Podcast 162: FONT salutes Bobby Bradford

Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

Every year, the Jazz Standard in New York presents a Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT), conceived and cu­rated by acclaimed player, composer, and bandleader Dave Douglas. This year’s FONT honors the great Bobby Bradford, who will travel from the West Coast to appear on at the Jazz Standard with different combos in weekend performances October 1-4, 2009. Other trumpeters appearing to salute Mr. Bradford will be Jeremy Pelt, Ambrose Akinmusire, Avishai Cohen, Eddie Henderson and David Weiss.

Bradford, who at age 75 stands at perhaps our greatest living avant-garde trumpeter, is best known for his work with saxophonist Ornette Coleman and clarinetist John Carter, both major figures in pushing the limits of their respective instruments. He has also led his own group, the Mo’tet, and been a part of Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra. As an educator, Mr. Bradford has taught at Pomona College in California for four decades. His most famous student may be noted saxophonist David Murray, who will sit in with his former teacher on October 3rd and 4th.

Bradford will perform with a quintet and an octet, but he indicated when we spoke last week that the different band size would not create any special problems. “The music is not scored for a particular instrumentation, so the tunes we play will be the same tunes each night. The additional players are really strong, and they enhance the performance considerably.” He added that finding scores for some of the music he played with the John Carter Octet was difficult, with a certain discrepancy existing in some of the written scores. The band – which each night will include Bradford on trumpet, Marty Ehrlich on saxophones and clarinet, and Andrew Cyrille on drums, supplemented by others – will get just one rehearsal on Friday afternoon, “That’s asking a lot for anyone. No disrespect for New York players – these are the best you could have, but we want to play pieces like (John Carter’s) ‘Castles in Ghana’ and that takes work.”

I spoke with Mr. Bradford last week regarding the upcoming gigs, and while a scheduling error made a recording impossible, Podcast 162 is a tribute to Mr. Bradford and his music, including quotes from our interview and musical selections:

Ornette Coleman – “Down by Law“ from The Complete Science Fiction Sessions. Mr. Bradford chose “Down by Law” as a track he particularly liked from the CDs. However, he didn’t care much about the remastered sound of the set. “I’m not much of what you would call an audiophile, when they change what we had before. I’ve listened to the original over the years, and played in my classes. So since those are the only records I made with Ornette, I’m glad people who weren't familiar with the originals can discover the music.”

The core of the Coleman band had been trumpeter Don Cherry, saxophonists Coleman and Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummers Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins. For these sessions, pianist Cedar Walton, guitarist Jim Hall, trumpeter Bradford, vocalist Asha Puthi, and poet David Henderson, who narrated “Science Fiction” were added. Mr. Bradford was pleased these sessions were reissued, but not because of the remastered sound. “I’m not much of what you would call an audiophile, when they change what we had before. I’ve listened to the original over the years, and played in my classes. So since those are the only records I made with Ornette, I’m glad people who weren't familiar with the originals can discover the music.”

David Murray – “Woodshedetude” from Death of a Sideman. The record is under Murray’s name, but Bradford wrote all the music, a suite in memory of his long time collaborator John Carter. He spoke fondly of this recording, which featured Murray on sax, Bradford on trumpet, Dave Burrell on piano, Fred Hopkins on bass, and Ornette alumnus Ed Blackwell on drums.

John Carter & Bobby Bradford’s New Art Jazz Ensemble – “Rosavita’s Dance” from Seeking. A 1969 session adding Nate Morgan on piano, Louis Spears on bass and Ndugu on drums to Carter’s clarinet and alto sax and Bradford’s trumpet, creating a quintet to perform this driving Bradford composition. This album has not, to the best of my knowledge, been released on CD. Thanks to Inconstant Sol for the rip.

John Carter & Bobby Bradford - on “Portrait of J.B.G.” and “Circle” from Tandem 1. A duo concert recorded live at the Piedmont Center for Arts in Worcester, on April 30, 1982, the evening gave two giants of their respective instruments a chance to play separately and together. Here is a cornet solo by Bradford on “Portrait of J.B.G.”, followed by a duet. Who or what is “J.B.G.”. Bradford set me straight – “John Birks Gillespie”.

Were live duo performances exceptionally difficult for the two men? “Well yes, but you know we had spent hours playing together in that context. We didn’t have that many gigs, but by playing together we developed a repertory of tunes to play. We didn’t just start blowing! We had a book ready. In fact, we performed with a music stand in front of us many times.”

I asked Mr. Bradford what advice he had for young jazz musicians. “Take a serious look at it (a career), and if you are going to narrow down the type of music you play you have to be ready to miss out on a lot of money. You can be real good in jazz, but there is no guarantee that you’ll get the work you need to pay the bills. There are a lot of great musicians who would be deliriously happy if they could make $50,000 a year playing jazz. There’s a lot of competition. Even when you’re not working, you have to practice. If you’re lucky enough to work in someone’s band, you are still expected to rehearse for free, even when there’s no gig.”