New in The New York Times today: my feature about Frank London, a trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader who has played a major role in downtown jazz, the klezmer and Balkan music revivals of the ’80s, and a whole lot more. Today is his 66th birthday—which unfortunately he is spending in the hospital, where he was admitted late last week for treatment of a rare cancer he was diagnosed with four years ago.
Here is a gift link.
London spoke about his situation with candor and good humor. It was also a pleasure to interview his close associates Hankus Netsky and Steven Bernstein, and to exchange emails with Matt Darriau and Marcus Rojas.
A concert spanning the breadth of London’s career – focusing on two new albums and a third recent release, but also covering a variety of ambitious large-scale works – will be held at Roulette on Monday, June 3. “What, Carnegie Hall wasn’t available?” I asked him, anticipating obvious demand—and indeed, the show is sold out already. But a standby line will be available for any unclaimed tickets, and the concert will stream live on the Roulette website and YouTube.
Since London can’t be there now, he’s deputized comrades like Bernstein and Darriau to lead bands in his absence. Expect to hear from him, anyway.
As ever, there were far too many strong stories and anecdotes to share. For one, London told me how much it means to him that one of his new albums, Spirit Stronger Than Blood, is coming out on ESP-Disk’ since recordings on that label had exerted such a huge influence on his development. (The other new album, Brass Conspiracy, has an official street date of August 16, but Tzadik hopes to have copies on hand at Roulette.)
And another: Netsky recalled that many times after the Klezmer Conservatory Band played concerts during London’s tenure, when the time came to play an encore, the trumpeter was nowhere to be found—because he’d already sprinted off to some late-night Latin gig elsewhere. “It got to be a joke in our band: Where’s Frank?” Netsky said, laughing.
Here’s wishing Frank London happiness, comfort, and a swift, full recovery.
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