Jazz at Lincoln Center, Nesuhi Ertegun Hall of Fame concert series
Livestreamed via JALC.org

We may be accustomed to thinking of “hall of fame” as an expression and a concept, but there are world-famous physical halls, too, such as for baseball at Cooperstown and for rock ’n’ roll at Cleveland — no, I can’t explain that location, but it’s an amazing museum, and highly recommended.  

New York City hosts a jazz Hall of Fame, maintained by Jazz at Lincoln Center and named after the pioneering producer Nesuhi Ertegun.  Situated in the middle of Rose Hall, it’s a lovely, well thought-out multimedia installation that concert attendees can check out before or after any of the shows at the Appel Room, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, or the big space, Rose Theater.

The Ertegun Hall of Fame was established in 2004 and it’s been adding new members every year since then, with new inductees being honored by special concert presentations in mid-July at Dizzy’s. The pandemic slowed down the whole operation, not surprisingly, though six new members have been added between 2020 and 2022. 

Those six have been celebrated this week in the club, with the final two shows July 28, honoring bassist Paul Chambers and saxophonist Lee Konitz. Like the previous four, they will be livestreamed for all to see.

These two programs honor, respectively, one of the shorter careers in jazz and one of the longest. Chambers was only 33 when he died in 1969, but in his brief time he served as the linchpin of the most celebrated jazz ensemble of its day, the Miles Davis Quintet with John Coltrane. 

Over the course of a career that lasted nearly 15 years and encompassed roughly 100 albums and thousands of live gigs, he set new standards for solo improvisation on the bass violin. Chambers was especially celebrated for his arco playing — with a bow — at a time when nearly all jazz bass playing was strictly pizzicato, or plucked. Along with Jimmy Blanton and Charles Mingus, Chambers is one of the very few bassists in this hall of fame, and his legacy will be celebrated by veteran bassist Rodney Whitaker and an all-star group featuring saxophonist Ron Blake, trombonist Michael Dease, pianist Luther Allison, and drummer Carl Allen.

Celebrating Lee Konitz (1927-2020) at Dizzy’s is a natural idea: The alto saxophonist performed there many times and, as a longtime resident of the Upper West Side, he would stop by there even on nights when he wasn’t working, always to hear the new, younger talent that Dizzy’s spotlighted. He was especially fond of the brilliant contemporary singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, and never missed one of her shows.  

Konitz was one of the most effusive soloists and storytellers in the whole of jazz, and his career encompassed everything from the big band era to the lockdown. His playing remains an endless source of inspiration for both musicians and listeners. Two of his later collaborators, pianist Dan Tepfer and sax star Joe Lovano — who could also be described as his students — are at the forefront of this show, which features four other saxophonists. The big surprise is tenorist Ted Brown, who at 94 is actually only two months younger than the late Lee and moved in the same circles since the 1950s.

The 2022 Hall series began on Tuesday with celebrations of Freddie Hubbard, by trumpeter Bruce Harris; and of Teddy Wilson, by pianist Eric Reed. On Wednesday there were two extraordinary performances, one in honor of John Lewis, of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and the other for Freddie Green, of Count Basie’s Orchestra.

Aaron Diehl is the perfect point man for an evening honoring John Lewis (1920-2001). Like Lewis, he is a virtuoso pianist with allegiances to both jazz and classical music; further, he plays with a rare understanding of the entire history of jazz. The music of the Modern Jazz Quartet is rarely played, as it’s so difficult to do, but it is worth the effort: This was an exquisite blend of American and European musical traditions, with equal props to Bach and Charlie Parker. It was also a perfect mix of composed and improvised music; as Mr. Diehl observed during Tuesday’s performance, the whole idea was that you weren’t supposed to be able to tell where one ended and the other began. Fifteen years ago, Mr. Diehl, then only about 20, worked closely with Lewis’s estate and his widow, Mirjana, in organizing the composer’s music and papers.

Mr. Diehl’s latest album, “The Vagabond” (2020), concludes with a beautiful and highly personal rendition of one of Lewis’s most famous pieces, “Milano,” which he also played at Dizzy’s in the original MJQ arrangement. This is music not only of swing and remarkable sonic texture, but incredible, subtle nuances. 

This group — Warren Wolf on vibraphone, in the Milt Jackson role, bassist David Wong, and drummer Aaron Kimmel — didn’t shy away from the most difficult and intricate works in the MJQ catalog. They not only played the “greatest hits,” like “Django,” “Concorde,” and “La Ronde,” but often the extended works and film scores that they originated in. 

The tribute to Freddie Green began with a short speech by his son and biographer, Alfred Green, explaining how the guitar great’s main mission was not calling attention to himself with solos, which he virtually never took, but driving the Count Basie band ever forward with incredible rhythmic and harmonic propulsion. The show was a much more freewheeling affair directed by James Chirillo, who recruited two other guitarists, Russell Malone and Chris Flory. (The rest of the group was trumpeter Warren Vache, trombonist John Allred, pianist Steve Ash, bassist Ben Wolfe, and drummer Kenny Washington.) 

The program began with Green’s most famous original composition, “Corner Pocket,” and included his most famous introduction on a Basie classic, Neal Hefti’s “Li’l Darlin.” This short, late set climaxed in Mr. Malone’s eloquent, moving feature on “It Had to Be You,” and that number concluded with a few notes from “Pretend,” as if to underscore the connection between Basie and Green with Nat King Cole and Oscar Moore.

The Nesuhi Ertegun Hall of Fame at Jazz at Lincoln Center is a worthy undertaking, not least for this excellent annual series of summer concerts dedicated in its honor. Here are my top seven contenders for 2023: Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Jimmie Lunceford, Gerry Mulligan, Frank Sinatra, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and Jack Teagarden — including, but not limited to.