Jazz Educators to Convene in San Diego; Blue Note Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Three-thousand educators, musicians and music industry representatives will gather at the Town and Country Hotel in San Diego Thursday through Sunday to take part in the 16th annual National Assn. of Jazz Educators convention. The group “works to keep jazz alive in schools, clubs and concert halls around the world,” says executive director Bill McFarlin.

The convention has scheduled panel discussions, seminars and a wide array of performances. Among the artists on tap are Bill Watrous and Charles McPherson, Thursday; Red Rodney, Rob McConnell and the world premiere of the “Count Basie Jazz History Suite”--performed by the Count Basie Orchestra, directed by Frank Foster, with Joe Williams, narrator--Friday; and Take Six, Branford Marsalis and Michael Brecker, as well as big bands from William Patterson College, Berklee College of Music and North Texas State University, Saturday. The event is open to the public; concert tickets are $10, available at the door, or through Ticketmaster (213) 480-3232. Convention information: (619) 291-7131.

50 YEARS OF BLUE NOTES: On Jan. 6, 1939, Alfred Lion stepped into a New York recording studio for the very first time--producing “Boogie Woogie Dream” and three other songs, with piano giants Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis--and inaugurated his Blue Note Record label. Blue Note is still alive and well half a century later, as demonstrated by the its healthy new album and reissue release schedule, and its recent signing of such artists as singer Lou Rawls, pianist McCoy Tyner and new-on-the-scene tenorman Rick Margipza.

To commemorate the golden anniversary, current Blue Note President Bruce Lundvall (Lion, who died in 1987, retired in 1969) hosted a bash at New York’s Birdland jazz club last Friday, which spotlighted many of the line’s top artists. “Everyone there was really there to play and kill ‘em,” Lundvall said. “We gave ‘em each 15 minutes, which quickly stretched to half an hour.”

Lundvall said the high points included a duet on “Stormy Monday” with singers Rawls and Dianne Reeves; Margipza, who’s just joined Miles Davis’ band, “who has a totally fresh style, out of Coltrane, but very melodic, which knocked everybody out;” and a solo set from Tyner, “that was like a symphony.” A closing jam session, with guitarists Stanley Jordan and Bireli Lagrene, pianist Michel Petrucciani and reedmen Stanley Turrentine and Bobby Watson taking part, capped the party. “It was a little bit of jazz heaven and you didn’t have to die to be there,” Lundvall quipped.

Fiftieth anniversary plans include the release of a five-record commemorative set in May, and Blue Note Nights during most of the major jazz festivals in the United States and Europe this summer. Lineups for these events are not yet firm.

BEAT OF A NEW DRUMMER: Terry Lyne Carrington, the 23-year-old drummer who has toured with saxophonists Wayne Shorter and David Sanborn, has moved to Los Angeles from Manhattan to take the drum chair on the new “Arsenio Hall Show.” Carrington, who has been performing since she was 7, releases her debut solo LP, “Real Life Story” (Verve Forecast)--featuring such notables as guitarists Carlos Santana, Hiram Bullock and John Scofield, saxmen Grover Washington, Jr. and Gerald Albright and singer Dianne Reeves--in late February.

AROUND TOWN: Pianist George Gaffney, while a most talented player, isn’t exactly what you’d call a “name” musician. But he might be, at least here in Los Angeles, if he weren’t on the road so much. He’s usually backing Sarah Vaughan, though he recently spent five days working with Frank Sinatra at the Circle Star Theatre in San Mateo.

And while Gaffney--a transplanted New Yorker who’s been playing behind the Divine One steadily since 1980--said the job with Vaughan is “wonderful, because she’s so musical,” he tries to get exposure on his own “by working as much as I can when I’m in town.”

Featured on occasional gigs with small groups led by Bill Berry and Sal Marquez, Gaffney is his own boss at Linda’s on Melrose Avenue, where he and bassist Eric Von Essen hold forth most Fridays and Saturdays. The two offer an “eclectic assortment, anything from jazz standards by Monk and Strayhorn to very old tunes, like Gershwin’s ‘Do It Again’ ,” said the pianist who named Bud Powell, Bill Evans and Tyner as his chief inspirations.

When not playing, Gaffney composes and orchestrates--he was nominated for an Emmy in 1987 for a musical sequence he contributed to “Moonlighting” and he often orchestrates tunes for Rita Moreno. The pianist has no recordings out under his own name, but he’s in no hurry. “I trust that’ll fall into place in time,” he said.

CURRENT AND CHOICE ALBUMS: “The Harper Brothers” (Verve) debuts a sparkling, young Manhattan-based quintet that embraces the best of ‘50s mainstream qualities without sounding dated. Trumpeter Philip Harper and pianist Stephen Scott are standouts, as “Mogie,” “Haitian March” and others show, but really everybody in this band shines on a prime session where the cooking never stops. . . . Local guitarist Carl Verheyen’s “No Border” (Chase Music Group) is rock-meets-jazz with no apologies. There’s complexity (“Gretchen’s Theme”), blow-it-out wailing (“Highland Shuffle”) and simple sweetness (“Big Sur”). Verheyen appears Thursday at At My Place in Santa Monica.