Chad Taylor & the 54th Pitt Jazz Seminar & Concert

The Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert is synonymous with the turning of the leaves. Created by the late Dr. Nathan Davis in 1970, the annual event brought seasoned jazz musicians to town for a series of free seminars, culminating in a concert that harkened back to the days of blowing sessions, where everyone took part. 

When Geri Allen and, later, Nicole Mitchell succeeded Davis, things began to evolve, pushing the music out of its hard bop comfort zone. Mitchell's 2019 concert ruffled some feathers but last year's event, under the direction of Dr. Aaron Johnson, got things back on track.

The 54th annual event will honor bassist Reggie Workman and hometown drummer Roger Humphries. It coincides with the recent arrival of drummer Chad Taylor, who now serves as Director of Jazz Studies at Pitt. Taylor's musical c.v., is vast and fascinating. He and Rob Mazurek have helmed various Chicago Underground units (often Duos, with some Trios in there too). He has also played with Fred Anderson, Marc Ribot and James Brandon Lewis, to name just a few. As a leader, Taylor also released several albums, one of which - The Daily Biological  - was this writer's favorite album of 2020. 

Taylor and I caught up last week, right as he was boarding a train on the way to a rehearsal, and we discussed Pitt, music and teaching. (A link to info on the concert appears at the bottom of this entry.)

Mike: Are you in town now? Are you hopping between cities? 

Chad: Yeah, I'm doing a lot of back and forth. Right now, I'm on my way to New York for a rehearsal. But thing will get more settled in Pittsburgh next semester. I bought a house near the South Side slopes. I'm getting that all set up now. I'm excited.
One of the things going on is that I got this fellowship, the Pew Fellowship. One of the stipulations is you have to be a residence in Philly. So I can't sell my house in Philly until that fellowship is over. So that's why I have been doing a lot of back and forth. It's a two-year fellowship.
So right now I see myself as living in Pittsburgh and I'm also living in Philly. I'm sort of living in two cities at the same time!

Is this typical for a jazz educator these days - bouncing around between cities anywhere?

For a lot of people. One thing that has changed about the position at Pittsburgh, is that, until I came along, the position was being Director of Jazz Studies. Now the position is Artistic Director of Jazz Studies, which means I don't have all the day-to-day administrative stuff, the committee meetings and other things that a director would normally have. And I can concentrate more on the shape of the program and the direction the program is going in. That differs from what Nicole [Mitchell] and Geri [Allen] were doing.

Is Aaron Johnson handling some of that day to day stuff?

He is. He's also the Chair of the Music Department. But in addition, we're getting ready to hire somebody next year who going to have a role....Did you know Michael Heller?

Yeah. Did he write the book about the loft scene [Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s]?

Exactly. He's left and went to Brandeis. So we're getting ready to take his place. And the person who gets that position is going to have more role of being administrative stuff and being on committee meetings.

How did [your appointment at Pitt] come about? Did Pitt come to you, or did you hear about it and jump at the opportunity?

Well, I knew about the position. I knew when Nikki left that the position was going to open up and I let Nikki know that I was interested in doing that position. I had been looking for an academic position for quite awhile now. Maybe seven or eight years. 

I started working with Nicole in 1997, when I moved back from New York. So we have some history. She told me that she thought I'd be great for the position. And that's when I started pursuing it.
There was some back and forth. It took about two years. I did a residency that NIcole helped set up. I had a chance to work with the students and i had a chance to do some teaching and really have some insight into the program. Then I applied for the position. And it worked out. 
I'm excited about being at Pitt. And I'm excited about the direction that I want to take the program. 

In jazz academia, things are getting smaller and smaller... I really think jazz is getting bigger. It's just how we're looking at it. Because it's not just a genre of music. It's a process. It's a way of people coming together and taking these different elements of music and  putting them in a new way to create something different.

Pittsburgh is known for its past contributions to jazz. But when it comes to modern music that pushes the edge, the kind of stuff that you often play, that doesn't get talked about a lot. As you're getting set up, how do you approach that?

That's a good question. That's one thing I'm super excited about. First off, Pittsburgh is a hard bop town. You got Art Blakey, Stanley Turrentine, Ahmad Jamal, all these great musicians. That's what I grew up playing. I grew up in Chicago. I grew up playing organ jazz and hard bop. One of the first bands I was in, I was playing with .... you know, back then Rob Mazurek [Taylor's long-standing partner in the Chicago Underground Duo] was a hard bop trumpet player. He had a band with Eric Alexander. Those were some of the first gigs I did. I love that music. I grew up with that music and that music is still very much a part of me. I still do gigs like that.

I also, as you know, do a lot of progressive music, creative music as well. I love doing that, Now one of my goals with this position is to embrace all of jazz, the whole shebang. One of the ways I'm going to do that is by having musicians who have all these broad range of styles that they can play. 

If you look at the programming this year, you have someone like [bassist] Reggie Workman. He has the hard bop credentials. If anybody has hard bop credentials, it's Reggie Workman. He played with Art Blakey for years. But he also played with Coltrane and he also has his own music which has more open structures and is more adventurous. He's somebody that can go between both those worlds.

 
So can somebody like [alto saxophonist] Immanuel Wilkins. Which I didn't even realize until recently. I did a gig with him a couple years ago in Philadelphia with [tenor saxophonist] Odean Pope, just the three of us. We didn't play any compositions. We didn't rehearse. We just played for two hours straight, improvised music. I was just so blown away with what Immanuel -  and Odean - were doing.  Immanuel, I think he's 26, 27. He really knows the history of the music. He can play hard bop but he also has his own thing. 

Someone like [guitarist] Jeff Parker is someone else who can go between both those worlds. Sumi [Tonooka, piano], who I've known for a while now, also goes between places. But she's done a lot of work as a composer, working with string ensembles, orchestras. And really an incredible pianist who I think is going to bring a lot to this ensemble.

The whole idea with having people who love jazz and are able to go between these different areas. Because one thing I see that's happening in jazz academia, things are getting smaller and smaller. Less people are applying. Less people are interested in becoming a jazz musician. Jazz record sales are declining. It's always, 'Okay, jazz music is getting smaller.' I really think jazz is getting bigger. It's just how we're looking at it. Because it's not just a genre of music. It's a process. It's a way of people coming together and taking these different elements of music and  putting them in a new way to create something different. When you look at jazz like that, it keeps getting bigger and bigger. 

So my idea is really to expand this idea of what jazz is. And basically have people understand that jazz is for everybody. So when people say to me they don't like jazz, I always get confused. What do you mean you don't like jazz? What is jazz to you? Usually what I find out is that they have a really narrow idea of what jazz music really is.

I hear jazz in everything. You think about it like this, Mike. The drum set was an invention that was made in America to play jazz music. So if you hear a drum set in any sort of music, you are hearing something that was created for jazz. There's a connection there. I hear jazz in all sorts of things. I don't see it as something that's old fashioned. I think it's really relevant today. One thing I have in an agenda at Pitt is to really broaden the idea of what jazz is. 

It's true. When you're talking artistically it's branching out into so many styles, whether your're talking abouit Robert Glasper or Tim Berne, there's something going on there. 

And it's for all generations. It's not for old people, it's just your grandparents' music. It's not noise or this hipster thing. It's a whole spectrum. It's for everybody. 

Now we've just got to get more people to listen and pay attention.

Exactly! And not be afraid of it. You know what's interesting is, I went to Salvador, in Bahia, Brazil, a couple years ago. I was at a nightclub. In this club, they had a DJ spinning all this great Brazilian music. And everybody was dancing. You had grandmothers dancing with their grandchildren - in the nightclub! You had all ages. It wasn't like a big pickup scene, though I'm sure there's some of that. The point is that, they were playing this music and you had people that were five years old and people that were eighty years old. They were all getting down, dancing, appreciating it. And jazz has that potential too. It should be like that. It's for everybody. 

What is like teaching jazz in 2024?

People want to know how it relates to them. They don't want to have it be just a historical perspective, like this is something that happened a long time ago, and this is just a history course. They want to know, how does jazz relate to me now? 

The course that I'm teaching is one that Nicole Mitchell was teaching before. It's called Creative Arts Ensemble. For this class, it's a multi-disciplinarian class, meaning, it's open to all the arts - dancers, people into theater, people into photography, people in visual arts. We talk about ways of collaborating, different artistic practices, as well as collaborating as a class. It's been a lot of fun to teach. Something about Pitt - the number one elective course at Pitt is Jazz History. 

I took that class when Nathan Davis was there.

Oh! I think it has to do with the fact that Nathan had built this thing up. I taught the class when I was in my residency. Some people think it's an easy A, which it shouldn't be. I don't think it is. I think that once they get there, they realize, "Oh, I'm going to have to learn something." But I bring that up to say there is so much amazing talent at Pitt. In this class I'm teaching now, it's not a big course. It's small.. We have a couple students who are political science majors and they're incredible musicians, incredible vocalists. You see that in the big band too. You have all these non-music majors who are incredibly talented.

The challenge though, is the undergraduate program needs some work. We don't have many people who are majoring in jazz in the undergraduate program. So that's one of my goals - to create demand for people to become a jazz major.

The graduate program is going strong. There's a lot of history there. Geri and Nicole both focused on that. But we are at a point now where, in order to make the program relevant, we have to have demand for the undergraduate jazz program. That's one of the biggest challenges I have, and Pitt has. Because right now, the students who want to major in jazz, aren't going to Pitt. They're going to Duquesne. 

Maybe your name can draw some of the more adventurous types.

What's great about Pitt is it's a huge school that has all these different schools within the school. They're all willing and able to collaborate. You have this incredible amount of resources. One of the ways I plan on drawing more students into the undergraduate program is to create avenues for them to combine jazz with other arts - not even other arts -  with other fields that they could be interested in. So in other words to have - I don't know what you would call it - like a jazz major/minor kind of thing. You could major in jazz but also have access to these other areas, and maybe have a dual degree.

Are you thinking of combining it with marketing or media?

Absolutely. There are a lot of areas that could be explored in creating some really innovative types of programs. And I get the feeling the school is open to that. The other thing is we have an amazing [recording] studio. It needs a little bit of work but we're getting it in shape. We can offer students access to the studio and also courses in learning how to use the studio as a part of their degree.  

What's great is I got the dean to put a significant amount of money every year into the studio, keeping it up to date and for hiring people to work in the studio. That's something that can really be used as an incentive to pull in more students. 

With all the groups that you're involved in, are you going to try and present some of your bands while you're here?

Yeah, one thing that's great about my academic program is that I can focus on my own bands. I don't have to rely on being a sideman and doing all this touring for income. I'd like to have my ensemble play at Pitt, maybe not necessarily on campus but you know, doing gigs at Con Alma or other venues. 

Anything else that you wanted to mention?

I think we touched on a lot. I'll be interested to see how the Pitt concert is received. We're going to be doing some weird stuff. I shouldn't say "weird," but we are going to be doing some adventurous things. Overall, we'll be playing standards as well. We're going to be mixing them in. So we're going to be bringing both of those flows together. We'll see what happens. 

Taylor, with James Brandon Lewis, at Club Café, March 2023

A complete schedule of events can be found here. 

CD Review: Lina Allemano's Ohrenschmaus - Flip Side

Lina Allemano's Ohrenschmaus

Flip Side

(Lumo Records) Bandcamp link

Andrea Parkins joins the trio of Lina Allemano (trumpet), Dan Peter Sundland (electric bass) and Michael Griener (drums) on three of the seven tracks of Flip Side. Her accordion, electronics and "objects" add to the quick free romps, which all riff on the album title and explore different textures in their movements. "Sidetrack" is the longest, at nine minutes, beginning softly with scrapes and drones that could be emanating from any of the players. Initially, no one rises to the forefront; making the track serve as a prologue to what will follow. Things starts to coalesce in the final minutes. Allemano moans a note that sounds straight out of  Miles Davis' '70s wah wah (though she uses no pedals). Then the track mysteriously fades. 

"Sideswipe," three tracks later, picks up where the previous quartet session left off. This time, Parkins' accordion is more prominent, doing a wild dance with the trumpet. By the time the group gets to "Sidespin," Parkins is most prominent, using her accordion like an organ. This final blast barely lasts four minutes, but none of that time is wasted.

The remaining trio tracks find Ohrenschmaus ("ear candy") also vary widely. Sundland's slapped bass in "Signal" sounds like a funk groove that has won't hold together, thanks to Griener's clackety percussion. Allemano seizes the setting for some dirty growls. "Heartstrings" slowly takes shape with some moody mute blowing but "Stricken" is the album's centerpiece. Here, Sundland and Griener play slow and minimally, like a funeral march, while Allemano plays a melancholy line first with a Harmon mute than open. The mood is so spare, it could fall apart instantly, but it moves on with Sundland bowing and plucking. The results sound both dramatic and full.

"The Line," the final trio track before "Sidespin" alternates melodies played by trumpet and bass, with a series of outbursts full of press rolls, bass thumps and eventually some high whoops from the trumpet.

Allemano and her comrades have many moods, but all of them have a fun sense of adventure at the core.