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He certainly did some work. RIP

Yep

Sad news.

Sorry to hear of his passing. R.I.P.

Listening now. Really excellent

Very sorry to hear of Jack's passing. Our friendship bonded via our fascination with the life of Richard Twardzik. Jim

Got this from the Toronto Duke Ellington Society: I’m very sorry to report the passing of my friend and fellow author Jack Chambers earlier this week, in Toronto, at the age of 86. Jack was a professor in the department of linguistics at the University of Toronto for many years — indeed, its head from 1986 to 1990 — and completed several respected books and countless articles in that field. His “parallel vocation,” as he described writing about jazz, drew similar approbation — Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis (1998), Bouncin' With Bartok: The Incomplete Works of Richard Twardzik (2008), A Tone Parallel to Duke Ellington: The Man in the Music (2025) and the forthcoming Ellington the Composer: Caught in the Act. His CV for linguistics and jazz together runs to no fewer than 41 pages. Jack was the senior member of a group of journalists, academics and musicians in Toronto who shared an interest in writing about jazz and who would meet every now and then for dinner, drinks and, of course, disputation. Jack brought to our gatherings the same quiet, knowing authority that characterized his writing. As news of his death circulated privately last night, he was lauded by one of our number as “a rare and generous spirit.” I can only concur. Posted by Mark Miller

Melissa Aldana - Filin (Blue Note)

Thanks!

Hopefully this will https://rienakajima.bandcamp.com/album/1-may-2018 Title is 1 May 2018, under Nakajima's name, on Bandcamp

Which is that? The link doesn't work for me for some reason.

Yes, Sakata was pretty extraordinary. I'd not seen him before and had few preconceptions. This wasn't the fire breathing Sakata but a far more considered approach. A beautiful tone on both sax and clarinet, especially clarinet. Duo with what I think was some kind of no contact mic set up creating a percussive undertow. Then a trio with Rie Nakajima's small percussion and a poet reciting, in Japanese. Sakata also sang/ intoned and played bells. All quite spellbinding It was very reminiscent of this very good album https://rienakajima.bandcamp.com/album/1-may-2018

Was it good? I was weighing it up and plumped for the Vortex trip mainly because I so rarely go there now. You tipped me off to Arbenz I think, a year or so ago. Thank you for that. Half to hear that Sakata was good!

Enjoy that, I like Arbenz and used to buy everything Osby released. I nearly booked for it but decided on Sakata at Oto as this week's trip out. I wasn't disappointed.

See? The Stones as a whole are definitely OUT by the usual European definition within the R'n'R subculture (even if certain tracks - as with the Beatles' oeuvre - would fit into R'n'R, stylistically speaking). Haley, Lewis and Berry are IN. But they cover only SOME aspects of the ENTIRE spectrum of R'n'R. To varying degrees. And that "driving around getting teenage kicks" that you mentioned about the "Rocket 88" lyrics is ONE aspect that would rate this recording as "early" R'n'R. Whereas the recordings by Wynonie Harris (that often rock even harder) might not qualify that easily because THEIR lyrics - about boozing and the pimp making love to the preacher's wife in the kitchen - address a rather different audience. His "adult R'n'R" or "adult R&B" recordings therefore lack the "teenage/youth audience" angle that sets R'n'R apart as the first specific style of music geared specifically to the YOUNG'UNS. Not to what the elders would condescendingly allow their kids to listen to in the pre-1954 days. (Not that WHITE parents in 50s US of A - or parents in the UK or Germany, for that matter - would have been enthusiastic about their kids listening to Wynonie Harris, but I think you get what I mean. ) OTOH others (like me, incidentally ) may find the strictly adult lyrics no hindrance to R'n'R status if the music has the right vibe. So it all depends on what importance you place onto what aspect of the individual recordings. Not a question that can or will ever be settled.

Dead people are safe.

I guess a lot does depend on what you mean by rock and roll. Maybe it if you don't mean Bill Haley or Jerry Lee Lewis or Chuck Berry but instead mean the Rolling Stones. The Jim Dawson and Steve Propes book sounds really interesting. And a far more sensible approach to dealing with the question than any other that I could think of.

More EKE:

A bit or more of hype in that poster...really no "scandal" involved. But is is a pretty "moody" film, could have been played for straight soap, but wasn't.

"Rocket 88" may be considered the direct precursor of the more outgoing, rougher small-group (usually Black) R'n'R recordings with a driving, rocking, no-frills rhythm. Of course the stylistic boundaries did overlap, so "Rocket 88" is just as much straight-ahead R&B as it may be labeled very early (i.e. pre-)R'n'R. But at any rate Rock'n'Roll is a many-faceted genre. (I.e. REAL R'n'R of the pre-Beatles and preferably pre-assembly line Teen Idol era à la Avalon, Vee, Rydell etc. - and specifically NOT the blurred U.S. "definition" of R'n'R that would even label almost anything among later Rock as "Rock'n'Roll", from Psychedelic via Hard Rock and Alice Cooper et al. to Heavy Metal) So it depends on what elements you hear in what tune from the pre-R'n'R era that might inspire you to see it as the first blossoming of musica traits that were omnipresent in c.1954-63 R'n'R. Perennial food for thought and discussions of this will be found in "What Was The First Rock'n'Roll Record?" by Jim Dawson and Steve Propes. This book discusses 50 recordings that might qualify (depending on what aspect of R'n'R it is all about) - ranging (chronologically speaking) from "Blues Pt. 2" by that JATP crew of 1944 (for Illinois Jacquet's tenor sax solo as the father of all rockin' saxes) to Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel" of 1956 (which would conform to rather a narrow, mainstreamish definition of the genre), and lots of in-betweens that all deserve some reflection. One overriding criterion of what would qualify as the "first" R'n'R record certainly is if these early recordings would alienate the typical crowds of the 50s-style R'n'R subculture when they are worked into the flow of tunes at record hops of if they would fit seamlessly in. From my own observations at such events I can tell you they would NOT be out of place there. (O.K., maybe some narrow-minded purists might object to a number of them, but they would quibble about certain authentic R'n'R tracks too) And then there are some that aren't even listed. E.g. "Diggin' My Potatoes" by Washboard Sam that for its rhythm alone may rightfully be considered the ancestor of most rockabilly tunes.

Jacob stole the blessing.