Author name: Thomas Cunniffe

Possibilities (by Herbie Hancock & Lisa Dickey)

Ask the average jazz musician who he would like to meet, and one likely answer would be Herbie Hancock. From all accounts, Hancock is a friendly warm person with few pretensions. We may not all get our chance to hang out with Herbie, but his autobiography Possibilities might be the next best thing. In a conversational tone, Hancock recalls his work with Miles Davis, his own groups, and offers a few surprising stories. Thomas Cunniffe offers his impressions of the autobiography in this month’s Book Review.

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I Called Him Morgan (Filmrise DVD; Netflix/Amazon stream)

On a winter night in 1972, Lee Morgan’s estranged common-law wife, Helen, shot and killed the trumpeter in the middle of a packed nightclub. The details of the murder have been elusive for decades, but a new film by Kasper Collin, I Called Him Morgan uses an audio interview of Helen and the memories of Lee’s musical colleagues to describe the events leading to the trumpeter’s death. Thomas Cunniffe reviews the film, recently issued on DVD.

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In Memoriam

The two vocal CDs reviewed this month memorialize a great musician (and his wife), and an honored son. Karla Harris celebrates the rarely-heard vocal music of Dave & Iola Brubeck, while Chris McNulty offers a heartfelt memorial to her late son, Sam. Thomas Cunniffe gives his reactions to these fine albums.

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Inspirations

While each of the leaders of this month’s instrumental CDs is an accomplished composer/arranger, most of the music presented on their discs are from the pens of other composers. Saxophonist Michael Cox remembers his friend and colleague Mark Flugge on Compassion, Eddie Daniels salutes Egberto Gismondi on Heart of Brazil, Ryan Keberle and Frank Woeste explore a piece by Maurice Ravel on Reverso, and Bobby Sanabria offers a dramatic rewrite of a classic musical in West Side Story Reimagined. Thomas Cunniffe reviews the discs.

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Jaco (Iron Horse/MVD Visual)

The flamboyant electric bassist Jaco Pastorius was an anomaly in jazz history. Since his instrument has generally gone out of favor in jazz circles, Pastorius’ main influence has been within rock bands. A new documentary, authorized by the Pastorius family, was produced by Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, and features an equal number of rock and jazz musicians as interviewees. Thomas Cunniffe reviews the 2-DVD set of Jaco, noting that the film discusses Jaco as a person well, but gets a few key facts wrong.

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The James Carter Interview

Saxophonist James Carter has been part of the New York jazz scene for over 20 years. His imaginative, risk-taking style has brought both fans and detractors, but the energetic spirit of his playing has brought some of those detractors over to his side. Carter discusses that and tells about the creation and recording of a new saxophone concerto with Jazz History Online’s Marissa Dodge.

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Classic James P. Johnson Sessions (Mosaic 262)

During the 1920s, James P. Johnson’s career developed in four distinct areas: stride pianist, vocal accompanist, songwriter and sideman. A new set from Mosaic features Johnson’s recordings in all these areas during his peak years of 1921-1943. Because the recordings are presented in chronological order, the music of those distinct areas get mixed together. In his Retro Review, Thomas Cunniffe suggests that listeners use the programming function on their CD player to separate the styles and omit some of the less artistic tracks.

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