Wow! Oh-nine is passing before our eyes, tailing off with a goofy epic film that wants to convince us that “2012" is it. No, we prefer to believe that “THIS IS IT”– a filmic voyage that never left the backstage world of the late genius MJ, a.k.a. Michael Joseph Jackson – was IT, in short a better way to ring out the old. And bye the bye, if you haven’t seen the larger-than life, yet strangely and quietly eloquent view of Mr. Jackson in total control, and drawing freely rather than demanding respect from his brilliant support musicians, choreographers, set builders and the lot – this is a must-see experience. Michael Jackson was simply a most uniquely gifted being from a very special galaxy – although some of us were, thru bizarre (non-musically oriented) media distortion, starting to believe that he wasn’t so special at all. Know what? We were just plain, in-the-blind, WRONG!
Aside from realizing how final the loss of MJ profoundly was, picture the erasure from the music scene of Les Paul, Chris Connor, and country impresario Frank Gosman, not to mention DC’s foremost practitioner of the string bass Keeter Betts – all to be referred to from now on in the past tense, que dolor! Thanks to the kindly office of DC’s remaining bass great, Steve Novosel, and his determined disciple Joe Kerwin, our staff got to experience another healthy dose in these h2N1-ridden times of the UDC Jazz Orchestra and their fabulous Fall blow-out concert.
More on that event anon. Right now we must lament the passing of not another figure on the scene, but rather the feeling of joy and hope that earlier (in our March ‘09 GIGS & DIGS) seemed unstoppable with the ascent of the Obamas as First Couple and sure patrons of great arts and music. Chatting with one of DC’s most seasoned practitioners of the jazz piano, Dehrric Richburg, we were shocked from ‘jump’ to learn that our plan to catch his show at a high-profile listening room wouldn’t be possible. Dehrric’s gig had been scrubbed after four years – by ownership!
“Check this out, man.” Dehrric related to Sky recently, still in shock. “Right before Restaurant Week (when patronage of places top shelf skyrockets due to a sudden ‘charitable’ urge), the night manager, you know, not even the head guy, comes to me and says, ‘Uh, We...want to bring in a kind of a, ahh younger-type crowd.. Drum up more business, that sort of thing – No hard feelings, you understand of course!”
So we wanted to know who was the illustrious replacement for an artist and interpreter who’s been able to throw an audience everything in the space of a regular set (usually just in duo format with instinctively deft bass man Eddie Eatmon): from Ellington’s “Caravan” to “Moanin’”, by Lambert Hendricks and Ross, to Toccata and Fugue in D, by J.S. Bach! So, Dehrric, based on what I’ve recently learned of your lavishly rich upbringing with your Moms’ and Dad’s Richburg Singers Gospel entourage and their expert tutelage for your pianistic education – and your peerless role models, the (sadly) departed keyboard monsters, John Malachi and Hilton Felton – who supplanted you at that (mercifully nameless) golden platter eatery?
Resignedly, Richburg sighed. Ever gracious, he chose not to slander the plush-living owner nor the mediocre cocktail noodler who now occupies the piano chair in Market Square. “Oh, they gave the job to the Monday night guy, that’s all I’ve got to say about it.” The philosophical and mellow among us searchers for truth in Art always find some luster among the dross. Dehrric went on to say, “When you find yourself freed up on time, it’s actually amazing how you can come up with more space to work on your own, you know, original material. And I have a whole boatload of that – believe it.”
Here it must be mentioned, that the suddenly massive, mossy jetty of reactionary pessimism that has at least for the short term slowed the joyful tidal wave of everything good that is Obama (especially around the capital city proper) hasn’t just silenced some fine jazz piano downtown. In the name of “the economy,” or perhaps that euphemism we call ‘updating the format,’ the end result is quite often cheerlessness if not downright dead silence. Witness the following developments.
From the Four Seasons, the dulcet tones of piano professor Tim Ford are no longer found. The new main room, Bourbon Steak, doesn’t do live music. Marshall Keys (whom we hope to profile early in 2010) was let go from that site, and also the Mandarin Oriental, with no clear reasons given. Even a beloved hangout in Northeast DC, formerly the famed Pig Foot, dropped its live music policy entirely, costing valuable playing mileage for Steve Smith, Stacy Brooks, and Whale Etouffee, among other popular local acts.
Yet, hope lies deep in the heart, and especially at the Holiday season, hope must rise, just as oxygen rises in great clumps of shimmery bubbles from the depths to the glistening surface. Jesse Jackson long ago urged us to “Keep Hope Alive!” So it was that exactly fifty years gone, in December 1959, the great Louis “Satch” Armstrong, Ambassador of Jazz to the entire globe, jolted his flagging career in the epic film “The Five Pennies.” Cheering up a bummed-out Red Nichols (portrayed by Danny Kaye, equally in need of a ‘bump-up’), Louis takes his magic Horn, singing happily “The music goes ‘round and ‘round, And it comes out HEAH!” Whereupon he points to the shiny bell, puts mouthpiece to his lips and just blows. Sweet, clear, inspiring Jazz Notes.
Thus it was in the UDC auditorium recently, with the sterling leader and band instructor (and composer) Allen Johnson leading his select Big Band with most honored guest Roger “Buck” Hill, aged eighty-two, through his own renditions of Billie’s Bounce by Bird and Lazy Bird by Trane, and that was a moment, dear readers, not to ever be obliterated by any other musical memories. For Hill, tired though he appeared by blustery weather that night and a lifetime of bona fide hard work, dropped decades, as he slipped the mouthpiece of his saxophone between his lips, and just took off, inspired by the flawless beauty of Buck’s sound, the soloist on tenor, Eddie Baccus Jr. He deserves special mention for his thoughtful and spirited rendering of David Fathead Newman’s take of the Ray Charles classic “Hard Times,’ and clearly it’s a hit with us, since we’re still humming the damn thing weeks after the concert!
A Short Wish List
We’d like to close out our 2009 Gigs and Digs cycle on an up note. First, we implore one and all this Christmas (and all related spiritual observances, regardless of one’s own faith), to keep a close watch on pianist Dehrric Richburg, whose anecdotes about his coming of age musically are so voluminous they deserve far further mentioning in our next year’s first column of 2010. Mr. Richburg and guitarist Jerry Gordon (who often appears at Columbia Station club) this season gave a stirring performance at St. James AME Church in Southeast Washington which blended Jazz and Gospel in equal doses of powerful, foot-stomping feeling. As Dehrric says, “The vibe between the two genres is virtually the same, both very powerful.”
Based on a rueful admission we both shared, that nowadays the value of renumerating skilled musicians, regardless of their discipline, is less than half of where it should be, Gigs and Digs proposes a double blessing for the coming season. (A) promoters and proprietors should give their artists a decent cost-of-living raise in salary, and specifically (B) creators of worthy music such as Dehrric Richburg, and also Vince McCool, Eddie Baccus Jr, Joseph Kerwin, Steve Novosel, and so many other worthies of the DC-MD-VA Jazz scene may be endowed with the financial support and the necessary human energy that would allow their great shows to be taken out on that big road – Real Soon!
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