A Broader View of American Music

Anyone who’s heard saxophonist-flutist Justo Almario in action has to wonder why this extraordinary player has had such relatively low visibility throughout his highly productive musical career. Since he settled in the Los Angeles area in the ‘70s, the Colombian-born artist has performed in every imaginable musical style, with artists ranging from Freddie Hubbard and Roy Ayers to the Clayton-Hamilton band, Poncho Sanchez and almost any other major Southland player one can mention.

And that’s just the beginning. Looking back only a year or so, I can recall hearing Almario perform in the heated salsa environment of Pete Escovedo’s band, leading his own small, straight-ahead Latin jazz group at the Central Avenue Jazz Festival; in an all-star Newport Jazz Festival band with Joe Lovano and Terence Blanchard at Royce Hall; with Francisco Aguabella and the Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre; and, of course, with the inspired ensemble Tolu, the group he has been leading on and off for years with drummer-percussionist Alex Acuna. In each case, playing alto, tenor and soprano saxophones, as well as flute and clarinet, he has adapted perfectly to his surroundings, delivering brilliantly inventive solo after solo.

A much belated but much deserved recognition of Almario’s extraordinary talents takes place on Aug. 25 at the Ford Amphitheatre, when he will be honored as a highlight event in Jazz Pilgrimage 2002, a concert featuring the Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars.

Almario’s playing that evening will undoubtedly reflect his all-embracing musicality as well as, above all, his belief in the far-reaching embrace of Latin jazz.

“For many years, people only knew Latin jazz as a combination of Cuban rhythms and jazz,” Almario says. “Then in the ‘60s, we had bossa novas. But there is much more music from all the Americas, many countries--Peru, Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico--with many rhythms and sounds.”

Exploration has been an essential element not only in Almario’s playing, but also in the approach he and Acuna have taken with Tolu. (That sense of diversity is a constant presence in the group’s new, whimsically titled CD, “Bongo de Van Gogh.”)

“I would like to keep working in this direction,” he says, “finding the excitement in the rhythms and music of these different cultures, letting people know about them. And jazz is the best form in which to do it, because it’s music from the soul, rhythmic and improvised.”

Almario, 53, who reports he is now in good shape after recovering from a life-threatening illness, is looking forward to the Ford program.

“I’m very thankful to receive this honor,” he says. “And I’m thankful to be here, practicing, working on my horns, trying to play the best I can. Because my music and my life are gifts, something I appreciate every day.”

Mancini Musings. It’s unlikely that Henry Mancini and Thelonious Monk ever crossed paths in their illustrious careers. But each has been the financial and promotional foundation for an important educational institution: the Henry Mancini Institute and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.

Saturday night, the Mancini Institute annual season concludes with a fund-raiser musicale at UCLA’s Royce Hall, climaxing a month-long program in which more than 80 scholarship students from the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries have participated in seminars, master classes, individual instruction and a variety of performance ensembles, including a full symphony orchestra.

The close of the institute’s sixth installment finds the organization at an important developmental stage as the mantle has passed from its founder, Jack Elliott, who died last year, to its new artistic director, composer-arranger Patrick Williams.

The Monk Institute, in contrast, seems to be moving smoothly through its now well-established, diversified activities: the Institute of Jazz Performance, in which a small but select group of musicians study tuition-and cost-free for two years at USC under the guidance of major figures such as artistic director Terence Blanchard; the International Jazz Competition, a highly regarded event that has produced such impressive winners as pianists Marcus Roberts, Jacky Terrasson, Ted Rosenthal and Bill Cunliffe, singer Jane Monheit, trumpeter Ryan Kisor, and saxophonists Joshua Redman and Seamus Blake; and the National Jazz Curriculum and Jazz in the Classroom, both aimed at bringing the music’s cultural richness to classrooms throughout the country.

Contrasts between the Mancini and Monk programs obviously have a great deal to do with their differing creative missions, as well as the fact that the Monk Institute--now in its 16th year--has been in existence a decade longer than the Mancini Institute. But the programs offered this year by the latter have underscored the importance of defining what the mission will be in the post-Elliott phase of its growth.

The three full orchestra programs presented a tribute to Elliott (featuring some of his music), a film music program and last Saturday’s mixed bag of musical items, highlighted by selections from saxophonist-composer Bob Belden’s “Black Dahlia.” Belden’s work, in particular, displayed the unusually high skills of this year’s orchestral talent. Conceived as a musical suite paralleling the famous 1947 Los Angeles murder, still unsolved, of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, the “Black Dahlia” score is filled with lush, dissonant string textures and turbulent currents of rhythm--the work’s dark, atmospheric sense of time and place beautifully captured by the orchestra’s efforts.

Performances by the Institute Big Band included a collection of Neal Hefti tunes and suites by Anthony Wilson and Don Sebesky. The Institute Chamber Orchestra offered selections from Swiss composer-saxophonist Daniel Schnyder’s “Songbook for Saxophone and Orchestra,” and two chamber ensemble programs showcased student groups led by Billy Childs, Bill Cunliffe and others. Guest artists at the various concerts included bassist Christian McBride, clarinetist Eddie Daniels, keyboardist Larry Goldings, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, trumpeter Randy Brecker and flutist Hubert Laws.

That’s a healthy collection of music, virtually all of it well-performed. What was missing was focus--as though Williams had tossed as many thematic notions as possible into the programming in the hope that they would somehow, on their own, coalesce into a meaningful thematic basis for the future.

That won’t work. What’s needed is a firmer sense of guidance and direction involving decisions over whether the institute intends to simply present its scholarship musicians with a pleasant summer month encountering eclectic but not always challenging pieces of music. Or whether it intends to fulfill what seemed to be the prior mission of urging the players in the direction of versatility via a demanding, high-level stretching of the musical envelope.

Another, equally significant issue that needs to be addressed--one that existed in previous years as well--is the question of minority representation in the various ensembles. Williams insists that the selection process, in which he visited many of the country’s major music schools and conservatories, was aimed solely at picking the best qualified musical candidates. But the net result was a big band in which there were no African American players and only a sole female, as well as an overall collection of participants in the full orchestra dismally lacking in Latino presence.

Also worth noting: Although there was a large proportion of female artists in the string and woodwind sections, there were none who played saxophone, trumpet or, with one exception, trombone--an unfortunate manifestation of the brass ceiling that has long tended to divert female artists from those instruments.

Given the circumstances, the only conclusion one can reach is that the institute’s selection process needs to reach out to more diverse destinations for its auditions. I’m not suggesting that a quota system should be installed, nor do I intend in any way to demean the high quality of the players this year. But the country is filled with diverse players fully capable of competing for positions in the institute’s orchestra--if they’re given the opportunity to do so.

As bassist-composer-bandleader John Clayton, an African American, has pointed out to me, “Hank [Mancini] was a pioneer in helping to integrate the studios, as was Jack [Elliott]. Indeed, my first professional recording and my first TV show were for Mancini.”