“Billy Taylor”,”Impromptu”,”Live at IAJE / New York”

“Billy Taylor & Gerry Mulligan”,”Come Sunday”,”Live at MCG”,”

“Cal Collins”,”Down In Brazil”,”S’Us Four”

“Buck Hill”,”Vierd Blues “Capital Hill”

“Count Basie”,”Left Hand Funk”,”Live in Japan ’78″,

“Clayton Brothers”,”Jive Samba”,”Brother To Brother”

“Deep Blue Organ Trio”,”12th Of Never (13:52)”,”Goin’ to Town – Live at the Green Mill”

“Ella Fitzgerald with Oscar Peterson”,”I Hear Music”,”Ella and Oscar”

“Duke Ellington”,”Mood Indigo”,”Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins”

“Frank Morgan”,”Bessie’s Blues”,”Mood Indigo”

“Herlin Riley”,”New York Walk”,”Watch What You’re Doing”

“Sir Roland Hanna”,”In Walked Bud”,”Roland Hana & George Mraz Play For Monk”

“Wynton Marsalis”,”The Midnight Blues”,”Standard Time, Vol.5: The Midnight Blues”

“Tim Warfield”,”Sentimental Journey”,”A Sentimental Journey”

“Cyrus Chestnut”,”All Or Nothing At All”,”Nut”

“Clayton Brothers”,”Walking Bass”,”Brother To Brother”

“Bob Florence”,”Bimbosity”,”Serendipity 18″

“Buck Hill”,”Vierd Blues [*]“,”Capital Hill”

“Duke Ellington”,”My Little Brown Book”,”Duke Ellington & John Coltrane”

“Heath Brothers”,”Bop Agin”,”As We Were Saying”

“Harry Connick, Jr.”,”Good to Be Home”,”Occasion: Connick on Piano, Vol. 2″

“Herlin Riley”,”Coodie Coo”,”Watch What You’re Doing”

“Helen Sung Trio”,”Bye Ya”,”Helenistique”

“Joerg Widmoser – Hajo Hoffmann”,”Straight no chaser”,”A Touch Of Jazz Violins”

“Shirley Horn”,”Too Late Now”,”You Won’t Forget Me”

“Red Rodney “,”The Bishop”,”No Turn on Red”

“Lage Lund”,”Darn That Dream”,”Standards”

“John Lewis”,”Django”,”Evolution”

“Jay Leonhart”,”Ishfahan”,”Four Duke”

“Judy Carmichael”,”Blue & Sentimental”,”Trio”

“Wynton Marsalis”,”Think Of One”,”Think of One”

“Sonny Rollins”,”I Should Care”,”Falling in Love with Jazz”

“The Singers Unlimited”,”Lullaby Of The Leaves”,”The Singer Unlimited with Rob McConnell And The Boss Brass”

Blues For Dave McKenna

MFT -  You’ve enjoyed some national airplay for your most recent disc, “One For Shirley,” (I’ve heard tracks on Sirius XM and also on KJAZZ from Los Angeles) what is your next project?

TW – I’m actually not sure. I have two projects pending. The first is original music that was written specifically for the musical personalities in my sextet. The second consists of Christmas Holiday arrangements that would involve the inclusion of some vocalists as well. I debuted a bit of this new material at a CPFJ Holiday concert this past December 2008.

MFT -  Who are you listening to these days?  Do you have anyone on your radar as being the next big thing?

TW – Everyone! I’m listening to the new music mediums, MySpace, Youtube, Music Choice, Sirius, etc. The internet has helped level the playing field a bit, allowing many new artists, the chance to be heard, who otherwise may have never been.

I don’t feel that I’m qualified to predict the next BIG thing but I will say that many eyes are on pianist Gerald Clayton, the son of the “progenitor”, bassist John Clayton. He’s extraordinarily talented, as well as a true gentleman, most importantly, he’s “cool” like a jazz musician should be. New Orleans trumpeter Christian Scott is the same way. A few other young artists to watch out for are vibraphonist, Warren Wolf, drummer Marcus Gilmore, trumpeter Michael Rodriguez, pianist Aruan Ortiz, vocalist Joanna Pascale, organist Pat Bianchi, young drummers Kush Abadey and Justin Falkner (both still in High School), and bassist Esperanza Spalding.

MFT -  I realize that, as Wynton Marsalis once said, Jazz is serious business; however, are you having any fun these days?

TW – I love to perform and still do so regularly, but I am also an ”Artist in Residence” at Messiah College. I find teaching to be immensely rewarding intellectually and spiritually. Terell Stafford and I, have already had influential hands in guiding the careers of a few wonderful artists like, the brilliant and artistically eccentric pianist Orrin Evans, saxophonist Jaleel Shaw(currently w/ Roy Haynes), and drum dynamo Rodney Green. Sharing information with them early, then creating a forum allowing them to evolve, is like planting seeds and watching them grow.

MFT -  Where do you see yourself in five years?
TW – This is difficult to say. I hope to continue as a contributor to this valuable artform, but in an even greater magnitude.

MFT   You seem to be very entrepreneurial with your online presence and your self-produced albums, was the business aspect of your career actually more difficult than the artistic part?

RS  I’d say the difficult part is that it’s a balancing act. There have been times when I was much more on top of the business end of things and getting gigs. But felt that it was cutting into my practice time and that I was not playing my personal best. Now found a kind of balance that’s working for the most part. With the teaching I’ve got the guitar in my hands most of the time every day. I also try to spend at least a few hours every week with the online stuff (facebook, myspace, youtube, my blogs and newsletters, etc.) and spend a few more hours booking.

I’ve built a nice office/studio here in my basement with a piano, drums and 16 track digital recording setup, so when I’ve got new music to play, I usually try to get some sessions going here to run through things. I’m also working on an online guitar instruction website and putting together materials and video lessons for that.

I’m off from teaching in the summer, so that’s kind of become my “research and development” time. I get up early, get my cup of coffee and go out in my little garden (which is really pretty amazing for a tiny Brooklyn place) and spend a lot of time practicing and writing music; my own tunes, instructional material and exercises, and whatever else pops into my head. By about 1pm when it starts getting hot, I go inside and do housework, computer stuff or whatever else needs to be done.

I’m not getting as many gigs as I used to, but I feel like I’m in better form for the ones I do get.

MFT   Where do you see both Jazz & yourself in 5 years?

RS  Five years, hmmm? Not having a crystal ball, it’s difficult to tell. There are so many great young players out there that I’m sure Jazz as an art form is in good hands. My daughter will be a Senior in college and my son will be finished (unless he goes for a graduate degree) and I’ll be a year away from the big Six-Oh!!!! I think I’d just like to be teaching, playing and writing. Maybe I’ll finally start getting over my aversion to the road.

The beautiful thing about a life in music is that there’s really nothing that you want to “retire” from. I just want to keep doing this as long as I can.

Photo by Chris Drukker

Continuing my email interview with New York guitarist Rick Stone, we talk about a major influence and about what he teaches his students besides the techniques to play jazz.

MFT You spent time earlier in your career studying with Barry Harris. I assume that you learned more than just music?

RS Barry Harris is one of the greatest teachers and human beings that I’ve ever met.  I started going to his classes when I came here in 1982.  Back then he was teaching on Monday night in a loft called the Jazz Forum that was run by trumpeter Mark Morganelli.  Very shortly, Barry got his own place which he called Jazz Cultural Theatre.  It was like a storefront on 8th Avenue between 28th and 29th Street.  Barry taught classes there several nights a week and on other nights there were jam sessions and performances.  It was a real “bebop” scene and I met and got to sit in with a lot of guys there; Tommy Flanagan, Clarence “C” Sharpe, Tommy Turrentine, Junior Cook, Albert Daily, Frank Hewitt, Vernel Fournier, George Braithe, Vincent Herring and many more that I just can’t remember right now. I was introduced to Earl Coleman (who sang with Bird) and wound up doing a lot of copywork for a big-band album Mike Abene was arranging for him.  One night C Sharpe introduced me to Jimmy Robinson who was a trumpeter who had recorded with Dexter Gordon in the 60′s.  I wound up playing in his band every Sunday for two years at the University of the Streets.

The house rhythm section for many of the jam sessions consisted of Kuni Mikami (piano), Kim Clarke (bass) and Craig Haynes (Roy’s son!) on drums.  One night Lionel Hampton came in and I got to sit in with him (Barry was on piano, Kim and Craig were on bass and drums).  Richard Wilkerson was like Barry’s right hand back then, and he used to tape everything on a cassette deck right behind the bandstand, so I know a tape of that night existed, but don’t know where it is now.

Art Blakey contributed a drum set and they started having a late-night session 3 to 7 am on Saturdays (Sundays technically) called “Art Blakey’s Breakfast Jams.”  Art would show up and play sometimes and I remember playing with him and also Jaco Pastorius one night.  Another time these two young kids showed up at about 4am with a guitar and a bass.  It was Ari Roland and William Ash. They were about 12 and 13 years old and had stayed over at Ari’s house and snuck out after his parents were asleep.  Ari’s gone on to play with Betty Carter, Harry Connick Jr., etc. and is a regular fixture on the scene.  William took some lessons with me after.  Now he’s got some CDs out and plays regularly at Small’s.’

I used to do a lot of copywork for Barry’s concerts as well.  Barry seemed to thrive in a semi-chaotic environment and under pressure.  I remember working on parts for one concert with him at the house that used to belong to the Baroness Pannonica “Nica” de Koenigswarter. There were about 5 of us spread around the room copying parts to charts that were often not finished.  Barry was sitting at the piano writing 8-bars of concert score and running it over to the person copying that particular chart, then shifting gears to write 8-bars of a different score.  Sometimes the TV was on during all this!   It was serious, but also playful, like a competition.  He would try to write music faster than several of us could copy.  If you were still working on the last score page when he handed you the next one, he had a big smile on his face!  The beautiful thing was when you’d hear it at the concert, and it all sounded amazing!  He really has a genius mind.

MFT In your teaching and your clinics do you also impart to your students what it is like to live the “Jazz Life”?

RS To be honest, I’m not even sure what that means.  Besides teaching them what they need to know in order to play the instrument, I try to teach them about the players and the jazz tradition, and of course I hope to cultivate in them the same love of the music that I feel.  Sometimes a student will ask me what kind of a living can they make playing jazz, and in all honesty I have to tell them that it’s a fundamentally wrong question to be asking. I usually tell them that a better question would be “how can I play music that I love and still make a living?”  The solution is different for different people.  Lot’s of us teach because at least you get to keep your instrument in your hands all the time.  But I’ve known guys who are great musicians who’ve become doctors, lawyers, computer technicians, and just about anything else. I think if you’ve got the discipline and focus that it takes to learn to play this music, you could pretty much train yourself to do anything.  Which just reminded me of a funny Gary Larson cartoon: In the top frame some musicians are playing “Giant Steps” and one is telling the other “this isn’t brain surgery.”  In the bottom frame a group of brain surgeons have a patient’s skull open and one is saying to the other “this isn’t like trying to play Giant Steps.”

Ultimately, playing the music should be in and of itself, its own reward.  If you don’t have the fire to want to play jazz (or any other) music, no matter what, then I think you should be considering a different career path.  If you’re counting on some monetary reward, you may or may not get it, and if it doesn’t happen, you can grow very bitter. Over the years I’ve run into musicians with that kind of negative attitude and vowed to not become one of them.  C Sharpe once said “bebop is the music that brainwashes the mind into happiness” and that’s not so far from the truth.

Rick Stone

Continuing my series of email “interviews” with Jazz artists, I turn my attention to New York guitarist Rick Stone.  By Rick’s calculations he’s been on the scene in New York for 27 years.  It seems like just a couple of years ago that we met at one of the Jazz Times conventions in Manhattan.

I’ve always enjoyed Rick’s straight-ahead playing style and have admired not only his playing but his compositions as well.  I’ve been pleased to follow his career as performer. composer and teacher.

For more on Rick, visit his website here.

I sent Rick five questions for his consideration.  I am overwhelmed by his response which runs to multiple pages, every word carefully chosen and insightful. We’ll serve up this email interview in multiple parts.  Here’s the first installment.

1. You’ve been around the New York Jazz scene for a number of years.  Can the define the special nature of New York Jazz?  Does the music reflect the vibe of the city?

Well, it’s been said that New York is a jazz fan’s heaven and a jazz musician’s hell, and that pretty much sums it up.  The good and the bad of the New York Jazz scene is that there are just so many amazingly talented musicians here.  People come from all over the world to be part of this scene.  As a musician who lives here and has to try to make a living, it’s sort of a love/hate relationship. The “fan” part of me loves being able to go out any night of the week and have 30 or more choices of where to go to hear great jazz.  Even when you narrow it down to a specific genre of jazz (or even a specific instrument!) you’re likely to find 5 or 6 musicians you really want to hear on a given night, but the logistics probably only allow for 2 or 3.  It’s like being a kid in a candy store.

The “hell” part of it is just the other side of the same coin.  With thousands of great musicians here, we can’t all be working all of the time. I go to clubs to hear great musicians play, and look around and realize that half (or sometimes most) of the audience is made up of musicians. So simple supply and demand knocks down the musician’s pay in many venues.  So in a place where everything costs far more than most other U.S. cities, the prevailing pay for musicians working “local” gigs in NYC is actually a lot less than other parts of the country.  The economics of this situation quickly becomes apparent.  If you want to make you’re living just playing, you’re going to have to do a lot of that playing on the road in places where your New York residence gives you street cred.

Other solutions are possible as well.  I’ve been here 27 years now.  I figured out pretty early on that I didn’t really like to travel much.  After a few rocky years and a failed marriage, I got a computer job, saved some money, remarried and bought a multifamily house.  With a little rental income, and a lot of teaching work, I managed to quit the day job and just deal with music.  Now I teach anywhere from one to five days a week depending on the season, play some semi-regular gigs around town, and go out of town a few times a year, and that works for me.

If I’m not teaching or gigging, I’m going out and listening to other musicians as much as possible.  For example, since the start of the year I’ve been out to hear Gilad Hekselman, Jack Wilkins, Howard Alden, Bucky Pizzarelli (a couple times), Paul Bollenback, Jonathan Kreisberg, Pat Martino, Peter Mazza, Nick Moran (a former student of mine and a fine guitarist!), Chris Crocco with George Garzone, Lage Lund, Joe Giglio with Dan Adler.  Sometimes I’m asked to sit in which is always nice.  It’s funny, I heard somebody say recently that jazz was the only profession where guys will get finished playing a job, and then go play another job for free.  On Jack Wilkins gig, the audience is always filled with guitarists, so a lot of guys will wind up sitting in; myself, James Silberstein, Randy Johnston, Howard Alden, Carl Berry and Russell Norkin are all regulars. Last time I was there Howard Robert’s son Jay (who now runs the Musician’s Institute out in California) was there and played a few tunes with Jack and Bucky.

There’s a real camaraderie among the musicians here which easily outweighs any of the negative factors.

Continuing what I hope will be a series of postings, I conducted an email interview with pianist Steve Rudolph recently.  I sent Steve five questions which he gracefully and insightfully answered in a return email.

Steve Rudolph has been a major figure in the Central Pennsylvania Jazz community ever since his arrival in Harrisburg more than 30 years ago.  He is a pianist of connsumate skill with a friendly demeanor which belies his Hoosier upbringing. For a complete picture of Steve and his current projects visit his website here.

1. You’ve done some international traveling and performing in recent years.  Have you found that the old cliche is true that Jazz is better appreciated outside the U.S.?

There is an audience for jazz in every part of the world now -  there are also amazing jazz musicians all over the world (even Siberia), but I wouldn’t say that there is more love for the music in other countries.  Even large metropolitan areas in Europe have very few venues for jazz.  Major jazz festivals there include rock, blues and R&B – because the music doesn’t draw the way it used to….the pure fact is that if you’re not on TV (the central place for the world’s information) you don’t exist and we are not on TV…anywhere.