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Location: Illinois, United States

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Phil Lasley and Detroit JazzStage

With the invention of the I-Pod and other MP3 devices, you can listen to music virtually anytime and anywhere. Music, even more than sports, has thrived through the ages. From Saint Ambrose (339) to J.S. Bach (1685), Haydn (1732) to Liszt (1811), Ellington (1899), Kenny Rogers (1938) and Ludacris (1977), music has been a popular pastime for literally everyone.

Styles change, but people love music. My favorite people are ones who appreciate many styles of music. I have written before about having a respect for country music although I do not go searching through those bins at Borders. Those who love to listen to Garth Brooks may not include Spyro Gyra or George Benson in their collections.

Phil Lasley has been playing the saxophone for years. When he was unable to earn money playing jazz in New York, he found work playing rhythm and blues, including playing with perfomers like Otis Redding and Jerry Butler.

Finally, he left New York and returned to his hometown Detroit and returned to playing jazz. Today, he admits that he is influenced by all types of music and plays a style of jazz often described as “Avant Garde”.

Detroit JazzStage, one of the best music podcasts available (look for the link to the left), presents the fascinating sounds and stories of Phil Lasley. To hear him talk about the music and the road that wound its way around to this moment is incredible. The music itself is sensational.

When interviewer Jim Gallert asks where he finds his inspiration, Laskey quietly pauses to say, “Sometimes you can wake up with a melody in your head and you can write something really nice in about ten or fifteen minutes. Then other times you’ll get bits and pieces which drives you nuts. You can never get it in its entirety or in its completion. It might take a month before you can finish it…or even longer.”

Thank goodness Lasley allows inspiration to take him where it leads. Music such as “Jasi” and Nkenge’s Blues” have such beauty. These two songs feature New York pianist John Hicks and my favorite living bassist (not yet succeeding Ray Brown, but coming close) Rodney Whitaker. JazzStage adds these to a more recent effort titled “The Lincoln Street Music Company”. This compilation takes jazz in many pleasing directions. “Dorian”, written by drummer Danny Spencer, is especially worth listening to more than once.

Detroit JazzStage packages us these songs and more in a pleasant hour long program. Visit the website and download this most recent offering. While you are there (here’s a quick unpaid commercial message), click on the icon promoting the Detroit International JazzFest 2006 coming up Labor Day weekend. Offering fantastic jazz performers such as Taj Mahal, Buckwheat Zydeco, Ahmad Jamal, Diane Schuur and Rodney Whitaker, the lineup for the holiday weekend is “killer”.

I am most excited to hear that Sergio Mendes and the Brazil 2006 will be there on Sunday. If you haven’t heard any of the Sergio Mendes bands, you are in for a treat. If you remember the Brazil ’66 and ’77 and other bands through the years, you know to expect a joyous spectacle.

Detroit is a great town for jazz the other fifty-one weekends of the year. On Labor Day, however, Detroit will be offering “Music On All Cylinders”. Check it out!

(Sorry, my old radio commercial writing habits sometimes leak out. Still, it sounds like the weekend is going to be "the bomb"!)

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1 Comments:

Blogger E. Dean said...

The beauty of the internet is the long tail. I did a search on Phil Lasley and found this blog post. Here is the link to the podcast:

http://lberns.com/jazzstage/2006/06/20/detroit-jazzstage-welcomes-veteran-saxophonist-phil-lasley/

6:10 PM  

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