Larry Kart

"Black Beauty" (dedicated to the late Florence Mills) -- the solemn tap dancing here is elegiac, even funeral, no? Also... "What Am I Here For?" And "The Sergeant Was Shy" -- though it's not a song at all but a fullblown composition, like "Ko Ko."

Thanks. I used to have many copies, maybe 40 or so, that the Jazz Record Mart bought as remainders and then sold at a modest price -- they used to do that a lot with jazz books -- but my copies are gone now, given away to people whom I thought would like the book. I'm sure it still can be found used at Amazon and in some of your "better" libraries.

The reason I had the suspicions I did was that Stanley was in such an impetus high gear from the first, spewing out what he did about Lester, that I felt he might be used to more or less rolling over people when he was in that groove, which seems to have been fairly common for him. Further, it seemed to me that in this wild rush of words he didn't need my agreement but merely my silence, which he then could either interpret or reshape as agreement. P.S. about that impetuous high gear groove, it just occurred to me what might have been at the root of it -- Stanley was simply nervous, anxious perhaps that I might try to cite chapter and verse as to why his ugly put down of Lester was mistaken, even stupid. That didn't occur to me until now because the idea of me/my opinions making anyone feel nervous seems absurd to me. But if Stanley was that committed to being the or a top dog in the realm, I was after all a published critic whose track record on this and that probably was known to him. I should add that if one is a longtime (some 60 years now) friend, as I am, of Chuck Nessa and Terry Martin, and even relatively gentle John Litweiier, one gets quite used to encountering rock-solid opinions from them that would and should daunt anyone, unless one already happens to agree with them. A long rich education, it's been. And Sangrey is coming up hard on the far turn.

My two personal encounters with Crouch. 1) back in the mid-1980s, when I was at the Chicago Tribune, Stanley was a guest at a Lake Forest, Ill. writers colony, the Ragdale Foundation, working on his novel perhaps. We'd never met but one day he called me up at work to chat. In short order, no doubt knowing of my fondness for the AACM circle of musicians, he began to go off on Lester Bowie as a fraud -- this because among other things (and I think he'd written about this previously) when Lester played "Well You Needn't" he played, as many people did, the simplified bridge that Miles popularized rather than the more complex one that Monk wrote. I began to suspect that Stanley was telling me this with little or no prelude and in a great gush of enthusiasm because either he thought I might flat out agree with him that Lester was a fraud or that if I didn't contradict him, he could think that I agreed with him even if I didn't say so and then perhaps tell someone else that I did. So I told him right off that I thought Lester was a master musician, and added a few details. Stanley hung up the phone without another word, didn't even try to argue with me. And I wasn't being hostile about it. 2) Several years later, I was in NYC to hear the first concert of the Basie Band under Thad Jones' new leadership, after which I was supposed to interview Thad. The night turned into a long goofy odyssey that didn't end until maybe 6:30 a.m. (I may write about it sometime), and at one point our group (Thad, myself, a young Turkish student of Thad's, Tommy Flanagan, and his wife) headed over at Thad's urging to the Vanguard to hear Kenny Burrell on his opening night. Kenny finishes his set, spots Thad and with a smile on his face heads across the room to greet him. But halfway there, he's intercepted by Stanley, who leaps up from a table, wraps Kenny in a bear hug and proceeds to shower praise on him in a voice that is loud enough to be heard by much of the room, which may have been the point, this while Kenny is looking at Thad with a rather sheepish "what the hell is going on here?" expression on his face.

Zacharias!

Interesting jam session material, with pluses (Cole, Jacquet -- both in warmly inventive modes, and Jacquet here not into honking and screaming) and minuses (Jack McVea, with his penchant for whistled-out high notes). Particularly choice is a long exchange between Cole and Les Paul, where each man tries to amuse or even baffle the other with figures that were "far out" at the time -- the pattern being that Paul leads things off and Cole imitates and modifies in in a more musical, less tricky direction what Paul has proposed. It's certainly fun for the audience, and one feels that Paul and Cole were having fun too.

Oops. I got on the wrong ferry. But the rest of what I said still goes, no?

Wasn't Denmark Berwald's home country and wasn't it Denmark's musical culture within which he frustratingly tried to function? In particular, if your gift is for symphonic music, and you can't get a hearing for that music in your home country, such that you have to retreat to running a sawmill in an attempt to make a living, Denmark in the 1840s would seem to have something to do with it. Also, in that era, countries and even fairly musically sophisticated cities like Leipzig, where IIRC Berwald's music did get a hearing, seemed to be culturally far more isolated than would be the case later on. IIRC. Favoring the home-grown was a common theme, and Berwald was an outsider several times over. Milieu matters, no? Imagine Roscoe Mitchell with all his extravagant gifts growing up in a city that lacked Chicago's rich, yeasty jazz heritage, a city with no Muhal, no AACM, none or few of Roscoe's eventual musical partners., and, for that matter, no Chuck Nessa at Delmark with the ears to hear what Roscoe could do and thus no "Sound." Also a city that was, like Copenhagen in the 1840s, not particularly linked in terms of what was going on in terms of musical culture with other cities in the world. If that had been the milieu, where might Roscoe be today? Back to the mid-19th Century, was it incidental to their eventual impact that Liszt was a much traveled sexy/semi-scandalous virtuoso and one-man font of publicity and Berlioz was doing his best to tear up the pea-patch in Paris, the virtual capital of the 19th Century. And even then, the disparity between what Berlioz wanted to do musically and what opportunities Paris of that era was able to/chose to offer him almost drove him out of his cotton-picking mind.

I've got and like both Kamu-Berwald discs, though I recall that the old Ehrling was a bit better -- but in rather dim early '60s LP sound IIRC. Yesterday I ordered the Dausgaard set, cheap now on Brilliant Classics (two CDs for about $9). Some said it was very good, though some said it lacked punch. I don't think of Berwald as a very "punchy" composer though. We shall see. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that Berwald is not an easy composer to get just right, and when he isn't gotten just right or close to just right, some find him to be mererlty workmanlike, with a quirk or two, That particular swatch of time -- 1840s-'50s -- was pretty unsettled in Euorpean music in general, and Berwald's position in Denmark seems to have been especially equivocal for reasons that seem to have been related to that country's then rather provincial musical culture. For instance, Berwald's forte seems to have been orchestral/symphonic music, but Denmark had no taste for that sort of music at that time; opera was what was wanted there, and IIRC his major orchestral scores got no hearing win Denmark at the time. Also, not being able to make a go of it financially as a composer, Berwald got involved In running a lumber mill IIRC. When Liszt eventually heard Berwald's music, he was enthusiastic about its harmonic and formal subtleties, which in retrospect seem dead on.

More from Kase: https://youtu.be/3ja1RwX8XAo

It was the title track of "On the Tender Spot" that inspired my 'vat of chicken fat" remark. For note bending/melding that that has a story-telling, much more than decorative effect, try my man Chris Kase. Go to his "Teaser" on YouTube; he solos toward the end of the track. There are even more striking examples of what he can do, but for some darn reasonI can't track them down right now. Chris has been teaching in Madrid for many years.

I have nothing against note smearing/note bending per se, but the way Akinmusire does this makes me feel like I'm drowning in a vat of chicken fat.

"Margin Call" Then "The Big Short" They're complimentary

My late wife and I saw Rigg in a very good Tom Stoppard play, "Night and Day," in London in 1978 0r '79. She was terrific in it.

Also: Bobby Hutcherson - Color Schemes (Landmark LLP-1508) Bobby Hutcherson, vibes, marimba; Mulgrew Miller, piano; John Heard, bass; Billy Higgins, drums; Airto, percussion. Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA, October 8-10, 1985 Recorda-Me Bemsha Swing Rosemary, Rosemary Second-Hand Brown Whisper Not Color Scheme Remember Never Let Me Go ** also released on Landmark LCD-1508-2. 1986 Bobby Hutcherson - In The Vanguard (Landmark LLP-1513) Bobby Hutcherson, vibes, marimba; Kenny Barron, piano; Buster Williams, bass; Al Foster, drums. "Village Vanguard", NYC, December 5 & 6, 1986 Little Niles Estate Well, You Needn't Some Day My Prince Will Come Witchcraft I Wanna Stand Over There ** also released on Landmark LCD-1513-2. Bobby Hutcherson - In The Vanguard (Landmark LCD-1513-2) same session. "Village Vanguard", NYC, December 5 & 6, 1986 Young And Foolish ** originally released as Landmark LLP-1513 + 1 bonus track. Bobby Hutcherson - Landmarks (Landmark LCD-1310-2) same session. "Village Vanguard", NYC, December 5 & 6, 1986 Tune Up 1988 Bobby Hutcherson - Cruisin' The 'Bird (Landmark LLP-1517) Ralph Moore, soprano, tenor sax; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes, marimba; Buddy Montgomery, piano; Rufus Reid, bass; Victor Lewis, drums. Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA, April 15 & 16, 1988 All Or Nothing At All Cruisin' The 'Bird Sierra Imminent Treasures Chelsea Bridge Come Rain Or Come Shine On The Delta ** also released on Landmark LCD-1517-2. Bobby Hutcherson - Cruisin' The 'Bird (Landmark LCD-1517-2) same session. Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA, April 15 & 16, 1988 If You Do ** originally released as Landmark LLP-1517 + 1 bonus track. 1989 Bobby Hutcherson - Ambos Mundos (Landmark LLP-1522) James Spaulding, flute; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes, marimba; Smith Dobson, piano; Randy Vincent, guitar; Bruce Forman, guitar #2,7; Jeff Chambers, bass; Eddie Marshall, drums; Francisco Aguabella, congas; Orestes Vilato, timbales, congas; Roger Glenn, percussion, flute. August-September, 1989 1. Pomponio 2. Tin Tin Deo 3. Both Worlds 4. Beep D' Bop 5. Poema Para Ravel 6. Yelapa 7. Besame Mucho ** also released on Landmark LCD-1522-2. Bobby Hutcherson - Ambos Mundos (Landmark LCD-1522-2) James Spaulding, flute; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes, marimba; Smith Dobson, piano; Randy Vincent, guitar; Jeff Chambers, bass; Eddie Marshall, drums; Francisco Aguabella, congas; Orestes Vilato, timbales, congas; Roger Glenn, percussion, flute. August-September, 1989 Street Song ** originally released as Landmark LLP-1522 + 1 bonus track. 1991 (age 50) Bobby Hutcherson - Mirage (Landmark LCD-1529-2) Bobby Hutcherson, marimba #1,7,9,10, vibes #2-8,10; Tommy Flanagan, piano; Peter Washington, bass #1-3,5-8,10; Billy Drummond, drums #1-3,5-8,10. BMG Studios, NYC, February 15 & 18, 1991 1. Nascimento 2. Mirage 3. Beyond The Bluebird 4. Pannonica 5. Del Valle 6. I Am In Love 7. Zingaro 8. Groundwork 9. Love Letters 10. Heroes