Michael Fitzgerald

This is a perpetual debate. Mo-tee-an is the correct Armenian pronunciation. Mo-shun is the pronunciation that Paul has accepted as being his last name. See his album "Monk In Motian", designed to be said "Monk In Motion". Mike

I don't have any problem with Koln, but I completely agree that Bremen & Lausanne is better. I've never found anything by Jarrett less than interesting. Mike

Man, what a career. Some of the greatest films of all time. ============================= http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/arts/15wise.html September 15, 2005 Robert Wise, Film Director, Dies at 91 Robert Wise, a conscientious craftsman in many movie genres who twice received Academy Awards as best director, died yesterday at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 91. His death was confirmed by Lawrence Mirisch, a family friend. Mr. Wise enjoyed a long career in which he became a notable editor of such films as Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane," then made a successful transition from making B-movies at RKO Studios during Hollywood's golden era of the 1940's to making important films in the 1950's, 60's and 70's. His career soared with "West Side Story," the 1961 filming of the landmark Broadway musical, for which he shared an Oscar as best director with the choreographer Jerome Robbins. He received a second Academy Award as producer when the film was voted best picture. He gained his third and fourth Oscars with "The Sound of Music," the lavish 1965 adaptation of the musical stage hit, in which he was again cited as best director and as producer of the best film. In all, "West Side Story" received 10 Oscars and "Sound of Music" won 5. Mr. Wise also was honored at the Academy Awards ceremony in 1966 with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement as a producer. Other films by Mr. Wise that continue to enjoy enthusiastic support include "The Body Snatcher," a 1945 horror film with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi; "The Set-Up," a gritty 1949 study of second- rate boxers; and the 1951 science-fiction cult favorite "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Mr. Wise counted among his own favorites "The Haunting," a cult favorite from 1963 with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom, and the 1958 drama about capital punishment, "I Want to Live!" Mr. Wise considered himself a director of content, not messages, and he was not afraid to experiment. In 1959 he filmed "Odds Against Tomorrow," an antiracist drama with Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan about a brutal bank robbery that he made without the customary fades (going to black) or dissolves (overlapping scenes) to denote the passage of time. Fades and dissolves, he remarked, tend to slow the tempo and break the mood. Despite Mr. Wise's versatility, dedication and skill at drawing consistently superior performances from actors, reviewers tended to complain that he left no personal stamp on his films. Detractors dismissed him as a sentimental technician whose movies were increasingly slick, uninventive and occasionally foolish. Robert Earl Wise was born on Sept. 10, 1914, in Winchester, Ind., the son of a meatpacker and his wife. The Depression force him to quit college in 1933, and he headed for Hollywood, where his older brother, Dave, was an accountant at RKO. His brother helped him get a job as a messenger in the studio's editing department. Soon he was learning sound effects and music editing, and working his way up to film editing. His work attracted the attention of Welles, who hired him to edit "Citizen Kane." Mr. Wise and Welles had a falling out, however, over the fate of Welles's "Magnificent Ambersons" in 1942. Many filmgoers today regard that film as a masterpiece, but audiences hated it when it had its preview in Pomona, Calif. World War II had begun and Americans wanted escapist fare, not a tale about death and dying and a spinster's sexual frustration. Welles was in Brazil and a panicky RKO ordered that the overbudget, behind-schedule movie be recut and reshaped by others, including Mr. Wise. He and his assistant, Mark Robson, who would also go on to become a director, began working round the clock to cut, replace and transpose scene after scene in a frantic effort to "keep the audiences in the theaters," as Mr. Wise put it. Welles denounced the editing of "The Magnificent Ambersons," saying the film was mutilated, "cut by the studio gardener." Mr. Wise conceded that "as a work of art" the original Welles version was better, but he defended his editing as saving the film from a worse fate at the hands of the studio. A particular admirer of Mr. Wise's editing was Martin Scorsese, the director who was instrumental in getting Mr. Wise the American Film Institute's life achievement award in 1998. "His films became increasingly fascinating to me because of the editing style, a very crisp, clear style of editing that kind of points the audience toward where to look in a scene," Mr. Scorsese said. Shortly after his work on "The Magnificent Ambersons," Mr. Wise got a big break. Gunther von Fritsch fell behind schedule in directing "The Curse of the Cat People," a children's terror fantasy that starred Simone Simon. Mr. Wise, who was editing it, was assigned to take over direction and completed shooting in 10 days. The film was hailed as one of the best of the psychological thrillers produced by Val Lewton and became a cult classic, and Mr. Wise was promoted to director. He believed that actors had a special language of their own and, with typical diligence, enrolled in an acting class to learn how performers viewed moviemaking. For the next three decades he emerged as one of the most prolific and peripatetic filmmakers in Hollywood with films including "Born to Kill" (1947), "Three Secrets" (1950), "The House on Telegraph Hill" (1951), "The Desert Rats" (1953), "Executive Suite" (1954), "Run Silent, Run Deep" (1958), "The Sand Pebbles" (1966) and "The Andromeda Strain" (1971). He had some memorable box-office flops as well, among them "The Hindenburg" (1975) and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979). He is survived by his current wife, Millicent, of Los Angeles; a son from an earlier marriage, Robert E. Wise of California; a stepdaughter, Pamela Rosenberg of New York; and a granddaughter. His wife Patricia Doyle died in 1975. In 1988 he received the highest honor of the Directors Guild of America, its D. W. Griffith Award for career achievement. He was a former chairman of the guild and a president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who had the respect of many associates for striving to strike a balance between commerce and art, for professionalism and patience and for helping novice moviemakers. When Mr. Wise was 83 he told The New York Times that "Citizen Kane" was not particularly difficult to edit, partly because of the masterly cinematography by Gregg Toland. From the outset, Mr. Wise said that he knew the film was singular. "You would see those extraordinary dailies every day, the marvelous photography and angles and great scenes with actors that were new to the screen, you'd see this and know it was quite special," Mr. Wise said. "And to think that Welles was 25, and it was his first film. Remarkable really." (The self-effacing Mr. Wise neglected to mention that he was less than a year older than Welles.) ================================ Mike

And regarding those other Tiny Grimes tracks, that compilation "Guitar Soul" has never seen CD reissue, correct? (Not to be confused with the Prestige album "Guitar Soul" by Billy Butler, which has been reissued as part of a 2-fer CD.) The compilation LP had other folks: Burrell/Galbraith and Bill Jennings (which means the Bill Jennings & Jack McDuff 2-fer CD didn't include the one remaining track from those sessions). I'll probably ask about that LP's details elsewhere soon. Mike

There is no "missing". There is only "waiting for the 50th anniversary edition". Mike

Yes, well featured. He also wrote some of the arrangements. No idea about plans for We Insist. Already own it on LP and CD. Mike

Yes, I think Last Waltz is later sets. Interesting how this stuff has now entered the legitimate Evans world, issued on Milestone (joining the Riverside and Fantasy material). Here's the quote from the Pettinger bio p. 281: ========== The trio played Keystone Korner for eight nights, starting on Sunday, August 31. All eight performances were recorded by the club owner, Todd Barkan, and issued in 1989, without authorization from the surviving artists, on an eight-CD set by Alfa Records of Tokyo called Consecration: The Last Complete Collection. Helen Keane told me specifically: "Bill was not happy with his playing while he was there, didn't know he was being recorded, and would never have approved the release of the material." ========== Hmmmmm. What a difference some dough makes. Mike

Yikes - I have never recommended that site; quite the opposite. My own site is similar in name (www.jazzdiscography.com) but it doesn't have include Jackie McLean just yet. Mike

Wasn't it the case that Consecration was issued way earlier by Alfa? So, The Last Waltz was issued by Milestone first, but later they were able to reissue Consecration. At the time of The Last Waltz, they didn't have the option you suggest. Mike

Similar to the Night Hawk situation, the "Blues Groove" LP (7138) by Tiny Grimes & Coleman Hawkins had five tracks but the later LP (7753) added another tune called Tiny Bean. Alas, they dropped the ball and didn't add that track as a bonus on the CD issue. Mike

I know of no instance when McLean recorded with Crothers. I find no evidence of any McLean album titled Perception. The only thing I can see is that McLean's album "Cosmic Brotherhood" has the SteepleChase catalog number immediately following Crothers's Perception album. Sounds like typical sloppiness from the dreaded allmusic site. But you said you ordered it - and yes, Amazon is actually listing a McLean album titled Perception. That's even scarier that the allmusic crap has infiltrated other areas. Mike

Funnily enough, I just read a review of his appearance at UNC-Chapel Hill where a couple in the audience were quoted as saying this: ========== "Frank's not around, so there's Tony," said Henry Bell of Apex. "We were Sinatra fans, and we never got to see him," his wife, Mary Beth Bell, elaborated. "We said we better see [bennett] while we can, or we'll regret it." ========== "Lee's dead and Freddie don't play no more." - oh wait, Freddie's the one getting the award..... Mike

The Fantasy site seems to say that this is identical to earlier Japanese and European issues. I see that disc one includes "announcement and intermission" between the afternoon sets - but there is no intermission between the evening sets. I guess they're saving that for the 30th anniversary set. Gotta pass on this - the 12 CD box is enough for me. Mike

But will the guys get suits? Mike

Well, if you were in the audience at Illinois, the information was in print in 3/63. And apparently it was announced as RP at Birdland in 1962 does the Boris Rose recording support that? Mike

Issued? No, but Impulse called it "Red Planet" when it was recorded at the Vanguard in 11/61 by Coltrane. And it was called "Red Planet" at the Illinois concert of Dolphy in 3/63 and it was specifically noted as a Dolphy piece on that program. Gunther Schuller has Dolphy's own music for the piece, using the "Red Planet" title. Mike

The story that is always told is that *unissued* masters were lost in the fire, so anything that was ever issued by Atlantic *should* be unaffected. Mike

And has it? And do you? 1961 wasn't yesterday. Mike

True - since Savoy is Nippon Columbia/Denon http://jazzlabels.klacto.net/nippon-columbia.html This much later item goes together with the material recorded by Savoy. There are 3 tunes - The Man Who Never Sleeps; O.P.; Portrait. These came out on CD 30CY-1388 http://www1.ttcn.ne.jp/~improvised.co/zdis...horchestra.html Mike

Yes, he did. I guess he must be some kind of known quantity in the comic world. Compositionally, this album is WEAK. Lenny White's idea of a tune is a five-note idea repeated over and over while the bass note shifts around. There are a number of such things to be heard on this album. I strongly disagree that this album is in any way superior to the RTF albums with White. Come on, "Song To The Pharaoh Kings," anyone? Corea runs rings around White in terms of composition, Stanley Clarke does too. Whatever input "Captain Keyboards" Don Blackman had didn't do much to improve things. There's some seriously lame stuff on here - just amazingly corny. Like the keyboard stuff at the end of "Mandarin Warlords" - I mean, is that *supposed* to be goofy or is it accidental? With so much pretentiousness in this album, I tend to think it's accidental. I find musical personality seriously lacking here - Nick Moroch is a no-taste-having-string-overbending-wannabe. The DiMeola impression in the last piece is probably his finest moment. White went from working with a hack like DiMeola in RTF to hiring second- and third-raters like Ray Gomez and Neal Schon and then going down from there in this case. In terms of drums, I like Lenny White when he's got something challenging him, but here it's too straight. There's a lot of rock mentality in this material; it feels like Rush. And that's not a good thing. I mean, if groove is your thing, then "Universal Love" probably works - but forget the lyrics. They're just plain bad. All in all, I'd rather listen to "Planetary Citizen"..... And the less said about the "concept" and story, the better. "A musical space odyssey" indeed. As I recall, there were more interesting things on Venusian Summer and Big City. But it was spots, not like the entire albums were great. It's very obvious to see White's shortcoming's as a leader when he does a piece with Jerry Goodman and Jan Hammer. I know Mahavishnu. Mahavishnu is a good friend of mine. You, sir, are no Mahavishnu. Like I said, I'm a big fan of White as a drummer, but I don't see any need for him to write or lead sessions. In terms of tunes the best thing he ever did was "Guernica." Of Corea, Clarke, DiMeola, White, LW is the one whose records I want to hear the least. And that's saying something because Al DiMeola makes my skin crawl. But he does get some good musicians and he'll come up with some decent tunes (I'm strictly speaking of the Columbia period). Mike

This one never thrilled me - maybe I'll give it another spin. I just remember it as being...unmemorable. Mike

OK - updated and even an additional session added. Thanks to all. The Fresh Sound CD mentioned that includes Will Bradley, Jr. - that's the "Jaywalkin'" that I already list, correct? Or has there been a FS replica of "House of Bradley"? Mike

He's got his own thing with Monk - much more fluid and bebop, but with a great understanding of the voicings and accents that define Monk. The discography of Kenny Barron on my website has a composition index and a quick text search for "Thelonious" will reveal every recorded instance of Kenny playing Monk. Over 30 different tunes, including several uncommon ones, with some in over 15 different versions, going all the way back to 'Round Midnight from Kenny's time with Dizzy Gillespie in 1963. Mike

Actually, I would like the non-JR, Bradley Sr. info just to be complete with the issue index, which will show the exact sequence of Sr. and Jr. tracks. Thanks! Mike

Those tunes, no, I don't believe so, but some of the other tracks have been issued as bonus tracks - the Rouse, for example, later added to Bossa Nova Bacchanal. The Herbie was on the Sixties box set first, I think. Mike