Jazz

Many people have been incorrectly praised as a "Renaissance Man," but the phrase perfectly describes Mr. John Lurie. Music, acting, painting, writing -- Lurie has really done it all. And he's nowhere near finished creating things. With a long-gestating memoir just being published and a second season of HBO's "Painting with John" now in production, the indie legend kindly agreed to join us recently for a wide-ranging chat.

Our guest is the highly regarded American conductor and music director, David Robertson.  He'll be holding the baton at the BOK Center this weekend, as the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra joins forces with Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and a festival choir to perform All Rise (Symphony No. 1), an epic blues suite composed by Marsalis that will take place Sunday, June 6th, at 3pm.

We're glad to welcome back to our program the Tulsa-based guitarist, composer, and music producer Chris Combs, who's known for his work with COMBSY, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, and other jazz/experimental/multi-genre outfits. Combs tells us about (and shares tracks from) his forthcoming album, "Roche Blave: Large Ensemble Works Recorded Live in Switzerland," which will be released by the nonprofit Horton Records on April 30th.

(Note: This interview first aired back in December.) Our guest is Phil Keith, the co-author of a remarkable biography titled "All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard -- Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy." As was noted of this compelling work in a starred review in Publishers Weekly: "This dazzling biography, drawing on the subject's unpublished memoir, explores the incredible life and times of the first African-American fighter pilot: Eugene 'Gene' Bullard.

Our guest is Phil Keith, who is the co-author of a remarkable new biography titled "All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard -- Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy." As was noted of this compelling work in a starred review in Publishers Weekly: "This dazzling biography, drawing on the subject's unpublished memoir, explores the incredible life and times of the first African-American fighter pilot: Eugene 'Gene' Bullard. At 12, he ran away from Columbus, Ga., to escape the vicious racism of the early-20th-century South for France, the country revered by his formerly enslaved father.

Our guest is John Jeter, the longtime Music Director and Conductor of the Fort Smith Symphony. That symphony has a new CD out, which Jeter tells us about. It's a widely acclaimed recording of the work of Florence Price (1887-1953), who was a pioneering African-American classical composer. Indeed, Price, who was originally from Little Rock and spent many years in Chicago, was the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have her music played by a major U.S. orchestra.

Our guest today on ST is Jeffrey Zeigler, the well-regarded cellist who is known for his work with Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, John Zorn, Kronos Quartet, Laurie Anderson, and others. A supremely gifted "crossover" musician whose work draws upon classical, jazz, pop, rock, folk, and a variety of other sources, Zeigler will soon perform here in Tulsa. His concert, presented by Choregus Productions, happens at the Tulsa PAC's Doenges Theater on Friday the 25th.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we get to know Ricco Wright, who owns and operates the nonprofit Black Wall Street Gallery, a recently created art space on Greenwood Avenue. After Wright graduated from Union High School, he studied mathematics as a Bill Gates Scholar at Langston University. Thereafter he earned a doctorate in math at Columbia University, after which he lived and worked in New York City for a decade. As Wright tells us, his own passion for the arts -- visual, musical, verbal, and otherwise -- flourished considerably while he was based in NYC.

On this installment of ST, we speak by phone with Charlie Hunter, who's been a prolific and genre-crossing jazz, funk, and fusion guitarist since he came to prominence in the 1990s. Hunter is known for playing a modified guitar, which he tells us about, and with which he plays chords, melodies, and bass parts all at once. He'll be playing here in Tulsa on Saturday night, the 10th, at Duet Jazz (the great new jazz club in downtown Tulsa, located in the Archer Building basement).

The Tulsa Symphony Orchestra will soon kick off its new season with an Opening Night Gala Concert at the Tulsa PAC. (It happens tomorrow night, Saturday the 6th, with more info posted here.) On the program, the lyrical and masterful cello concerto by Dvorák, which will feature a guest appearance by the world-renowned cellist, Lynn Harrell.

On this edition of ST, we learn about the first-annual Wine, Jazz & World Fete, which will happen soon in downtown Tulsa -- from Thursday the 4th through Saturday the 6th -- at both the Guthrie Green and Duet (i.e., Tulsa's brand-new jazz club). This festival, to be hosted by Public Radio Tulsa's Scott Gregory on both Friday and Saturday, will boast outstanding jazz and world-music artists, fine wines, delicious culinary offerings, performance art, kids' activities, and more.

(Note: This interview originally aired back in February.) The author and journalist Mark Whitaker is our guest on StudioTulsa. A former managing editor of CNN Worldwide, and a previous Washington bureau chief for NBC News, Whitaker has a new book out, which he tells us about.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with mezzo-soprano and vocal performance artist Alicia Hall-Moran, a versatile singer at home with opera, art, theatre, and jazz. Hall-Moran made her Broadway debut understudying as "Bess" in the revival of "The Gershwin's Porgy & Bess," but the main thrust of her work is in varied collaborations with a "who's who" of creative types -- from her husband, the celebrated jazz musician Jason Moran, to visual artists like Carrie Mae Weems and choreographers like Bill T. Jones. 

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we are pleased to chat with the world-renowned tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, who has performed or recorded over the years with everyone from George Harrison and Yo-Yo Ma to Van Morrison and Mickey Hart (to name but a few). On this coming Friday night, the 30th, the nonprofit South Asian Performing Arts Foundation will present a special concert featuring Mr. Hussain alongside Rakesh Chaurasia, an up-and-coming and well-respected flute virtuoso. The concert begins at 7:30pm in the John H. Williams Theatre at the Tulsa PAC.

On this edition of ST, we sit down with Todd Clouser and Chris Combs, two genre-busting guitarists and composers whose ever-creative music-making mixes jazz, rock, and funk styles -- as well as electronica, ambient grooves, and even tape-reversing experimentation. Clouser, originally from Minnesota and based in Mexico City, pretty much tours and performs worldwide -- and non-stop -- and has been occasionally playing shows in Tulsa for years now.

The author and journalist Mark Whitaker is our guest on StudioTulsa. A former managing editor of CNN Worldwide, and a previous Washington bureau chief for NBC News, Whitaker has a new book out, which he tells us about. It's an "expansive, prodigiously researched, and masterfully told history" (Kirkus Reviews) called "Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance." As was noted in an appreciation of this book in USA Today: "Pittsburgh was one of the country's citadels of black aspiration in music, sports, business, and culture.

On this edition of ST, we listen back to our conversation from September with Jared Johnson, who's a fine drummer on the Tulsa-area music circuit as well as a drumset instructor at Northeastern State University. Jared gigs widely on the local scene, playing in all sorts of bands and musical settings, and mainly works as a jazz drummer.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we're talking about a large and impressive exhibit on view at Crystal Bridges Museum over in Bentonville, Arkansas, through January 1st. This far-reaching show -- entitled "Stuart Davis: In Full Swing," and offering, per The New York Times, "a universe of jazzy patterns and blazing colors" -- profiles the long career of an influential American artist who consistently and creatively made images from the early 1900s through the early 1960s.

Our guest on this edition of ST is the well-regarded jazz trumpeter and vocalist Byron Stripling. He'll be appearing tonight and tomorrow night (the 8th and 9th) with the Signature Symphony at Tulsa Community College in a special "pops" concert created by Stripling himself. The show is called "The Roaring '20s and All That Jazz," and it will feature the music of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and other American music masters (and will be staged at the TCC Van Trease PACE).

On this episode of ST, we welcome Jared Johnson to the show. He's an active drummer on the Tulsa-area music scene as well as a drumset instructor at Northeastern State University. Jared gigs widely on the local scene, playing in all sorts of bands and musical settings, and mainly works as a jazz drummer.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, an interesting discussion with the diversely talented Tulsa-based composer, performer, conductor, and music educator Noam Faingold. He serves as director of the Barthelmes Conservatory, teaches in the Department of Music at TU, is on the board at Chamber Music Tulsa, and is also the curator for the OK Electric Music Festival, which will happen this weekend (April 8th and 9th) at Living Arts of Tulsa (at 307 East Brady in downtown Tulsa).

On this edition of ST, we speak with the highly regarded theatrical director David Schweizer, who's currently in town to direct Tulsa Opera's staging of Andre Previn's "A Streetcar Named Desire" (happening on Friday the 4th and Sunday the 6th).

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we chat with the saxophonist, composer, and music educator Clark Gibson, who took the helm as Director of Jazz Studies at NSU in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, last fall. Gibson relocated to our community from Illinois, and his new CD, just out, is a terrific recording that grew out of the work he did while completing his doctorate at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. That disc is "Bird with Strings: The Lost Arrangements," and it's on the Chicago-based Blujazz label.

The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet will perform this coming Monday evening (the 9th) in a concert featuring Spanish Renaissance music, Manuel De Falla's "El Amor Brujo," and a range of eclectic works ranging from English composer John Dowland to Chet Atkins and Dweezil Zappa. On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with one of this Grammy Award-winning ensemble's members, former Tulsan Matthew Greif.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we are discussing a marvelous photography exhibit that goes on display tomorrow at the Gilcrease Museum here in Tulsa; "On 52nd Street: The Jazz Photography of William P. Gottlieb" will run from July 25th through October 11th. Our guest is Dr. Frank Goodyear, co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Maine, who's also the curator of this show.

On this penultimate day of Black History Month, we're talking about the life and work of one of our greatest African American writers, Langston Hughes (1902-1967), the prolific and influential poet, activist, novelist, memoirist, playwright, and newspaper columnist. Our guest on ST is David Roessel, one of the editors of the recently published "Selected Letters of Langston Hughes" (Knopf).

On this edition of ST, we welcome Jeffrey Zeigler, the gifted cello player and composer who's best known for his eight-year tenure with the internationally known Kronos Quartet. Since leaving that collective about two years ago, Zeigler has embarked on an interesting (and decidedly multi-genre) solo career that's found him collaborating with a host of fascinating musicians -- such as singer/songwriter Norah Jones, avant-jazz guru John Zorn, pianist Vijay Iyer, composer Philip Glass, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, and so forth.

The Signature Symphony at Tulsa Community College continues its search for a new artistic director and conductor, and the field has narrowed to three young finalists, each of whom is a promising talent amid the next generation of American conductors. As the Symphony begins its new season of concerts, each of these finalists will be given the chance to wave the baton, as it were, during an actual concert.