Night Life (1992)

There's really no question of what jazz I'd be seeing at the start of the new year in 1992 - Betty Carter, appearing at Fat Tuesday's. Carter released her first record in 1958, and while her sound certainly grew and changed over time, it's remarkable how mature her style was - both in interpreting melodies and soloing - from the start of her recording career. I've always enjoyed Carter's melody embellishments much more than Sarah Vaughan's - Carter's mission is to communicate something about the song to her audience, while Vaughan's seems to be to simply communicate her own singing - and her solos more than those of the default "jazz" vocal soloist, Ella Fitzgerald. 

By 1992, Carter had become a living legend, a bandleader (like Art Blakey) whose high standards and impeccable taste ushered a generation of tasteful and swinging musicians onto the scene as her sidemen. My guess is that the song referred to in the New Yorker listing is "The Good Life," which Carter recorded in her 1963 record 'Round Midnight and Tony Bennett recorded the same year for I Wanna Be Around... Here's Betty singing an absolutely killer version of "The Good Life" in 1989, the year after she re-recorded it for her record Look What I Got, which won a Grammy:

From The New Yorker, January 6th, 1992:

Christmas Night Life (1971)

I'd be seeing Rita Da Costa with Don Pullen at Peewee's. No question.

From The New Yorker, December 25th, 1971:

 Jimmy Ryan's:

Night Life (1986)

Tons of great stuff on offer here, from Jaki Byard and his big band at the Blue Note, which opened in 1981, to David Murray with Richard Davis and Joe Chambers at Carlos I, to Roland Hanna, Johnny Coles, Ray Drummond and Terri Lyne Carrington (who was only 21 at the time) at Sweet Basil. Really an embarrassment of riches. 

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From The New Yorker, December 1st, 1986:

Night Life (1993)

A pretty good selection of jazz on offer in the city almost a quarter of a century ago this week - not very extensive, but varied. Given my choice, I'd have headed over to the Knickerbocker to catch the Roland Hanna and Steve Kuhn engagements.

Stephen Scott's 1992 record Aminah's Dream gets a (misspelled) plug in the Bradley's listing. Scott isn't too visible these days, like many of the hyped young musicians of the early 1990s. He got his start with Betty Carter (he appears on her excellent 1988 record Look What I Got!), but when your debut album is called Something To Consider but features Roy Hargrove, Justin Robinson, Joe Henderson, Craig Handy, Peter Washington, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash and Jeff "Tain" Watts, well, you better have a lot for people to consider. According to Wikipedia, Scott hasn't recorded as a leader since 1999. Still, he was on Joe Henderson's Lush Life...

There's a nice dig at the Blue Note here, too - "jazz, mirrors, and a gift shop." What would they have made of Dizzy's Club Coca Cola?

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From The New Yorker, November 22, 1993:

Night Life (1981)

This New Yorker cover, by Arthur Getz, first hit newsstands thirty-six years ago. It's a beautiful fall scene, with bright foliage, a picturesque covered bridge and steeple, and tourists - perhaps from the city - taking in the view. It's peaceful. In the bustle of New York, this cover sitting on a rack provides a quiet moment of reflection, and perhaps helps that businessman in a rush notice the fall colors in Central Park or take a little more pleasure in chillier air.

These moments of reflection, what I see as the hallmark of New Yorker covers, are growing rarer and rarer. It is more possible now for covers to reflect what is happening mere days before the newest edition hits the streets, and covers have gotten more and more topical. I could classify almost all new covers in two categories: first, topical news covers reacting to gun violence, national tragedies, or politics that tap into feelings of sympathy, outrage, sadness, or inspiration; and second, topical humor that uses technology, public figures, or current news items to get a laugh of recognition (many in this category seem to feature hipsters).

I'm not saying that representing current events is wrong, and I think it's important for artists, whether they hang in galleries or create New Yorker covers, to stand up for their principles and draw attention to important issues. But I think that in this world, a world where sadness, outrage, violence and confusion is shouted from every screen every hour of the day and night, it's too bad that we have less quiet moments of peace like the 1981 cover above on our newsstands; less moments when we can step out of the noise and just breathe in some fall air.

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I've decided to add a little bit of commentary to these Night Life posts. In the traditional narrative of jazz history, the 1970s and early 1980s were a dead period for jazz, when clubs closed and audiences shrank. These New Yorker listings, though, show an incredible diversity of jazz on offer. Anthony Davis, Tommy Flanagan, Teddy Wilson and Sy Oliver, all playing in the same week. The amount of living legends playing regularly in the city during these years is absolutely astounding. Jaki Byard and Major Holley at the Angry Squire - they both appeared on Rahsaan Roland Kirk's Here Comes The Whistleman in 1965. Must have been quite a show.