August 9, 2010 performance report by Dave Read.

Herbie Hancock brought his The Imagine Project tour to Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, and just about blew the roof off the joint. Mr. Hancock, more youthful and fit than any 70 year old man should expect to be, was accompanied by Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, James Genus on bass, Lionel Loueke on guitar, Greg Phillinganes on keyboards (and vocals), Kristina Train, vocals (and violin). They played one immense set that opened with Actual Proof (1974 “Thrust”) and closed with Chameleon (1973 “Head Hunters”), which we caught on video, while the usually staid Tanglewood audience got busy!

The day before this gig, while Mr. Hancock and the Imagine Project were headlining the Newport Jazz Festival, Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble were putting on a festival of their own in Tanglewood’s Koussevitsky Music Shed. That’s notable because the former has a mission to “utilize(s) the universal language of music to express its central themes of peace and global responsibility” and the latter seeks to “connect the world’s neighborhoods by bringing together artists and audiences around the globe.”

By Dave Read (Aug. 31, 2002 concert) – In comparison to the Friday and Sunday night concerts, the Saturday afternoon portion of the 2002 Tanglewood Jazz Festival was a disappointment, but not due to any fault of the musicians. A combination of unfortunate scheduling and electronic feedback spoiled one’s enjoyment of the Hammond B-3 Organ Summit in the Tanglewood theatre near the Main Gate and the taping of Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz radio show in Ozawa Hall.

The painful feedback problems began early in blues organist Jimmy McGriff’s set in the Theatre and recurred several times, spoiling the otherwise delightful singing of special guest Lady Ce Ce and guitarist Wayne Boyd.

Preceding McGriff was Joey DeFrancesco, who this year supplanted Jimmy Smith atop the Downbeat critic’s poll as best organist. Legendary saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman was supposed to join DeFrancesco’s trio but didn’t arrive on stage until McGriff’s set was underway.

The 1:30 program culminated in a jam session, giving the organists a chance to challenge each other, and was just getting warmed up when it was time to make the jog across the Tanglewood campus for the 3 PM start of Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, with guest Sir Roland Hanna.

As things turned out, people were being seated in Ozawa Hall throughout the taping, and it was an unfortunate decision to bolt the very real gig underway in the Theatre for the mere novelty of McPartland’s radio program.

McPartland’s show is wonderful, as edifying as it is entertaining, but there’s no rationale for calling a taping of it a concert. Brilliant in its own medium, it pales on stage, unlike Garrison Keillor’s, which with it’s house band, guest musicians, and cast of actors has plenty of visual appeal.

McPartland’s and Hanna’s solo and duet piano playing was fine, if constrained, but their conversation was not particularly sparkling and some of it even had to be re-hashed for the eventual broadcast. We’re sure we’ll enjoy listening to the broadcast, and it was a pleasure to see these wonderful artists up close.

September 5, 2004 performance review by Dave Conlin Read

Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2004 came to a close shortly
before eleven o’clock Sunday September 5 and the last notes
played were not the work of Brubeck, or Connick, or
Marsalis – to name just 3 of the teriffic weekend’s headliners – but
old Johannes Brahms, whose “Lullaby” was played on flute by
Bobby Militello of the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Militello toosed off a few lines of the song on flute
(with his saxophone tucked under his arm) when the quartet
came back onstage to acknowledge the audience’s ovation;
everybody cracked up, nobody expected a real encore; it was
another light, funny moment folded into a seriously
brilliant two and a half hour concert, including a dazzling
second set with the DBQ accompanied by the 23-piece Brubeck
Symphonette.

The audience was cued to Dave Brubeck’s playful mood
right from the start, when, after introducing his band, he
said: “I made a tune list and as we walked out here, I told
the boys to forget it. I’m going to play an old tune from
the 30s called ‘Margie’.”

Brubeck introduced the second number with an anecdote
about life on the road – more precisely, about getting
cranky deep into the Quartet’s third European tour of the
year and being placated by being setup with digs in London
for the remainder of the tour.

When he was told that, “We’ll put you up in a London
flat,” he said “Sharp!” It took the audience a moment to
get the joke: he gave them a chance at redemption when his
story continued in the form of introduction to “London Flat
London Sharp,” which Mr. Brubeck said he composed to dispel
the gloomy mood all the travel had gotten him into.

“Now, my left hand will run down the piano in Flats, and
my right hand will go up the piano in … .” SHARPS rang
out from the vast audience, now totally attuned and settled
in for a great musical experience.

The number featured a searing alto sax solo by Militello
and was followed by something completely different, “Theme
for June” from brother Howard Brubeck’s 1959 composition
“Dialogues for Jazz Combo and Orchestra.” Beginning with
sublime and quiet notes on the piano, it lead into a bass
solo wherein Michael Moore evoked a feeling of loneliness
so palpable it could make one shudder.

Randy Jones moved the tune along with whispering
brushwork, picking up the pace until Militello’s sax
lightened the feeling and finally Brubeck gave the whole
idea a second thought with a fanciful run of notes before
getting quiet again and fading to silence.

Brubeck spent a few minutes talking about his brother’s
composition, that it gave more room for the jazz musicians
to improvise than earlier pieces for jazz and orchestra,
and that Leonard Bernstein heard it at the original Music Inn in Lenox and
decided to record it, conducting the New York Philharmonic
with the DBQ in 1960.

Brubeck continued by telling us that in the early 50s
and even in the 40s, he “was messing around with crazy time
signatures” but that it didn’t work because people couldn’t
dance to the tunes. Then he began to do popular tunes,
doing them simple at first and then playing them crazy,
“because people didn’t listen once they were on the dance
floor!”

Around the same time he began listening to the little
yellow records of his kids and thought they were pretty
good. One of them was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” from
which Brubeck wrote an arrangement of “Someday My Prince
Will Come.” Roundly dissed at the time for being so un-hip
as to embrace pop music, Brubeck reminded the audience that
it wasn’t long before the uber-cool Miles Davis put out his
own version of “Some Day…”

Listening to it tonight, one could waltz, march, and/or
just groove to Brubeck’s polyrhythmic genius. It was
followed by the recent piece, “Elegy,” written in memory of
Norwegian jazz journalist Randi Hultin, which featured
Moore’s sorrowful bowing bass and Militello’s plaintive
flute. Drummer Randy Jones had the spotlight as they ended the set
with “Out of the Way.”

For the second set, the quartet was joined onstage by
the 23-piece Brubeck Symphonette, all strings save for one French horn, conducted by Russell
Gloyd, who embellished on Brubeck’s earlier remarks by
saying that one of those London gigs was with the London
Symphony Orchestra during their 100th Anniversary
celebration, with Queen Elizabeth II in attendance. Gloyd
continued in M.C. mode, telling the story of how “Blue
Rondo A La Turk” came to be written by Brubeck after he was
intrigued by the rhythms he heard street musicians playing
in Istanbul while on a State Department tour during the
Eisenhower administration.

Besides “Blue Rondo…”, the set included “Brandenburg
Gate” which Brubeck described as being based on the rhythm
of ‘Danke schön’ German for ‘thank you;’ the
similiarly inspired “Regret,’ which repeats the sound of
that sad word throughout and which he invited the audience
to devise their own programs for because he didn’t know
what the piece was about; and “Lullaby” from his Christmas
cantata, “La Fiesta de la Posada.”

For the evening’s, and indeed, the Festival’s, grand
finale, we were presented with a scintillating performance
of “Take Five,” composed by Brubeck’s original saxophonist
Paul Desmond. All the solos were outstanding, especially
Randy Jones’, which got Brubeck to his feet the better to
enjoy it before returning to the piano to put the wraps on
one of the best concerts Ozawa Hall will ever hold.