have happened with these jazz musicians who were experimenting with the ‘back to Africa’ concept.”

Bunnett could be describing her fellow members of Spirits of Havana when she attempts to define the unique quality of the typical Cuban musician, “The sheer energy that the Cuban musicians put out attracts our attention. They play very intensely and with a lot of stamina. They’re all very serious about what they’re doing.”

As Bunnett says, “It’s very seldom that you meet a mediocre Cuban musician.”

Isfahan

Discovered this while browsing You Tube. Nothing more to say than Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges and an achingly lovely melody from Billy Strayhorn.

Happy Birthday Phil!

On November 2, 1931 clarinetist, alto saxophonist, educator and bandleader Phil Woods was born in Springfield, MA. This week I salute my fellow Pennsylvania resident on his birthday even though he’s somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean playing for a jazz cruise!

You would think that at his advanced age Phil would be content staying closer to home and perhaps write his memoirs. However, those of us who have followed Phil’s career are not surprised that he is spending his birthday working another gig. Phil is one of the hardest working figures in the world of jazz.

I’ve had the good fortune to hear Phil and the band in person on several occasions and to have produced a concert featuring Phil and Jim McNeely doing music associated with Johnny Hodges. The concert was lovely and Phil and Jim were a delight to work with.

If you click on Phil’s picture at the top of this page you’ll be taken to his website. The site is very professionally produced and contains a wide variety of materials about Phil and his music. There is even a discussion forum.

As I raise my glass in a toast to Phil Woods, here is a sample of his collaboration with Jim McNeely.

"Dutch Morning" from "Flowers For Hodges," Phil Woods & Jim McNeely