Prison for a Jazz Club
Malou Oheix of Nantes wins the Herbie Hancock Institute's international vocals competition in Paris, the first time in nearly four decades the competition has been held outside the United States. Silas tells the story of five men from a Czechoslovak jazz organization who stood trial in Prague, two of them going to prison.
LioraA singer from Nantes won the Hancock Institute's vocals competition, and the competition left the country to hold it. Later, a jazz organization on trial in Prague. It's Wednesday. Let's go.
LioraIt's Wednesday, October 28th. This is The Daily Quintet. I'm Liora. Five stories from the world of jazz, in about ten minutes. Here we go.
One. The Lead: Malou Oheix, a twenty seven year old singer from Nantes
LioraMalou Oheix has won the Herbie Hancock Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition, and the competition left the country to hold it.
Oheix is twenty seven, a singer from Nantes, France. First place came with a fifty thousand dollar scholarship.
The Institute says this is the first time in its nearly four decade history that the competition has been held outside the United States. The host was the Fondation Louis Vuitton, in Paris.
The semifinals ran on October tenth, the finals on Sunday the eleventh. A jury of Dee Dee Bridgewater, Roberta Gambarini, Angelique Kidjo, Gretchen Parlato and Gregory Porter picked the three finalists on the Saturday.
Oheix sang two things. "I'm Glad There Is You," and then Michael Brecker's "Madame Toulouse." Carmen Staaf was on piano, Ben Williams on bass, Kendrick Scott on drums.
LioraShe says she transcribes saxophonists and trumpet players to find what a voice can do, and among singers she names Bobby McFerrin and Gretchen Parlato.
Gregory Porter's verdict was four words. "Her musicality was special."
Georgia Heers took second, and twenty five thousand dollars. Lucy-Anne Daniels, twenty four, from Leeds, took third, and ten thousand.
Two. Listen to This: Abbey Lincoln's That's him was cut in New York on this date in 1957 with Sonny Rollins
LioraToday's record was cut on today's date, sixty nine years ago.
"That's him," Abbey Lincoln, with what the French national library calls the Riverside jazz stars. The library's recording field is one line. New York, October twenty eighth, 1957.
The band. Sonny Rollins on tenor, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, Max Roach on drums. Riverside sixty eight nine sixty.
The catalog prints no track list, so I cannot send you to a tune. The tip is the band. Listen past the singer to the rhythm section.
One new one. Friday, Pi Recordings puts out "Hurry Red Telephone" by Marc Ribot. The label calls it his first all instrumental album since 2014's "Live at the Village Vanguard," the record he made with Chad Taylor and the late bassist Henry Grimes. Taylor is back on drums.
LioraRibot, on Grimes: "It took a while to find a way to start again after Henry died."
Now the hard one. Prague, 1987. Five men from a jazz organization stand trial, and two of them go to prison. Silas tells it on The Bridge.
Three. The Bridge: Silas tells the story of five men from a jazz organization who stood trial in Prague
LioraOne true story from this music's history, every day. Silas tells it, I ask the questions. Silas, where are we?
SilasPrague. March 11th, 1987. Outside a courthouse, a crowd gathers. More than 150 people by one count, about 200 by another. Inside, five men are on trial. They face up to eight years. UPI called it the largest political trial in Czechoslovakia since May 1979, when Vaclav Havel and five others were convicted. What these five ran was a jazz organization.
LioraA jazz organization. How does that end up in court?
SilasIt starts in 1971. The Jazz Section is a branch inside the official Musicians' Union of Czechoslovakia. Two men run it, Karel Srp and Vladimir Kouril. The writer Skvorecky, who took their side, called them "critics and organizers," not musicians. Counts of the members run from about eight thousand to eleven thousand, depending on the source. They put out a bulletin called Jazz. They hold a festival, Prague Jazz Days. Then there are the books. A series called jazzpetit. Skvorecky wrote, "Twenty-three altogether appeared between 1979 and 1986." Bohumil Hrabal's I Waited on the King of England. A three-volume rock encyclopedia.
LioraRock, from a jazz group?
SilasSkvorecky says officials charged the section with "transgressing the boundaries of its thematic field," by covering rock too. The tenth Prague Jazz Days is banned. So is the eleventh. Then in 1984 the government shuts down the whole Musicians' Union, and the Jazz Section goes with it. The section keeps working anyway. It asks to be registered, and is refused. The secret police search homes. On September 2nd, 1986, eight people are arrested in Prague.
LioraArrested for what, exactly?
SilasThat keeps changing. By Skvorecky's account, the first charge is embezzlement. It's dropped. Tax evasion is tried, and rejected too. The case lands on "unauthorized business activities." Time magazine quoted the charge as "illegally continuing to distribute music, newsletters and art books." A Czech Television history says the sum started at several million crowns and was cut to about 67,000. An expert it quotes says that money went on stamps, trash pickup, and the phone.
LioraSo what happens at the trial?
SilasTen of the twelve witnesses refuse to testify. In his closing, Srp says, "Our organization was a humanitarian and a cultural one." The verdict: Srp, sixteen months in prison. Kouril, ten months. The other three get suspended sentences. As he's sentenced, Srp shouts to Western reporters, "I need your help." Czech Television lists petition signers including Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur Miller, Dave Brubeck, Wynton Marsalis and Paul McCartney. In December 1987, Sonny Rollins and the Billy Taylor Trio played a benefit in Washington. Kouril got out in July 1987. Srp got out on New Year's Day, 1988. Skvorecky wrote that Srp spent twenty days in solitary, in a cell "whose floor was covered with excrement." In 1991, the Supreme Court annulled all the sentences as unlawful.
LioraA jazz group kept its office open, and two men went to prison for it. That's The Bridge. Back to today, right after this.
Four. On the Road: The Aaron Parks Trio plays two sets at the Village Vanguard, with rooms in Nashville
LioraTonight, coast to coast.
Tonight's ticket is in New York, at the Village Vanguard.
The Aaron Parks Trio is in a run the club dates October twenty seventh to November first. Parks on piano, Ben Street on bass, Billy Hart on drums. Two sets, eight and ten, forty five dollars. General admission for the eight o'clock is sold out. The ten o'clock is open.
Now the sweep.
In Nashville, Rudy's Jazz Room has two bills. At six, "A Charlie Brown Halloween," Vince Guaraldi's score. At nine, a hundred years of Ray Brown, born in Pittsburgh on October thirteenth, 1926.
In New Orleans, Preservation Hall has the Preservation All-Stars with Branden Lewis. Three sets, quarter past six, half past seven, quarter to nine. The hall prints no price.
LioraIn Seattle, Jazz Alley has the Lao Tizer Quintet with the singer Elliott Yamin. Doors at six, one set at half past seven, forty three dollars.
Back in New York, Smalls has Ilya Dynov at six and half past seven, then Aaron Seeber at nine and half past ten. Thirty five in advance, twenty five at the door.
Five. One More Note: Charlie Parker cut fourteen takes at the WOR studios in New York on this date in 1947
LioraOne more date. Seventy nine years ago today, Charlie Parker spent an afternoon in the WOR studios in New York. The French national library prints the day and fourteen takes from it, among them "Dexterity," "Bongo Bop," "Dewey Square," "Bird of Paradise," "Embraceable You." Miles Davis on trumpet, Duke Jordan on piano, Tommy Potter on bass, Max Roach on drums.
One more birthday. Cleo Laine was born on this date in 1927. The Library of Congress puts the place at Southall, in London. She would have been ninety nine today, and she died in July last year.
Outro
LioraThat's the Quintet. If today's show earned it, follow The Daily Quintet wherever you listen.
The Daily Quintet is an AI-crafted production, researched and checked by humans. Every listing you heard came from the venue or the festival's own organizer.
That's your Wednesday. I'm Liora. See you tomorrow.