Pete’s Random Thoughts

Kevyn Lettau and Russell Ferrante

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:23:16 -0800

Kevyn Lettau is an artist that takes several listenings to really get a handle on her craft. This past Thursday we had the chance to finally catch up with her and see her live at the wonderful venue in Temecula CA called “Jazz at the Merc.” She did a duo with her long time collaborator and accompanist Russell Ferrante and the rest of the evening was magic.

For my ears there are two types of jazz singers, those with gorgeous voices and those that use their voice as an instrument. Kevyn wears hats for both these styles. Kevyn has been on the west coast scene for a while now. She has recently settled back into San Diego where her wine seems to be aging and mellowing well.

Her choice of songs ranged from some of the great standards like Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust and her mesmerizing rendition of I’ve Got You Under My Skin to the almost obscure evergreen, A Sinner Kissed an Angel. In each case Kevyn threw herself into the lyrics and explored all of the avenues and became one with the song and it rubbed off on the small but attentive Merc audience. Later in the set she and Russell had some fun with Sunny Side of the Street featuring some tongue in cheek strident stride piano bqcking.

Kevyn’s forte comes as a poet. She writes the poem and sends it off to Russell who puts music to the words and they become Kevyn’s art. The Cherry Tree and a song about Fathers she performed sounding between jazz and folksy however poignant. Kevyn’s interpretations are moving and she is a visual happening on stage.

Russell is the consummate pianist accompanist. Since they’ve performed together for as long as they have there is that uncanny marriage of styles that come together and make for a great program for the rest of us.

Kevyn can swing, make no mistake about it. She and Russell have a romp as she performed a real tongue twisting vocalese, Out of Town, from one of the Yellowjackets original lines, a group in which Russell was the keyboardist and original founder. She told the audience that her ex husband suggested that she put lyrics to this complicated line. Kevyn confessed, “Sure, but he didn’t have to sing it.”

While it is difficult for any quality jazz singer to get by in today’s culture we feel blessed that a duo with Kevyn and Russell is made available to us her in Temecula where we can go to dig and appreciate their contribution to the music.

Jerry's Big Mouth

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:26:37 -0800

The Jazz Drummer

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:47:28 -0800

From the book of Short Stories: “Reflections and Vignettes of a kid growing up in the Bushwick Section of Brooklyn a long time ago”

Signing Away Your Life

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:43:22 -0800

With all the blaring headlines in the news about the problems with health care issues, I would like to share a recent, personal, issue I had with my own local Retina Doctor during a recent examination at his office. After waiting a half hour in the waiting room just finishing up writing a volume of personal information, I was finally called into the assisting nurse’s room to verify all of the things I’d written down which were now being fed to the masses on the computer, to forever tag me whenever I speak or ever fill out another form someplace else. All of this was than followed up with eye drops to dilate my eyes. From there I was led yet to another waiting room to wait for my eyesight to completely be out of focus. From there, after the passing of another twenty minutes, I’m led into another office to finally meet the doctor. He tells me that I’m about to receive a vegetable dye injection to highlight the back of my eyes in living color to help find a solution to my vision problems. The doctor tells me that I can expect to be nauseous for at least three minutes after receiving this injection but in a few cases this can last longer and rarely lead to getting very sick. Up until now, I’ve invested all of this time and effort to get to this point. Do I throw in the towel or just gamble that I’m one of the many that only experiences nausea for a brief period of time?

I go for it. Prior to the dye injection another nurse puts a three page release form in front of me asking me to give permission for the dye and to release the doctor from getting sued should i become deathly ill. the pages are chock full of a lot of text, all of which are completely out of focus for me - I could be signing my fortunes away to this doctor I’ve first met. What do I do? Do I have a choice here? Why did they wait until now to lay this all on me when I can no longer see?

Of course, like most of us would do, I blindly signed off and gave it all up to faith. Fortunately, I had a brief brush with nausea but not enough to toss my cookies on the pretty nurse and her starched pink scrubs. The ultimate diagnoses was nothing major that could easily be remedied by a brief out patient procedure. I don’t put any blame on this or any doctor for wanting to protect their asses. I suppose the pendulum has come full circle from the times that irresponsible and callous patients would try to dream up ways in which to screw a doctor with a hapless lawsuit. It sure is fun living in this here twenty first century.

New England

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:05:47 -0800

New England Photo Gallery

Fusing Flamenco to Bill Evans

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:04:29 -0700

I have always been a fan of the flamenco guitar and have enjoyed it since the days of Segovia all the way up to Paco De Lucia. One of today’s contemporary flamenco guitarist on the scene is Nino Josele. His sound is rich and his approach to music is introspective with deep humility and feeling. For him to take on the task of interpreting Bill Evans with the tools and sensitivity of his gitano heritage seemed a monumental chore. However, he has shown that music genres and traditions can marry and result in a consummate outpouring of emotion, vibrancy, charm and vigor.

I will have the privilege and opportunity to see this wonderful musician at the venerable Village Vanguard next month with an all star trio featuring John Benitez on bass and Horazio "El Negro" Hernandez on drums. You can be assured that there will be some coverage on that event on these pages in the near future. Meanwhile, you can experience a small sample of this artist’s work below.

Puerto Rico - 2009 Pics and Video

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 10:36:02 -0700

Pictures and Video of Puerto Rico

2009 Heineken Jazz Festival Puerto Rico

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:01:45 -0700

The Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest 2009, one of the island’s premiere music festivals, returns this year with a special honor to Puerto Rican master conga player Giovanni Hidalgo, considered by many Latin jazz connoisseurs worldwide as the greatest ‘conguero’ on the planet.

Celebrating its 19th edition, the traditional four-day musical fete – to take place May 28-31 at the Tito Puente Amphitheater – will unite an A-list of jazz and Latin jazz stars, including Eddie Palmieri, Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci and Conrad Herwig, among others.
“The news caught me by surprise. I still consider myself to be an apprentice because we are in this world to learn something new every day,” Hidalgo told the Latin Music Examiner earlier this week via a telephone interview from his Florida home.
“I feel honored for this great recognition and I want everyone to know that I travel the globe representing Puerto Rico with humility, loyalty and respect, so on that night there will be a lot of love, happiness and great music,” he added.
Hidalgo and his quartet will close the festival on May 31.
For Luis Alvarez, the event’s producer, the timing was ripe to pay homage to Hidalgo.
“It was important for us that we closed the first 19 years of the festival with a homage to a high-caliber musician such as Giovanni, not only because with his music he has represented Puerto Rico around the globe but also because of his incalculable talent and valuable contributions to the genre,” Alvarez told the Latin Music Examiner.
Kicking off the festival will be the local Latin jazz group Orinoco, led by percussionist Pablo Rosario, followed by the multi-talented homegrown artist Millo Torres and Planeta Jazz.
On Friday, the musical extravaganza continues with Enclave, an Afro-Latin jazz band comprised of saxophonist-percussionist Hilary Noble and pianist-Berklee College of Music professor Rebecca Cline.
Also sharing the stage on Friday will be drummer Jack DeJohnette, Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez and Grammy-winning double bass player John Patitucci. Closing the night will be Palmieri’s Afro-Caribbean Jazz Octet.
The festival continues on Saturday with Latimbística, a modern band that unites talents from Israel, Puerto Rico, Perú and the United States. Recently, Downbeat Magazine honored the group as best jazz band of 2008.
Rounding out the night’s entertainment will be Oscar Castro Neves, who’ll celebrate “50 Years of Bossa Nova.” Castro is widely known as one of the founding fathers of bossa nova.
The last day of the event will headline Conrad Herwig and his Latin Side band with special guest Palmieri, followed by Hidalgo and his Silver-Gold Quartet, made up of Eric Figueroa on piano, Eddie “Guagua” Rivera on bass and Tito de Gracias on timbales.
Throughout his prolific artistic career, Hidalgo has recorded, played and toured with the top names in the Latin and jazz scenes, including Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, Palmieri, Patato Valdés and ArmandoPeraza, among others.
In February, Hidalgo won a Grammy – his second ever – in the Best Contemporary World Music category for “Global Drum Project,” featuring Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, Zakir Hussain and Sikiru Adepoju.
“With all those great musicians on hand, anything could happen on that stage on Sunday,” quipped Alvarez.
“The great thing about this festival is that throughout all these years we have seen how the appreciation for other forms of jazz has grown among Puerto Rican fans. We always have loves descargas and percussion, but now people also like straight-ahead jazz and big-band formats, and I think that’s positive,” he concluded.
Countdown to Puerto Rico Jazz Festival

The Bird

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:04:09 -0700

Celebrating all the Great Bass Players

Sun, 5 Apr 2009 21:39:22 -0700

Can anyone find a bass player that Jay may have missed on this cool bossa nova dedicated to all the great jazz players.