The Rex Foundation established the Ralph J. Gleason Award in 1986 for outstanding contributions to culture. The award is named in memory of the pioneering jazz and pop music journalist Ralph J. Gleason (1917-1975) who was a major figure in the advancement of creative music in America. As a critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and Down Beat, and a founding editor of Rolling Stone, Gleason displayed an openness to new music and new ideas that transcended differences between generations and styles. The Rex Foundation hopes to keep his legacy alive by presenting the award bearing his name to those who exemplify the qualities of talent, vision and innovation that Ralph so tirelessly supported.

Fans of the section of a Grateful Dead concert known as "Space" would do well to investigate the music of Sun Ra, a man who's been there and back-in fact, Sun Ra's credo can be found in the four-word title of his best known song: "SPACE is the PLACE!"
Ra maintains that he was born on Saturn several centuries ago, and was sent here on a mission to promote peace and understanding through music. So far, no one has stepped forward to prove him wrong, but it is generally agreed that he first surfaced on this planet's jazz scene in the 1940s, playing with the likes of Coleman Hawkins and Lil Green. Well versed in the piano styles of such masters as Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Earl Hines, he landed a seat in the orchestra of the great composer-arranger Fletcher Henderson. This experience opened Ra's eyes to the creative possibilities of the big band, and in the 1950s he formed the first of his large ensembles (or "Arkestras," as he called them).

Before the term "Free Jazz" was coined, the Arkestra played music that was astonishingly free, bringing collective improvisation to the big band setting for the first time. More than a decade before "fusion," Ra introduced electronic instruments-organ, theremin, early synthesizers-to jazz. Sun Ra also revolutionized the presentation of music-his live shows are legend: Ra and the band, dressed in flowing, glittering robes and sci-fi headgear, chanting, dancing, throwing brightly colored confetti, even marching, Mardi Gras-style, through the audience.

More than any other bandleader (with the possible exception of Ellington) Ra inspired unshakeable loyalty in his players. Many of the Arkestra members have been on board since the very beginning, creating a group consciousness and cohesion that can only come with time.

During this week's Rex Foundation benefits, you'll be hearing the music of Sun Ra in the Cal Expo Amphitheatre before the show and during set breaks. Many of Sun Ra's classic recordings have recently been reissued. We strongly suggest that you explore this amazing musical universe for yourself. Here are some recommended titles:

Sun Ra Visits The Planet Earth/Interstellar Low Ways
(Evidence ECD 22039-2)

Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy/Art Forms of Dimensions
Tomorrow (Evidence ECD 22036-2)

The Heliocentric World of Sun Ra, Vol. 1
(ESP 1014-2) & 2 (ESP 1017-2)

My Brother The Wind (Evidence ECD 22040-2)

Sunrise in Different Dimensions (hat ART CD 6099)

Destination Unknown (Enja CD 7071-2)

JUST RELEASED (June 1996):
"Dark Star: The Music of the Grateful Dead:
(Astor Place PCD 4002) Available from Grateful Dead Merchandizing
In a time when much of the jazz world seems to be swept up in a wave of neo-conservatism and retrenchment, David Murray is an exception. While he has a deep appreciation and respect for jazz traditions, Murray refuses to let himself become stagnant. He is one of the most truly progressive improvising artists in the world today, always open to new experience, always seeking new collaborative contexts.

Born and raised in the Oakland/Berkeley area, David is a true product of the East Bay's rich and diverse cultural mix. Growing up, he heard and played Gospel, R&B, Rock, Funk, and of course, Jazz, studying the latter with Phil Hardymon in Berkeley High School's renowned music program. It was during this formative period that David became well-versed in the music of such tenor sax greats as Ben Webster, Paul Gonsalves, Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Not content to merely recycle the sounds of these masters, he made their innovations the launching point for his own unmistakable style. Whether on his primary instrument, tenor sax, or bass clarinet, Murray's playing runs the gamut from dazzling, octave-leaping pyrotechnics to gorgeous lyricism.

When he moved to New York City two decades ago, David resolved to continually challenge himself, forging alliances with members of the first generation of great Free Jazz musicians, including Billy Higgins, Andrew Cyrille, Milford Graves, Don Pullen and the late Ed Blackwell. He also co-founded the World Saxophone Quartet, and formed an ever-growing circle of younger players, many of whom remain members of Murray's various ensembles today. Shunning all labels such as avant-garde, bebop, and even jazz itself, Murray remains committed to the exploration of new musical terrain.
His insatiable desire for change and challenge is one reason why Murray is one of the most prolific recording artists on the planet. He has released a staggering number of albums, most notably as leader of his own acclaimed big band, small groups and octets; in duos with artists such as Randy Weston, John Hicks and Dave Burrell; and as a member of the World Saxophone Quartet.

Listed are just a few recommended titles out of more than 150 available recordings, but we suggest that you explore as much of David's extraordinary body of work as you can.


David Murray Quartet, Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club
(India Navigation IN-1032)

David Murray w/ Don Pullen, Andrew Cyrille, Stanley Franks
Shakill's Warrior (DIW CK 48963)

David Murray Quartet + 1 w/ Branford Marsalis
Fast Life (DIW CK 57526)

David Murray Octet
Home (Black Saint 120055)

David Murray Big Band
David Murray Big Band conducted by Lawrence "Butch" Morris
(DIW 48964)

David Murray/Randy Weston
The Healers (Black Saint 120118)

David Murray/Milford Graves
Real Deal (DIW)

World Saxophone Quartet
Rhythm and Blues
(Elektra/Nonesuch 79137)

Mike Seeger's earliest influence was his family, one of the most illustrious in American music. His father, Charles, was a pioneer in the field of musicology. His mother, Ruth Crawford, was an eminent composer and author of the classic collection American Folk Songs for Children.

His half-brother, Pete, was already well on his way to becoming America's musical Johnny Apple-seed. His sister, Peggy, was destined be a major influence on the revival of Anglo-American folksong.

Mike absorbed an extraordinary range of traditional songs and styles. He mastered instrument after instrument. To each he brought both his love of tradition and his ideas, developing his own distinctive sound.
The first of his more than 25 field recordings, Negro Folk Songs and Tunes, introduced America to the remarkable guitar style of the composer Elizabeth Cotton.

In 1958, Mike helped found the New Lost City Ramblers and his performing career took off in earnest. By the time the Ramblers celebrated their 20th Anniversary at Carnegie Hall, a full-scale revival of traditional and roots music was underway.

Throughout, Mike has been a pioneering advocate for rural music in the arenas of public funding and acceptance in the fine arts community. In the '60s he was an early champion of Louisiana's Cajun music and he later headed the American Old Time Music Festival, produced Talking Leaves, a video documentary, and recorded Solo: Oldtime Country Music.

Today he remains one of our great musical and cultural resources. To see him perform is to experience the richness of our traditions.
Some of the past recipients of the Award include Alan Lomax, Pharoah Sanders, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Heiroglyphics Ensemble, David Grisman, Sun Ra and David Murray.

Perhaps no artist in this century has changed the way we think about music more radically than Ornette Coleman. From the first bracing, shockingly new salvos in the Free Jazz insurgence of the late 1950s to his most recent performances with the exciting young Prime Time band and his New Quartet, Ornette has challenged us to challenge ourselves, to listen with new ears, to expand our perceptions of what music is, and what it can be.

Ornette is living proof of the ancient Chinese maxim, "perseverance furthers." He has endured much resistance to his music and ideas since he left his Fort Worth, Texas, home to blaze his own singular trail. But he was able to find kindred musical spirits, including the men who would make up his seminal quartet: Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins (succeeded by the late, great Ed Blackwell). Ornette began to establish himself as a unique voice, first in Los Angeles, then in New York, where his 1959 debut engagement at the Five Spot caused a commotion in the music world. The jazz community divided into hostile camps over this startling new music. "Where's the melody?" was the battle cry of the reactionary wing (a delicious irony, really: Ornette's music is chock full of melodies -- more, it turns out, than many people can handle at one time).

Today, some 35 years after the Five Spot, Ornette's perseverance and devotion to his art is at last reaping the recognition it deserves. In 1994 he was awarded the coveted MacArthur Foundation fellowship, known as the "Genius Grant" (seldom was that overused word -- genius -- so aptly applied.).

1996 finds Coleman's genius and creative light burning bright as ever, as evidenced on the two-volume "Sound Museum," his first recordings featuring his New Quartet, released recently on his own Harmolodic label (distributed by Verve). Ornette, ever the restless spirit experimenting in new collaborative contexts, is devoted to the transcendent task of building what Ralph Waldo Emerson called "God's architecture." May he continue to build well into the next millennium.

The Rex Foundation established the Ralph J. Gleason Award in 1986 for outstanding contributions to culture. The award is named in memory of the pioneering jazz and pop music journalist Ralph J. Gleason (1917-1975) who was a major figure in the advancement of creative music in America. As a critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and Down Beat, and a founding editor of Rolling Stone, Gleason displayed an openness to new music and new ideas that transcended differences between generations and styles. The Rex Foundation hopes to keep his legacy alive by presenting the award bearing his name to those who exemplify the qualities of talent, vision and innovation that Ralph so tirelessly supported.

Pianist/singer/composer Charles Brown is a true American cultural treasure, one of the living legends of the blues. Born in Texas, but a resident of California for many years, Brown was one of the key innovators of the West Coast Blues style, which fused the influence of such great Texas bluesmen like T-Bone Walker with a sophisticated, jazz-flavored sensibility. His recordings for the Atlas, Modern, Exclusive and Aladdin labels kept him on the Rhythm and Blues charts with remarkable consistency during the 1940s and 50s. Brown's compositions, including "Drifting Blues," "Black Night" and "Fool's Paradise" have become blues standards, and his "Merry Christmas Baby" is a holiday classic which has been recorded by such artists as Otis Redding and Bruce Springsteen.

In 1988 Charles Brown became one of the first recipients of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's lifetime achievement awards, and he has won the blues world's most prestigious honor, the W.C. Handy award, numerous times in a variety of categories, including Best Vocalist, Best Pianist and Album Of The Year.

In 1997, Charles Brown was also presented with the Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Rex Foundation is honored to present Charles Brown with the 1997 Ralph J. Gleason Award.

If there is an American folk lineage from Woody Guthrie through Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, Dan Bern would appear to be the inheritor of the mantle With a second album, Fifty Eggs (produced by Ani DiFranco) just released, Bern continues to contribute his unique vision to the American consciousness.

Defying easy description, Dan Bern has been called a, "topical-political-sarcastic-punk-folk," musician by one journalist, while the New York Times said, "He veers from comedy to anger, conjectures to shaggy-dog stories; he takes sidelong approaches to theology, science fiction, consumer culture, art, love and baseball."

Dan Bern's anger and sense of being an outsider, is a family legacy. His parents fled Nazi Germany and settled in Iowa, where they were one of few Jewish families. His musical talent is also inherited; his late father was a composer and music teacher, his sister a professional singer. But unlike his deeply rooted family, Dan has had a nomadic existence for most of his 32 years, traveling around the country on a seemingly endless-loop tour and compulsively writing hundreds of songs. Dan's mission is to bring his music to an appreciative public. A review of the Philadelphia Folk Festival noted that Dan came to the event, "a virtual unknown. By the time he finished his first set, he was the event's undeniable star."

Dan contends that music has the power to change the world. He says so himself, in "One Dance": "Woody Guthrie carves a sign into his guitar that says this machine kills fascists/Ani DiFranco says every tool is a weapon if you hold it right / I say, here's a monkey wrench, if you bob me over the head long enough I might wake up."

1998 / 50 eggs
tiger woods
one thing real
no missing link
oh sister
cure for aids
chick singers
different worlds
everybody's baby
one dance
jesus freak
monica
rolling away
suzanne

1997 / dan bern
jerusalem
go to sleep
wasteland
marilyn
king of the world
too late to die young
rome
i'm not the guy
never fall in love
estelle
queen

1996 / dog boy van
jerusalem
kurt
hannubel
live another day
talkin' alien abduction
blues
oklahoma

Dan Bern's web site is www.dbhq.com. He was nominated for the Ralph J. Gleason Award by Robert Hunter.