Cal Tjader 2nd Edition Sent to McFarland/John Handy-Ali Akbar Khan Article

The second edition Cal Tjader manuscript was mailed to McFarlamd & Co. on Monday, October 7, 2019 and received by my editor David Alff on Thursday, October 10. The preparation for publication has begun and proofs will likely be back to me in two to three months.

On other fronts, I recently completed an article on alto saxophonist John Handy's decade-long collaboration (1971-1980) with the late East Indian sarod master Ali Akbar Khan. My parents and I have known Handy casually for many years and he was happy to see a neglected part of his career brought to light. This was a different kind of fusion, but, like Tjader's, a fascinating one full of fresh delights. Currently I am seeking publication in an appropriate magazine.

Moreover, I continue to write stories about a jazz loving private detective who has an office in Eugene, Oregon during the 1970s. There is a short story collection called The Wrong Vibe & Other Stories, a novella titled Find the Man Who Would Be Marlowe and Zanetti is Ready, about 60% finished, which will be a novel. Elisa Celli, my agent, has been submitting proposals to publishers for a while now, but even with positive feedback from editors about the writing, no one has made a commitment so far. We will stay the course.

Soul Sauce Revisited

My agent, Elisa Celli, and I lobbied Randall Kline's office in 2014 to do a comprehensive tribute to Tjader with a book tie-in. So far the executive director of the San Francisco Jazz Festival has shown no interest in a long overdue show of respect for Tjader's legacy. However, a baby step in the right direction occurred in 2017. The San Francisco Jazz Festival held a series of concerts in which current jazz artists played selections from an album they admired. Roger Glenn, whom jazz fans and readers of the first edition of my Tjader biography will recognize, picked the seminal LP Soul Sauce. The following is my review of  that performance:

On January 26, Roger Glenn’s combo of Murray Low on piano, James Henry on timbales and drum set, Robb Fisher on bass and Estaire Godinez on congas, performed at the San Francisco Jazz Center’s Joe Henderson Lab, a more intimate room opposite the much larger Miner Auditorium. Both the 8 and 9:30 P.M. shows were well attended. 

Glenn, who wrote his own arrangements and played vibes, started out the set with “Mamblues” and continued with “Soul Sauce (Guarachi Guaro),” “Tanya,” “Leyte,” “João” and “Afro Blue.”

His charts stayed true to his former leader’s spirit, while his solos, particularly on the opening and closing numbers, demonstrated the contrast in the two vibraphonists’ approach. Specifically, a more seasoned Glenn still relishes rapid-fire showmanship, occasionally flipping his mallets in the air. Tjader, well, one can visualize his energetic but measured maneuvers on stage. 

Glenn’s easy rapport with the audience and sense of humor remain intact, though his anecdotal digressions occasionally led him too far astray. Moreover, he mistakenly referred to the late Lonnie Hewitt, formerly a pianist with Tjader, as the sole author of "Leyte." Though Hewitt is rightly credited as co-writer, "Leyte" was the first of three tunes––the others being "Mindoro" (co-written by Hermeto Pascoal) and "Mindanao"––Tjader composed about various locations in the Philippines; he served in the U. S. Navy and was deployed in said country during World War II. 

Glenn's band members, most often Low, segued confidently through the various musical moods. Henry and Godinez, who generally kept her head turned to one side or the other, had their best moments during the finale and Fisher’s fine fingering was most prominent on “Soul Sauce.”

2nd Edition Cal Tjader Biography Finished/Publication Set for Early 2020

The second edition manuscript has been completed. My conclusion on the last phase of the research: From 1951 to 1969 Down Beat reviewed most of Tjader's LPs, and once in awhile, a live performance. During the 1970s, however, only three of the fourteen albums released under his name were reviewed. Moreover, the magazine had just one full length review of a live Tjader combo performance and no attention was paid to any of the LPs subsequently issued by Concord Records in his lifetime; the bandleader died on May 5, 1982. Overall, Tjader was profiled twice in the 1950s––the first was quite brief––and made the cover once (1966). Good to see that he received some recognition but it falls well short of the majority of his peers.

One extra benefit of the wealth of new material on Tjader from Down Beat, the San Francisco Chronicle, other newspapers and more interviews, was the opportunity to correct some errors of commission and omission in the first edition. In sum, I am very pleased with the outcome.

Publication of the 2nd edition Cal Tjader by McFarland & Co. will be early in 2020.

Cal Tjader 2nd Edition: Down the Home Stretch

In early July 2018, following what I thought was the completion of the Cal Tjader 2nd Edition first draft, I came across a Down Beat "Blindfold Test" that Tjader did in 1965. Steven Cerra, a jazz drummer who had briefly filled in on drums for Cal in 1962, had written about the test on his blog Jazz Profiles. This stimulated my interest in both the vibist's '65 encounter with Leonard Feather and his first such test with the late jazz critic in 1961. Gradually I became hooked on researching back issues of Down Beat at San Francisco's Main Library. Initially, the years I deemed most important were covered, but the draw to go back wouldn't let go. All told it took six months––trips were infrequent in August and September due to a pressing family matter––to glean what was needed from mid-1951 to 1982.

How wonderful it was to learn more about the real history of jazz instead of Ken Burns' Jazz, a documentary on the subject that debuted on PBS in January 2001. In a response to a letter I sent, Burns wrote that it was jazz critic and author Gary Giddins who had the most input during the making of the film. Moreover, he let it be known that trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, whom I thought was the main consultant, and Giddins "are polar opposites" when it comes to their perspective on jazz history. Yet the fact that Caucasian jazz musicians––a handful of token exceptions notwithstanding––are denigrated and their contributions, particularly on the West Coast, ignored or minimized, is not the fault of Giddins. That much is apparent from Giddins' commentary on camera. Marsalis was evidently the one who set the tone and direction of the film.

Following Tjader's career in Down Beat was not wholly unfamiliar to me, as I referenced the magazine while compiling research for the Tjader first edition. However, certain truths emerged after  covering such a long period issue by issue. Positively speaking, there were some staff writers that appreciated the depths of Tjader's gifts. On the other hand, more were harder on him than I anticipated, dishing out faint praise to mean-spirited pans. Constructive criticism is warranted at times even for top artists, but certain critics were tactless and nasty.

The material from the Down Beat archives will help readers fully understand the way Tjader was perceived throughout his career. On a personal level, expanding my knowledge of jazz in general was well worth the extensive amount of time spent inside the library. At the same time, I added research from an online newspaper archive to go with the San Francisco Chronicle items already included in the second edition.

All told, the amount of new information discovered exceeded my expectations. The last two chapters (4 and 5) are what remains to be revised; the finish line is near.