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Riffs
Caught
COURTESY DOMINICAN REPUBLIC JAZZ FESTIVAL
Victor Bailey (1960–2016)
Final Bar: Victor Bailey, a bassist who
performed on numerous recording sessions
and who was formerly a member of
Weather Report, died on Nov. 11 at age 56
due to complications from a nerve disorder.
Bailey’s albums as a leader included Low
Blow (1999), That’s Right (2001) and the
2005 disc Electric, which he recorded with
guitarist Larry Coryell and drummer Lenny
White. Guitarist Bobby Broom sent Down-
Beat a note that read, in part, “[Victor] was
a dear, old friend of mine and as I’m sure
you know, one of the most prolific electric
bassists to emerge in the 1980s.”
ASCAP Salutes Schneider: The American
Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
(ASCAP) honored jazz composer,
arranger and bandleader Maria Schneider
with its Life in Music Award in the Jazz
category during its 2016 ASCAP Foundation
Honors ceremony on Dec. 14 in New
York City. According to foundation president
Paul Williams, Schneider was recognized
for her inventive works in classical
and jazz and for her steadfast advocacy
of creators’ rights. The annual ceremony
also recognized Morten Lauridsen in the
Concert category for his distingished
contributions to the American choral
tradition. ascapfoundation.org
Abercrombie’s Next Step: Guitarist John
Abercrombie, who has recorded as a leader
for the ECM label since 1974, returns
with a second album by his quartet featuring
pianist Marc Copland and longtime
rhythm partners Drew Gress on bass and
Joey Baron on drums. The album, titled
Up And Coming, will be released on ECM
on Jan. 13. The group’s previous album,
39 Steps, was released in 2013 to wide
critical acclaim. ecmrecords.com
Seeking Donations: The Jazz Bakery,
a non-profit organization, has launched
a new Performance Fund as progress
continues toward building the organization’s
new home (designed by
architect Frank Gehry) in Culver City,
California. The Jazz Bakery currently
presents shows in multiple venues.
jazzbakery.org
Rocking Grooves, Roaring
Oceans at DR Jazz Fest
THE 20TH EDITION OF THE DOMINICAN
Republic Jazz Festival, which has expanded
its programming in recent years, broke new
ground by presenting a five-night program
entirely composed of bands led by women. But
DRJF sustained tradition by holding the two
final nights of concerts—on Nov. 11 and Nov.
12—on the beach of Cabarete, the north coast
resort community that has been its base of
operations since 1993.
As always, the tented bandstand sat perhaps
50 feet from the Atlantic Ocean, which
backdropped the sound of all six bands, not
least Enerolisa y El Grupo de Salve de Mata
Los Indios, a folkloric Afrodominican band
from the Villa Mella suburb of Santo Domingo
that is led by matriarch Enerolisa Núñez, who
opened the Nov. 11 concert. She delivered the
chants with oceanic power, standing still as
three of her daughters and two of her sons created
a maelstrom of vocals and tambourine
that complemented the three percussionists—
one, a son who created a flurry of rhythm-timbre
on the guira.
Next up was the Berklee Global Jazz
Ambassadors (elite students culled from
Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute), comprising
U.S. tenor saxophonist Gregory Groover,
Venezuelan pianist Santiago Bosch, Palestinian
cellist Nasim Alatrash, U.S. bassist Jared
Henderson and U.S. drummer Nate Winn. The
remainder consisted of songs by drum master
and Berklee professor Terri Lyne Carrington,
who guided the flow throughout with creative,
percolating grooves of her own invention.
Soprano saxophonist Lihi Haruvi, pianist Caili
O’Doherty and cellist Marta Roma, all BGJI
alumnae, came on stage for effective solos on
the final number.
Esperanza Spalding performs at the
Dominican Republic Jazz Festival in Cabarete, Dominican Republic.
Next was a new band led by Berklee alumna
(and frequent Carrington colleague)
Esperanza Spalding, who coalesced her skills
as a songwriter, composer and badass bassist
in the company of keyboardist Geoffrey
Keezer, trumpeter Jason Palmer, tenor saxophonist
Dan Blake and drummer Justin Tyson.
Spalding delivered her songs with deep soul
and high craft, while simultaneously playing
spot-on bass lines with impeccable time and
resonant tone.
The wind was blowing onshore and the rain
poured buckets on Nov. 12, which opened with
a lovely set by Chilean alto saxophonist-composer
Patricia Zarate, who set to music a cohort
of original lyrics—rendered by the exquisite
Colombian singer Lucia Pulido—that referred
to her family’s traumatic experiences during
the 1973–’90 military dictatorship of General
Augusto Pinochet.
There followed a quartet, putatively headed
by Carrington, with Geri Allen on piano and
keyboard, Linda Oh on bass and Ingrid Jensen
on trumpet, who each contributed a tune. The
set opened with Jensen’s Miles Davis-esque
“Higher Grounds,” which she opened with a
deliberate solo of brisk flurries, deep colors
and stepwise phrases. As Carrington’s partners
generated unending melody, her own intensity
counterstated their gentleness.
It had been raining hard, but the weather
cleared around midnight for the final performer,
merengue típico accordionist La India Canela
(Lidia María Hernández López), from a village near
Santiago, whose set reveled in merengue’s African
roots, but, more importantly, gave the thousand or
so attendees an opportunity to dance the rest of the
night away alongside the roaring ocean.
—Ted Panken
14 DOWNBEAT FEBRUARY 2017