more Jaki Byard stories

This story comes from Susan Brink when she was interviewing Jazz club owner Amos Kaune

"Amos Kaune, who recently passed, was the proprietor of a number of jazz rooms - The Clifton Tap Room and Gulliver's, to name a few. Amos respected the music and he insisted his patrons do the same. One night, he made a sign with a marking pencil and posted it at the door " You have to be quiet or you will have to leave and your music charge will not be refunded" . A few weeks later, someone mentioned they'd seen his sign, near the door at a club in Boston. Turns out that Jaki Bayard had made a copy of the sign and put it up wherever he was playing."

Also....
On the website of pianist Jeremy Kahn...a page dedicated to Jaki Byard.
http://kahnman.com/byard.php
and from his blog...a story about playing with the Apollo Stompers
http://kahnman.com/blog/o-jaki/

Diane Moser's Composers Big Band plays the music of Jaki Byard June 13th!

Diane Moser's Composers Big Band
plays the music of Jaki Byard
Wednesday June 13th
8PM-11PM
$15 cover
Trumpets Jazz Club
6 Depot Square
Montclair, NJ 07043
973.744.2600
http://www.trumpetsjazz.com/

On Wednesday June 13th, Diane Moser's Composers Big Band dives into the big band music of Jaki Byard. Mr. Byard, who died in 1999 and who would have been 90 on June 15th, was considered one of our most ingenious and influential pianists in the history of Jazz. It is unusual that we feature the music of a composer who has passed on. We featured Oliver Nelson's music twice, back when we were in residence at Tierney's Tavern, and we have a few Mingus charts in the book, but there are two connections to Jaki Byard in the band that makes this a special night. Our lead alto saxophonist Ed Xiques played with Jaki and his big band in the 1950's in Boston and I studied with Jaki in the late 80's while attending graduate school at the Manhattan School of Music. Most of these arrangements have not been played or heard since before his death, so this indeed will be a very special night.

Here are some memories from Ed Xiques...

"As I recall, it was the Fall of 1958 that I began playing with Jaki in Boston into possibly the fall of 1960.  Jaki was very important to me. His  creativity was extraordinary and I am still in awe of his musicianship to this day, when I hear his recordings or play one of his compositions. I think he is a very important part of Jazz history and is probably very underrated. 

I was 19 years old and honored to be a part of his band and never missed a rehearsal even when ill. He also played alto and tenor on the gigs and was amazing, again, with his sound and swing feel and creativity. We played at a club in Roxbury, Mass.[ did a few radio shows from there] and I remember a concert in Worcester, Mass, and the concert at Boston University where the photo (above) was taken by Jaki's wife, Louise. This is the only photo I have, thanks to John Sergenian.  By the way, Jaki used to carry a small copy of that photo in his wallet." 

(In the photo above...John Sergenian is to the far left playing tenor, and Ed Xiques is the second from the right, also playing tenor....Mark Levine is standing..taking a solo..playing trombone.)

 I'll be posting more memories from myself, Mark Levine and John Sergenian in a week or so, but I wanted to tell you the wonderful story of how we came to be in possession of this music, if only for a little while...

Since Jaki's death in 1999, I have been searching for his big band music, but each lead would end up with nothing, until this past summer. I was attending a performance of the Hudson Valley Jazz Workshop in Hudson, NY when a chance encounter with saxophonist John Sergenian led to a discussion about the music of Jaki Byard. John had also played in Jaki's big band in the 1950's along side Ed Xiques. When I told him of my years of searching, he told me he had several of the big band charts, and would be happy to share them with us. I remember grabbing John, who I had only just met, giving him a big hug and a kiss and told him I couldn't believe that we were finally going to get to play this music!

Stay tuned for more memories...but in the meantime...here are some links for you...
http://www.jakibyard.org/
and a recent concert of Jaki's big band music by the New England Conservatory Jazz Orchestra...along with a recording of the performance
http://www.instantencore.com/concert/details.aspx?PId=5091128
Also, if any of you have memories that you would like to share...send them to me and I will post them on my blog.
More soon.......

Thank you for making our 15th anniversary an incredible night!

I want to thank everyone who came to our 15th anniversary show last Wednesday night at Trumpets Jazz Club! What an amazing night! We knew we were excited about playing, but when all of you came in and filled up the club...well...there was a lot of love in the house...and we felt that! It makes a huge difference in the performance of the music when musicians know that the audience is diggin' the music...the electricity of that appreciation just flows through the band..and it makes all of us dig in even deeper to the music....so thank you for that.

Also, a big thank you once again to photographer Chris Drukker for all of these photos, they are just wonderful! You can view the rest of them here.

I'd also like to thank The Montclair Times, Joan Finn and George Wirt for including me and the band in their "Women In Jazz" article, which also included interviews with pianist Gerri Allen, and vocalist Melissa Walker.
And.. a thank you to Tim Wilkins of the Star Ledger for getting the word out, as well!
All of us in the band are so appreciative of your support!

We also want to thank Enrico Granafei and Kristine Massari, owners of Trumpets Jazz Club for giving us a home and making it so easy for us to come play the music!

A big thank you to Judy De'Angelis...otherwise known as "Judy..at the bar!"...for holding it all together! And all of the staff there as well.

Another big thank you goes to my son Chad Moser, who came in and subbed for Natascha at the last minute!

Thank you to Allwood Community Church for giving us rehearsal space.

And a huge thank you to Dennis Connors for creating the new video on us...which you can see here.

As you can see, performing a concert of music involves not only the band...it also involves all of these folks who help to make it happen, and of course a very wonderful audience......yes...there was a lot of love in the house that night!

More anniversary celebrations...15th for the big band!

This Wednesday night we will be celebrating our 15th year of playing music together as the Diane Moser's Composers Big Band! 15 years! Wow!

We will start the night off with my tune and the name of this blog.."Flipped Kitty in the City",  move into some "Boogie Stop Shuffle" by Charles Mingus.....

then onto some new compositions by Marty Fogel and Erick Storckman....

 a new arrangement by Russ Vines on Billy Harper's tune "Priestess"

 and guest trumpet player Chris Rogers' arrangement on Tom Harrell's tune "The Water's Edge", we'll also play a wonderful composition that we played last time and looking forward to playing again by Rob Henke called 'Koufax"..in memory of Sandy Koufax,
we'll also be playing a Duke Pearson chart that Mike Spengler is bringing in called "Chili Peppers"

and ending the 1st set with my composition "For My Mother".

The second set we'll play Matt Haviland's tune "Comes A Time",

Jim Cifelli's tune "Blues For McCoy"

 a beautiful arrangement of a Joe Zawinul tune "A Remark You Made' by Ed Xiques...and end the set with Ed's tune "The Newcomer".

(photos courtesy of Chris Drukker...thank you Chris!)

Tonight I was sorting music and "cleaning out the books" as we call it...discovering hidden treasures of old set lists and such..sometimes I find photographs and notes about this and that...and while I'm doing that I can hear the band rehearsing the music (in my head) and what was said and sections that were worked out..and how the performances went...and the hang after the rehearsal and after the gig....
It is amazing to me that we have been together for 15 years and I feel so honored to be working with these outstanding musicians and wonderful souls who come together to create what Jim Cifelli calls a Sonic Party.... because it is absolutely that...a Sonic Party! And you are all in invited!

Our brilliant friend and photographer/film maker Dennis Connors has been working on a documentary about the big band, and has put together a short preview of that ...which you can view here.

Novartis Oncology Kick-Off Meeting

Just returned home from speaking, along side with Tricia McAleer from the Life Raft Group, at the Novartis Oncology Kick-Off Meeting. This is a meeting at the Novartis campus where they talk about all of the research they are doing, and they like to hear from patients and other groups who are affected by or involved with said research...as in GIST and Gleevec. It was held in a fairly large auditorium,

with probably 250+ folks in attendance.













Before Tricia and I sat in those chairs, we watched a short video of their meeting from last year in Dallas, featuring the Pulitzer Prize winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, who won the prize for his book.."The Emperor of All Maladies..A Biography of Cancer"...which I found to be very inspiring!

And, Novartis gave me a copy of the book-can't wait to read it!

Their moderator, Tracy, asked me about my symptoms, the various stages of the diagnosis, everything leading up to where I am now which is coming up to year 3...cancer free!
When I told the audience that the tumor was 13 lbs there was a huge collective gasp in the auditorium. Now, if you've ever heard several hundred people gasping at once, it can be quite a jolt, so I kinda laughed after I said that and said.."yes, that's like having twins or one really huge baby"...which of course they all laughed and the tension in the room was gone...and we continued.

I talked about the need for Novartis to educate us more about the science behind Gleevec, and what exactly is it doing in our bodies, what causes the side effects, are there nutritional deficiencies, and more information on the studies and stats of adjuvant therapy.

 After we spoke and left the auditorium, a doctor from Novartis came up to me, handed me his card and told me to get in touch with him and he would help me with a lot of the questions I had posed, so I hope to be talking with him in the very near future.

I also thanked all of them for their work on GIST cancer and on Gleevec...I don't think we Gisters could ever thank them enough.

They asked me for photos so I sent them photos of me at Lake George (very short hair), the recording session with the Inside/Out Trio (hair is curly and longer) the big band gig at Trumpets in 2011 (hair is still curly and much longer)...thought it would be good for them to see the healthy transformation.
 They were ecstatic to hear that I was back to performing, composing and teaching.

Tricia talked about the role of the Life Raft Group, their research, and their outreach. She also talked about the need for more information from Novartis and perhaps personal contact with patients to guide them through the process.

It was a really great morning, and a big shout out and thank you to Leslie Fields, their Associate Director of Patient Advocacy, for making it so easy and laid back for Tricia and I to participate (not to mention the yummy breakfast!)

Photos from last nights show..........

We had a wonderful performance last night-the band sounded great-tributes to Frank Foster, Daniel Pearl and Elzy Kolb.....guest composer Russ Vines.... a great audience...a lot of love in the house!
These photos are from the wonderful photographer Chris Drukker...with lighting by another wonderful photographer/film maker Dennis Connors who was there filming with his crew.
http://gallery.me.com/dianemoser#100693
Our sincere thanks to everyone who came out-we loved playing for you!

Diane Moser's Composers Big Band Celebrates their 14th Anniversary!

Yes-it's true-we are coming together to perform and reconnect with each other and with all of you!

Diane Moser's Composers Big Band
Celebrating their 14th Anniversary!
special guests: Vocalist Marcelino Feliciano, composer Russ Vines and baritone saxophonist/tuba player Howard Johnson
Wednesday January 26th, 2011
8PM-11PM
$15 cover
Trumpets Jazz Club
6 Depot Square
Montclair, NJ 07042
http://www.trumpetsjazz.com/main.html
trumpets@verizon.net

We are truly excited about this upcoming performance! We haven't performed since out appearance on the Lake George Jazz Weekend in Sept 2009. After that appearance, I put the band on hiatus so that I could take some time to heal and rest and adjust to the Gleevec amongst many other issues.


Expect us to pull out some of our favorites-and we'll have a few new tunes in the second set!

The photo above was taken by Andrzej Pilarczyk at our performance at the Lake George Jazz Weekend. Andrzej is a wonderful photographer who lives in the area and a dedicated artist. His photos appear in Nippertown and AlbanyJazz.com http://www.albanyjazz.com/topfive/2010-pictures.htm
as well as area newspapers.