Keeping Faith With a Towering Figure

“Keep the Faith, Baby” was the rallying cry of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. It’s also the title of a Showtime movie that premieres Sunday night with a jazz score by Todd Cochran.

The assignment was both an inspiration and a challenge for the veteran pianist-composer, whose track record includes work with everyone from Aretha Franklin and Neil Diamond to the Staple Singers.

Cochran’s compositions have been recorded by Carlos Santana, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard and others, and his most recent film assignment (prior to “Keep the Faith, Baby”) was as an orchestrator and keyboardist for the 1999 Norman Jewison picture “Hurricane.”

“Film scoring is one of the three overlapping areas--along with jazz and concert music--that are my primary focus,” says Cochran. “And the good thing about this assignment is that it demanded the use of my skills in all those areas.”

Which is not surprising, given the complex qualities of the film’s subject. Charismatic and controversial, Powell (who is portrayed by Harry Lennix) was a political and social lightning rod from the early 1940s well into the late ‘60s. As chairman of the House of Representatives’ education and labor committee, he was responsible for an array of progressive social legislation. Powell was also denied his seat in 1967 by a vote of the full House and eventually vindicated by the Supreme Court in 1969 (although he did not receive his back pay, seniority or chairmanship).

Powell’s connection with jazz was direct. His role as the minister of the Abyssinian Baptist Church and his tenure in the House were generated from a base in Harlem in the ‘40s and ‘50s at a time when bebop was emerging to claim stylistic dominance over the jazz world. In 1945, he married Hazel Scott, a fine bebop-based pianist famous for her blending of jazz and classical music.

“She’s played by Vanessa Williams in the picture,” says Coch- ran. “And because there are a number of scenes in which she appears playing both classical and jazz, I had the opportunity to provide music from Bach and Beethoven as well as some jazz piano trio selections.”

Cochran’s score, which moves easily through the film’s complicated stylistic demands, was performed by an ensemble that includes woodwind artist Bennie Maupin, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and singer (from Take 6) Alvin Chea, whose rendering of “Straighten Up and Fly Right” provides an important thematic element in the underscore.

“Powell was a very sophisticated man who entered into the mythology of his time,” says Cochran, “a mythology that we usually think of only in terms of artists such as Jacob Lawrence and poets like Countee Cullen. He was at the center of a vibrant era, with creative and social currents flowing in all directions. From a composer’s point of view, it was a wonderful opportunity to dip into those currents to create musical references to time and place. And jazz was at the heart of it. Jazz is the music of America, and this is a very American story.”

“Keep the Faith, Baby” airs on Showtime at 8 p.m. Sunday. It is rated TV-14LD (may not be advisable for children under 14, with additional advisories for strong language and dialogue).

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Grammy Jazz: It’s unclear whether we’ll be seeing yet another Grammy Awards show with minimal jazz participation on Feb. 27. The principal jazz awards will be presented during a pre-Grammy show event and no jazz artists have been announced to perform in the prime-time show.

It’s interesting to note, however, that the “orchestra” for the production (actually a 13-piece ensemble conducted by pianist-composer Mike Melvoin) will include some prime jazz talent. Among the participants: trumpeters Oscar Brashear and Rick Baptist; trombonist George Bohannon; saxophonists Ray Pizzi and Pete Christlieb; keyboardists Tom Ranier and Melvoin.

That’s a sterling lineup by anyone’s standards. But don’t expect to hear the kind of playing they do when they’re in their best improvisational modes. For the most part, the group will be working on transitions and interludes composed by Melvoin in styles reflecting the various major musical genres. One of those genres, according to Melvoin, will be jazz, so the program will at least offer some acknowledgement of America’s music.

Speaking of the Grammys, it’s also interesting to take a look at both the number of award categories allocated to jazz, as well as to what they do and don’t include.

Jazz has six categories (including best Latin jazz album). Composing/arranging has three categories, but it often serves as a kind of backdoor route for jazz composers and arrangers to receive awards, since the jazz field contains no categories devoted to jazz compositions and arrangements. Of course, what this means is that voters have to make the choice between odd juxtapositions.

The best instrumental composition category, for example, pits entries from the scores of “Cast Away” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” against a jazz selection from bassist John Patitucci’s album “Communion.” That’s not fair to any of the entries.

The classical category, on the other hand, has a total of 11 Grammy Award areas, from best classical album to best classical crossover album. That’s nearly twice the number allocated to jazz, despite the fact that--using record sales, one of the academy’s most popular yardsticks, as a measurement--jazz generally sells a higher percentage of albums than classical (see “Numbers” below).

Why the disparity? That’s a hard question to answer, but it probably dates back to a notion many jazz artists had decades ago, that performing at Carnegie Hall, or with a string orchestra or a symphony, somehow endowed their work with more legitimacy. European concert music, in other words, was the cultural standard.

But we should be long past that attitude. The frequently expressed thought that jazz is America’s true classical music may be overly rhetorical, but it’s not far off target. At the very least, the recording academy should give serious consideration to expanding the jazz categories to properly honor the genre’s many gifted composers and arrangers.

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Numbers: SoundScan reports that record sales were up in 2001 for jazz releases, as well as for country, soundtracks, Christian/gospel, New Age and catalog reissues. Sales were down or flat for R&B;, rap, classical, Latin and metal.

Among the genres with rising sales: jazz (19,514,000), Christian/gospel (49,965,000) and New Age (11,573,000). Among the genres with flat or decreasing sales: classical (14,846,000), Latin (20,286,000) and rap (89,279,000).

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Riffs: The KLON-FM seven-day Mexican Riviera Jazz Cruise scheduled to embark on May 12 has been canceled, reportedly as the result of insufficient bookings. ... Among her many other qualities, Princess Margaret, who died last week, was an enthusiastic jazz fan--so enthusiastic that Louis Armstrong once described her as “one hip chick.” ... In an exclusive story listing the 22 things “people can do to stay healthy,” radio station KPRC in Houston reports that “researchers have found that half an hour of jazz or soothing music can raise the infection-fighting antibodies.” Sounds good to me.