From the West County News Volume XXIX Number 19 May 10-16 2007

Question of how much answered

By Gregory G. Lewis

NORTHAMPTON – Headmaster Todd Sumner showed good taste in selecting Jamie Masefield and the Jazz Mandolin Project for the Academy at Charlemont's spring fundraiser. Entertainment on three dimensions was ingeniously consolidated into a two-hour feature at John M. Greene Hall last Friday evening. There was live music, cinema and storytelling. "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is a short story written by one of the greatest of modern Russian authors, Leo Tolstoy. Unlike his behemoth "War and Peace," this story was fun and digestible to listeners of all ages.

To help tell the story Masefield projected his trans-Continental video documentary onto a big screen. Masefield and band, comprising a drummer, bass player, keyboardist and himself on mandolin, sat ahead of the screen. During a question and answer session, "how much screen does a man need?" was asked rhetorically. Masefield thought the question funny because he and the band ask "how much?" wherever they go. "…The genius of turning a question into a title," he answered.

The storyteller voice was that of retired M.I.T. Russian Literature teacher Elena Pankratov. After hearing a his wife and her sister debate the merits of their lifestyles, a peasant named Pahom gets it into his head that he needs a lot more land to be happy. Unfortunately the devil was also listening, and his plan was to bring Pahom under his power. The devil and a few other characters were portrayed using original masks, all but one Masefield's creations. Other characters, like Pahom and the two sisters were represented by travelogue. For instance, as the sisters talk we are shown two women talking over lunch in an urban diner (Anywhere, America). Near the end of the story Pahom is running with his last breath on the Russian Steppe, but the film is a middle-aged man plodding to the finish line with leaden feet in the Philadelphia Marathon. Capturing the moment was exquisitely accomplished.

Masefield said his friend Mike Gordon (bass player from the band Phish) had trouble following the story. That gave him the clever idea of strategically placing subtitles to cue listeners to important plot points. Masefield and Gordon were colleagues at the University of Vermont in Burlington, which happens to be where Phish band members first "schooled" together.

Public relations manager Mark Auerbach told me this particular show would be perfect in a café setting, with food and drink. The Project's original compositions accompanied the narration, and as Masefield promised the story took precedence over the music. A jazzed-up encore of Stevie Wonder music wowed the audience. Peter Apfelbaum's versatile keyboard, woodwind and percussion instruments were exemplary. Scott Ritchie's upright bass and Sean Dixon's smooth drum riffs made the Project a very cool jazz listening experience. Masefield was surprised to hear his music described as cool jazz, he was afraid it might be perceived as too "out there." They are polished and contemporary, well suited to a family night out or an introduction to the joys of jazz.

The audience wasn't the sellout Auerbach had hoped for. Before the show I prowled Northampton's streets and noted the show was well posted. A late afternoon email by Hilltown Folk's Gayle Olson alerted some last-minute concert goers. Masefield expressed concern to me that his show was difficult to conceptualize without seeing it. But, it's really very simple: A Russian folk tale is told to the accompaniment of jazz, illustrated by use of travel footage instead of actors.

The story had a moral, which was part of the appeal to Sumner. The grass is always greener; knowing when you have enough; stopping while you are ahead. This was a parable of seduction, desire and greed, accentuated with contrasting visions of the United States. A collage of congested concrete jungle and the vast expanse of Midwest plains and cornfields. The uninterrupted horizons that yet exist in our country are incredible to behold.

The Vermont Council of the Arts, a National Endowment for the Arts subsidiary helped defray expenses. A very hot jazz ensemble, the Jeff D'antona Trio opened for Masefield & Project. If you are hooked on jazz, keep an eye out for them.

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Jazz Group Gives A Modern Spin to an Old Russian Tale


In 1886 Leo Tolstoy wrote one of his most famous short stories, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" The story follows a Russian man named Pahom, whose greed for land brings about his untimely death. Buried in a grave 6 feet long and 2 feet wide, Pahom answers the question raised in the story's title.

More than a century later, the Vermont-based Jazz Mandolin Project brings this Russian tale back to center stage - and modern times - allowing the audience to find contemporary values in an old story. Led by mandolin player and founder Jamie Masefield of Vermont, the Jazz Mandolin Project will present a multimedia performance piece, based on Tolstoy's story, as well as other repertory works, Friday at John M. Greene Hall at Smith College in Northampton.
The tale will be retold in its entirety through narration, composed and improvised music, and video footage collected while the band was touring the country in 2005. "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" debuted in Burlington, Vt., last year. The Jazz Mandolin Project has toured nationwide for the last 13 years, but this show is a first for the group.
"After touring for so long, I felt that I needed to do something different, where I could learn new skills, like with the use of the video," said Masefield, in a recent phone interview from his home in Vermont.
Masefield spent a lot of time looking for the right story to base his music around. "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" was easy to understand for the audience, he said, but very relevant in today's world of over-development and environmental degradation.
"It's a special show where the band is positioned in front of a movie screen so the audience feels they are in a movie theater," said Masefield. "The story is narrated by a recording of a Russian woman, so the music becomes a live sound track. The footage is of my observations around the country of contemporary American life."
Growing up in a musical family, Masefield began playing mandolin at age 11. Inspired by the jam sessions of his parents and their friends, Masefield went on to establish himself as one of the country's leading mandolin players. In 1993, under Masefield's leadership, a group of local jazz players came together in Burlington.
"I was playing in a lot of groups, mostly banjo and the guitar," he said. "I wanted to start a group where I could play the mandolin and my original music."
The Jazz Mandolin Project is also known for their collaborations with jam band and cultural icon, Phish. They have played with Trey Anastasio, guitarist, Mike Gordon, bassist, and Jon Fishman, drummer for Phish. Fishman toured with Masefield in January/February 1998 for the revised Jazz Mandolin Project's "Tour de Flux." The Project has been releasing records on The Blue Note Label and has toured the summer festival scene for years, playing at festivals such as Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn., Gathering of the Vibes, in Bridgeport, Conn., and High Sierra, in Quincy, Calif. The musicians who will be playing in Northampton are, along with Masefield on mandolin, Sean Dixon on drums, Michael O'Brien on upright bass, and Peter Apfelbaum on sax, flute, keyboards and percussion.
The Jeff D'Antona Trio will open the night playing improvised music inspired by ethnic music from around the world. The trio can be heard Thursday nights at Amherst Coffee in Amherst.
Tickets for the John M. Greene show are $25 for general admission and $15 for students. Tickets are available at the UMASS Fine Arts Center in Amherst, by phone at 545-2511 or 800-999-UMASS, or by visiting www.charlemont.org. For more information about the Jazz Mandolin Project visit www.jazzmandolinproject.com.

Jazz group finds inspiration for music in Tolstoy story

Thursday, April 26, 2007

By RONNI GORDON

rgordon@repub.com

http://www.masslive.com/living/republican/index.ssf?/base/living-1/11774880955150.xml&coll=1

The Vermont-based Jazz Mandolin Project, known for experimentation, explores new territory in its newest piece, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

Based on a short story of the same name by Leo Tolstoy, it's a multimedia piece with original music by Jamie Masefield, who started the group in 1993. The group will perform the number and other repertory works on Friday at Smith College's John M. Greene Hall in a benefit for The Academy at Charlemont, an independent day school.

Masefield said that after 13 years of touring with instrumental music, he started brainstorming new mediums in which music would be an element supporting other things.

"I also wanted to create a project that generated thoughtful conversation afterwards," he said from his home outside Burlington, Vt.

He read the short stories of Tolstoy at a friend's suggestion. "I found these stories so accessible and so believable. When I came across this story, I felt I had reached my pot of gold," he said.

It fit in nicely with his interest in land-use planning, which he studied at the University of Vermont while majoring in geography and environmental studies.

"Even though I ended up becoming a musician, I'm traveling all the time and looking out the window and seeing how people are farming. This is a project that ties all my interests together in one bundle."

He composed music that he said blends the serious and the playful, with classical influences. The piece blends this music with video footage that Masefield took while driving between gigs in 2005. The footage "captures landscapes and observations about the culture," he said. "I tried to find landscapes that were close to what was happening in the story."

Simultaneously, a Russian woman reads Tolstoy's words.

"It's a simple tale about man's greed for land and how this peasant gets spurred by the devil until he dies in the act of getting more and more," Masefield said. "I'm hoping that people might gain value in hearing this story in terms of Americans' need to gobble things up, our consumerism." And he said he liked giving a modern view of something old and overlooked.

The woman reading the story is Elena Pankratov, a retiree living in Boston. "She's got this wonderful voice," Masefield said. "Her voice is often the MVP of the show."

Masefield has become one of the premier mandolin players of the new generation, both through the Jazz Mandolin Project and collaborations with members of the band Phish. In addition to Masefield, the musicians performing in Northampton are Sean Dixon, drums; Michael O'Brien, upright bass; and Peter Apfelbaum, saxes, flute, keyboards and percussion.

The opening act is the Jeff D'Antona Trio playing improvised music comprised of original compositions, jazz standards, folk, hip hop, pop and ethnic music from around the world.

Jazz Mandolin Project still have it years later

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Paper: Daily Gazette, The (Schenectady, NY)
Title: Gypsy jazz group MaMaVig keeps Reinhardt legacy alive
Author: PHILIP SCHWARTZ Gazette Reporter
Date: January 10, 2007
Section: D: Life & Arts
Page: D2

Though Jamie Masefield has long been an admirer of guitarist Frank Vignola, it wasn't until recently that the mandolin player found himself on stage looking directly to his right and finding the guitarist lost in song, his fingers a blur over the frets."I had heard Frank's playing on the radio -- on jazz programs and on NPR," said Masefield, who is part of the new gypsy jazz/acoustic string trio MaMaVig with Vignola and upright bassist Gary Mazzaroppi. "And when I heard it, I was just bowled over. I could tell he was a true virtuoso. I was really in awe. I didn't know what I would do if I had a chance to play with him."

    Not that Masefield is some kind of musical slouch himself. In the early '90s, he formed the critically acclaimed Jazz Mandolin Project, a band whose latest effort, conceived by Masefield, incorporates original music, film and Tolstoy's short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" Plus, as a mandolin player, Masefield is widely regarded for both his technical abilities and emotional power. So he's not out of place playing with a Vignola, one of the guitar greats of contemporary jazz.

    Musical rapport

    After a series of serendipitous coincidences, MaMaVig -- which is short for the band members' last names -- formed in late 2006. In November, when the trio played only their second gig at Albany's Red Square, where they return Saturday, the rapport among the three was already obvious.

    Only months before that, it all started when Masefield was driving from his home outside Burlington, Vt., to his parents' place in Warwick, an Orange County town outside New York City. His cellphone rang and it was Vignola's manager saying Vignola wanted to get together and play.

    Masefield had long wanted to play with Vignola, but the two had never met. The clincher was that Vignola lived right in Warwick.

    "I just couldn't believe it -- what a total, total coincidence. We met that weekend and just had a ball,"  Masefield said when reached at his Vermont home last week. Soon after that first jam, Vignola helped complete the trio when he brought in Mazzaroppi, another celebrated player who has toured and recorded with everyone from Les Paul to Stan Getz to Buddy Rich.

    At the heart of all this is the memory of Django Reinhardt, the celebrated, hugely influential Belgium-born, Paris-bred guitarist. Not only are Reinhardt's buoyant, arching solos heard in Vignola's MaMaVig work, it's arguable that there's some it in Masefield's mandolin too. Masefield recalled last week how he started on the tenor banjo, how it's more tied to traditional New Orleans jazz, how his teacher, now 90, was influenced by Reinhardt.

    "The way he played," he said, "was very much in that genre. So I very much had that in my style of playing as well."

    Getting into it

    But Masefield said he never delved deeply into the great gypsy guitarist until five years ago. Then he really began studying it in earnest. At that point, he wanted to play in some kind of Reinhardt-inspired group and had tried with other people. "But I never imagined I might be able to play it with Frank," he said. "I really do think that he's probably the best Django stylist from America."

    At the same time, he added, "It's not as if this group is specifically into capturing the Django thing. Frank isn't Django and he really doesn't want to be. Of course, I'm not either. . . . These are just reinterpretations. There's mixtures of our influence by Django and influences by Pat Metheny or Neil Young. It's all just a big old melting pot."

    Reach Gazette reporter Philip Schwartz at 395-3111 or pschwartz@dailygazette.net.

Author: PHILIP SCHWARTZGazette Reporter
Section: D: Life & Arts
Page: D2

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