Wayne Shorter's 80th Birthday Celebration.

[bertrand]

Thanks for finding this! I guess at some point I would like a Xerox copy if possible.

1) It really does not look like a pre-written review. It sure seems to me that the reviewer actually heard the piece. The only way I would be willing to believe that this made up is if the description did not match the piece, i.e. the piece is not 'built on descending figures with a bass lead, in a minor mode', and there is no middle section in 3/4. A bit of a stretch, IMHO.

2) Who wrote the review? Anyone we know?

3) So we know Grady Tate was on drums - there's one person still alive who might remember something. Are any other musicians mentioned?

4) It is not clear that Gary McFarland is conducting and in fact it seems that he is not. If not Gary, then who?

5) It's not even clear that it was Miles playing this piece! Rooster, does the article state that it was Miles performing? This piece involves a trumpet soloist in any case, so I would assume it was Miles.

So who is going to call Grady Tate? I wonder if he is on Facebook...

Bertrand.

Edited August 5, 2013 by bertrand

[Rooster_Ties]

The entire line-up of the festival band is listed elsewhere in the review (which included Tate), so I have a strong hunch that others in the 'festival' group played Legend too. I'll supply the full list tonight, and the reviewer is named as well. (I actually typed up a MUCH longer accounting of the Downbeat article -- only to have it not post to the board, and it was unforunately lost in the bit-bucket).

Miles is mentioned elsewhere in the review of the same (multi-day?) event -- in a review of the full (second) quintet -- which strongly implies that Miles DID NOT play on Legend.

The ONLY info directly pertaining to the Shorter/Legend thing is what I typed up above (in bold). I'll try to get some more typed up this evening.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Rooster_Ties

[Rooster_Ties]

According to the Downbeat review (13-JUL-67), the line-up of the "festival band" was as follows below -- but please note, the ONLY player who is mentioned by name as having played on the Legend -- was Grady Tate. In fact, Wayne(!) isn't even mentioned as having played on the piece (the ENTIRE quote pertaining to Legend is reproduced above and, again, Tate is the ONLY musician mentioned by name, as a player (Wayne is only mentioned as the composer).

That said, the 'festival band' (which played in its own right, and the personnel was listed in regards to the festival band's separate(?) performance -- which was mostly (all?) McFarland tunes, all of which were named) was listed as being...

Gary McFarland (leader - and presumably vibes, though vibes weren't mentioned)

Clark Terry, Bobby Bryant, Buddy Childers, Freddie Hill - trumpets

Bob Brookmeyer, Lou Blackburn - trombones

Jim McGee, Art Briegleb - French Horns

Howard Johnson - tuba

Bob Cooper, Bill Green, Zoot Sims, Jack Nimitz, Jay Migliore - "reeds"

Gabor Szabo, Jim Stewart - guitars

Ray Brown - bass

Grady Tate - drums

Hal Gordon - percussion.

That said, I have a pretty strong hunch that the group that played Legend came out of a subset of this 'festival band' (and may have included many, if not most of these players).

The reviewer named was Harvey Siders. I'll try and scan and upload the whole thing when I can.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Rooster_Ties

[bertrand]

Thank you so much!

I believe Siders is with Jazz Times, so could be reachable.

Interesting line-up but not a whole lot of people who are still living, off the top of my head.

Bertrand.

[Rooster_Ties]

I'm sure I can e-mail you .pdf scans of the whole thing (maybe this week yet), whether or not I can upload them here.

[bertrand]

Thanks!

There actually be another article in an earlier issue (maybe 4/67), perhaps announcing the UCLA Festival. I distinctly remember a write-up which said that 'Legend' incorporates various themes from the Miles repertoire. That does not seem to be what the blurb above is talking about.

Bertrand.

[Rooster_Ties]

The actual quote pertaining to Legend *does* (practically) mention various themes of Miles Davis. Well, maybe not exeactly the same meaning (does "themes" = "homage to"? ), but pretty darn close, depending on how deep into semantics you want to get. FWIW, the exact quote from the review reads...

"The least successful band effort was not [Gary] McFarland's [festival band]; it was Wayne Shorter's homage to Miles Davis, Legend, a moody, colorless composition built on descending figures with a bass lead, in a minor mode. A middle section in 3/4, powered by [Grady] Tate [on drums], showed some excitement, but in the main, the work sounded like an introduction."

[bertrand]

The thing I read was more specific - I thought the piece would contain snippets of well known tunes from the Miles repertoire like 'So What', but instead it is several Shorter compositions that had just been written and most of them not yet issued (certainly not 'Sweet Pea'). So it must have been some press release that I read since the pieces were not yet known at the time of the performance. I still think it was the March or April 1967 downbeat.

Bertrand.

[Rooster_Ties]

Just Googling around (my search items: "legend" "wayne shorter" 1967), and now just what the heck is THIS about??!!! Note: you gotta put quotes around "legend" or else Google will match on other forms of the word, like legendary (and legends), perhaps others.

Link: SOURCE, full article at link to the left, and the full relevant quote follows:

Article Headline: Wayne Shorter: 'Happening,' and Meandering, a Burst at a Time

NYT, Dec. 24th, 2004

Ben Ratliff

Subhead: Exploring the World

Coltrane wanted that, too, Mr. Shorter said, and recalled a conversation he had had with Coltrane's son Ravi: "Ravi told me that he wanted me to write something for him, for orchestra. Trane was still alive when I was with Miles, and we performed something at Monterey, a piece for 28 pieces called 'Legend.' It would have been natural for Trane to hear about that - he was always following what Miles was doing." Lately, Mr. Shorter has been looking at semi-retirement, which means less time spent on the road and more time thinking about composing music that will include only a little of his playing - "not all over the place, just where it counts."

He has thought about revisiting "Legend" - Davis's nephew has found a tape of the concert - as well as a number of other orchestral projects. One is "Aurora Leigh," a composition he started when he was 18 and at N.Y.U. It is named after an Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem. He said he might take it to David Robertson, principal conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, who wants to work with him. More recently he has begun writing original music for the soprano Renée Fleming.

"When I listen to music, I'm not thinking about the workshop aspect of it," he said. " 'Oh, that sound goes good against that one.' Boring. But, you know Elgar, who wrote something about people that he knew, characters he knew? And each theme was antiphonal? You say, 'Describe this person in music,' and he'd do it, whether the person was rotund or skinny." (Mr. Shorter was describing the "Enigma Variations.")

"I need to find out more about other people's cultures, with the time I have left," Mr. Shorter said, jumping over a conversational hedgerow. "Because when I'm writing something that sounds like my music - well, not my music, I don't possess music - but when they say, 'Wayne Shorter's playing those snake lines,' I should take that willingness to do that, that desire I have to do that, and extend it to the desire to find out more about what is not easy to follow, what is difficult to follow in someone else's life."

============

Miles' nephew found a tape of the concert?? - implying that it included Miles?? Is THIS (above) perhaps what you were thinking of, Bertrand?? And to which we all collectively say, WTF? - there's no mention of Miles in the Downbeat review. Which is it? And Monterery isn't anywhere the same as UCLA, is it? (I'm totally California ignorant - and don't have time to check at the moment.)

There could still be something else about Legend in an early '67 Downbeat somewhere -- I was only looking at the concert reviews columns -- so if there was an "upcoming events" column, I wouldn't have seen it (even in the issues I looked through).

Edited August 8, 2013 by Rooster_Ties

[bertrand]

So now we are looking at the possibility that there were two performances, or is Wayne just confusing UCLA with Monterey?

I searched the Monterey recordings archive at Stanford but did not find anything. I will try to call them.

Bertrand.

[sidewinder]

Booked in for Wayne's 80th Concert at the London Jazz Festival (Barbican) on 17th Nov. Should be great !

[bertrand]

DC next week! Can't wait. Just spoke to Wayne tonight at the Monk competition where he received a Lifetime Achievement award. The winner was Melissa Aldana from Chile.

Bertrand.

Edited September 17, 2013 by bertrand

[ValerieB]

will be seeing Wayne this week at the Monterey Jazz Festival and at a special tribute to him the night before the Festival starts! so happy for him.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

DC next week! Can't wait. Just spoke to Wayne tonight at the Monk competition where he received a Lifetime Achievement award. The winner was Melissa Aldana from Chile.

Bertrand.

Get out the knives for me, but as much as I love Wayne, and think that the new album is great, the DC concert was a big disappointment, bordering on the most misconceived concert I have ever been to. The orchestral backing was elementary, just the entire orchestra playing the same simple repetitive patterns in unison or harmony, there was no use of orchestral color or the possibilities inherent in having different instrument groups play off each other. No transformations or development of themes. Eventually it just sounded like Muzak and I was so bored I left before the last number was over. Wayne seemed tired and played very little, and when he did play it was a few toots on the soprano. Esperenza Spalding added nothing of interest and she is nothing more than an average pop singer with a thin characterless voice, why she's being foisted on us as a "jazz" musician I'll never know ("Oh but she plays the bass!" Not here). I loved the lone piece by the Quartet but that was the beginning of the concert and it was all downhill from there. A couple people around me up in the Second Tier never applauded for the orchestral numbers and left even earlier than I did.

[bertrand]

I'm sorry you didn't care for the music, Hoppy. I will think about your comments some more in the next few days in light of my personal reaction to the music. There were a lot of people I talked to who did love it but you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I hope no one will feel the need to pull out the knives.

I think he is playing less sax for his orchestral works as part of his master plan - I remember an interview where he said he was working on some orchestral music that he wouldn't even need to play on (edit - see post #34 above). He also candidly addressed the issue of his sax playing in the Tavis Smiley interview.

For another angle of Wayne's work in this domain, you need to hear 'Universe', 'Twin Dragon' and 'Legend'. I hope more people can hear these works one day. Wallace and David worked hard to put this project together and really make it work - their efforts need to be disseminated.

Bertrand.

Edited September 28, 2013 by bertrand

[ValerieB]

he and his band blew their butts off at Monterey!! part of the problem in DC had to be that he was tired and he was starting to get a cold (or something bronchial) in Monterey.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

I'm sorry you didn't care for the music, Hoppy. I will think about your comments some more in the next few days in light of my personal reaction to the music. There were a lot of people I talked to who did love it but you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I hope no one will feel the need to pull out the knives.

I think he is playing less sax for his orchestral works as part of his master plan - I remember an interview where he said he was working on some orchestral music that he wouldn't even need to play on (edit - see post #34 above). He also candidly addressed the issue of his sax playing in the Tavis Smiley interview.

For another angle of Wayne's work in this domain, you need to hear 'Universe', 'Twin Dragon' and 'Legend'. I hope more people can hear these works one day. Wallace and David worked hard to put this project together and really make it work - their efforts need to be disseminated.

Bertrand.

Thanks. I'm up for hearing those other pieces you mentioned Bertrand, as I think nothing he does should be dismissed immediately.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Hoppy T. Frog

[bertrand]

Thanks to that jazz research visionary John Boehner, I have some spare time on my hands these days so I was able to track down the article I was looking for. It is from the 5/4/67 issue of downbeat (page 11).

Here is what we now know from this article:

1) Jimmy Lyons produced this UCLA Festival. He was also the producer of the Monterey Jazz Festival.

2) Lyons commissioned Shorter to write this piece as an '18-minute orchestral prelude to Davis' set on May 12th; the piece is to incorporate several Davis themes. A similar 'overture' is being written by McFarland for Coltrane'.

3) Coltrane was slated to play on 5/14, with his own group as well as with the orchestra plus strings.

4) Gary McFarland was the festival's music director.

So how does this tie in with the discussion above?

1) The concert, including the piece (no title given) was announced in a downbeat article from the issue dated a few days before the concert. So yes, this would not prove that the piece was played, but Wayne must have started writing it by then.

2) The concert was reviewed in an issue dated 7/13. This was long enough after the concert that would preclude the possibility of the reviewer making up the entire thing just to meet a deadline (this has been known to happen in other instances, of course). This is a 3-page review giving enough detail to indicate that Siders was there and heard the whole thing (including a 10-minute piece by Ornette with band and strings conducted by John Carter which he hated). Siders describes 'Legend' in some detail and even mentions a section 'powered' by Grady Tate. I remember Kush Abadey 'powering' a middle section at the Jazz Standard. I am 100% sure 'Legend' was performed at UCLA.

The mystery remain as to who played on it exactly, when it was performed, and how many times.

1) As Rooster pointed out, the July article never states or suggests that Miles (or Wayne) played on this at all. The piece only lists four trumpet players in the orchestra. But IIRC, Wallace Roney's orchestra had four trumpet players PLUS Wallace as soloist. So, could it be that Miles was the soloist at UCLA?

2) The reviewer complains that McFarland's orchestra played the same McFarland originals each night, suggesting that this was ripping off the audience who paid a whopping $5.50 per concert (what is that in today's dollars?). He then gives a generally favorable review to these pieces, ending with the part about the Shorter piece being the least successful. So was the Shorter piece played each night as well (which would mean that Miles did not play on it), or just the one time? And did they play this piece just before Miles' set on 5/12? The review does not address this, and also does not state explicitly that McFarland was conducting 'Legend', although it does seem to suggest it. Siders actually reviews the orchestral portions separately from the small group sets, so you don't really get a feel for when each set took place, further exacerbated by the fact that he lumps the performances of all three days together. Note that the Miles quintet had Buster Williams in lieu of Ron Carter, and that 'Stella By Starlight' and 'All Blues' were part of the setlist - by May 1967, Miles had pretty much dropped 'Stella' from the repertoire.

As for the Shorter pieces interpolated into 'Legend', the May article suggests that the piece will incorporate several Davis themes, which I interpret to mean Davis originals (you know, like 'Four' and 'Tune Up' and 'Solar', all tunes we know that Miles wrote). But the four pieces I recognized are by Shorter: 'Orbits', 'Dolores', 'Vonetta' and 'Sweet Pea'. The first two had been released by 1/67 so could have been recognized by a very discerning jazz fan who had already absorbed the Miles Smiles record, but the other two had not even been recorded yet (interestingly, 'Vonetta' was recorded right after the festival in NYC, but an alternate take of 'Limbo' was recorded on 5/9/67 in LA with Buster Williams - so they came to LA a couple of days before the festival, booked a studio and recorded only one track? What else did they try to play in the studio that day? Perhaps a quintet version of portions of 'Legend'?). My point is that the themes from Miles' repertoire that we recognize now would hardly have been recognizable to the majority of the UCLA audience.

As for the recording and a potential Monterey performance: a Wikipedia search does not show Miles at Monterey in 1967 at all, so I suspect Wayne thought it was Monterey in the NYT interview because of Jimmy Lyons' involvement, but it was actually UCLA. I could conceive of Lyons booking a performance of 'Legend' at Monterey that year to get two performances out of his commission, but neither Miles nor Wayne would have been involved. A quick search of the Monterey Festival Archives at Stanford does not show 'Legend' as a piece in the archives, but more research would be needed (I do see that they have recordings by the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra with Gillespie and Moody on 9/17/67, but they seem to have played compositions by the conductor Miljenko Prohaska). Wayne's reference to Coltrane clouds the issue some more since Coltrane had died in July. Coltrane could theoretically have known about a performance of 'Legend' at UCLA on 5/12/67 or thereabouts, but he would not have been there. He was very ill by then and his last known performance was in Baltimore for the Left Bank Jazz Society on 5/7/67 (not recorded, alas). The performance announced in the 5/4/67 downbeat (including the intriguing collaboration with orchestra and strings) never happened due to Coltrane's illness. Siders does not mention Coltrane in his review, even to say that he cancelled. I will check later to see if Lewis Porter mentions anything about this. I have to assume that McFarland had already written his Coltrane overture, but what happened to it?

Conclusion: 'Legend' was performed at least once at UCLA between 5/12 and 5/14/67, perhaps with Miles, most likely without Wayne and most likely with Gary McFarland conducting. If there is a recording, it might be at UCLA since the whole festival was planned in cooperation with UCLA. What a coincidence - Wayne teaches at UCLA now.

Any further thoughts on this topic would be appreciated.

Bertrand.

Edited October 9, 2013 by bertrand

[bertrand]

If you are in the DC area and want to hear how great Kush Abadey is, he will be part of the trio at a jam session on U street tomorrow night. Todd Simon and Blake Meister (hardly slouches themselves) are also in the group.

Bertrand.

[bertrand]

I just found out that Wayne will be at the Kennedy Center as part of a Blue Note records 75th birthday concert on 5/11/14. I think he was just added.

Not clear if this a one-off exclusive at KC, or a package concert which will take place in many cities. I assume Wayne will play one or two pieces with the quartet.

Bertrand.

[bertrand]

Update: The performance of the 3 Shorter pieces by Roney's orchestra at the Detroit Jazz Festival was recorded and will be broadcast/streamed by WBGO next week. I need to get the exact details. Too bad I can't live in NYC and listen to it on WBGO. I will have to settle for the live stream.

Bertrand.

[Hardbopjazz]

Wayne will be playing at JALC I believe two nights in 2015. I need to order my tickets.

[bertrand]

Update #1: There is a kickstarter out there for the Roney CD and a documentary about the whole project.

Update #2: I am wiser now, and have spent a lot of time looking into the Left Bank Jazz Society. I very much doubt the last Coltrane concert was recorded, but the fact that a tape has yet to surface is not proof. Proof would be a video of Coltrane frisking every single audience member for a secret recording. That has yet to surface. Some accounts claim a recording was attempted, but the machine broke...

[bertrand]

I think the interest in the Universe project has died. That ship has sailed. I tried.