egroj world: Gary Bartz • The Shadow Do!

Friday, May 3, 2024

Gary Bartz • The Shadow Do!


 



Biography by Thom Jurek
Gary Bartz is an award-winning alto saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, instructor, and sideman. Though he began his career with the Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln group in 1964 as well as many peers and mentors including McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Woody Shaw, and Terumasa Hino. During the early 1970s Bartz founded NTU Troop and issued a series of pioneering albums including Follow the Medicine Man and I've Known Rivers and Other Bodies. The band's albums seamlessly integrated funky soul, African folk musics, post-bop, and spiritual jazz. During that decade Bartz worked extensively with Norman Connors, Donald Byrd, and groundbreaking jazz-funk producers, the Mizell Brothers. Though he led fewer dates during the '80s and '90s, he remained active as a collaborator and sideman. In 2003, Bartz joined the faculty of the Jazz Studies department at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He won a Grammy for his playing on Tyner's Illuminations in 2005 and released the acclaimed Coltrane Rules: Tao Music Warrior in 2012. In 2019 Bartz celebrated the 50th anniversary of his Another Earth at the Newport Jazz Festival alongside Ravi Coltrane and original personnel Charles Tolliver and Nasheet Waits. In 2020 he collaborated with London-based jazz-funk outfit Maisha on Night Dreamer: Direct to Disc Sessions. The following year, he collaborated with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad on a dedicated volume in their ongoing Jazz Is Dead series, Gary Bartz JID006.

Born in Baltimore in 1940, Bartz is the son of nightclub-owning parents. He picked up the alto at age 11, influenced by the many top-level jazz musicians who made their way through his parents' club; he even got to sit in with Art Blakey and George Benson during his teens. After graduating from high school, Bartz attended the Juilliard Conservatory of Music. He became a member of Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop from 1962-1964, where he worked with Eric Dolphy and encountered McCoy Tyner for the first time. He also began gigging as a sideman in the mid-'60s with the Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach group. He briefly joined Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and made his recording debut on their 1965 release Soul Finger, and remained for the following year's Hold On I'm Coming. In 1968 Bartz formed his own band and signed to Milestone. His debut, Libra, was performed by a quintet that included drummer Billy Higgins, bassist Richard Davis, pianist Albert Dailey, and trumpeter Jimmy Owens; the saxophonist continued to tour with the Roach/Lincoln band. He followed it with Another Earth in 1969, an album since celebrated as influential on both the American and European jazz scenes. His sidemen for the date included Pharoah Sanders, Reggie Workman, Charles Tolliver, Freddie Waits, and Stanley Cowell. In 1970, Miles Davis tapped Bartz for his Bitches Brew tour and featured him as a soloist on the Live-Evil recording. Subsequently, a more complete portrait emerged after his contribution to the Davis band was documented on The Cellar Door Sessions. Bartz formed the NTU Troop who, from the very beginning, melded soul, funk, African folk music, hard bop, and spiritual jazz in a vibrant multivalent whole. Vocalist Andy Bey joined the group for Harlem Bush Music: Taifa, Harlem Bush Music: Uhuru, Juju Street Songs and remained for several years. In 1972, Bartz began a longstanding working relationship with drummer Norman Connors on his groundbreaking soul-jazz outing Dance of Magic; he would record with the drummer throughout the decade. From 1973-1975, Bartz was on a roll. NTU Troop's I've Known Rivers and Other Bodies is one of the most revered jazz fusion outings of that decade and has proven influential for two generations of musicians in its wake. That same year, he collaborated with Jackie McLean on the acclaimed Ode to Super for Steeplechase, and appeared with Charlie Mariano on Altissimo for Philips.

NTU Troop issued its final outing, Singerella: A Ghetto Fairy Tale, in 1974 with producer Larry Mizell; he and Bartz formed a studio relationship that would last several years. In 1975, Bartz, the producer, and his brother Fonce Mizell (as well Davis' bandmembers Reggie Lucas, James Mtume, and Michael Henderson), collaborated for The Shadow Do. Two years later, with the same production team and an all-star guest list that included Syreeta, Mtume, James Gadson, David T. Walker, and others, Bartz issued the charting Music Is My Sanctuary, an album that initially proved far too funky for most jazz critics. Bartz stayed on a radio-friendly, pop-oriented jazz-funk tip for the remainder of the decade, issuing Love Affair in 1978 and Bartz in 1980.

The saxophonist spent most that decade as a sideman and billed collaborator. He worked steadily with Tyner, Phyllis Hyman, Mtume, Ndugu Chancler, and Woody Shaw. He returned to recording hard bop as a leader in 1988 with Monsoon and the following year's Reflections on Monk. Beginning with 1990's West 42nd Street, Bartz reveled in the hard bop tradition. 1991 saw the release of There Goes the Neighborhood, followed by Shadows, the latter with pianist Benny Green, bassist Christian McBride, drummer Victor Lewis, and tenor saxophonist Willie Williams. In 1994, Bartz briefly signed to Atlantic and issued one of his most enduring outings, the charting Red & Orange Poems. In its liner essay, critic Stanley Crouch wrote that: "he is one of the very finest to have ever picked up the instrument." He followed it a few months later with Episode 1: Children of Harlem, featuring a quartet that included pianist Larry Willis (Bartz had also been playing with his group), drummer Ben Riley, and bassist Buster Williams. In 1996, Bartz began to open up his sound again. Forming a studio band, he cut Blues Chronicles: Tales of Life with a star-studded lineup that included Jon Hendricks, Cyrus Chestnut, Dennis Chambers, Russell Malone, and rappers Nezkar Keith and Ransom. That same year, Bartz worked with organist Robert Walter on the Greyboy-produced Spirit of '70 that also included saxophonist Karl Denson. He closed the decade with the live Music for Ebbe: Live at San Sebastian ‎with Jeanne Lee and Jorge Pardo.

Bartz returned to his role as a collaborator during the early part of the new century. In 2000, he was co-billed with Jarek Śmietana on African Lake, which also included bassist Cameron Brown and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. Three years later, in addition to releasing Jazz Time co-billed to Kankawa Toshihiko, he was featured on Blue Jazz with Malachi Thompson & Africa Brass and guest Billy Harper. Also in 2003, Bartz joined the staff of the Jazz Studies department at Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he remains. He issued Soprano Stories with a band that consisted of pianists John Hicks and George Cables, bassist James King, and drummer Greg Bandy. It marked his first album-length showcase for his soprano saxophone playing.

Bartz spent the next seven years teaching, playing out only occasionally. He received a Grammy for his work as a sideman on McCoy Tyner's Illuminations (2005). He re-emerged as a bandleader on 2012's Coltrane Rules: Tao Music Warrior on his own OYO label. In 2015, he was a featured guest on tenor saxophonist Allen Lowe's electro-acoustic score for Man with Guitar: Where's Robert Johnson? That same year Bartz was awarded the BNY Mellon Jazz 2015 Living Legacy Award. In 2019, after being celebrated for two decades as one of jazz's true fusion pioneers influencing everyone from Kamasi Washington, Yazz Ahmed, Shabaka Hutchings, and others, Revive Music invited Bartz to perform in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Another Earth at New York's Winter Jazzfest. He reprised the performance at the North Sea and Newport Jazz Festivals and then at the Newport Jazz Fesitval with original personnel Charles Tolliver and Nasheet Waits as well as Ravi Coltrane.

In 2019, DJ and producer Gilles Peterson invited Bartz to play the annual We Out Here festival and selected the London-based spiritual jazz ensemble Maisha -- Amané Suganami, Twm Dylan, Tim Doyle, Yahael Camara-Onono, Shirley Tetteh, and Nubya Garcia -- to serve as his backing band. The gig went so well the group not only began playing dates across Europe, they re-assembled for a Peterson-curated We Out Here-branded gig at London's Royal Festival Hall, and a few months later, as part of the annual EFG London Jazz Festival. While they were playing their European dates, they booked two days in a recording studio in the Netherlands and cut five tunes for the direct-to-disc label Night Dreamer Records. Two early Bartz tunes, "Uhuru Sasa" and "Doctor Follows Dance," were rearranged by this group from the original recordings Harlem Bush Music: Uhuru and Follow the Medicine Man, respectively, while the other three were collectively written and arranged by the saxophonist and Maisha while they were on the road. The set was released in mid-2020, a few months shy of Bartz's 80th birthday. Just after, he went to Los Angeles and worked with Jazz Is Dead's multi-instrumentalist producers, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad; that meeting resulted in 2021's Gary Bartz JID006.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/gary-bartz-mn0000737969#biography

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Biografía de Thom Jurek
Gary Bartz es un saxofonista alto galardonado, multiinstrumentista, compositor, director de orquesta, instructor y acompañante. Aunque comenzó su carrera con Max Roach y Abbey Lincoln group en 1964, así como con muchos compañeros y mentores, incluidos McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Woody Shaw y Terumasa Hino. A principios de la década de 1970, Bartz fundó NTU Troop y publicó una serie de álbumes pioneros que incluían Follow the Medicine Man y I've Known Rivers and Other Bodies. Los álbumes de la banda integraron a la perfección el soul funky, las músicas folclóricas africanas, el post-bop y el jazz espiritual. Durante esa década, Bartz trabajó extensamente con Norman Connors, Donald Byrd y los innovadores productores de jazz-funk, los Hermanos Mizell. Aunque dirigió menos fechas durante los años 80 y 90, se mantuvo activo como colaborador y acompañante. En 2003, Bartz se unió a la facultad del departamento de Estudios de Jazz en el Conservatorio de Música de Oberlin. Ganó un Grammy por su interpretación en Tyner's Illuminations en el 2005 y lanzó el aclamado Coltrane Rules: Tao Music Warrior en el 2012. En 2019 Bartz celebró el 50 aniversario de su Another Earth en el Festival de Jazz de Newport junto a Ravi Coltrane y el personal original Charles Tolliver y Nasheet Waits. En el 2020 colaboró con el grupo de jazz-funk Maisha, con sede en Londres, en Night Dreamer: Sesiones directas al Disco. Al año siguiente, colaboró con Adrian Younge y Ali Shaheed Muhammad en un volumen dedicado en su serie en curso Jazz Is Dead, Gary Bartz JID006.

Bartz, nacido en Baltimore en 1940, es hijo de padres dueños de clubes nocturnos. Aprendió el contralto a los 11 años, influenciado por los muchos músicos de jazz de primer nivel que se abrieron paso en el club de sus padres; incluso llegó a sentarse con Art Blakey y George Benson durante su adolescencia. Después de graduarse de la escuela secundaria, Bartz asistió al Conservatorio de Música Juilliard. Se convirtió en miembro del Taller de Jazz de Charles Mingus de 1962 a 1964, donde trabajó con Eric Dolphy y conoció a McCoy Tyner por primera vez. También comenzó a actuar como acompañante a mediados de los 60 con Abbey Lincoln y Max Roach group. Se unió brevemente a Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers e hizo su debut discográfico en su lanzamiento de 1965 Soul Finger, y permaneció durante el año siguiente Hold On I'm Coming. En 1968 Bartz formó su propia banda y firmó con Milestone. Su debut, Libra, fue interpretado por un quinteto que incluía al baterista Billy Higgins, el bajista Richard Davis, el pianista Albert Dailey y el trompetista Jimmy Owens; el saxofonista continuó de gira con the Roach / Lincoln band. Lo siguió con Another Earth en 1969, un álbum que desde entonces se celebra como influyente tanto en la escena del jazz estadounidense como en la europea. Sus acompañantes para la cita incluyeron al faraón Sanders, Reggie Workman, Charles Tolliver, Freddie Waits y Stanley Cowell. En 1970, Miles Davis recurrió a Bartz para su gira Bitches Brew y lo presentó como solista en la grabación en vivo de Evil. Posteriormente, surgió un retrato más completo después de que su contribución a la banda de Davis fuera documentada en las sesiones de Cellar Door. Bartz formó la Tropa NTU que, desde el principio, fusionó soul, funk, música folclórica africana, hard bop y jazz espiritual en un todo vibrante y multivalente. El vocalista Andy Bey se unió al grupo para Harlem Bush Music: Taifa, Harlem Bush Music: Uhuru, Juju Street Songs y permaneció durante varios años. En 1972, Bartz inició una larga relación de trabajo con el baterista Norman Connors en su innovadora salida de soul-jazz Dance of Magic; grabaría con el baterista durante toda la década. De 1973 a 1975, Bartz estuvo en racha. I've Known Rivers and Other Bodies de NTU Troop es una de las salidas de jazz fusión más veneradas de esa década y ha demostrado ser influyente para dos generaciones de músicos a su paso. Ese mismo año, colaboró con Jackie McLean en la aclamada Ode to Super para Steeplechase, y apareció con Charlie Mariano en Altissimo para Philips.

NTU Troop emitió su última salida, Singerella: A Ghetto Fairy Tale, en 1974 con el productor Larry Mizell; él y Bartz formaron una relación de estudio que duraría varios años. En 1975, Bartz, el productor, y su hermano Fonce Mizell (así como los miembros de la banda de Davis, Reggie Lucas, James Mtume y Michael Henderson), colaboraron para The Shadow Do. Dos años después, con el mismo equipo de producción y una lista de invitados estelares que incluía a Syreeta, Mtume, James Gadson, David T. Walker, y otros, Bartz publicaron Music Is My Sanctuary, un álbum que inicialmente resultó demasiado funky para la mayoría de los críticos de jazz. Bartz se mantuvo en una pista de jazz-funk amigable con la radio y orientada al pop durante el resto de la década, emitiendo Love Affair en 1978 y Bartz en 1980.

El saxofonista pasó la mayor parte de esa década como acompañante y colaborador facturado. Trabajó constantemente con Tyner, Phyllis Hyman, Mtume, Ndugu Chancler y Woody Shaw. Volvió a grabar hard bop como líder en 1988 con Monsoon y Reflections on Monk del año siguiente. Comenzando con la calle 42 Oeste de 1990, Bartz se deleitó con la tradición del hard bop. en 1991 se lanzó There Goes the Neighborhood, seguido de Shadows, este último con el pianista Benny Green, el bajista Christian McBride, el baterista Victor Lewis y el saxofonista tenor Willie Williams. En 1994, Bartz firmó brevemente con Atlantic y publicó una de sus salidas más duraderas, The charting Red & Orange Poems. En su ensayo de línea, el crítico Stanley Crouch escribió que: "es uno de los mejores que jamás haya recogido el instrumento."Lo siguió unos meses después con el Episodio 1: Children of Harlem, con un cuarteto que incluía al pianista Larry Willis (Bartz también había estado tocando con su grupo), el baterista Ben Riley y el bajista Buster Williams. En 1996, Bartz comenzó a abrir su sonido nuevamente. Formando una banda de estudio, grabó Blues Chronicles: Tales of Life con una formación repleta de estrellas que incluía a Jon Hendricks, Cyrus Chestnut, Dennis Chambers, Russell Malone y los raperos Nezkar Keith y Ransom. Ese mismo año, Bartz trabajó con el organista Robert Walter en la producción de Greyboy Spirit of ' 70 que también incluyó al saxofonista Karl Denson. Cerró la década con la música en directo de Ebbe: Live at San Sebastian con Jeanne Lee y Jorge Pardo.

Bartz volvió a su papel de colaborador durante la primera parte del nuevo siglo. En 2000, fue co-facturado con Jarek Śmietana en African Lake, que también incluía al bajista Cameron Brown y al trompetista Jeremy Pelt. Tres años más tarde, además de lanzar Jazz Time co-facturado a Kankawa Toshihiko, apareció en Blue Jazz con Malachi Thompson & Africa Brass y el invitado Billy Harper. También en 2003, Bartz se unió al personal del departamento de Estudios de Jazz del Conservatorio de Música de Oberlin, donde permanece. Publicó Historias de soprano con una banda formada por los pianistas John Hicks y George Cables, el bajista James King y el baterista Greg Bandy. Marcó su primer escaparate de duración de álbum por su interpretación del saxofón soprano.

Bartz pasó los siguientes siete años enseñando, actuando solo ocasionalmente. Recibió un Grammy por su trabajo como acompañante en Illuminations de McCoy Tyner (2005). Resurgió como líder de banda en Coltrane Rules: Tao Music Warrior del 2012 en su propio sello OYO. En el 2015, fue invitado destacado en la partitura electroacústica del saxofonista tenor Allen Lowe para Man with Guitar: Where's Robert Johnson? Ese mismo año Bartz fue galardonado con el premio BNY Mellon Jazz 2015 Living Legacy Award. En 2019, después de ser celebrado durante dos décadas como uno de los verdaderos pioneros de la fusión del jazz influyendo en todos, desde Kamasi Washington, Yazz Ahmed, Shabaka Hutchings y otros, Revive Music invitó a Bartz a actuar para celebrar el 50 Aniversario de Another Earth en el Winter Jazzfest de Nueva York. Repitió la actuación en los Festivales de Jazz del Mar del Norte y Newport y luego en el Festival de Jazz de Newport con el personal original Charles Tolliver y Nasheet Waits, así como Ravi Coltrane.

En 2019, el DJ y productor Gilles Peterson invitó a Bartz a tocar en el festival anual We Out Here y seleccionó al conjunto de jazz espiritual Maisha, con sede en Londres, Amané Suganami, Twm Dylan, Tim Doyle, Yahael Camara-Onono, Shirley Tetteh y Nubya Garcia, para que actuaran como su banda de acompañamiento. El concierto fue tan bien que el grupo no solo comenzó a tocar en Europa, sino que se volvió a reunir para un concierto de la marca We Out Here comisariado por Peterson en el Royal Festival Hall de Londres y, unos meses más tarde, como parte del Festival anual de Jazz EFG de Londres. Mientras tocaban en sus fechas europeas, reservaron dos días en un estudio de grabación en los Países Bajos y grabaron cinco canciones para el sello discográfico Night Dreamer Records. Dos de las primeras melodías de Bartz, "Uhuru Sasa" y "Doctor Follows Dance", fueron reorganizadas por este grupo a partir de las grabaciones originales de Harlem Bush Music: Uhuru y Follow the Medicine Man, respectivamente, mientras que las otras tres fueron escritas y arregladas colectivamente por el saxofonista y Maisha mientras estaban de gira. El set se lanzó a mediados de 2020, unos meses antes del 80 cumpleaños de Bartz. Justo después, fue a Los Ángeles y trabajó con los productores multiinstrumentistas de Jazz Is Dead, Adrian Younge y Ali Shaheed Muhammad; esa reunión resultó en Gary Bartz JID006 de 2021.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/gary-bartz-mn0000737969#biography



Tracks:
A1 - Winding Roads 3:18
A2 - Mother Nature 6:27
A3 - Love Tones 5:11
A4 - Gentle Smiles (Saxy) 4:21
B1 - Make Me Feel Better 4:41
B2 - Sea Gypsy 6:18
B3 - For My Baby 4:57
B4 - Incident 2:56


Credits:
    Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Synthesizer, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Co-producer, Other [Cover Concept, Title] – Gary Bartz
    Bass, Backing Vocals – Michael Henderson
    Congas, Percussion – Mtume
    Drums, Synthesizer – Howard King
    Engineer [Fantasy] – Eddie Bill Harris
    Engineer [Sound Factory] – Jim Nipar, Val Christian Garay
    Executive Producer – Orrin Keepnews
    Guitar – Reggie Lucas
    Mastered By – Mike Reese, Ron Hitchcock
    Mixed By – Dave Hassinger
    Photography – Vicki Bartz
    Piano, Clavinet, Synthesizer – Hubert Eaves
    Producer, Backing Vocals – Larry and Fonce Mizell
    Synthesizer, Backing Vocals – Larry Mizell

Label:    Prestige – P-10092
Released:    1975
Genre:    Jazz
Style:    Fusion, Jazz-Funk
https://www.discogs.com/release/913311-Gary-Bartz-The-Shadow-Do






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