Horace Tapscott

[RDK]

Sessions sat it with Pharoah Sanders for a whole set when i saw him a few weeks ago at the Jazz Bakery. "Blistering" is right.

[clifford_thornton]

I'm only tangentially familiar with Tapscott as well, though I really like the Dark Tree and Live at IUCC. Haven't investigated the solo stuff, though it's not a medium I find myself in that often. I would really like to get the Flying Dutchman LP, but it's pretty tough to find. Already have the Bradford/Carter, otherwise that West Coast Hot might be worth picking up to kill two birds with one stone...

Edited April 11, 2006 by clifford_thornton

[Late]

The West Coast Hot set is one of my desert island discs. I really wish it could make it back into circulation again. (A new remaster probably wouldn't hurt either.) The liner notes are by Stanley Crouch, and they contain some of his most tolerable writing.

[ep1str0phy]

The liner notes are by Stanley Crouch, and they contain some of his most tolerable writing.

[Adam]

From the L.A. Weekly, posted over at JC:

The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, conducted by Michael Session, plays the World Stage on Sunday, April 30, at 3 p.m. Steven Isoardi reads from The Dark Tree at Eso Won Books, 3655 S. La Brea Ave., on Saturday, April 15, at 5 p.m.

Somewhat tangential, but Session is one bad MF. His sextet (featuring, among others, Phil Ranelin) has been doing annual free concerts at LACMA. I was there last summer; it remains one of my (all time) favorite concerts--three blistering sets of powerful, heartfelt improv. These cats deserve all the support they can get.

Thanks for the article, BTW--what issue of the LA Weekly is it from?

I believe that it's in the current issue... Yeah, under books:

http://www.laweekly.com/art+books/books/the-arkivists/13054/

[Adam]

There's also a short passage from Isoardi's book:

http://www.laweekly.com/art+books/books/bo...termined/13055/

Bound and Determined

An excerpt from The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles

By Steven L. Isoardi

Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 2:00 pm

Steven L. Isoardi’s The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles belongs on a shelf with the few jazz histories that do it all: John F. Szwed on Sun Ra, David Hajdu on Billy Strayhorn, Gene Santoro on Charles Mingus. Thorough, contextually insightful and crisply written, it leaves a reader knowing more not just about art life in this city, but about American life in general. The appendix by Arkestra bassist Roberto Miranda throws a warm light on Horace Tapscott’s music-making process, and the accompanying CD makes the result wonderfully tangible. All this could have disappeared. But a few people really cared.

An excerpt, about African-American artists’ place in the cultural spectrum, follows. –Greg Burk

Even those artists who pursued a more commercial path remained bound to their communities. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, segregation forced all African-American musicians of whatever genre preference and of whatever class into being community artists. Those few who attained national renown and toured a good part of every year spent most of their time within African-American communities around the country, leaving only to play commercial gigs. In urban areas, it was important for black musicians to gain a union card, but they were confronted by a segregated American Federation of Musicians, which maintained separate black locals in most cities. Consequently, even the most commercially successful artists remained very much a part of the larger African-American community, physically, emotionally and artistically. Whether sharing day labor in the fields, rambling from town to town, juke joint to juke joint, or traveling in buses from theater to theater, musicians carried and drew from a common reservoir of social experience and cultural attitudes. As visible members of their communities, no matter what degree of renown achieved, they provided not only inspiration and their art to the community, but also everyday accessibility to the succeeding generations, those young people gathered outside the hotels, theaters, union halls, diners and boarding houses.

By the early 1960s, Horace Tapscott and other artists had concluded that an alternative value system and aesthetic that drew from the communal aspects of their history and addressed contemporary needs was necessary.

[ghost of miles]

I've already posted in the jazz radio forum about the Tapscott program that I've done with Steven Isoardi, but those interested in HT and the 1990s, post-riot L.A. jazz scene might want to check out this film about the Leimert Park jazz renaissance.

Edited December 5, 2007 by ghost of miles

[ghost of miles]

I love the quote from Richard Fulton in one of the preview clips... he's a recovering addict who opened a jazz coffeehouse in the Leimert Park area that really took off after the '92 riots:

There are three things in the whole world I love to do most... sit on my ass... drink coffee... and listen to jazz.

Amen!

Fifth Street Dicks

[Late]

Though it's all in French, fans of Horace Tapscott and John Carter/Bobby Bradford will want to check out this blog.

[brownie]

Though it's all in French, fans of Horace Tapscott and John Carter/Bobby Bradford will want to check out this blog.

I have no problem reading this

[Niko]

Though it's all in French, fans of Horace Tapscott and John Carter/Bobby Bradford will want to check out this blog.

I have no problem reading this

lots of pictures in there, too

[Guy Berger]

I was listening to Aiee the Phantom yesterday -- "Theme to the Mothership" is a smoking performance (and a great tune).

 

Guy

Edited August 29, 2021 by Guy Berger

[AndrewHill]

By some stroke of luck, I landed both volumes of The Dark Tree used on Hat Art last year, and since I've never really heard Tapscott before I was a bit concerned. But as soon as I played the first disc, all of my concerns quickly disappeared. A word for Carter especially who really makes these discs shine.

[Late]

Tapscott fans will probably want this book at some point.

[Pete C]

Tapscott fans will probably want this book at some point.

Excellent book. I got it a couple of years ago at a similarly low price.

[colinmce]

Yep. I also plan to shell out for this:

http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Reports-Ethnomusicology-Vol-Multiculturalism/dp/0882870513/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335983494&sr=1-6

and this:

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Arts-West-Culture-Struggle/dp/0822346796/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335983494&sr=1-2

[relyles]

I own the book as well. The CD that came with the book is excellent.

[Adam]

Yep. I also plan to shell out for this:

http://www.amazon.co...35983494&sr=1-6

and this:

http://www.amazon.co...35983494&sr=1-2

The second one is very good. Addresses the wider African-American arts scene of the period, positioning Tapscott and UMGAA within that, with similarities in philosophy and methodology with writers and other artists.

[Pete C]

Adam, are you the L.A. Adam I met in NY, or the L.A. Adam who went to Havana, or another Adam altogether?

[Late]

Tapscott fans will probably want this book at some point.

Excellent book. I got it a couple of years ago at a similarly low price.

Somebody (here?) scored the $7 copy! Not bad for a hardcover book + compact disc.

[Adam]

Adam, are you the L.A. Adam I met in NY, or the L.A. Adam who went to Havana, or another Adam altogether?

I did go to Havana in December 2000. We might have met in NYC as well, but when would that have been? I've been on this board since the start pretty much.

[Pete C]

Adam, are you the L.A. Adam I met in NY, or the L.A. Adam who went to Havana, or another Adam altogether?

I did go to Havana in December 2000. We might have met in NYC as well, but when would that have been? I've been on this board since the start pretty much.

I remember you mentioning Havana on Jazz Corner, around the same time I went (I went spring of either '99 or 2000). I met a different Adam (aka Achilles).

[Late]

The Tapscott Sessions, Vol. 10

Been finding a lot of solace in this recording lately. Healing.

[Late]

For The Tapscott Sessions, are the only volumes on compact disc ... Vol.s 8 through 11?

If so, I wonder why Vol.s 1 through 7 haven't seen a digital release.

[John L]

I think the reason might be rather simple.  Volumes 1-7 correspond to a time when Nimbus West was not marketing CDs.  I believe that volume 8, as well as subsequent volumes, were issued on CD right away.