Be-Bop Competition Blows Into Town

Be-boppers take heed! Jazz aficionado Bill Sinclair has decided to take his love for be-bop another step by announcing the Southern California Be-Bop Blowoff (SCBB), a contest with $900 in prize money that’s designed for both professionals and amateurs, young and old alike. The idea of the contest, where the emphasis will be on individual artists rather than groups, is “to give good music a boost which it . . . needs,” says Sinclair in a press release.

The competition begins with audition by tape submission, and those selected will appear in play-offs in Los Angeles area nightclubs. Sinclair says that all phases of the contest will be judged by qualified jazz educators.

For information, send a self-addressed envelope to: SCBB, 22932 Vermont Avenue, Torrance, 90502.

Time for Women: New York-based pianist/singer Barbara Carroll--who’s currently appearing Tuesday through Saturday in the lounge of the Westwood Marquis and Gardens Hotel in Westwood--has been in the jazz business for 40 years and says that things are finally getting better for the women musicians.

“It’s about time,” says the artist who’s usually heard in the Bemelman’s Bar of Manhattan’s Carlyle Hotel, where she’s been a mainstay for more than a decade. “When I began playing, it wasn’t the case. Now a women isn’t prejudged the way she was in the past, when it was automatically assumed she couldn’t play. I don’t think that happens any more.”

The pianist, who arrived on the New York jazz scene in the late ‘40s, played with guitarists Chuck Wayne and Charlie Byrd before stepping out with her own trio. “When I first came to New York, I worked at the Down Beat club on 52nd Street, opposite Dizzy Gillespie’s big band,” she recalls. “I was so thrilled because (the Street was where) all my idols, like Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and Art Tatum, were working.”

In the early ‘50s, Carroll led a trio at the Embers, a midtown room. “It was a wonderful jazz room, and I shared the bill with Art Tatum. It was like playing opposite God,” she says.

Carroll who played the Westwood Marquis in January and February and continues there through Sept. 15, likes the 90-seat room--”It’s very comfy”--and says the audiences have been “very responsive. Fortunately, there have been quite a number of (listeners), and they’ve been very attentive, and great to play for.”

The pianist, whose most recent release is “Old Friends” (Audiophile), says her performances are based on “essentially what I have always done, but with more singing. So I play jazz, improvising on standards and good show tunes with jazz classics and my originals mixed in.”

Carroll continues to find the jazz medium striking a warm chord with her. “I love the freedom of being able to take a song and play it differently each time, never being bound to playing it the same way,” she says. “And since I’m playing alone, I really have that freedom. It makes it more interesting for me, and for the audience.”

Rim Shots: The Long Beach Museum of Art (2300 Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, (213) 439-2119) is hosting Wednesday jazz concerts this summer. Artists on tap include Al Williams’ Jazz Society Band, Wednesday, Jungle Book (Aug. 22) and Tom Kubis’ Big Band (Aug. 29). Concerts begin at 7 p.m.; tickets, $6. . . . The 7th annual Venice Arts and Crafts Festival will be held Sunday on West Washington Boulevard, between Venice Boulevard and Westminister Avenue, in Venice. Jazz artists performing include harpist Sherry Lorenz, 12:30 p.m.; Katoomi, with Milcho Leviev and Karen Briggs, 2:30 p.m.; and the Royal Crown Revue, 3:30 p.m. . . The current issue of Jazz Times is devoted to the Women in Jazz. Such L.A.-based ladies as trumpeters Clora Bryant and Stacy Rowles, reed player Ann Patterson and pianist Dorothy Donegan receive coverage. . . . Donegan is one of artists on “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz,” the nationally syndicated show that airs on KPCC (89.3 FM) Tuesdays (10-11 p.m.) and Wednesdays (9-10 a.m.). On Aug. 14-15, Billy Taylor guests; Aug. 21-22, it’s Donegan’s turn; and on Aug. 28-29, John Bunch is featured. . . . Jazz on the Rocks, the annual bash in Sedona, Ariz., will be held Sept. 22. Supersax and the L.A. Voices, Ernestine Anderson, Ann Patterson’s Maiden Voyage big band, Doug MacLeod and Ronnie Bedford & Friends, with Bill Watrous, et al. are on the schedule. Information: (602) 282-1985.

TOP 10 JAZZ LPs

1. Standard Time Vol. 3: The Resolution of Romance--Wynton Marsalis

2. We Are in Love--Harry Connick Jr.

3. Question and Answer--Pat Metheny

4 Lofty’s Roach Souffle--Harry Connick Jr.

5. Apasionado--Stan Getz

6. Elaine Elias Plays Jobim--Elaine Elias

7. On Course--Christopher Hollyday

8. Carmen Sings Monk--Carmen McRae

9. Stolen Moments--Lee Ritenour

10. Parallel Realities--Jack DeJohnette

SOURCE: Billboard