Geof Bradfield

DownBeat Magazine 2/18/13

Bradfield Reminisces on Origins of
Liston Tribute
Chicago-based saxophonist Geof Bradfield said he
was inspired to craft a suite in honor of the late
trombonist and arranger Melba Liston while he was
preparing a follow-up to his 2010 recording, African
Flowers (Origin). Liston’s arrangements for pianist
Randy Weston were among Bradfield’s primary
influences in composing African Flowers. Now, he’s
incorporated them into Melba!, a six-part commission
for septet that premiered in Chicago last summer.
Liston’s celebration of the African homeland—Little
Niles, Uhuru Africa, The Spirits Of Our Ancestors and
High Life, along with like-minded pieces such as Duke
Ellington’s The Far East Suite and John Coltrane’s
Africa—are among the standards to which Bradfield’s
paeans to heritage are inevitably compared.
“I began to study Melba’s music at the Center for
Black Music Research [at Columbia College in
Chicago],” Bradfield said. “As I began to study her
scores, her story came alive for me. I was stunned. As
an arranger, and as a woman, undoubtedly, she was
always standing in the shadows, creating all this
beauty. I thought her story should be in the foreground
for a change.”
Couched in the diverse styles and genres Liston both
absorbed and shaped over the course of her career,
the musical storyline of Bradfield’s suite Melba! winds
its way through many aspects of the trombonist’s life:
her gospel-infused Kansas City childhood; her
immersion in the thriving Central Avenue scene of
’40s-era Los Angeles; her breakout work with Dizzy
Gillespie a few years later; her extended collaboration
with Weston (which began in the late ’50s and lasted
until her death in 1999); her ’70s-era stints as a pop
arranger at Motown and Stax Records and an
educator and writer/arranger in Jamaica (she worked
with Bob Marley, among others); and her public
triumph at the 1979 Kansas City Women’s Jazz
Festival as leader of the all-women septet Melba
Liston and Company.
Bradfield’s six-part suite, however, is not a tribute, per
se. “I’m not really trying to write like Melba,” he
explained. “She did that very well.” Likewise, Bradfield
and his band—trombonist Joel Adams, trumpeter
Victor Garcia, guitarist Jeff Parker, pianist Ryan
Cohan, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer George
Fludas—retain their own musical personalities
throughout. (Vocalist Maggie Burrell sings the coda, a
reprise of the opening “Kansas City Child” theme
augmented by lyrics from the Georgia Douglas
Johnson poem “Let Me Not Lose My Dream.”)

“Joel is on the other end of the spectrum from [Liston’s
style],” Bradfield pointed out. “He’s the sort of
trombone player who plays like [the late trumpeter]
Woody Shaw. He’s a virtuoso trombone player, very
raw and very emotional. Victor can be brash and
searing—that trumpet model—but he can also have
this really beautiful, softer sound on the instrument
and a huge range of expression.”
For his own part, Bradfield combined the full-toned
assertiveness one might expect from a Houston-born
reedman who cut his teeth on the sounds of
saxophonists Arnett Cobb and David “Fathead”
Newman.
Nonetheless, the spirits of both Liston and Weston are
dominant. “There is some collage involved,” Bradfield
said. “I spent all that time with those scores. I have
little snippets of things, and I wrote out from those
snippets. So, for instance, Randy gets the tri-tone
interval because that’s the interval he uses so much in
almost all of his writing. That shows up in “Randy
Weston” [the suite’s fourth movement], and it pops up
in some other places, too. The initial theme, ‘Kansas
City Child’—Melba writes some very interesting
chords. She liked a lot of these ambiguous harmonies.
So I took that shape. I grabbed it from something she
did with Mary Lou [Williams]. I did borrow a little from
Melba’s arrangement of [Williams’s] “Aires”—not the
one they played with Dizzy, but another one that was
in the collection. She has a lot of things like that; the
kind of harmonies a self-taught musician might write.
They sound great because of her voicing and the way
she spaces them out in the range.”
In the wake of his success with African Flowers and
now Melba!, Bradfield finds himself both gratified and
humbled. He said, “It crossed my mind: the ‘burden of
authenticity.’ How is this going to be critically
received? Will somebody say, ‘Hey, a white
saxophone player from Texas, what right does he
have to do this?’”
Any doubts, though, were dispelled when he went to
Brooklyn to discuss the Melba Liston project with
Weston himself. “You’ve been chosen,” the legendary
pianist and composer told him. “The African Ancestors
chose you. When the ancestral spirits touch you, you
have to respond. So they got you!”
Remembering Weston’s rich laughter as he spoke to
him, Bradfield breaks into a smile and reaffirms his
confidence in what he’s accomplished with both
African Flowers and Melba!. “It’s music that I love and
that I’ve learned a lot from,” he said. “If you immerse
yourself in the culture, then your music is your music.”
—David Whiteis
- Downbeat

GEOF BRADFIELD SEPTET
BY NEIL TESSER
September 7, 2012
Geof Bradfield has drawn plenty of praise for his work as a reed soloist, and it’s all deserved; on
tenor and soprano saxes, plus bass clarinet and flute, his muscular, choate solos unfurl with a torrent
of detail, even as he sketches the bigger picture. Surrounded by like-minded virtuosi – as will be the
case Saturday, when he plays the Green Mill with an all-star septet starring trumpeter Victor Garcia
and guitarist Jeff Parker – pretty much guarantees an evening of stellar performance.
But in the last few years, Bradfield has made just as much impact with his precise and colorful
writing, in compositions that evoke a vivid sense of place through the same mixture of detail and
sweep. I placed his 2010 album African Flowers (inspired by a State Department tour of four African
nations) among the year’s Top Ten – as did several other writers – and I’d do so again in an instant.
Now comes the follow-up, Melba!, a six-movement suite that Bradfield debuted this summer, and
which he’ll reprise at the Mill.

Melba! celebrates the life and career of Melba Liston, the pioneering woman trombonist, composer,
and arranger best known for her work in translating the compositions of Randy Weston from the
piano to larger groups. Operating with grants awarded by Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation, Bradfield spent a good deal of time investigating Liston’s original scores,
which are right here in town, archived at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College.
It’s a lively, lovely suite, bristling with Joel Adams’ trombone fanfares (as you’d expect from a piece
dedicated to a trombonist); slyly incorporating Africanized rhythms and echoes of African melody (in
a nod to the continent’s strong influence on the best-known Weston-Liston collaborations); and
glistening in the funky sophistication that marked orchestral writing in jazz of the 50s and 60s
(Liston’s heyday).
The opening section, “Kansas City Child,” exuberantly references Liston’s birthplace with a soulful
motif that threads throughout the suite. Other movements trace her teen years in Los Angeles –
when she apprenticed with the dean of West Coast arrangers, Gerald Wilson – and time spent in
Jamaica, writing for film and arranging for Kingston recording sessions. “Randy Weston” takes
advantage of pianist Ryan Cohan’s keyboard-leaping technique to evoke that movement’s eponym,
whose partnership with Liston spanned four decades.
Bradfield’s septet, rounded out by bassist Clark Sommers and drummer George Fludas, performs
Melba! (and other pieces by Bradfield as well as Weston) from 8 till midnight Saturday at the Green
Mill, 2802 N. Broadway. - Chicago Music

Attractive new scores from Geof Bradfield and Marquis Hill - chicagotribune.com 9/9/12
Howard Reich
Arts critic

It was a great weekend for jazz composition, as two noteworthy Chicago musicians showed
their skills with a pen, as well as a horn.
Saxophonist Geof Bradfield already had caught listeners' attention with "African Flowers," a
2010 recording of his pictorial suite for jazz quintet.
But Bradfield dug deeper in his newest work, leading a septet in the ambitious, hour-long
Melba!; at the Green Mill Jazz Club on Saturday night.
As its title suggested, the piece paid homage to the life and
art of Melba Liston, a groundbreaking composer-arranger
unjustly overlooked in the history of jazz. Through the
course of six carefully composed movements, Melba!
evoked the spirit of Liston at times but still carried the
hallmarks of Bradfield's musical language. The long lines,
complex themes and meticulous structuring of this score
pointed to the high craft of Bradfield's writing, even as
particular movements portrayed specific periods in Liston's
life.

The piece began grandly, with a quasi-orchestral
introduction in which all the players produced bright
bursts of color. Before long, trombonist Joel Adams
dispatched the gorgeous opening theme of the first
movement, Kansas City Child a musical evocation of
Liston's early years and a tip of the hit to her work as
trombonist.
Bradfield conjured the spirit of Los Angeles with Central
Avenue in the second movement, his bebop-influenced
tenor saxophone solos answered with beautifully sculpted
statements from trumpeter Victor Garcia and sinewy
cadenzas from guitarist Jeff Parker. Like each section of the
suite, this one built to an inexorable conclusion, the logic of
the piece apparent from first theme to last.

It would have been easy for Bradfield to draw upon Afro-Cuban cliches and conventions in the
Dizzy Gillespie movement, which nodded to Liston's collaborations with the brilliant
trumpeter-bandleader. Instead, Bradfield penned an intricate work cast in several musical
episodes. The syncopated, Latin-tinged motif that launched the piece soon made way for
uptempo trumpet solos, three-horn choirs, radiant passages for the entire septet and so on.
Similarly, the Randy Weston movement – a salute to a towering pianist-composer closely
associated with Liston – in lesser hands might have been a retread of Weston's African
rhythms and heroic pianism. Instead, Bradfield assigned pianist Ryan Cohan vast solos, then
answered them with staccato blasts from the horns and full-ensemble writing rich in
dissonance. The cumulative force of Cohan's double-octave solos and the band's hardcharging
responses made this a highlight of the suite.
Finally, the Detroit/Kingston and Homecoming movements that closed the work again
attested to Bradfield gifts at configuring a large-scale composition for maximum effect.
Given the marginalization of Liston contributions, one might not have expected such a
triumphant finale, but the surging final minutes of the suite said a great deal about Bradfield's
view of her life and accomplishments.
- Chicago Tribune

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2013
“MELBA!,”
A TRIBUTE TO MELBA LISTON BY
SAXOPHONIST/COMPOSER GEOF BRADFIELD,
TO BE RELEASED BY ORIGIN RECORDS
APRIL 16
PREMIERED IN CHICAGO IN 2012,
SUITE FOR JAZZ SEPTET FEATURES BRADFIELD WITH
VICTOR GARCIA, JOEL ADAMS, JEFF PARKER,
RYAN COHAN, CLARK SOMMERS, & GEORGE FLUDAS
BRADFIELD TO REPRISE “MELBA!”
AT TWO CHICAGO SHOWS:
THE GREEN MILL JUNE 1 & MILLENNIUM PARK AUG. 30
Saxophonist/composer Geof Bradfield’s new CD Melba!, which Origin Records will release on April 16,
has been a long time coming. Bradfield’s suite for jazz septet, a tribute to the great yet underheralded
arranger/trombonist Melba Liston (1926-1999), received its premiere performances last summer in
Chicago and other Midwest cities. It was supported by a commission from Chamber Music America’s
2011 New Jazz Works program (with funding by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation), allowing
Bradfield to research the rich Liston trove at Columbia College Chicago’s Center for Black Music
Research.
And before that, there was a deep and long-standing personal connection with Melba’s music. Bradfield
had discovered her through such landmark Randy Weston recordings as Uhuru Afrika (1960) and The
Spirits of Our Ancestors (1991). “When I came up in the 1980s and was learning to play, everything
seemed to be about extreme instrumental virtuosity,” he says. “The music of Randy and Melba was more
complex. It had color and depth and a range of emotional expression. It had a real human element.”
For the concert performances and recording of Melba!, Bradfield called on trumpeter Victor Garcia,
trombonist Joel Adams, pianist Ryan Cohan, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Clark Sommers, and
drummer George Fludas. This is the same group (minus Adams) that appeared on the saxophonist’s
acclaimed 2010 Origin Records release, African Flowers, which itself was influenced by the
Weston/Liston recordings.
“I loved the way their music tied a lot of things together: African music and Duke Ellington and bebop
harmony and the extreme use of dissonance, which in Liston’s hands could suggest Stravinsky,” says
Bradfield. “Their music transcended craft. They created a path from one form of music, and one aspect of
culture, to the other. They showed you how everything fit together.”
The movements trace the musical arc of Liston’s life, from “Kansas City Child” and “Central Avenue” to
“Dizzy Gillespie,” “Randy Weston,” “Detroit/Kingston,” and “Homecoming.” Closing out the CD,
vocalist Maggie Burrell delivers a majestic version of “Let me not lose this dream,” with text by Harlem
Renaissance poet Georgia Douglas Johnson and piano-bass accompaniment.
Perhaps in part because she was so private, Liston is not as familiar to average listeners as other great jazz
arrangers of her era such as Gil Evans and Oliver Nelson. Bradfield hopes to help change that with
Melba!, which illuminates what a remarkable individual she was in achieving such success as a woman in
a man’s world and as a bold innovator with her own style and methodology.
“Through the course of six carefully composed movements,” wrote Howard Reich in his Chicago Tribune
review of the septet’s September 2012 Green Mill performance, “Melba! evoked the spirit of Liston’s
times but still carried the hallmarks of Bradfield’s musical language. The long lines, complex themes and
meticulous structuring of this score pointed to the high craft of Bradfield’s writing.”
The premiere of Melba! capped a banner year for Bradfield. One of a handful of saxophonists who brings
the same intensity and edgy power to soprano as he does to tenor, he contributed memorable
performances on both horns to standout albums by three of the Windy City’s finest: bassist Marlene
Rosenberg, trumpeter Tito Carrillo, and guitarist John Moulder. He also produced singer Rebecca
Sullivan’s well-received debut, This Way, This Time.
The 42-year-old Houston native, who last year was named an assistant professor of saxophone and jazz
studies at Northern Illinois University, continues the pace in 2013 with several projects. A new recording
by Ba(SH), Bradfield’s collective trio with Clark Sommers and drummer Dana Hall, will be released by
Origin this summer. He plays bass clarinet on the third album by bassist and rising star Matt Ulery’s
Loom, out on Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf label in June. Bradfield also contributes to forthcoming releases
by Ryan Cohan (Motéma) and Dana Hall (Origin).
With the CD release imminent, Melba! continues to occupy much of Bradfield’s attention. He and his
septet will perform the suite at the Green Mill 6/1 as well as later this summer at the Chicago Jazz
Festival, which will present him at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park 8/30 as part of a triple bill
(with Wadada Leo Smith and Charles Lloyd).
“I feel very fortunate to write for and perform with all of the musicians on this recording, each of whom
brings a very personal voice to the group,” Bradfield wrote in his CD notes. “Their creative input along
the way transformed the dots and lines on the sterile page, “bringing Melba! to life”—and Liston’s
soulful legacy to the fore. •
www.geofbradfield.com
Twitter: @geofbradfield - Terri Hinte

The link goes directly to the interview, which is also available as a podcast on itunes. - Jason Crane

Geof Bradfield, “African Flowers”

by Mark Corroto, All About Jazz

Saxophonist Geof Bradfield's experiences traveling and performing in Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe in 2008 were the inspiration for African Flowers. Bradfield was a member of pianist Ryan Cohan's quartet, and the band took part in a US State Department/Jazz at Lincoln Center tour. This extended work for sextet features excellent writing and strong musicianship from Cohan, guitarist Jeff Parker, trumpeter Victor Garcia, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer George Fludas.

African Flowers follows the quartet release Urban Nomad (Origin, 2008) and Bradfield's stunning trio debut, Rule Of Three (Liberated Zone Records, 2003).

While Africa was the inspiration for this release; this is not world music. Better described as "jazz world music," Bradfield connects the dots between African folk music and the American jazz tradition. The opening "Butare," based on a Rwandan praise song, conjures thoughts of Don Cherry and, with Bradfield hoisting a soprano saxophone, there are a few passing references to John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things."

The evidence that American jazz contains African DNA is not disputed these days—from the blues to swing, the seeds that germinated in United States soil were planted centuries ago in Africa. Bradfield's fluid suite travels seamlessly, with some agile interludes provided by piano, drum and bass solos. On the touching ballad "The Children's Room," written after a visit to the genocide memorial in Rwanda, Bradfield switches to bass clarinet; his woody sound mingling with Sommers' resonating bass and Garcia's mournful trumpet.

Bradfield returns to tenor for the Congolese Rhumba, "Lubumbashi." Attentive ears might place this piece not in Africa but somewhere closer, perhaps Cuba or Puerto Rico. While Fludas drives the clavé, the horns dance around the threading needle of Parker's guitar notes. Elsewhere, the music may be called taarab; a blend from Africa, Middle East, and Europe, but the sound on "Nairobi Transit" evokes the mighty Art Blakey and his muscular brand of hard bop.

Bradfield's excellent jazz adventure into Africa ultimately leads right back home. Funny, how small this world actually is. This is one beautiful record.
- ABJ

Geof Bradfield, “African Flowers”

by Bill Milkowski, Jazztimes

Chicago saxophonist Geof Bradfield draws on music he encountered in his travels to Africa during a 2008 Rhythm Road tour with pianist Ryan Cohan's quartet. Cohan joins Bradfield here, along with trumpeter Victor Garcia, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer George Fludas, and together the band delivers entrancing polyrhythmic themes like the melodic Rwandan praise song "Butare" and the danceable Congolese rumba "Lubumbashi," the latter a catchy clave vehicle for the leader's bold tenor sax work. Parker's lyrical side is highlighted on the beautiful ballad "Mama Yemo," while his freebop tendencies are unleashed on the modal vamp "The Nurse From Nairobi." Bradfield and Garcia both deal on the urgent swinger "Nairobi Transit."
- Jazztimes

Geof Bradfield, “African Flowers”

by Areif Sless-Kitain, Downbeat

The green room beneath the Petrillo Music Shell in Chicago's Grant Park isn't the toniest backstage. In fact, the brightly lit cellar looks better equipped to accommodate a fleet of football players than the cast of Chicago Jazz Festival artists. Saxophonist Geof Bradfield is beaming, nonetheless, and with good reason - fresh off stage from a well-received set with Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls, filling a coveted slot on the headlining state between the Brad Mehldau Trio and Henry Threadgill's Zooid.

It speaks to the 40-year-old father's sense of stamina that he's still raring to go, plotting a trip to the Jazz Showcase later on to sit in at one of the venue's storied post-fest jams before heading home. Then again, as much was evident from his spirited set with Sirota's band, half of which featured Bradfield's arrangements, including a Caetano Veloso number. In the past he's custom-tailored a Miriam Makeba tune for the Rebel Souls; still, that only hints at the Columbia College adjunct professor's enthusiam for music stemming out of the African diaspora, which has grown exponentially since he visited the continent. That connection is tangible on his latest album, African Flowers(Origin).

The Ryan Cohan Quartet brought Bradfield to Africa in 2008 on the Rhythm Road tour, an instrument of cultural diplomacy cosponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center and the State Department. Bradfield's experiences there play out vividly on the new disc in a continuous suite; the thematic arc is identical to his itinerary, which found the group playing a string of cities across Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The titles tell the route: "Butare," "Lubumbashi" "Kampala" and "Harare," divided by solo interludes in addition to melodic anecdotes, like the hard-swinging postbop bustle "Nairobi Transit" and tender ballad "Mama Yemo," A sleek swing undercurrent keeps African Flowers filed in the jazz bin, but the syncopated countermelodies coursing through Bradfield's compositions play like a musical travelogue.

For his third album as a leader, Bradfield enlisted Cohan, a longtime cohort going back 20 years to their days as undergrads at DePaul University. Having been immersed in the same sights and sounds, the pianist brought a uniquely sympathetic understanding of the music. Remarking on the reflective, lullabye-esque "Children's Room," Cohan recalls the sobering source material, a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda, "I remember walking out of that museum, and the whole band just couldn't speak-our eyes were welling up," Cohan said. "It was profound. Hearing that music and hearing him tell his story about his experience walking through the children's room was really poignant for me. I saw directly where that came from, and it was really interesting to hear how he adapted that, how he told the story through music."

Bradfield's first authentic taste of African folk music arrived in the early '90s, while pursuing a master's degree at California Institute of the Arts under the guidance of Charlie Haden and Roscoe Mitchell. During that time he received a hands-on introduction to West African rhythms from Ghanian percussionist and brothers Alfred and Kobla Ladzekpo, and in many ways Bradfield's latest body of work reflects the conceptual underpinnings of that multilingual education. "I wanted to put something together that was personal, beyond just reflecting the countries," says the saxophonist, with a palpable sense of enthusiasm, underscoring the passion that he brought to the project. He's humble as he describes sitting in with a local musician in Harare, which in effect planted the seed that became the titular tune. "We played this piece and it was completely mystifying," he confesses with a smile. Though momentarily stumped, he had the foresight to record it, and upon returning to Chicago dissected the figure and worked it into his own music. "I tried to do that in each place to some extent-to bring in not just the feeling of the place, but if there was some concrete musical theme that I had contact with, then I tried to use that."

Cohan acknowledges as much. "I saw first-hand how what we'd seen was incorporated into the music," says the pianist, "[Bradfield] adapted some of the Zimbabwe guitar style and mbira playing that influenced us both a lot."

"There's a long history of that back-and-forth exchange in jazz," explains Bradfield, "for instance, Randy Weston in the early '60s with Uhuru Afrika and Highlife, and before that Dizzy Gillespie with Chano Pozo." The tenet of musical diplomacy guiding the Rhythm Road program is, after all, a two-way street
- Downbeat

“Travel broadens the mind,” says the ancient maxim. When the traveler is a skilled and sensitive artist – such as Geof Bradfield, the relaxed and brilliant Chicago tenor saxophonist – his travel can also broaden the minds of others. And at the very least, it will prove enormously entertaining.

Bradfield’s newly released African Flowers (Origin Records) exploits these possibilities with inspiration and panache, and enough of each to make it the front-runner for “album of the year” in Chicago jazz. He has crafted a stirring suite of original compositions and pitch-perfect solos, capturing the colors and flavors he encountered while touring Africa in 2008, and transmuting them into evocative portraits for those of us who didn’t make the trip.

(Bradfield will present this music in a CD-release event tonight, Wednesday, at 8 and 10 at the Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Ct.)

For example, the album-opening “Butare,” derived from a Rwandan melody, has a loping yet urgent 5/4 beat, which instantly identifies it as "African" to those familiar with many of the continent's idioms. But Bradfield has asked guitarist Jeff Parker to outline this rhythm with staccato lines that recall the sound of the kora, and that -- along with George Fludas’s polyrhythmic drumming -- really completes the picture.

It's a somewhat fanciful picture, in that the kora comes from west Africa, on the other side of the continent from Rwanda. But that doesn’t matter. These are musical impressions, not reportorial photographs from the field; and throughout the album. Bradfield proves himself a highly prized correspondent.

It certainly helps that he has assembled such a multi-dimensional sextet for this project, which includes the Latin and jazz dynamo Victor Garcia on trumpet; Parker, the multifarious guitarist whose comfort zone extends from the jazz mainstream to avant-garde rock; the gifted and versatile rhythm players Fludas and Clark Sommers (bass); and pianist Ryan Cohan, whose own albums have displayed his stylistic breadth.

It was with Cohan’s quartet, in fact, that Bradfield went to Africa in the first place, on a tour sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rhythm Road program. Jointly administered with the U.S. State Department, Rhythm Road is the latter-day successor to the State Department tours of the 1950s and 60s, which used “arts ambassadors” as Cold War ice-breakers and cultural propagandists. That puts Cohan and Bradfield in awfully good company; predecessors have included many of the iconic names in American musical history, among them Louis Armstrong, Stan Getz, B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie, Mahalia Jackson, Muddy Waters, and The Fifth Dimension.

At least two of these travelers sought to collect their impressions into music – Dave Brubeck with Jazz Impressions Of Eurasia (1958) and Duke Ellington with his justifiably lionized Far East Suite (1967) – and it is against these works that we can confidently appraise African Flowers. That the piece lacks the sweep and indelible power of Ellington’s masterwork takes little from Bradfield’s achievement: African Flowers still belongs in the discussion, and that's saying a lot. (We're talking about Ellington here.) On the other hand, I think even Brubeck himself would agree that Bradfield’s ambitions and execution go far beyond his own travelogue from eastern Europe.

We’ve come to expect top-drawer saxophone solos from Bradfield, on previous recordings (by Kelly Brand, Aaron Koppel, John Moulder) and in frequent performance (with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls, and others). His solos unwind with a wealth of imaginative detail but without any sense of alacrity; at his most impassioned, he remains unruffled and unflappable, drawing occasional comparisons to a young Sonny Rollins or to the contemporary Chris Potter.

But Bradfield’s writing is a revelation. Not only does it have much the same power and precision of his soloing; it also shows a highly refined use of the limited instrumentation, which allows him to create orchestral textures from just his sextet. (Give credit to Parker’s protean guitar work, along with Bradfield’s own use of bass clarinet, soprano sax, and flute.)

The album teems with illuminating highlights and respectful references. The percolating tenor solo of “Lubumbashi” finds a link between African rhythms and the jazz boogaloo tunes so popular in the 60s (epitomized by Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder”); a short solo interlude from Cohan embraces the piano work of Randy Weston, the first modern jazz artist to open himself to contemporary African influences; and the lovely “Mama Yemo” coaxes distinctly Ellingtonian textures from Bradfield's miniature orchestra.

But these are relatively small occurrences within the larger and pleasingly personal series of compositions that make up African Flowers. Some pieces, such as those mentioned above, faithfully transpose rhythms and harmonic structures from various African traditions. Tellingly, though, Bradfield’s best work results from mixing those musical elements in with his own formidable musical intelligence, on tunes like “Nairobi Transit” and “Harare”; this alchemy provides the best of both worlds.

“Travel broadens the mind,” according to that ancient maxim – ancient enough to ignore the other opportunities for expansion available to modern Americans (who pack on the pounds during all-you-can-eat cruises and gastronomic tours abroad). Fortunately, Geof Bradfield returned from his African sojourn lean and hungry, impelled to transform his impressions into sonic portraits that the rest of us can enjoy, almost as if we’d been there with him. - Examiner

GEOF BRADFIELD, NOEL KUPERSMITH,
TED SIROTA
RULE OF THREE
(Liberated Zone ROT4512)
John Gilmore / Koan / Nichols’ Plated / Day Dream / Paul’s Pal / Contemplation / Reconciliation / Persephone / Berkshire Blues / Happy (58:41)
Bradfield, ts, ss; Noel Kupersmith, b; Ted Sirota, d. Hinsdale, IL, 8-9 July 2001.
Geof Bradfield keeps his music lean and his options wide open. The template is Rollins’ marvellous stripped-down trios of the late 1950s, but Bradfield doesn’t mimic Rollins’ combo of cliffhanger drama and expansive, sometimes cruel wit – he’s after a purer melodicism, silvery and limber and reaching up often into his (very clean) high register. Even at his most fiery Bradfield communicates as clearly and directly as if each line were set in type (sanserif, naturally). It’s the kind of album which suggests so many possible stylistic antecedents that to select just one or two is grossly misleading, but let’s land arbitrarily on Steve Lacy, whose lessons in distillation have evidently made a strong impression on Bradfield. Lacy is never namechecked, but he is very much the presiding spirit of the album’s first half: “Nichols’ Plated” is a doublebarrelled essay on Nichols and Monk, and the soprano feature “Koan” is a direct though unannounced homage to Lacy. (And is it coincidence that Lacy’s 1996 trio album Bye-Ya opens, like this disc, with a tribute to John Gilmore?) Bradfield doesn’t sidestep more ubiquitous and monolithic presences in the canon, either – besides Rollins, he tackles Trane on his own terms, too: the deep groove of “Contemplation” finds him scaling down Trane’s grave majesty to his own softer, more reticent way of speaking; “Happy” is a spirited revisitation of Trane’s Atlantic-period device of defamiliarizing standard chord progressions via movement in thirds (as the title indicates, the source here is “I Want to Be Happy”).
So much for sketchy musical genealogies. What’s more important is that Rule of Three makes no concession to the idea of tradition as a weight. These players – Bradfield, bassist Noel Kupersmith, drummer Ted Sirota on drums – don’t set out to “renovate” this material or this idiom, but simply get inside this music with a minimum of fuss. The results are fresher than many more elaborate and selfconscious revisitations of classic repertory and idioms. Bradfield’s compositions are spacious but sturdily built, and sit comfortably alongside Ellington’s “Day Dream” (a performance that’s wistful and grand by turns), Rollins’ “Paul’s Pal,” Andrew Hill’s “Reconciliation” (from the pianist’s Judgment), and Randy Weston’s charming “Berkshire Blues.” A quietly exhilirating album, and one of the more significant debut recordings of 2003.
Nate Dorward
Cadence, February 2004

- Nate Dorward

GEOF BRADFIELD/NOEL KUPERSMITH/TED SIROTA -- A new saxophone-bass-drums trio from Chicago, whose album ''Rule of Three'' (Liberated Zone Records), has a placid, grooving feeling within fairly disciplined mainstream parameters. It's a nice sound, and one I don't hear often on records by young jazz groups: it's as if this threesome doesn't care about competing. The track listing is revealing, too: tunes by Billy Strayhorn, Sonny Rollins, Andrew Hill, Randy Weston and two unstated but obvious tributes to Steve Lacy and Herbie Nichols. Those choices signify the musicians' ages: jazz is always shaped by forces from the past, and their selections constitute a neat list of those influences that are currently relevant. - Ben Ratliff

Geof Bradfield - Urban Nomad - Origin Records 82510, 61:30 *****:

(Geof Bradfield - tenor and soprano saxes; Ron Perrillo - piano; George Fludas - drums; Clark Sommer - bass)

Geof Bradfield’s debut, Rule of Three, was widely praised in such places and by such critics as The New York Times’ Ben Ratliff, Nate Dorward of Cadence Magazine, Downbeat, Howard Reichs in The Chicago Tribune, noted sax player and critic Jay Collins, and by many other media and reviewers. Though I haven’t heard it, I believe them, based on the music contained in this spectacular disc. Working with a standard jazz quartet and pretty much within the language of post-bop, Bradfield manages to make a startlingly original record. Believe me, this is not something easily pulled off: the jazz outlets are truly littered with post-bop outings from lame to workmanlike, since this is the default music of most jazz school programs. But Bradfield absolutely nails it here. His uncanny mastery springs, I think, not only from his incredibly wide variety of influences but also from the opportunity to play with everyone from Roscoe Mitchell, to Charlie Haden, to Tortoise, to Godspeed You Black Emperor, to Ben Monder, to Matt Wilson, to Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls, and many others. Thus, he brings to this often shopworn idiom a left-field vibe and freshness almost always lacking in lesser efforts.

Bradfield’s tone and concept on tenor draw from such greats as Ben Webster, Gene Ammons, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, and Michael Brecker, yet he has achieved a sound all his own: warm, yet forceful; fat, yet penetrating; fleet, yet always in the very center of the note. In this last he reminds me of fellow Chicagoan Fred Anderson, though not much otherwise. On soprano, he achieves a weighty, almost haunting, tone not unlike that of the late, great Steve Lacy, though he sounds less dry and his approach is more inside. Thankfully, there’s not a trace of either the syrupy sweetness or the whiny harshness that plagues many players of this difficult instrument. In fact, I’d rate him almost on the same level as the greatest soprano players, Coltrane, Shorter, and Lacy.

The six original Bradfield compositions spark with sly wit and unusual rhythmic and harmonic twists. Though there’s not a loser among them, these stand out: “Urban Nomad,” with its pan-Afro/Caribbean feel; the pure Bobby Watson vibe of “Janus Groove”; “I Carry Your Heart with Me,” a gorgeous ballad played with restraint and deep conviction; and the delightful waltz “Twirl,” which sounds like an instant classic. The pedal-to-the-metal burner, “Chin Check,” though not generally my cup of tea, casually displays the astounding chops of both Bradfield and drummer Fludas. The three standards, “You’re My Everything,” “Kids Are Pretty People” (by the brilliant Thad Jones), and Dizzy’s “Con Alma,” are all handled with respect, but each receives its own special treatment.

This band, a wonderfully cohesive unit, always listens carefully yet has the ability to embark on strikingly new directions at any moment. Note their dead-on ensemble play coupled with stop-on-a-dime rhythmic shifts, always perfectly natural sounding, on “Con Alma.” Wow.

Having recently completed a tour of Africa and Jordan, it will be fascinating to see how Bradfield incorporates these influences (adumbrated, perhaps, on the title cut, “Urban Nomad”) into his already full-to-bursting musical bag. More than just a young artist to watch, Geof Bradfield with Urban Nomad vaults to the upper echelons of current jazzmen. This is an artist and disc not to be missed.


- Jan P. Dennis - audiophile audition

Geof Bradfield is the latest Chicago artist to record a superb record for Seattle’s Origin Records. Linked to one of the baddest rhythm sections that Chicago has to offer, this album has the whole package: groove, great tunes and stellar soloing. It would be easy enough to end the review here with a two-word benediction—buy this—but instead, I will elaborate on why this is such a good album.

First off, as always, it's about the players. Bradfield sounds fantastic and buoyant, bobbing and weaving in and out of the spaces that this rhythm section provides. His writing is tight and solid. Ron Perrillo needs no introduction to any avid jazz fan in Chicago. His piano playing has graced every great stage in Chicago, from his weekly stand at Pete Miller's to his first call status as a pianist of choice for plenty of horn players who come through town to play at the Jazz Showcase. And with good reason. His chops are always evident, but almost never showy. That we've yet to see a Ron Perrillo-led recording should be a federal crime, but I'll take hearing him rip through some great jazz tunes, especially considering how sympathetic the other players on this side are. George Fludas and Clark Sommers both continue to impress me every time I hear them, and Urban Nomad is no exception.

Secondly, the tunes are great. Whether they're Geof's originals, or well-placed and well-played standards, this is a program of excellent music. The title track is pretty and shows off Geof's skills on the soprano. However, the second tune, "Janus Groove," is not only the highlight of this album, it might very well be one of my favorite tracks of the year. The melody is cool enough, but the interaction between Bradfield and Perrillo in this one knocks it clear out of the park. "Ever Ever Land" builds from a light two-beat intro into a fire-breathing beast of a tune that is definitely worth the wait. "Twirl" is great for the way it evokes, without ever imitating, Miles Davis’s great sixties quintet. "Chin Check" is more high-octane stuff, and this band excels at this tempo and intensity level.

Hopefully, some other people will end up as excited about this record as I am. This is what it's supposed to be about: playing original music and playing it well, with plenty of imagination and energy. If Chris Potter or Mark Turner are your cup of tea, you will be impressed as well. And that brings me right back to that two-word benediction: buy this.
—Paul Abella - CJM

On Urban Nomad, Chicago saxophonist Geof Bradfield and his powerhouse quartet perform with tremendous spirit, maintaining a momentum that is vibrant and infectious. Bradfield's inventive, yet tightly-focused tenor and soprano playing is propelled by pianist Ron Perrillo, drummer George Fludas and bassist Clark Sommers, soaring through a mostly original set of charged-up progressive jazz.
Bradfield's compositions are full of shifting time signatures and lush harmonies. Most compelling, however, is the way the Columbia College instructor intertwines rhythmic and melodic motifs to create a lasting impression on the listener. The flowing lyricism of the title track, “Janus Groove” and “Ever Ever Land” present an accessible musical framework, surrounded by progressive improvisational structures. Even the more jagged-edged “Chin Check,” with an extended, free-form dialogue between Bradfield and drummer Fludas can't escape being graceful.

The three non-Bradfield tunes on the disc are choice standards that fit nicely into the program. Harry Warren's “You're My Everything” is the perfect up-tempo showcase for Bradfield and pianist Perillo, Thad Jones' “Kids Are Pretty People” grooves along ever-so-patiently, and Dizzy Gillespie's “Con Alma” serves as an energetic, Afro-Cuban-inspired closer.

The disc's title aside, there is nothing nomadic about this ensemble. Bradfield and company are an in-sync, collaborative force, challenging each other along the way. - AABJ

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2009
Music / Free Shit / Post No Bills
Geof Bradfield's African Flowers
Posted by Peter Margasak on Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 12:06 PM

Geof Bradfield

Jazz has long been a favored tool of the U.S. State Department: musicians like Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, and Louis Armstrong, among many others, have gone abroad in a sanctioned ambassadorial role. Naturally, some of them have been inspired by their travels; Ellington created his famous Far East Suite following one such excursion.
Last year local reedist Geof Bradfield visited Africa under the auspices of one such program, Rhythm Road, put together by the State Department and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Bradfield hit Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Kenya—as a member of pianist Ryan Cohan’s band. Although he'd long been a fan of African music, hearing it its native environs energized him, and after landing a Chamber Music America grant he decided to compose a suite inspired by the experience. Last night he premiered the new work, “African Flowers,” at the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, and tomorrow (Saturday, October 10) he reconvenes the sextet for a free 2 PM concert at the Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Bradfield is a wonderfully flexible saxophonist who earns his living mainly as an educator at Columbia College and as a sideman, working regularly in Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls, Cohan’s Quartet, and with pianist Dan Cray. Last year he released his second recording as a leader, a mainstream quartet outing called Urban Nomad (Origin) with pianist Ron Perrillo, drummer George Fludas, and bassist Clark Sommers. The album showcases Bradfield’s fluency in hard bop, both as a composer and as an improviser, but with the exception of the fiery “Chin Check” it doesn't much feature his skill in navigating more abstract turf—which he puts to good use in his work with Sirota and on his own killer 2003 debut, Rule of Three (Liberated Zone).

Bradfield was kind enough to e-mail me a recording of last night’s concert, and while I obviously haven’t had time to meaningfully absorb the ten-part work, my one listen so far has left me impressed. He gracefully and precisely leads a superb sextet—with Fludas, Cohan, Sommers, guitarist Jeff Parker, and trumpeter Victor Garcia—through pieces characterized by lush, elegant melody lines and streaked with contrapuntal figures and pretty harmonies. Bradfield hasn’t undertaken an ethnographic experiment here—like the Ellington work I mentioned above, what he saw and heard functioned as an inspiration for ideas in his own idiom.

The group will record African Flowers in a studio next week for release on Origin.
- Chicago Reader

African rambling led to new jazz compositions

Geof Bradfield and his sextet playing "African Flowers" at The Kerrytown Concert House Thursday evening. The lineup from left to right: Ryan Cohan on piano, Jeff Parker on guitar (not visible), Bradfield on the clarinet, Clark Sommers on bass, Victor Garcia on trumpet, George Fludas on drums.
By Clarence William Cromwell
Editor
A trip through Africa in 2008 brought to fruition a project that germinated 17 years ago, when Geof Bradfield was a music student.
Thursday night, Bradfield and his sextet performed 10 pieces of music inspired by his travels in Africa. It was his first performance at the Kerrytown Concert House, and also the first performance of the new compositions.
Bradfield became interested in African music while attending the California Institute of the Arts between 1992 and 1994. He studied with two brothers named Alfred and Kobla Ladzepko, natives of Ghana who are well known along the West Coast for teaching African music and dance.
It wasn’t until his trip in February of 2008 that he was able to enjoy music firsthand in Africa, on a trip that involved performing in Rwanda, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe. His trip was sponsored by Rhythm Road, a joint venture of Jazz at the Lincoln Center and the U.S. State Department.
While traveling, Bradfield discovered, among other things, a Congolese Rumba that he says came about because African music was taken to Cuba, by way of the slave trade, and then incorporated into that uniquely Cuban ballroom dance; and then reworked again by Congolese musicians when the Cuban records took the music back across the ocean.
He also heard music played on the Mbira–otherwise known as the thumb piano–considered by many to be the instrument most typical of Africa. And he heard Taarab music, a unique style that combines African drumming with Middle Eastern elements.
Most of the music Bradfield encountered on the trip was different from what he’d been exposed to in college, because the Ladzepko brothers teach West African song and dance, whereas the trip focused on the eastern part of the continent. And while the music of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo were very similar, he says, “Zimbabwe was entirely different.”
Because Bradfield visited the country just before its 2008 election, there was political tension in the air, he recalled. He said Zimbabwe was “one of the most gorgeous places” he’d been, and that he found the political strife “upsetting,” because he knew the country had formerly been the breadbasket of Africa, but he happened to visit at a time when people were poor and starving because of a corrupt government. He told the audience that when he arrived in Zimbabwe, it took $10 million of their dollars to equal one American dollar.
After returning to the United States, Bradfield learned that he had received a grant from Chamber Music America for composing the music that would blossom as a result of the trip. After researching and composing for nine months, he finished “African Flowers,” the body of music performed Thursday night.
He said the pieces sound more like jazz than traditional African music, because he wanted to stick to his own mode of expression. But the songs take up African rhythms. At least one of them employs snatches of an African folk melody that Bradfield captured with a video camera during the trip. Another song makes use of a cagey rhythm that he learned about while performing with two African musicians on the trip; although a deft performer, Bradfield said the rhythm left him feeling unsure of just where the downbeat was supposed to be. Fortunately, he had one of his bandmates capture the session on video, so he could review it later and figure the piece out.
“I tried to borrow as much direct experience as possible,” he said of the trip.
Rachel Lauber, executive artistic director of the Kerrytown Concert House, said she accepted immediately when Bradfield offered to bring the show to Ann Arbor.
“We keep the stage open for great players,” she said, “and this sounded like a great project, so I said ’sure, come.’”
The performance attracted a rather jazz-centric crowd; it appears that virtually all of them approved of the show.
Dave Detlefs of Ann Arbor said the performance was “highly talented and very accessible,” explaining that he thought non-jazz-lovers like his wife might find it appealing to the same degree that serious jazz lovers would.
Marc Andren of Rochester Hills said he was surprised at Bradfields abilities because it’s unusual to find a musician who is extremely good at both composing and performing.
“His compositional skills came out of nowhere,” Andren said. “I haven’t heard of him, but he kind of hits you right between the eyes.”
Luis Torregrosa of Trenton said, “I like how they moved the African vibe into modern Jazz.” He said the composition could be considered an update of Randy Weston’s “African Cookbook,” released in 1972.
Bradfield said the band was planning to travel back to Chicago for a gig at noon the next day, and that about a week after the Kerrytown performance they would take the “African Flowers” suite into the recording studio. The album is scheduled for release by Origin Records next year.
Meanwhile, The Kerrytown Concert House is preparing for its 13th Annual Edgefest, Oct. 14-17, a four-day exploration of avant-garde jazz. - Bohemian Press

Story by Brad Walseth
Photos by John Broughton, Copyright 2009

Saxophonist/composer Geof Bradfield and pianist Ryan Cohan traveled to Eastern and Central Africa on a tour jointly sponsored by the U.S. State Department and Jazz at Lincoln Center. His experiences in places such as Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Zaire, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe led him to compose ten pieces for jazz sextet - African Flowers - the Chicago premiere of which occurred Oct. 10th at the Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center. Assisting Bradfield in presenting this work, was an all-star band: Cohan, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Clark Sommers, drummer George Fludas and Victor Garcia on trumpet, flugelhorn and percussion.
Influenced by the people, music and cultures Bradfield experienced, African Flowers is a colorful tableau filtered through personal experience and infused by an understanding of the history of the region. Because of this, the music ranged from the joyful expression of the African people to the deep sorrows of the tragedies that continue even to this day. "Butare" started things off energetically, with some fine soprano sax by Bradfield and trumpet by Garcia. This was followed by the haunting "The Children's Room." Bluesy guitar by Parker and strong solos by Sommers and Cohan enhanced this striking number, which was written about a display of murdered children (genocide victims) in the Kigali Memorial Centre.

Drummer Fludas opened the fiery "Lubambashi," but the heat generated by this angry number (dedicated to the assassinated anti-colonialist Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba) proved too much, and a fire alarm sent the crowd and the band out of the building (a youngster was later determined to have pulled it). After this brief interlude, the band returned to finish the rest of the set without further interruption. (Bradfield commented that the incident reminded him of the many power outages they endured in Africa).

The lovely ballad, "Mama Yemo" offered flugel, sax and guitar solos, while Fludas soloed on "Nairobi Airport" and Bradfield and Garcia engaged in lively back-and-forth. The incredibly talented Bradfield was showcased on flute ("Kampala") and tenor ("Harare") before Fludas took center stage on the ending "Leaving Africa."

According to Bradfield, his intent in writing this music was to share a part of his experiences; and the result was that the listener did, indeed, feel as though he had shared in the composer's adventure and come away with a better understanding of the beauty and sadness of the African continent.
- JazzChicago.Net

african flowers @ the chicago cultural center, 10/10/09 October 11, 2009
Posted by theidentitythief in music.
Tags: africa, african, alarm, breath, center, chicago, clark sommers, cultural, fire, flowers, geof bradfield, george fludas, girl, jazz, jeff parker, red bull, ryan cohan, victor garcia, washington, wind
trackback
Chicago traffic feels suffocated. On local streets, a green light is not permission; it is an urgent command, enforced by a chorus of honking car horns. Stop signs and residential speed limits are, at best, suggestions, and at worst, impositions to be shaken off with defiance and force. Forward motion proceeds like a law, not a choice. The collective spirit has been coerced into a madness for progress, as if Red Bull and a sense of myopia were as necessary to drivers as their state licenses. On the streets of Chicago, no one is allowed to breathe. This is unfortunate, because respiration is very important. Everything needs to breathe.

Sometimes breath is induced by surprise. You may know this from experience if you have ever had the wind knocked out of you by a zealous tackle during a football game. Momentum dies, for a little while, but something else lives, in the space between struggle and struggle, while you lay on the ground in a daze, eyes steadfastly staring toward heaven. The unwanted interruption, the mandate to slow down and breathe, can be a blessing, an opportunity to regain perspective.

Fate knocked the wind out of Geof Bradfield’s Saturday afternoon performance of African Flowers, his collection of new sextet compositions, in the form of an irresponsible little girl who set off a fire alarm. This left a dazed crowd gasping in the chilly air on the steps and the sidewalk in front of the Chicago Cultural Center, staring with fixed, blank gazes down Washington Street toward the approaching fire truck sirens. It took a while for the fire department and the employees of the cultural center to act out the inefficient drama of assessing the problem and allowing the confused tourists back into the building. Although I don’t know how this affected most of the people who spent all that time waiting outside, I know that the band seemed unfazed by the interruption, shrugging it off as a minor hiccup, something that added to the fabric of the day instead of shattering it.

Once the performance reconvened in the Cassidy Theater, Bradfield offered some explanatory narration. His project was inspired by a recent tour of Africa, where he and his fellow musicians were constantly being interrupted by minor misfortunes, including power outages and police extortion. In their travels, they did not only see the nasty effects of corruption from a safe second-hand perspective, but faced their own share of trials in the hospitals and airports. In a perfect world, perhaps Bradfield and his traveling companions would have avoided all such troubles, limiting their experience to the best of local musicians and some less offensive varieties of interesting food, but the positive encounters that left their mark on the music they brought back were interspersed with frustrating interruptions. You could see in the way that the reacted to the fire alarm episode a small example of how the band approached their mission in the face of fate’s opposition: with confidence, humor, and, perhaps most importantly, plenty of breathing room.

When I say their music breathed, I do not mean that it was fraught with retreats or lapses in conviction. I am referring instead to a rare and unusual peace between the compositions’ strength and the strength of the musicians. The compositions bore unique and subtle patterns of interlocking rhythms and melodies, adding layers of interest and purpose to standard and well-worn jazz ensemble textures. They took advantage of thematic development and growth, spreading ideas across the band and across adjacent songs. But the deft counterpoint work and large scale thematic structures never came close to choking out the individuality of the sextet’s members; each musician had an opportunity to explore the spaces within the pieces, bridging the different sections together. Each member’s solo space highlighted his own strengths, such as the rhythmic backdrops shifting against Victor Garcia’s intricate and soaring trumpet work, or the spacious and suggestive groove that framed one of Jeff Parker’s patient, probing, and continually surprising guitar solos.

Yes, everybody sounded great, and yes, it was a fine specimen of Africa-infused jazz, but as Bradfield told stories that framed each composition, it became ever clearer to me that his pieces had not been crafted to support theories about jazz fusion or to declare the self-importance of art, but to honor meaningful experiences, encounters that had transported him and his fellow musicians out of the ordinary flow of life. He did not suffocate things with ideas or technique, even as interruptions and the forces of fate sometimes seemed to conspire against his art’s existence. He responded to the threat with a deep breath and a self-assured expression of freedom, and it is this freedom and confidence that is the seed of beauty. He didn’t bring pain or sorrows back from Africa; he brought flowers.


- Identity Thief