Lynn Darroch

beatniks

admin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Warm Valley- Duke Ellington in Oregon

admin — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 01:18:48 +0000

Freedom Ride through a Warm Valley — Duke Ellington in Oregon

By Lynn Darroch

I dreamed I saw Duke Ellington, alive as you or me.

In his private rail car

On a siding near Ivon Street.

“Hey Duke, what’d you find,” I asked, “when you came to Oregon?”

“A warm valley,” he answered, and people who opened their hearts to me.”

So every time I pass three old Pullman cars on a siding in Portland today, I remember all the times Duke was in a dangerous Oregon, and the beauty in the song “Warm Valley” – his reverie of ease inspired by this landscape.

In 1934, he was traveling like the President, he said, in two private sleepers and a 70-foot baggage car, rented to tour with dignity a country segregated by race. “We commanded respect,” he said, 20 black men in private rail cars – just like the President.

Heading out of town along the Willamette in his private rail car, Duke gazed at foothills and saw a woman reclining there, free and easy, her warm valley so welcoming, he said, that he wrote — with music sketched – the contours of her body.

In Spanish they translate the title – “Valle Amoroso” – valley of love, where he dreamed the sound of a woman’s body – Duke free to dream, private man in the majesty of a private rail car, traveling like the President – and thinking of music only.

Three Pullman cars on a siding in Portland today evoke dreams of Duke Ellington welcomed by the community, sitting in with locals and playing McElroy’s Ballroom on his birthday — twice he celebrated at McElroy’s, the Duke Ellington Orchestra in town … with dancer Ann Henry.

Duke played the music Henry wrote when he last returned to Willamette Valley foothills in 1970. Dancer, singer, Broadway star, she’d once traveled with Duke just like the President …

… then came back to Portland in ’63 and composed music Duke played at Mt. Angel Abby, in foothills that once inspired him to sketch the contours of a woman in sound.

“Warm Valley,” his reverie of beauty and ease in a dangerous country, like soft afternoon light through windows of a private car …

… just like those on a siding here today, evoking dreams of Duke Ellington looking at the Cascades and thinking of music only … cloaked in majesty …

American Dream/Joy Spring

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:09:01 +0000

American Dream/Joy Spring
Lynn Darroch

An American dream, we believed, set our souls free, no responsibility; back to the land in the ‘70s, when forces of darkness were ascending. Pure we’d be, but sustained by scraps from the system we’d flee. Dream of land cheap and steep, laws weak, and temp jobs anytime, it seemed, picking ferns or pulling seedlings.

In A-frames and domes never finished, under tarps and tarpaper; leaky stoves, pumps froze, outhouse with no door, changing diapers on concrete floor … Chickens, goats …

And swapping schemes about how to succeed … as the cedar bandits we intended to be.

Lot of big cedars lay among second growth, see, left by loggers in the day. Slow to rot, good for shakes. At night we’d buck and split, rig a line to the road, slide bolts to truck below. Never earned much, though — enough for pot and plywood, food for the table; pride and bloody knuckles mostly our reward.

Harder than we thought, out on the edge – chickens escape, ruin the garden, neighbor with a shotgun’ll kill ‘em but misses, wounds some, a mess; inedible when finally boiled and plucked. No electricity, and hauling water from the spring.

Souls not free but in another bondage.

She was always heating water, it seemed, up early, infant on hip and a load of wet sticks, pretty soon enough to leave husband and son, become a belly dancer in Portland. Pretty soon enough to see … it wasn’t very far really, all the way back to the city.

Still, a noble dream, this living free when dark forces are ascending – back to the land, soul refreshing. Yes, light out for the territories like Huck Finn, vanish into the forest … sustained by scraps from the system we’d flee — an American dream.

Williams Avenue, 1953

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:03:43 +0000

Williams Avenue 1953

By Lynn Darroch

When I imagine Williams Avenue in the ‘50s, I hear the stories of Baby James ….

… stories about Little Sonny, his inspiration, who sang like Ray Charles and jumped on the piano in the middle of a note.

”That blew my mind,” says James. “When I saw those girls pulling on him up and down Williams, I said, ‘That’s what I want to be.’”

… I hear his stories about playing the Desert Room for shake dancers and a midget named Miss Dynamite …

… stories about a street-wise guy called Sweet-Smellin’ Eddie, who named James “Sweet Baby.”

“A seaman, a guy who really dressed,” says James. “He’d walk down the street, turn, and there’d be 30 women smelling where he’d been. Eddie says to me, ‘Someone got to carry this name on, so I’m appointing you ‘Sweet Baby’.’”

James carried the name and the stories of the Avenue, one of few left now from that heroic age.

… stories of hanging with a bunch of street dudes one day hired to play ball by a guy split from the Chicago Hottentots.

“We’d travel to these little towns, seven of us in the car singing; that’s how I learned,” says James.

Back on the Avenue, his big hit “The Body,” banned from radio, got him “15 minutes of fame,” he says, remembering those days on the Avenue … when he was becoming Sweet Baby James …

Weber Iago on Bright Moments! 4-1-11

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:19:26 +0000

Portland Jazz feature in 1859 Magazine

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:54:11 +0000

PDX jazz, from Williams Ave roots to stages today, Baby James to Blue Cranes, in feature for 1859 magazine. Wish there’d been room for everybody. Thanks, musicians, for helping me tell the story.

Portland’s New Jazz
http://www.1859oregonmagazine.com/1859-Magazine/Spring-2011/Portland-039s-New-Jazz-Generation/

About David Evans

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 06:29:28 +0000

David Evans – tenor sax, clarinet

Photo by Brandy Kaysakian-Rowe

Originally from New Orleans, David Evans has been living and working in the Portland, OR area for the past 10 years. Since relocating to the Rose City, the tenor saxophonist and clarinetist has become an integral part of Portland’s jazz community, earning the well-deserved respect of his Northwest colleagues.

Steeped in the jazz tradition at its very roots, David has performed with an impressive gamut of great musicians in the course of his career. In the Crescent City he performed with Pete Fountain, B. B. King, Mose Allison, Nicholas Payton, Brian Blade, Johnny Vidacovich, Johnny Mathis, Gladys Knight, The Four Tops, The Temptations, and many others. In the Rose City, he has performed or recorded with Art Abrams, Dan Balmer, Phil Baker, Mel Brown, Dan Faehnle, Dave Frishberg, Darrell Grant, Tom Grant, Carlton Jackson, Rebecca Kilgore, Nancy King, Shirley Nanette, Eddie Parente, Randy Porter, Jean Ronne, Ron Steen, Lee Wuthenow, Tall Jazz, and many others.

His most recent CD is titled I Didn’t Know About You.

About John Stowell

admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:19:34 +0000

Guitarist Stowell was one of the first U.S. musicians to play for the general public in the former Soviet Union in 1984, in a quartet led by flautist Paul Horn. His resume includes travel to Europe and South America as well as frequent tours of the U.S., which take him away from his home in Portland, Oregon, for nearly 200 days each year. He was recently the subject of an Artbeat profile on OPB television.

A valued clinician renowned for his advanced harmony and chord-voicings, Stowell has taught internationally for 30 years in every educational setting. His clinics are informal, hands-on and in addition to music theory and guidelines for improvisation, John shares his experience with the business of music. He has performed with vocalists such as Nancy King and with such legendary players as Art Farmer. His work appears on numerous CDs, including five as a leader and seven albums with his former partner, the bassist David Friesen, His latest solo release is Resonance, his latest quartet CD, Streams of Consciousness, with Jay Thomas, and his latest duo recording is Transgression, with guitarist Mike Pardew.

www.johnstowell.com

About Dave Fischer

admin — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 08:50:01 +0000

Dave Fischer has performed on drums and percussion with a variety of Portland area musicians, including Conjunto Alegre. He has traveled throughout Latin America and has focused on Latin percussion, especially in his work with Alfredo Muro since 2000. Grounded in traditional rhythms, he brings a variety of instruments and eclectic blend of sounds. He now lives in the Los Angeles area, where he is pursing a Ph.D.

About Carlton Jackson

admin — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 08:47:50 +0000

Carlton Jackson has worked with contemporary jazz pianists Tom Grant and Dan Siegel, guitarists Dan Balmer and Terry Robb, Blues/R&B singers D.K. Stewart and Curtis Salgado, and composer Jon Newton. He has also worked with Leroy Vinnegar, Billy Eckstine, Bo Diddley, Mark Isham, Jim Pepper, James Cotton, Houston Person, actor Bruce Willis, Dianne Schuur, Larry Coryell, and Bill Frisell, in addition to orchestral conductors Pete Rugolo, Norman Leyden and James DePreist.