Entertainment
Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame
Rivers, Wilson, Frank, Schifrin, Others to Be Inducted
By ROBERT E. BARNES
Special to the Chronicle
TULSA--Sam Rivers, Joe Lee Wilson, Artt Frank and Lalo Schifrin will be among the 10 to be inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame next week.
Induction ceremonies will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 16, at the Great Performance Hall of the Jazz Depot, 111 E. 1st St.
The black-tie affair will begin with a 6 p.m. reception, dinner will be served at 7 p.m. and the induction ceremonies will get underway at 8 p.m.
Nov. 16 is Oklahoma Statehood Day.
These are the 10 to be inducted:
Rivers
Sam C. Rivers, a saxophonist, bandleader and composer, will also be presented the Living Legend Award.
A native of El Reno, Mr. Rivers performs on soprano and tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano.
With a thorough command of music theory, orchestration and composition, the jazz performer has been a prominent and influential musician throughout his lengthy career.
His father was a gospel musician who sang with the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Silverstone Quartet, thus, exposing Mr. Rivers to music from an early age.
Mr. Rivers moved to Boston in 1947 to study at the Boston Conservatory, and performed with Quincy Jones, Herb Pomeroy and Tadd Dameron, among others.
In 1959, he began performing with 13-year-old drummer Tony Williams, who later went on to have an impressive career.
In 1964, Mr. Rivers was briefly a member of the Miles Davis quintet, which recorded a single album, “Miles in Tokyo.”
But, Mr. Rivers’ playing style was too free to be compatible with Davis’ music at the time, and he was soon replaced.
He was signed by Blue Note Records, and recorded four albums as leader, performing with the likes of Herbie Hancock, Jaki Byard and Freddie Hubbard.
Mr. Rivers’ music is rooted in bebop, but he is an adventurous player, adept at free jazz.
The first of his Blue Note albums, “Fuchsia Swing Song,” is widely regarded as a masterpiece of an approach sometimes called “inside-outside.”
Mr. Rivers’ powers as a composer were also in evidence early in his career, and the ballad, “Beatrice,” from “Fuchsia Swing Song,” has become an important standard, particularly for tenor saxophonists.
During the 1970’s, Mr. Rivers and his then wife, Bea Rivers, ran a noted jazz performance loft called Studio RivBea in New York.
The jazz saxophonist currently lives near Orlando, Fla., and performs regularly with his orchestra and trio.
In 1998, he recorded two Big Band albums with the RivBea All-Star Orchestra, and in 2006, the jazz artist released “Aurora,” which featured compositions for his RivBea Orchestra.
Wilson
Joe Lee Wilson will be inducted in the jazz and blues category, and will be recognized for his unique vocal style that combines traditional blues and jazz balladry with Betty Carter-like solo flights.
He is considered to be the voice of loft jazz.
Seeing Billie Holiday perform in 1951 began Mr. Wilson’s interest in a career in the music industry.
He studied in Los Angeles before touring the West Coast, where he sat in with Sarah Vaughan.
In New York in the 1960’s, he worked with Sonny Rollins, Lee Morgan, Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders and Jackie McLean.
It was in the 1970’s when he operated a jazz performance loft in New York’s NoHo district known as the Ladies Fort at 2 Bond Street.
His regular band, Joe Lee Wilson Plus 5, featured the alto saxophonist Monty Waters, and for several years, the Japanese guitarist Ryo Kawasaki.
Mr. Wilson also sang with Eddie Jefferson, Freddie Hubbard and Kenny Dorham, and released the album, “Livin’ High Off Nickels & Dimes,” in 1972.
Now based in Paris, Tokyo and the United Kingdom, Mr. Wilson has recorded regularly with American pianist Kirk Lightsey, and there is also a recent Italian album recording with Riccardo Arrighini and Gianni Basso, entitled “Ballads for Trane.”
Frank
Artt Frank will be inducted in the jazz category.
A highly-respected bebop drummer for 60 years, Mr. Frank has worked to preserve the legacy of Chet Baker through a foundation.
He was age 15 in 1948 when he frequented 52nd Street in New York and began to learn how to play the drums.
The performer has gone on to gain the respect from the likes of Dave Brubeck and Dave Liebman, and has worked with a wide range of players, including Charlie Parker.
His longest association was with Chet Baker.
Mr. Frank’s book, “Essentials for the Bebop Drummer,” is fundamentally an instruction book for drummers.
Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin, a composer, pianist and conductor, who has distinguished himself in classical and jazz music, as well as in the television and film industries the last nearly 60 years, will be inducted and will also be presented the Jay McShann Lifetime Achievement Award.
A native of Argentina, Mr. Schifrin is best known for his film and television musical scores; the theme for “Mission Impossible” among them.
He is the recipient of four Grammy Awards and has been nominated for six Academy Awards.
Mr. Schifrin’s father led the second violin section of the orchestra at the Teatro Colon for three decades.
At age 16, the youngster began studying piano with Andreas Karalis, the former head of the Kiev Conservatory, and also became interested in jazz.
Although he studied sociology and law at the University of Buenos Aires, it was music that captured Mr. Schifrin’s attention, and at age 20, he successfully applied for a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire.
At night, he played jazz in the Paris clubs, and in 1955, he played piano with Astor Piazzolla and represented Argentina at the International Jazz Festival in Paris.
Later, he formed a jazz orchestra in Argentina, and began accepting film, television and radio assignments.
It was in 1956 that Mr. Schifrin met Dizzy Gillespie and offered to write an extended work for Gillespie’s Big Band.
“Gillespiana” was completed in 1958 and was recorded two years later.
That year, he began working as an arranger for Xavier Cugat’s dance orchestra, and was asked to fill the vacant piano chair in Gillespie’s quintet.
In addition to his writing the theme for “Mission Impossible,” Mr. Schifrin composed “Tar Sequence” from his “Cool Hand Luke” score, and that became the longtime theme for the “Eyewitness News” broadcasts on an ABC affiliate in New York.
Mr. Schifrin’s score for “Coogan’s Bluff” in 1968 was the beginning of a long association with Clint Eastwood, and his strong jazz blues riffs were evident in “Dirty Harry.”
Woodson
Terry Woodson will be the other artist to be inducted under the jazz category.
A native of Tulsa, Mr. Woodson has spent nearly half a century with the Sinatra Orchestra as a musician, conductor and music director.
Willis
Wallis Willis will be inducted in the gospel music category.
The composer was a Choctaw Freedman, who, in the mid-19th Century, wrote many of the most celebrated Negro spirituals (e.g., “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Roll, Jordan, Roll” and “Steal Away to Jesus”).
His music formed the basis of the repertoire of the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
The composer is believed to have been born in Mississippi, the ancestral home of the Choctaw Indians, and he died, probably, in Oklahoma (in what is now Atoka County).
His unmarked grave is located in that county.
Prior to the Civil War, he and his wife were sent by their owner to work at the Spencer Academy, where the superintendent heard them singing.
In 1871, the superintendent was at a performance of the Jubilee Singers and thought the songs he heard the Willises singing were better.
He furnished those songs to the group, which performed the songs in the United States and Europe.
Many of them are now famous, and it is said that Dvorak used the melody of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” in his “New World Symphony.”
Adelsons
Dr. and Mrs. Stephen Adelson will be inducted into the jazz hall of fame, and will also be presented the Spirit of Community Excellence Award.
“The Adelsons continue to enhance the quality of life in Oklahoma,” a statement from the hall of fame said, “through their generous spirit and dedication to the good of the community.”
Lehman
Dr. Lowell Lehman of Tulsa will be inducted, too, and will become the first recipient of the Zelia Breaux Distinguished Jazz Educator Award.
Dr. Lehman will be applauded for his decades of service as a teacher at Northeastern Oklahoma State University.
He founded the first jazz higher education program in the state, and is founder of the Green Country Jazz Festival.
Also, Dr. Lehman is a founding member of the board of directors of the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.
Johnson
Brenda Johnson will be inducted into the hall, as well, and will be presented the Living Legacy Tribute Award during Tuesday’s ceremonies.
The award is presented annually to a rising Oklahoma jazz performer, a statement said.
“This year’s winner shows great promise as a vocalist and leader of the Jazz Rhapsody Trio,” a statement said, “and has been a favorite of jazz hall audiences.”
