Michael Fitzgerald

I don't see what is so special about the format of Milestones. Basically, the format that it uses is very common. Jazz biographies tell the life of the subject in chronological sequence, with particular attention paid to the historical documents (the recordings). So, with some exceptions, we're talking about pretty much every jazz biography. There have been some good recommendations so far, but it comes down to the author, I think - whether he or she has done the necessary research and whether this research is presented clearly and compellingly. The one thing that is different about Milestones is that it actually has bits of discography placed in with the text. Personally I find this annoying and would have preferred a discography section (I still prefer the Ian Carr book to the Chambers. I own but haven't read the Szwed, but I liked the little I did look at). If in fact that's what you're looking for, I can't think of another example. Mike

This Monksieland thing was the last band that Steve Lacy had before he died. I don't know if the Byron replacement is something that is just to meet contractual obligations or if it is intended as a more long term tribute. The band with Lacy played at Iridium in NYC, maybe some other places. Mike

I'll probably pick it up within the next month or two. Mike

Please tell me about this Somethin' Else record by Out of the Blue - I would certainly want to know about it for my Mike Mossman discography (and maybe Renee Rosnes too). I have four CDs by them, all on US Blue Note and have never heard of one that was Japan-only. Anything is possible, though. One thing I *don't* have (and *do* want) is the Renee Rosnes trio album (Face To Face) on Somethin' Else. Anyone who's got that, drop me an email. Mike

How about Count Basie's 2/3/39 Decca recording of Cherokee with Chu Berry and Lester Young as the tenors? No Ben Webster, I'm afraid, and Berry doesn't solo. Mike

Forget the food ladder, how about the food chain - which one will devour the other?

Absolutely - must be the Eddie Costa who plays keyboards on the 1970s P.J. Colt records. Or maybe it's the Eddie Costa who engineered the 1992 Marco Pereira album. Could be the Eddie Costa who sings on the 1995 Planet Soup album. See, with the dreaded allmusic site, there's no need for such limited thinking that it has to be the guy who the bio talks about. Don't be close-minded! Remember ALL music. Mike

Yes. Mike

The quote mentioning Armstrong is from DB May 1982 p.18. The interviewer is Bob Blumenthal. BB: Getting back to the differences between now and, say, 20 years ago, a friend of mine likes to say that jazz isn't dead, it's just over. In other words, a natural musical cycle has run its course, like the 19th century European orchestral form, and any further evolution will be marked by so many other influences that people won't hear it as jazz. SR: A person like me doesn't like to think of something like that being true. I like to think there is a direct link between early jazz and jazz of any time - a vital part, so you can really tell that that's what it is. I like to think that jazz can be played in a way that you can hear the old as well as the new. At least that's how I try to play and what I do personally. But maybe jazz will stretch out to the point where it's not really jazz, the basical part of jazz. I think the basic part is done already, it can't really change. I listen to Louis Armstrong and hear something that I want to be able to hear in anything that's called "jazz." [end of article] Mike

When I spoke with Dan Morgenstern earlier tonight about the show he informed me that there is a new park policy that requires the concerts to be over and done by 10 PM. So the first paragraph of the review is pretty much shot down. There was no chance that we were going to get a concert of epic proportions. That description of the first tune is bizarre. A pleasant melodic line? A beautiful gesture? Where is the mention of the goddamn incessant bass line? That's what Rollins kept referring to in his solos. He and the bass would link up and Anderson would play harmony to it. As a matter of fact, where the hell is ANY mention of Clifton Anderson???? He's now "other band members"? Most folks I've talked to who were at the show disagree with the point about the percussion, saying it detracted from rather than enhanced the music. And again, there is absolutely no comprehension of what's going on with or without stated chords. I'm starting to remember why I dislike reviews. The NYT has cut back drastically on its jazz coverage so I haven't seen much recently, but God, that crappy typical description in the last paragraph is awful. I'm surprised by all the typos in the article - Michael Becker? Bob Crenshaw? Kimati Dinimulu? Absence of a choral instrument? Perhaps this is an unedited advance version? Even so, I'd think it wouldn't take an editor to get such things right. Mike

http://www.ipl.org/exhibit/detjazz/ http://detroitmusichistory.com/ Mike

Not exceptional. The band was Rollins, Clifton Anderson, Bob Cranshaw - the three of them have been together for 20 years, Rollins and Cranshaw for over 40 (on and off). The drummer was Steve Jordan and the percussionist was Kimati Dinizulu. No piano, no guitar. First tune was the traditional warmer-upper where Sonny plays an extended solo. He was OK but the tune itself was boring as hell. The perpetual bassline had three notes in it. I can't imagine how Cranshaw can play the exact same line for whatever - 15 minutes or more. Exact same line. No bridge, no interlude, nothing. Over and over and over. Rollins was going through all kinds of patterns, moving them through keys, sort of thinking aloud. But other times I've seen him, the opener is where he would really build the intensity. I recall a C minor blues opener that went on for easily 30 minutes - all Rollins solo, no one else. When they ended that, the audience exploded. That kind of energy was not present this evening. Let's see, after that, Rollins played a newer tune called "C E A" which I think refers to the chords in it. Again, not an interesting composition, but a little moreso than the first. After that, I forget - but Rollins stopped playing solos and when it was his turn he instead did trades with the drums. Clifton Anderson took some long solos and played well, I think better than I've ever heard him. Usually he was just extraneous because Sonny would blow for ages and he'd stand around, then take a couple of choruses and out. There was the expected calypso - thankfully just the one (unlike another Damrosch Park show where he played like four of them), but it was a welcome change and I think this is where we got a long percussion solo, ending up with Dinizulu playing cajon. I think the next tune was "They Say It's Wonderful" and this was easily the high point of the evening. It was really the only straight-ahead changes tune. If I remember correctly, Rollins played some fours after the head, then Anderson soloed. Then Rollins came back and played a long long solo - of the kind we are accustomed to hearing, where he wraps it up, then keeps going, chorus after chorus. In the past, he was playing at this kind of level as sort of a baseline. The encore was Tenor Madness, kind of perfunctory. I think there was a short theme after that to close things out as well. Some noticable absences: no circular breathing, no repeated low B-flat honks. I also miss the kind of repertoire he used to do, where you could hear great TUNES. Please raise your hand if you can recall three Rollins compositions from the past 10 years. I can't. I wasn't thrilled with Steve Jordan and I thought a percussionist was superfluous. Not the worst Rollins show I've seen, but definitely not the best. Mike

The question, of course, was "What jazz guitarist has never been in my kitchen?" Mike

Criss Cross, Gray Skies, X-15, Gerald's Train, Lights Out are by Gerald Wiggins (2/24/56) recorded for Ember. Knights of the Squaretable is really Nights at the Turntable by Mulligan (10/15-16/52) recorded for Pacific Jazz. Joggin' is by Buddy Collette (c.1959-60) recorded for Crown. A mess to be sure. Info on Crown here: http://www.bsnpubs.com/modern/crown.html Mike

One nit in the Guardian article - the five minute wait before the tenor solo on the last piece is actually the first section (Bulería). Tenor solos on the second section (Soleá), and both the vocal part and the flugelhorn solo occur in the final section (Rumba). Mike

Absolutely I would say it is Third Stream, in fact, it's one of the BEST - most successful at the integration of the jazz and classical elements. No way can you decide which place to file this one. Mike

I'm sure the error would have been caught at some point - I have faith that the Basie project folks are actually looking at their stuff (or will be before it goes public). I can't say the same about Lord. Basie is an artist he specifically brags about being so new and improved in the latest CD-ROM version. "It also contains the most complete and up-to-date leader discography of Count Basie." - are his exact words. So obviously someone was supposedly spending a lot of time working on the Basie section. Sigh. Mike

They toured with only four saxophones and three trumpets? I don't think so. I believe Frank Foster and Thad Jones ought to be added. I think the problem could stem from the Lord discography which only lists Foster and Jones as arrangers. Bruyninckx discography does list Foster on tenor and Jones on trumpet on the March 29, 1960 concert. And remember folks, this is the NEW IMPROVED Lord discography, the one that has had over 10 years of waiting for revisions. Ain't nobody minding the store, I'm afraid. So in the end, Mr. Tapscott had the correct info first. Mike

Yes, Ware and Jones on that. See the Wilbur Ware discography on my website. Date was November 3, 1957 (evening). Mike

No, that's not the answer. Though I take issue with that question - "rarely used" is not accurate. The answer is something MUCH more common than C-melody, let alone saxello, manzello, stritch, Conn-O-Sax, F mezzo-saxophone, slide saxophone, subcontrabass, etc. Mike

Well, yeah, probably worth the money. I have been a subscriber to the magazine since its inception and will continue to support it. I always find something useful in it, mostly the interviews and transcriptions. There is a lot of crap too, though. The reviews are a joke. The long feature article on Blakey ("full-length biography, discography" - well....there is NO discography at all, just a recommended list of 16 albums) is disappointing. Basically the author took the chronology from my website (with a thank you credit) and wrote a narrative in that breathless style - "And then they made this record... And then they made that record...." with a paragraph describing each tune of the album. The narrative ends in 1985 - why? I have absolutely no idea. I found no evidence of original research. There are no footnotes to source the quotations, though many of them again come from my website (where the sources are always identified). Some of the other quotations are laughable - do we really need this, talking about Gypsy Folk Tales: "Scott Yanow describes the album by saying "[T]he hard-bop solos are consistently fresh." Oh. Really? There are errors of fact and of editing in the article - anyone who's heard the two tunes knows that the Tina Brooks "Nutville" from Minor Move is NOT the same tune as the "Nutville" by Horace Silver on The Cape Verdean Blues. The Great Day In Harlem photo was August 13, not August 18, 1958. The jazz interpretation of the musical "Golden Boy" was NOT "Blakey's only foray in the genre" - what about the Lerner and Loewe one for RCA? And there's irrelevant trivia thrown in about record producers and album cover artists. That Art Davis could be described as simply, "the second bassist on a rejected take of A Love Supreme" shows me that the author hasn't got a decent grasp on the subject of jazz history. But anyone who calls the abysmal Clifford Brown biography by Catalano "recommended reading" saying that it is "thorough in the details of his life and the analysis of his music" must be living on a different planet from me. Still, what other magazine has devoted so much space to Blakey? Pay the money - it's the price of a CD. BTW, this is no longer the current issue. Vol. 4 No. 4 has Pat Metheny on the cover. Mike P.S. You can read the review of my Gigi Gryce book in the Blakey issue pp.257-9. Unfortunately there is no real "review" apart from the opening paragraph ("they thoroughly explore Gryce's musical accomplishments"). Instead it's basically a two-page synopsis of the biography. Still, as they say, any press is good press.

Man, at this point, I'd pay the $8 just to get the answer to who's in the photo. I've asked enough people to look at it - they think it's a game - "Gee, Mike, I don't know - I give up. Who is it?" That's why I'm ASKING!!!! Mike

How's this for a deal - you collect all the actual records and CDs, or photocopies of the sleeves, labels, etc. and I'll enter them all in the database for you and put it up on the web. This is what I did for the Don Friedman, Tony Zano, Tony Fruscella, Attila Zoller, Al Kiger, Joe Hunt discographies. Your name goes on it as the compiler and mine as the editor. Then when I have a question on "who wrote that tune?" - you'll have the answer. And you can deal with keeping it up-to-date by doing the research on what is being reissued, etc. You can handle all the inquiries and all the letters of thanks. And you won't have to worry about the intricacies of learning the database program or doing the tedious data entry (I've done this so much it's a breeze for me). The basic session format would look like this: http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Temp/tete-disc.htm I'm always looking for "completist" collectors who would like to collaborate in this fashion. Mike

That's a good question and one that I have pondered many times. I still don't have a perfect answer for it. Judging by my collection one might think my answer is "do both!" Then there's that finite amount of listening time in one's lifetime.... Anyway, for me, Keith Jarrett is another "buy-sight-unseen" like Maria Schneider. I mean, he's putting out a record a year, he's not doing sideman appearances, he's not oversaturating the market like whoever - David Murray or Lee Konitz, say. Mike

As the group with perhaps the finest sense of musical interaction and the highest standards of execution currently playing, this trio has very few peers. I have every release, go to see them live each tour, and for me, another CD by them is always welcome. So many other groups hit a peak and then decline, or else they disband prematurely, leaving us to wonder "what if?" The Jarrett trio is *still* playing at that very high level and as mentioned, they *have* been exploring other things - remember, this is the group that started off playing "standards". Then we got some free stuff, we got some bebop and hard bop, we got some originals - how much more do you want? Besides, it was not long ago that there was the very real possibility of NO further recordings or performances by Keith Jarrett. As for the varied settings, this is what it is - you can't complain about steak not tasting like lobster. Would I buy a new CD of say, Jarrett reunited with Jan Garbarek? Absolutely. But this is a trio record and I look forward to hearing it. Mike