New York City Article

Jon Hendricks Centennial Celebration
Kurt Elling, Aria Hendricks, Michelle Hendricks, Kevin Fitzgerald Burke and special guest Jazzmeia Horn
Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall
Broadway at 60th Street, 5th Floor
Through Sunday, September 12

“Somewhere in the world, every night of the year, a jazz singer is singing something by Jon Hendricks.” Or so Kurt Elling proclaimed about halfway through the early show on Friday, and it would be impossible to dispute. As a songwriter, a solo vocalist, and a co-leader of the greatest vocal group in jazz, Hendricks, who died four years ago at the age of 96, left an indelible contribution to American music. And like such collaborators as Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, he created a legacy that is more than historical, but which deserves to go on being performed live, even in his absence. The Dizzy’s cast included both of Jon’s daughters who regularly worked with him, Michelle and Aria Hendricks, as well as Kevin Fitzgerald Burke, who spent nearly 30 years with Hendricks’s groups (usually essaying the parts of the late Dave Lambert). The front man of the whole enterprise is that hipster superstar of the contemporary era, Kurt Elling, who is surely Jon’s greatest heir as both singer and idiosyncratic songwriter.
This particular troupe is a reunion of the cast who paid homage to Hendricks at Dizzy’s in 2018, and this weekend they are joined by a special guest, rising star Jazzmeia Horn, whose solo feature “Social Call” emphasized the connection between Hendricks and Betty Carter. (The instrumental group includes Hendricks regulars saxophonist Andy Farber, bassist Neal Miner, drummer Andy Watson, along with the outstanding young pianist-arranger Steven Feifke.)
It’s a suitably joyful celebration - and it’s notable how the cast both stick to the letter of Hendricks’s music (as he performed it) and depart from it. In one Hendricks classic, “Gimme Dat Wine,” Michelle Hendricks, recreated not only the song itself (part of that subset of his tunes conceived from the ground up, with words and music by Jon, and not based on an existing jazz classic) but also Jon’s priceless singalong routine, in which the crowd is exhorted to chant back, “Unhand that bottle!” (Hearing it again, it occurs to me that the late Jon obviously wrote it with Louis Jordan in mind, even as he did “I’ll Die Happy.”)
Contrastingly, Kurt Elling, who has long made a speciality out of a near a capella version of “Soul Food” (one of many Horace Silver classics with words by Hendricks) with Neal Miner’s bass. Singing this long, long lyric with minimal accompaniment has always seemed like the jazz vocal equivalent of walking a tightrope, but trickier still is negotiating the social implications of the lyric. Now, Mr. Elling makes a point to let us know that all the highly un-PC, even overtly misogynistic attitudes in the text are a highly stylized, theatrical conceit - not reflecting the actual views of Jon himself, or Kurt, and especially not Jazz at Lincoln Center. Adroit showman that he is, rather than merely excusing or apologizing for the text, Mr. Elling makes it much more enjoyable - he “deepens its mystery” (as Gregory McGuire would say) and encourages ladies in the house to hiss when they hear something objectionable. Of course, along with us menfolk, they’re too busy laughing their heads off to do anything else, which is exactly how Jon would have wanted it.

For more information and tickets, please click here.

This week, I’m presenting two different virtual programs in honor of the Jon Hendricks centennial (for the New York Adventure Club and Clip Joint), details can be found here.