{"id":14628,"date":"2011-11-09T04:58:45","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T09:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utnews.utoledo.edu\/?p=14628"},"modified":"2011-11-08T10:59:29","modified_gmt":"2011-11-08T15:59:29","slug":"jazz-legend-to-celebrate-90th-birthday-in-toledo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/11_09_2011\/jazz-legend-to-celebrate-90th-birthday-in-toledo","title":{"rendered":"Jazz legend to celebrate 90th birthday in Toledo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hendricks<\/p><\/div>On Sept. 16, Jon Hendricks turned 90. And he was busy planning for a party Sept. 24, when he helped open the season for Jazz at Lincoln Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an unofficial celebration at Lincoln Center. We had a full house. We had Dianne Reeves and Bobby McFerrin, and my daughter, Michele, flew in from Paris. And it was reviewed in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Rave reviews \u2014 well, they better,\u201d he said and then laughed.<\/p>\n

The media and music fans continue to extol the superstar, who wrote a new chapter in the world of jazz.<\/p>\n

Hendricks is considered the father of vocalese \u2014 the art of setting lyrics to established jazz standards. Time magazine dubbed him \u201cthe James Joyce of jive,\u201d and music critic Leonard Feather called him \u201cthe poet laureate of jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1957, he formed the jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. The trio refined vocalese, whereby voices are arranged to sing the parts of instruments. Vocalists McFerrin, Al Jarreau and the Manhattan Transfer all cite the group\u2019s work as a major influence.<\/p>\n

The jazzman, who said he\u2019s a Virgo and ruled by Mercury, the fastest planet, continues to work and be a force in the music world.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiles Davis had an album arranged by Gil Evans, Miles Ahead,<\/em> with Miles Davis soloing with 18 musicians, one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. I\u2019m lyricizing it to be sung,\u201d Hendricks said during a call from his New York City home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dave Lambert, left, Annie Ross and Jon Hendricks in 1961<\/p><\/div>And he\u2019s still writing his autobiography, Mind on Fire.<\/em><\/p>\n

What is the legend most proud of?<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an open, free and constant invitation to sing with Duke Ellington\u2019s Orchestra and Count Basie and his Orchestra. In other words, wherever they were, if I walked in, I could walk right up on the bandstand and sing,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that kind of invitation, that was fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hendricks marveled at the magic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Duke Ellington, I would just go up on the bandstand and I would turn to his saxophone player, Paul Gonzalez, the tenor player, and I would ask him, \u2018What do I sing?\u2019 And he\u2019d say, \u2018Anything.\u2019 And I\u2019d say, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Just sing anything, we\u2019ll be with you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I thought this man was crazy, and I started singing a song. And after the first note, the entire band came in, each on his part: The first tenor saxophone on his part, the second tenor saxophone, the third, the first alto, the second alto, the baritone, the three trombones and four trumpets, all on their parts as a part of an arrangement. It was the most magnificent thing I ever heard in my life, and I haven\u2019t heard it from anybody [else] ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

UT students have the luxury of hearing about jazz greats from the luminary who played alongside them. Hendricks, who was named UT Distinguished Professor of Jazz in 2000, returns to campus to lecture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just told the students what kind of man Duke Ellington was and how he got around things nobody else got around like, for example, racism in the South in the \u201930s and \u201940s,\u201d the singer said. \u201cDuke went through it once. The next time he went down, he went down on two private Pullman [railroad] cars, and the band stayed on those cars and they had cooks and waiters there \u2014 that was their hotel. So they didn\u2019t have to go through the racism, not being able to stay in a first-class hotel that Duke would want to stay in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jon Hendricks began singing \u2014 and playing drums \u2014 while growing up in Toledo.<\/p><\/div>The icon is happy to share such stories in the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s essential that students know what these people went through to produce our cultural art form and what an artistic, emotional wreck it is that this country has chosen to take no recognition of it at all,\u201d Hendricks said. \u201cIt was in France that jazz was first written about on the level with symphonic music seriously, and there\u2019s still not much serious jazz writing done in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the National Endowment for the Arts American Jazz Master does his best to spread the gospel, performing around the globe. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to take away the beauty of the music. When you know what the jazz orchestra comes from, which is the church choir, you see how it was done,\u201d he said. \u201cThe three sections of the trumpet, trombone and reeds are from the tenor, basses and baritones of the choir. They actually do the same thing. And church choirs are always very, very rhythmic because there are some very rhythmic hymns that you sing. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you realize that the jazz orchestra stems from the church choir, then you see how the culture spread from the church outward to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Grammy Award winner will take the stage of Crystal\u2019s Lounge at the Ramada Inn, 3536 Secor Road, for a belated birthday celebration and concert Monday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

The UT Faculty Jazz Ensemble and Vocalstra are among the acts slated to perform.<\/p>\n

Tickets are $5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UT Distinguished Professor of Jazz Jon Hendricks will have a belated 90th birthday party and concert Monday, Nov. 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}