Mark Stryker

Ditto. Great to have this stuff in one place. Still, must say that in recent years I've become addicted to later Hines, especially the solo stuff -- talk about a true improviser and taking chances (!). Wild. But this set: important addition to the Mosaic library.

Here's what was recorded in February and March 1953. I've heard some but not all of this stuff but wouldn't venture a definitive judgment without relistening down the line. Anyone think any of this is on the same level as the Washington material? Charlie Parker Quintet Charlie Parker (as) Valdo Williams (p -1,2) Steep Wade (p -3/5) Dick Garcia (g) Hal Gaylor (b -1,2) Bob Rudd (b -3/5) Bill Graham (d -1,2) Bobby Malloy (d -3/5) "Chez Paree Nightclub", Montreal, Quebec, Canada, February 7, 1953 1. Ornithology Jazz Showcase LP 5003; Uptown UP 27.36 2. Cool Blues Uptown UP 27.36 3. Moose The Mooche - 4. Embraceable You Jazz Showcase LP 5003; Uptown UP 27.36 5. Now's The Time Uptown UP 27.36 * Jazz Showcase LP 5003 Charlie Parker - Bird On The Road * Uptown UP 27.36 Charlie Parker - Montreal 1953 Charlie Parker Septet Bill Harris (tb) Charlie Mariano, Charlie Parker (as) Harry Johnson (ts) Sonny Truitt (p) Chubby Jackson (b) Morey Feld (d) unknown (vo) "Bandbox", NYC, February 16, 1953 Your Father's Moustache Queen-disc (It) Q-002 * Queen-disc (It) Q-002 Charlie Parker/Miles Davis/Dizzy Gillespie - Bird With Miles And Dizzy Joe Theimer Orchestra Bob Carey, Ed Leddy, Marky Markowitz, Charlie Walp (tp) Dan Spiker, Earl Swope, Rob Swope (tb) Charlie Parker, Jim Riley (as) Ben Lary, Jim Parker, Angelo Tompros (ts) Jack Nimitz (bars) Jack Holliday (p) Merton Oliver (b) Joe Theimer (d, cond) "Club Kavakos", Washington, DC, February 22, 1953 Fine And Dandy Elektra/Musician E1 60019 These Foolish Things - Light Green - Thou Swell - Wills - Don't Blame Me - Something To Remember You By / The Blue Room - Roundhouse - * Elektra/Musician E1 60019 Charlie Parker With The Orchestra - One Night In Washington Charlie Parker Quartet Charlie Parker (as) Jack Holliday (p) Mert Oliver (b) Max Roach (d) "Howard Theater", Washington, DC, March 8, 1953 Cool Blues VGM 0009 Out Of Nowhere - Ornithology - Anthropology - * VGM 0009 Charlie Parker - Yardbird-DC-53 Charlie Parker Quartet Charlie Parker (as) Red Garland (p) Bernie Griggs (b) Roy Haynes (d) WHDH radio broadcast, "Storyville Club", Boston, MA, March 10, 1953 Moose The Mooche Blue Note BT 85108 I'll Walk Alone - Ornithology - Out Of Nowhere - * Blue Note BT 85108, CDP 7 85108-2 Charlie Parker At Storyville Charlie Parker Quintet Charlie Parker (as) Milt Buckner (org) Bernie McKay (g) Cornelius Thomas (d) "Bandbox", NYC, March 23, 1953 Groovin' High Columbia JC 34831 * Columbia JC 34831 Charlie Parker - Summit Meeting At Birdland Charlie Parker Quartet Charlie Parker (as) Walter Bishop Jr. (p) Kenny O'Brien (b) Roy Haynes (d) "Bandbox", NYC, March 30, 1953 Theme: Caravan / Coool Blues Klacto (E) MG 100 Star Eyes - My Little Suede Shoes - Ornithology - 52nd Street Theme - Diggin' Diz - 52nd Street Theme - Embraceable You - 52nd Street Theme - * Klacto (E) MG 100 Charlie Parker - Star Eyes

This discussion prompted me to give all of this a listen for the first time in a very long time. Yes, the enthusiasm for the small group material expressed by others here is of course warranted and I'm guilty of not giving it full due. 3/8/53 material, esp. "Out of Nowhere," "Cool Blues" and "Anthropology" include mad-to-live, ridiculously wild and risky blowing. As good as any Bird anywhere. Max's presence a big kick in the pants, perhaps? Still, I put the best of the big band solos in that class "Willis," "Fine and Dandy," "Thou Swell." One thing I've always loved about those tracks is hearing Bird working through standard changes that he didn't record often or at all -- you hear him really improvising and creating within his language with less fallback to (his own, of course) favorite patterns that he favored on, say, "Ornithology" or a blues in C like "Cool Blues." Checking the recording dates, another thought occurs. With the big band stuff from late Feb. 53 and the small group from early March 53, this was clearly a terrific window for prime Bird. His playing and behavior could be pretty erratic at this point, but clearly he was feeling good those weeks. I haven't checked the discographies, but I wonder what other stuff, if any, was taped in that time frame and whether it's anywhere near as good as the Washington material.

Is Clifford no longer with us? If so, I was not informed. How does this happen? Not to worry. Clifford (the Big Red Dog) is still kicking, having made his last appearance between covers apparently in 2011 and continuing to prowl PBS, though cannot say if these are reruns. For some reason, however, the Guiness Book of World Records, refuses to recognize him and awarded the world's tallest title to Zeus. Was there not a Lance Armstrong-like scandal in Clifford's past? Coda: I loved Clifford books as a kid. Coda II: His exact height seems to be in dispute. Wiki tells me he seems to have started at 25 feet but in most instances is about 15 feet -- this after starting life as the runt of the litter.

If your car breaks down, you can just saddle him up and ride him into work.

The world's tallest dog visited metro Detroit over the weekend. Zeus. 44 inches tall on all fours; 7-foot-4 on hind legs. A big fucking Great Dane. Scroll the picture gallery to get to the last couple photos. http://www.freep.com/article/20121022/NEWS03/310220058/World-s-tallest-dog-poses-for-pictures-at-Troy-fund-raiser?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

Coda: Board consenus may favor the small group over the big band overall and I suppose I wouldn't disagree, but Bird's playing on two of the big band tunes specificially -- "Willis" ("Pennies From Heaven") and "Thou Swell" are off the charts. Two of my favorite Bird solos bar none, especially the former. Edit: to note switch to "Thou Swell" from "Roundhouse" -- age playing tricks on me.

A taste:

I think the larger point here is that it's all great and you should get it. Like now.

The big band stuff -- some of my favorite Bird, period. He's simply on fire, wailing over arrangements he's never heard, figuring out the key changes and other wrinkles on the fly, double timing like crazy, super loose. From another planet.

Don't know about Esperanza's education efforts, but if Wynton's teaching is along the lines of his numerous pronouncements/strictures over the years about how jazz has to be played and how it should not be played, more's the pity. BTW, Wynton has been out there encouraging and inspiring the youth for some time now, no? How many notable youngish players can one name who owe a significant debt to his example/tutelage? I may be blanking on this, but I can't think of a single one outside of the guys who have played in his small groups or the LCJO. And I don't think of any of them as particularly notable figures artistically, certainly not compared to other players of their general age group who came up elsewhere and otherwise. You could add James Carter and Rodney Whitaker to the list, but, really, the education activities are not about a list of other well-known pros who have come up under his wing. It's about the thousands upon thousands of kids, from elementary schools to colleges, he's reached through clinics, school visits, post-concert talks or encouraged and helped in many other ways (paying for instruments, sending music, buy a meal, etc), the Essentially Ellington initiative at JaLC, the JaLC school curriculums that get jazz into classrooms in ways that non-music teachers can use and more. I've seen all of this at work in Detroit and environs, including seeing him take time in the poorest neighborhoods you can imagine for elementary school kids who desperately need role models and the like. I've also seen him bend the ear of administrators, politicians and philanthropists stumping for music education in ways that do in fact make a difference on the front lines, or at least they have here. I'm not entering the debate here on aesthetic issues, the future of jazz questions or the is-WM-good-for-jazz argument or anything else. Leaving all of that aside, on the education front, my own view is that there is no argument to be had. If more powerful artists across the spectrum -- I'm talking classical, jazz, theater, visual artists, writers, etc. -- put their money and time into these kind of endeavors the way he has, we'd be a lot better off.

Thanks, folks.

To be clear -- I'm not creating a list of all the famous families in jazz and did not mean to start a thread requesting that we all chime in with the all the jazz families we can think of, though if anyone's looking for a time waster, don't let me stand in your way. But I'm really just asking if there's any earlier significant sibling or father-son example other than the Dodds.

Trying to think of the first of the many famous jazz families -- Jones, Heath, Adderley, Dorsey, Marsalis, etc. -- and I'm coming up with Johnny and Baby Dodds. Am I missing somebody obvious?

"Faberge: The Rise and Fall" at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Wrote it up here: http://www.freep.com/article/20121014/ENT05/310140076/The-DIA-s-new-Faberg-exhibit-adds-historical-context-its-glittering-display?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Entertainment

Not the best as these things go but it's all we got: Detroit Tigers' theme song from 68: "Go Get 'em Tigers"

Here's a fine performance of Ben Johnston's Fourth Quartet discussed earlier in this thread -- microtonal variations on "Amazing Grace." Prepared to have your mind blown. The group is the Denali Quartet, whom I was not previously aware of. FYI, Johnston is now on Twitter @NewDissonance.

Jesus Christ, the Cardinals are like vampires -- where's a stake when you need it? I thought the A's were hard to kill. What a game ...

Funny. To add another layer, David Berger told me this story. As a kid in the '60s, David was a Thad groupie and was in the kitchen with Thad on the break one night in 1968 when Jimmy Hamilton and another Ellington band member came in to say hello. Thad introduced them to David and after they left Thad said: "Duke Ellington -- greatest band in the world." Berger protested: "Your band's the greatest." 'No, no, no," Jones said. "My band's not one-tenth of what Duke Ellington and Count Basie are and never will be."

Well, I can dig where Miles is coming from but, well, he's wrong. Or at the least he's missing the forest through the trees. Or he's throwing out the baby out with the bathwater. Or something. That band at its best, playing Thad's best charts, is as good as it gets in a modern big band (Ellington stands alone, sui generis). Obviously, YMMV. Obviously, Miles' does and so does Chuck's. I'm OK with that, but I still think the angels will weep for them. Coda: Jerry Dodgion told me a funny story about Miles hanging out at the Vanguard listening to the band in the 60s. I'm not looking at my notes so I'm going from memory here, but the story is something like this: Miles is sitting at one of the first bar seats and he walks all the way around and whispers something into Pepper Adams' ear and walks back to his seat. When the tune ends, Pepper says to Thad, "Miles has something he wants to ask you." So Thad turns around and says, "What is it, Miles?" And Miles says, "Play a ballad." What?" says Thad, pretending not to hear. Miles says it again as loud as he can muster in his whisper. "Play a ballad." Thad: "Oh, OK." He turns to the band and calls a number and they launch into one of the real uptempo tunes in the book. The next tune Thad calls is the ballad ...

A bit more than I care to pay at this time, unfortunately...but hey, this intro! Not only the intro but the half-chorus of ensemble that follows the vocal is just quintessential Thad -- the biting harmony, the superhip and endlessly creative melodic writing, the way the deep swing is written into the ensemble's rhythmic figures, the tactile blend of brass and reeds.Damn!! A masterpiece in just over 2 minutes: no muss, no fuss, no tricks. Just off-handed brilliance on a standard, written on deadline. "Can you have it done by 2? We need it for the record ..." Here's another version of the same arrangement from a few years later in Japan with Dee Dee Bridgewater singing. A little brighter tempo, which I like.

Explain the Cardinal hatred to me. Tony "Genius" LaRussa is gone. Is it a style or arrogance? Is it based on the INF fly call by the ump (there's been little mention of the timeout-strikeout-HR-next-pitch except by Chipper post game). Is it just the winning a WS from the wild card position last year and winning another title too soon too? Is it that they have the most titles by a NL team, thus are Yankees Senior Circuit? I'm genuinely curious as other than from Cub fans I'm not well acquainted with Cardinal-hatred from a national perspective. I do understand getting screwed by the umps because of Denkinger, or the team that broke your heart being hated. Well, I am a "recovered" Cubs fan, so my Cardinal hatred was nurtured from the time I was about 13. The most NL titles is a factor, the entitlement of fans too. Now, having said all that, I kind of liked some things about LaRussa and I was on some level just making a joke using the Cardinals to piggyback on Jim's post. My only truly unconditional hatred is for the Yankees ...

You know, one of the great things about baseball is the way it unites us as a people. For instance, those of us on this board may have wildly different opinions about the ultimate aesthetic value of Wynton Marsalis, Keith Jarrett, David Murrary, Joshua Redman, Sonny Stitt, Fred Hersch, Eric Alexander and God knows who else. But at least we can all come together in mutual hatred of the Cardinals and Yankees.

Larry -- thanks for fuller explanation, though I remain unconvinced and agree with Big Wheel's 2:46 a.m. post. Allen -- suggest rereading Ross' piece, especially the last three paragraphs as they relate to Wagner's influence on Hitler and the historical record. No one is arguing that Hitler didn't love Wagner, but to draw a direct line between Wagner and the Holocaust is in effect to argue "No Wagner=no Holocaust." Is that your position? I don't believe that for a minute. There was virulent anti-semitism in Germany before Wagner and the intellectual justification that evolved for Nazism came from many sources.

I corrected the spellings above (a result of haste) -- thanks for the professional copy editing. This line confused me: "That Wagnerism in one form or another cast a very wide social net in the late 19th Century is obvious, but I think that the breadth of his musical and social influence ought not to be used, a I think Alex Ross did by citing Herzl, to suggest that Wagner himself, in this one particular area of his thought, necessarily was a figure of comparable (i.e. comparable to his influence) breadth, complexity, or, if you will, diffuseness." Can you clarify? Finally, I would say that as a Jew myself I also worked through these issues in a personal way. I avoided the music for a long time for reasons more political than not, but found eventually as I was learning the classical canon, that I had gone backward from the late 20th Century and forward from the 17th Century and suddenly there was this gigantic hole with a "W" on it in between the two stands of history and the only way to link them up was to deal with Wagner. Interestingly, in my house, my wife (a gentile, though she would prefer "heathen") can't listen to Wagner because of the anti-semitism and all the rest; but I can and do listen, though not all that often, but that's a matter of taste -- I prefer the Italians. To clarify my use of the word hypocrite -- I am not calling any individual in Israel who prefers not to hear Wagner a hypocrite; but I do think it's hypocritical for a society -- or at the least disengenuous -- to draw such arbitrary and inconsistent lines when it comes to the ban. We can't hear the music in the concert hall, but it's ok on the radio and TV? And by what logic is "Ride of the Valkyries" offensive when an orchestra plays it live but it's not offensive when heard as a cell phone ring?