Michael Fitzgerald

Godwin's Law triumphs again! Mike

None. They have way too many other things to worry about on the standardized tests. Mike

I agree it was a disaster. I agree it was her fault - she was lost. But blame the band? I didn't see that at all. She did a perfectly appropriate thing - she recognized that there was a problem (but likely didn't realize it was her fault at the time). Rather than having four musicians (or two musicians, a singer, and a drummer.....) in different places, having only two involved makes it easier to get things righted. And it did get the job done. If you think that's "blaming the band" - I would like to know what you would expect the *leader* of a quartet to do under the circumstances. You must remember that those musicians are NOT hired so that she can follow them. They follow her - right or wrong. And I refuse to jump to the conclusion that drugs or alcohol were responsible. The effects of age were apparent to me in other ways. Mike

Ugh - BN is going to shovel money into this? I guess it will look good on their taxes, but I'd have to advise anyone considering buying it to send the purchase price directly to charities. I'd have to say it was worse than any classical benefit because those players don't get thrown together without being familiar with the repertoire they're going to perform. Mike

Although she has had that kick-ass attitude for years now, Abbey is getting a little past it, I think. She blew the entrance after the piano solo and then to salvage things she cut out the bass and drums. It was a decent save - but very embarrassing, I mean this is "For All We Know" not any obscure complicated original tune and Marc Cary is her regular pianist, so no excuses there. But her voice is deteriorating. She is 76. Maybe she has better days, but she used to have far more control of things - there were some nasty held notes in there. Her CDs don't show her in such a bad light. It looked to me like her hand was bandaged. No further speculation here. We need to have a moritorium on the word "legend" - I mean, come on. Wynton Marsalis is a "legend"? No, he's not. He's a trumpet player, very real, very accessible, not some faint memory who only a few people ever got to see live, etc. Robert Johnson - that's a legendary musician. Mike

Here's a little related tidbit - The CD issue of "Brother Jack Meets The Boss" is listed as having SIX tracks in the Fantasy catalog (2002 print and online). However, the dreaded allmusic site lists an additional timing (6:10) for a tune with no title, no composer. Amazon also has this seventh track (listed as "Bonus Track"). In fact, the tune is "Ballad For Baby" which is also found on the "Soul Summit" CD. Mike

Yes, it helps - I guess it's all a coincidence. But apparently the credit to Leonard Feather is definitely wrong. Mike

According to the Fantasy catalog (2002 print and online), the Prestige CD "Soul Summit includes material by Gene Ammons/Sonny Stitt/Jack McDuff. One track is "Scram" with an R. The dreaded allmusic site credits this to "Feather" presumably Leonard (and ASCAP does list a tune of this title by Leonard Feather) and the narrative says it's played by McDuff with Harold Vick. However, BMI shows a tune by this title composed by Jack McDuff (which I tend to go with here). If it is performed by McDuff, this is the sole title included from a December 1, 1961 session. Here's the puzzler - several of the other tracks on this CD are by Ammons from April 13, 1962. The final track performed at that session was "Scam" - no R, which according to BMI is a title composed by Gene Ammons. So........which is it? And was it the same on the original "Soul Summit, vol. 2" LP (7275) or did someone read the title wrong and grab the wrong tape at some point? Or is it all just a coincidence? Thanks! Mike

Which one is Sam The Sham? Mike

I'm puzzled by the listing of "This Can't Be Love" on this issue in the Fantasy catalog (both 2002 printed version and online). The dreaded allmusic site does NOT include it. Could someone who owns this CD (PRCD-244126-2) please verify? And, if it IS on the CD, what are this track's details? Mike

I haven't decided whether Schaap was reading someone else's copy or whether it was his own and there was someone with a choke leash to stop him from blathering as is his wont. His introduction of Cosby was so typical of him that I have to think this is the "new Lincoln Center-ized Schaap" - just as full of hyperbole and inaccuracy but in a friendly time-compressed format. The Lovano trio piece was "Blackwell's Message" which he recorded on the Tenor Legacy album. The presence of Idris Muhammad was largely out of sympathy, I guess, because he didn't work at all with Herbie Hancock (lost and clueless on Eye Of The Hurricane - an embarrassment) and he was somewhat better with Lovano, but there were 100 better choices for a drummer on that - except they're not from New Orleans. Mike

A quick browse at Amazon shows that VHS has several options, but DVD is ONLY the re-constructed version, not the traditional one. Mike

You may remember discussion here about the recent "Legends of Jazz" TV show on PBS. I have to say that Jon Hendricks and Paquito D'Rivera both were shown in a FAR superior light on tonight's benefit show. (And it seems that D'Rivera in particular has aged 10 years since that Legends taping - I barely recognized him.) Some people should prevent people like Bill Cosby from speaking in front of people. He rambled on fairly incoherently - people could have made his point better in two well-planned sentences, but people had to endure for what seemed to people like an eternity. I thought Marlon Jordan sounded abominable and that Terence Blanchard's group did quite well. I do like hearing Cassandra Wilson in a traditional setting, as opposed to what she does most of the time nowadays. And where was Kidd Jordan - and Branford Marsalis, for that matter? Mike BTW, no Rollins on this show.

Did Sonny Rollins go on before I tuned in - or are you thinking of Joe Lovano (who did play in a trio)? Mike

Largely mediocre performances and the commentary is pretty bad, but the hands-off presentation of the music itself is quite exceptional. I guess when TV producers have no choice but to show it "as it is" they can do it. But it's a shame that we can't get our jazz straight-up on a regular basis, without being cut or subjected to voice-overs and talking heads. Mike P.S. - when Phil Schaap introduced McCoy Tyner as the "last surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet" I wonder what Reggie Workman was thinking - let alone Steve Kuhn and Pete LaRoca.

Ummmm.....buy the Mosaic Jazztet set that was issued just over a year ago? Mike

Dinizulu also present in June & August 2004 in San Francisco & NYC. Mike

Truth be told, the first issue of that take of "All Of You" was in the 12-CD boxed set. Subsequently it was used to fill out the "On Green Dolphin Street" CD, which mostly was half of the "Peace Piece And Other Pieces" Milestone 2-LP set (M 47024) which had come out in 1975 (and had the Everybody Digs... session - but still without Some Other Time - as its other half). Mike

For the record, the 12-CD Riverside boxed set *does* have this material in the exact order of recording, just like the new 3-CD set. It lacks one track (the new Gloria's Step) and the announcements. Mik

The hip people play his stuff. Prism used to be a favorite of mine to do, also Innocence and New Dance and other European quartet material, but you gotta have a group that knows or will learn the stuff. There have been a few, such as Pat Metheny playing great high-energy versions of The Wind-Up (only live) as well as recording My Song on his recent solo guitar album. Other pieces like Coral have been done by Gary Burton. And then there's that whole album of cover versions. What I wish is that he *himself* would play his own stuff more. I'd love to hear what the trio could do with some of the older material, from all periods. That's something that Metheny really works at doing - he covers his entire history during concerts. He used to claim the band was 100% "backward compatible", meaning they could play *every* piece of his from the first to the last. Don't know if they still are after the numerous recent personnel shifts, but I bet he could do just about anything by leaving out some of those auxiliary guys. Mike

I tend to agree - and because of how things later turned out, I'm rather suspect of how she shares "his" opinions with us. I suppose what she meant to say is: "Bill would never have been happy with his playing until the dollar amount changed." Mike

Plenty of info here: http://www.ambersons.com/FAQs.htm Mike

And compared to an accordion......

The Monterose/Nistico broadcast exists and is circulating. As for an Atlas issue by Monterose with Carl Fontana - I've never heard of such thing. Would love to know more - but I wonder if you might be confusing it with the album Fontana recorded with Bill Watrous. See Atlas listing here: http://jazzlabels.klacto.net/atlas.html Mike

I knew this had been done here before: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...091&hl=armenian Mike