» Magic is the common denominator for jazz

Grace Kelly returns to Taos for the festival every year. Right: The late jazz great, Frank Morgan spent several years in Taos.

LISTENING TO JAZZ great Frank Morgan play the saxophone one can hear the years of study and training, emulations of his mentor, the master, Charlie Parker, and the suffering, patience, and redemption gleaned from years of hard living and incarceration. It all comes together to reveal the knowledge, mastery and emotion of a great artist in a pure sweet tone that is, in a word, magic. In the year 2000 when Frank first came to Taos to play a two night gig, he felt something resonate within him. According to taosjazz.org, “he fell in love with the town” and soon decided to call it his home. Thus the mysterious, multicultural magic of Taos and the rich, sophisticated magic of jazz intertwined.

Between 2000 and 2005 Frank performed regularly at the Taos Inn. For jazz fans in Taos it was a godsend to have such an esteemed player set up residency in their very living room. In 2007 Frank Morgan passed away. Taos resident and Frank’s good friend, Alfred Hobbs, legendary in his own right, organized a tribute concert. He arranged for a young student of Frank’s, Grace Kelly, then only seventeen, to come play in Frank’s honor. This beautiful event led directly to the founding of both the Taos Jazz Bebop Society and the Frank Morgan Jazz Festival.

Since November 2015, with the first annual Frank Morgan Jazz Festival, the Taos Jazz Bebop Society has been hosting world class jazz acts at various venues in and around Taos. Grace

Kelly, George Cables, Tootie Heath, Bill Frissel, Charles McPherson, the list goes on. All of these great names have graced the stages of Taos as a result of Frank Morgan’s appreciation for the magic of this place. Jazz aficionado and

one of the founders of the Taos Jazz Bebop Society, Eric Gladstone, explains, “We’ve had top of the line, world-class jazz.” And how do they manage to entice such gifted players to keep coming back to this out-of-the-way, highdesert town. Gladstone says, “Taos is a magical place.”

As the Taos Jazz Bebop Society began funneling jazz into town the magic multiplied. In 2015, the year of the first official Frank Morgan Jazz Festival, the year Frank’s love Rosalinda scattered Frank’s ashes at the base of the tree in the courtyard at the Taos Inn, Gladstone and others in the Bebop society were seeking lodging for Grace Kelly and her family in town for the festival. They thought it fitting to put them up in the house that had belonged to Frank’s friend Alfred Hobbs, by then deceased. The new owners of the house, then renting it out to vacationers, offered the place free of charge to players in the festival and have done so for several years since.

In July of 2018 saxophonist Charles McPherson traveled up to Taos to play a show at the Harwood. Using some generously donated funds the Taos Jazz Bebop Society paid to have a billboard posted near Pojoaque to promote the show. “Charles had never seen a billboard of himself!” Gladstone exclaimed, relaying that the great musician was enchanted by the experience.

In November 2019, George Cables

was performing with an ensemble at the TCA. There was a late autumn storm and the electricity went out in the theater. Despite the fact that the sound equipment had powered down and the auditorium was in complete darkness, the band continued to play. Truth be told, a grand piano, upright bass, tenor sax and drums resound just fine without amplification. What’s more, after a minute or so, an emergency light came on over the stage. It was the only light in the house and it shone directly over Doug Lawrence on the sax. “He looked just like Dexter Gordon in the cover picture for the film ‘Round Midnight.’” Gladstone recalls. The audience cheered, and the band played on.

Such are the moments that highlight the magic of mixing jazz with Taos. Another highlight for Gladstone was having Bob Dorough play at the Harwood in 2016. “I don’t usually care that much for singers,” Gladstone said, “but this guy was the hippest of the hipsters.” For those in the know, Dorough was no stranger to magic himself. He wrote, “Three is a magic number…. the past, the present and the future… the heart, the brain, and the body give you three is a magic number.”

And so it is that the heart, the brain, and the body of one Frank Morgan blew its magic, softly, sweetly, “sometimes at almost a whisper,” according to Jazz enthusiast Judy Katzman, through the horn of Taos. In doing so he left a legacy and started a scene that endures past, present and future.

The Taos Jazz Bebop Society has navigated the pandemic in creative ways by putting on outdoor concerts as well as using funds to help support musicians who lost work in 2020. And there’s no sign of stopping. The organization has planned events in the spring and summer of 2022, including possible performances from Pernell Steen and Le Jazz Machine, Greg Abate, and the Peter Erskine Trio with special guest George Garzone. Donations to the Taos Jazz Bebop Society are always welcome and can be made via their website at