Dispatches from the bunker: Wilson, Newman and Marsalis

It's been a crazy few days over here at Bob's jazz and blues bunker. After twiddling my thumbs (and chewing my nails) for a good portion of last week, all of the interviews I needed to conduct came through — all at the same time. But I'm not complaining: Since Friday, I've had amazing conversations with legendary composer-arranger-bandleader Gerald Wilson, sardonic songwriting genius Randy Newman and New Orleans jazz partriarch Ellis Marsalis. (The Marsalis interview will air sometime between 1 and 2 p.m. Friday on South Florida Arts Beat, WLRN-91.3 FM, in advance of his Aug. 14 show at the Coral Gables Congregational Church.)

• Talking to Wilson was a great treat. The bandleader, who turns 90 in September and was feted at a grand celebration at the Hollywood Bowl in late July, reminisced about his school years at Manassa High in Memphis and at Cass Tech High in Detroit in the 1930s. (Keep in mind, I was interviewing him for a column that will appear in the education issue of Jazziz, which will hit newsstands sometime in October.) Wilson skipped out on his senior year at Cass — a renowned music school that has turned out jazz giants such as Alice Coltrane and Ron Carter, not to mention South Florida's own Kenny Millions — to go on the road with Jimmie Lunceford's band in 1939, stepping into the huge shoes of trumpeter-arranger Sy Oliver, and he just kept going. A fixture on the L.A. jazz scene since the 1940s, Wilson more or less set the template for the contemporary big band sound, especially with his Pacific recordings of the 60s. And he's still setting the bar with suberb late-career recordings such as In My Time, New York, New Sound and Theme for Monterey. I'll include some excerpts from our conversation in a future post.

• I was a bit nervous about interviewing Randy Newman. Would he be as sharp-edged and misanthropic as his songs would lead you to believe? Turns out the cat could not have been nicer, conversing amiably and at length from his room at New York's Ritz-Carlton, where he was staying in advance of tonight's appearance on Letterman. We talked about his terrific new album, Harps and Angels — with its atypical "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country" specifically calling out the Bush administration and the Supreme Court — politics, the state of satire (we both agreed that the recent New Yorker cover kind of missed its mark tonewise), his roots in L.A. and New Orleans and, of course, some of his jazz heroes, as this piece, too, will appear in an upcoming issue of Jazziz (likely November's). His first recording of new material in nine years, Harps and Angels features Newman doing what he does best: revealing truths about human nature through incisive character songs. I'll post some choice portions of that interview, as well.

• Besides the ones that lived under his roof — you know, Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason — pianist Ellis Marsalis has mentored some of the leading jazz figures to emerge from the Crescent City. Harry Connick Jr., Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, Nicholas Payton and Irvin Mayfield all passed under his tutleage at the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts. The longtime educator and New Orleans jazz scene favorite recently released Open Letter to Thelonious, a superb tribute recording to Monk, on which he and his quartet explore the music of one of the genre's most distinctive composers. When I asked him for his initial reactions to Monk on first hearing his music, Marsalis gruffly replied: "I didn't like it." In fact, he related, it took him years to come to grips with Monk, but he does so beautifully on Open Letter, never trying to copy Monk's splayed-finger style, but rather staying true to his own understated phrasing. And the band is fantastic, especially tenor and soprano saxophonist Doug Duget, who gets a sound similar to longtime Monk associate Charlie Rouse. Marsalis' youngest son, Jason, does a tremendous job on drums, as he explores the connection between Monk and funk, the backbone of much of New Orleans' music, particulary evident on the track "Teo." Tune into WLRN Friday between 1 and 2 p.m. to hear my interview with Ellis Marsalis, and by all means, go see him perform (a solo piano show!) Thursday, Aug. 14 at the Coral Gables Congregational Church.