Michael Fitzgerald

Yes, but after picking up the box did you have to see a chiropractor?

Surprised that I didn't find previous discussion of this one. As a longtime devotee of McLaughlin, I picked this one up without knowing anything about it. It turns out that it contains as its title selection the reworked version of his second guitar concerto, which I knew as "Europa". Absolutely beautiful. I loved his first one "The Mediterranean" and was disappointed when years and years passed without any recording of the second. I had only heard mention of it. As it happens, McLaughlin went through a few revisions and the one on the new album isn't really a guitar concerto, it features additional soloists, and to very good effect. This is a three-movement piece lasting a total of about 27 minutes. The remainder of the CD is devoted to four jazz tunes: My Foolish Heart (which McLaughlin had recorded before on the "Electric Guitarist" album); The Dolphin by Luiz Eca; Stella by Starlight; and My Romance. These are performed by the same guitar ensemble he used on the "Time Remembered" Bill Evans tribute album (which I have been listened to frequently in recent weeks, coincidentally). McLaughlin writes that each of the pieces is dedicated to a different pianist - Chick Corea, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Herbie Hancock, and Bill Evans. The Dolphin has a touch of bossa nova, a new style that wasn't ever used on the earlier CD. I'd say there are more "jazz" elements too. Some really swinging passages. Strongly recommended for those who appreciate orchestral music and McLaughlin's beautiful acoustic work. Very understated and rewarding. Mike

I have never bought Magnification because I have been so turned-off by the performances of a few of the tunes from that record that I have heard in concert, and by the other various times I have encountered the music (on DVDs, radio, etc.). I don't hear *anything* there that makes me think of the good old days. It just makes me think that they have lost it and how glad I am that they realize that it's the classic repertoire that folks want to hear, not meaning a bunch of "hits" - they continue to bring out the 20-minute pieces and even dredge up old pieces that were (almost) never performed at the time, like South Side of the Sky. Today I picked up the three latest remasters as well as the DVD "YesSpeak". I've listened to most of Drama, easily my favorite of the three. I am very disappointed that someone dropped the ball on the mixing of "Does It Really Happen?" - after the false ending, the return is supposed to fade in gradually. This is correct on the Joe Gastwirt remaster (Atlantic 82685-2) - the new one (Elektra/Rhino R2 73795) completely misses this important crescendo. To pick a nit, the color matching on the cover (compared to the LP) is better on the Atlantic CD too. The bonus material is wonderful - but why was "We Can Fly From Here" not included? That's one that has circulated for years and would even be played as a rarity on radio specials. Tantalizingly, there's also another version that includes Bill Bruford (!!!) Next - has no one else noticed that the Tormato CD actually has 18 tracks, not 17 as listed everywhere? The final track is a vocal-less backing track version of Onward, one of the few good tunes on the record. Drag that my copy skips incessantly halfway through (maybe that's why they didn't list it). Track 17 is a working version of "Does It Really Happen" called "Everybody's Song" which is phenomenal, showing the direction things might have taken. There are some horrible bonus tracks too (Money - egads!). For all the grief that some people give Drama (which I suspect is knee-jerk mostly because of the absence of Anderson), Tormato is by far the worse record. It's like all the worst bits of Going For The One (which does have some absolutely *marvelous* bits - Awaken, Turn of the Century, Wondrous Stories) - taken and then cut down into little bits. Something like Madrigal could have been expanded into a significant work a la Awaken, but it wasn't. There are other passages on the album that would have also worked well as portions of more fully-developed pieces. Now, 90125 - what is the point of having a release of this which has the catalog number R2 73796???? I bought this just to be complete. There are actually quite a few things that could be reworked into quality Yes music. Of course, those weren't the choices that were made, and that's probably thought of as all the better - witness their commercial success. But personally, I was never a fan of it - I did see the tour which was rather mediocre. But not nearly as mediocre as the next time I saw the band - ABWH. Now THAT album was pure crap. I heard the single on the radio and said, "Well, if that's the single, maybe the album has the adventurous stuff." Boy, was I wrong. The single was actually more adventurous. Periodically I give it another chance but it has always failed miserably. Saw the tour because I never saw Bruford live with Yes and he actually ended up being the weakest link. Playing electric drums does NOT work on things like Close to the Edge. It ruined the show. I was bitterly disappointed by that. Wakeman was as soulless as ever - Bruford certainly has him pegged in that interview above. Very very clean fast playing, but absolutely just scales and arpeggios. No melody, none of the chromaticism that gives solos color. Regarding Bruford's comment about the lack of jazz in progressive rock, I strongly disagree. In Yes, fine, but the work of Keith Emerson, especially in The Nice is filled with jazz harmony, melody, and rhythm, and instrumentation, particularly when they became a trio. Brian Davison was very capable of playing hard swinging drums and the band was doing covers inspired by Keith Jarrett (the version of My Back Pages, the BBC version of Sombrero Sam from the Charles Lloyd repertoire, etc.), Monk, Tristano, and Brubeck. Another seriously jazz influenced progressive group would be The Soft Machine. And King Crimson, particularly in the 1969 incarnation with Ian MacDonald (dig the live stuff issued on the 4-CD set Epitaph). Mike Giles was every bit the jazz player that Bruford was and if anyone has heard the Brondesbury Tapes issue of demos by Giles, Giles, and Fripp (and even the studio album on Deram), it's very clear that jazz was a part of the mix. Back to Yes - the band has done good live shows recently. I preferred the orchestra show to the return of Wakeman, although not because of Tom Brislin, who did not impress. As the Brits say - WANKER! Mike

I frequently borrow a Sony Mavica that uses a mini-CD for storage. I have a couple of rewritable CDRs for that and I can take hundreds of photos at the highest resolution (3 MP, I think - each photo is about 1.3 MB) without any worry about running out of space - and another CDR is way cheaper than any of the alternative memory choices. It can connect to the computer via USB, too. So just download the photos, reformat the CDR and you're ready to go. Are there models still using a mini-CD for storage? I don't see them around. Were there downsides that have led to its being abandoned? Personally, I don't have any problems with it - if I could just get some more zoom, I'd be in heaven. Mike

Misspelled or variant names are a real bitch - what one needs is what is known in the library science world as "authority control" - where there is ONE correct and true entry to which all variants are made to conform regardless of how the boneheads at the various labels print things. Otherwise it's like the tower of Babel - for example with tune titles, you've got: 'Round Midnight 'Round About Midnight Round Midnight Round About Midnight or I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance (I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance Ghost of a Chance or how about: Corcovado Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars or: The Blues Walk (Clifford Brown) Loose Walk (Sonny Stitt) Somebody Done Stole My Blues (Chris Woods) So personally, what I try to do is establish what is the correct (or best choice) one and use it everywhere, but note if there is a variant on the issue. For example, I just did an update to the Ted Dunbar discography and found a Frank Wess tune that was labeled "Flowers" on the back sleeve; labeled "Fading Flowers" on the record label; but the same tune exists as "Fading Fleur" elsewhere (earlier reference). So I used "Fading Fleur" and put the other information in a footnote. These issues of conformity appear in other areas too - instruments, labels, etc. Sometimes you just have to make a decision. I'm sure I've made mistakes. Mike

You must have been a math major.... The "11 days" came from down beat 11/17/66, the other date from the Ayler website at http://www.ayler.supanet.com/html/ayler_remembered.html. db was likely inaccurate since it also listed the intended personnel of Henry Grimes and Sunny Murray who didn't make the trip. Mike

I was in the middle of preparing an extensive comment on the subject when Larry posted his well-thought-out review. So I'll present a compact list of more basic errors. The New Grove (I'm speaking of the 1-volume ed. - I have only worked briefly with the new 3-volume one so I can't really say) is part of my library. I don't feel that I wasted the $35 I spent on it. However, there are plenty of mistakes and even more statements that show a lack of comprehensive study of the subject. Onaje Allan Gumbs's middle name is consistently misspelled as "Allen" in his entry. As they say, "Write what you want but at least spell my name correctly!" Once again (started with Feather), Perry Robinson's birthdate is wrong - September, not August. I have problems with the description of Abbey Lincoln's recent work (p. 710): She continues to perform and tour in the mid-1980s and, and has returned to the warm, gentle style that characterized her early work." I hear huge differences between her 1950s work and the recordings made after her return in the 1980s. I hope the new edition addressed this. Just about everything in the Gigi Gryce entry is wrong: birthdate and deathdate, and where he grew up, and about his musical studies, and about when he worked with certain people. So much misinformation here - someone should write a book to correct it. Or at least a webpage: http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Gryce/ggbio.htm Throughout the book the photo IDs are particularly bad - p.156 "Clifford Brown, early 1950s" - well, yes, but this is a photo of Brown with Gigi Gryce, from the European tour of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in the fall of 1953. May 15, 1953 is a date that has long been etched into my memory - why couldn't it have been used for the caption of Max Roach at Massey Hall (p. 1049) instead of "1953". Photo on p. 813 purports to be from 1957, but in fact is from an MGM recording session in Los Angeles in the summer of 1959 and doesn't have Buddy Childers on valve trombone but rather Bob Enevoldsen. John Coltrane played Newport on July 2, 1966 - this is a solid, confirmed date. It should have been used for the two photos (p. 13 & 235) instead of simply "July 1966." Ditto for Charles Lloyd at Newport 1966 (p. 578 - also July 2). Albert Ayler was in Europe for 11 days beginning November 3, 1966 so the shot from London (p. 47) at least could have said "November 1966" (probably November 15, 1966 at the London School of Economics from 5 minutes of research just now). Paging through just now, another Newport gaffe - Albert Mangelsdorff with Larry Ridley (p. 746) is, I'm pretty sure, from the jam session on July 4, 1969 (labeled "late 1960s"). Seems like photo captions were left to the student interns - if the back of the photo gave the information it was used, otherwise it was lazy guesswork or worse. I suppose some will say this is being too picky. It's really a matter of consistency since plenty of photos DO identify the exact date and believe me, this information is extremely useful to researchers. But only if it's correct - Art Blakey did not have the lineup shown in the photo on p. 63 on January 29, 1956. Had to be either late 1956 or early 1957. As Blakey is a subject near and dear to my heart, I note that Lewis Porter repeats the oft-told but unverified account of Blakey's visit to Africa (p. 115-116) - "probably for more than a year" - impossible, based on the chronology. Similarly, Keith Jarrett could not have joined Blakey in December 1965 (p. 578) and stayed for four months. In the Nightclubs (NYC) section, I note a correction under Slugs - (which should really be Slugs' according to their newspaper ads) - it did not opened early in 1966, but was open by August 1965. Under "Organ" - it would be nice for people to understand that "electronic" and "electric" are different things. The Hammond organ is NOT electronic (well, at least not the typical Hammond organs like the B-3). Why is so important to get these "little" things correct? Because this information gets regurgitated in books like "Sonny Rollins: Open Sky" by Eric Nisenson - every single fact in two consecutive paragraphs (p. 137-38) comes from the New Grove entry for Henry Grimes. BTW, let's put that (and other Nisenson works) on the NOT for recommended reading list. There is an expectation by the general public that reference works will be correct and comprehensive. New Grove has too many flaws and omissions to pass that test. As far as recommending an alternative for reading - I would suggest The Oxford Companion to Jazz, edited by Bill Kirchner. It certainly isn't an encyclopedia, but rather a collection of 60 essays on important people and topics in jazz. The experts in the field address their specialties, so you get Dan Morgenstern (not Collier!) on Louis Armstrong, Mark Tucker on Duke Ellington, Lewis Porter on John Coltrane, Brian Priestley on Mingus, Randy Sandke on the trumpet in jazz, Jeff Sultanof on jazz repertory, Joel Siegel on jazz singing, Scott DeVeaux on the advent of bebop, etc. etc. Not to forget Chris Albertson on Bessie Smith and Larry Kart on the avant-garde 1949-1967. Mike

Chick Corea has long been a favorite of mine in just about all of his various explorations. The absolute low point was the Elektric/Akoustic Band - but even there one can find a *little* bit of worthwhile music. I have not fully explored the Origin records - only have a couple, but I was greatly impressed, particularly after the Remembering Bud Powell band, which I found disappointing. I thought maybe he had lost it, but Origin proved me wrong. I think the late 1970s-early 1980s period was particularly productive. The records with Herbie Hancock, the further adventures with Gary Burton, Three Quartets, the magnificent reunions of Trio Music, the Again and Again record on Elektra/Musician, the duo with Steve Kujala, etc. Then came the Elektric Band, which started out OK when it was a trio - would be nice if Stretch would issue some of the live material they have in the vault - but quickly degenerated into something FAR worse than even the most gratuitous Return To Forever w/Al DiMeola showboating. Only with Origin did he really pull himself out of this. I don't have a problem with electric music, and I think that Corea made a lot of wonderful things in that vein (not all of it, no) - constantly experimenting because there wasn't an established way to play that stuff. I could see that if you have a problem with electric music or with anything less that "100% pure jazz" that you probably won't want to know about much of Corea's later work. I do also love his acoustic playing and his writing. His distinctive percussive style combined with the colorful harmonic aproach makes it, for me. Of course, I don't mean to neglect the earlier periods cited by some here, but I strongly disagree with the idea that if Corea had died in 1973 (or heaven forbid, in 1970 after leaving Miles) that we would have anything near a complete picture of his artistry. Like Miles Davis, Corea worked in a lot of areas and in my view, was one of the best in each area, definitely not just a dabbler - solo piano, trio, free improvisation, hard bop, adventurous jazz composition, fusion (not fuzak), duos, third stream, Brazilian-influenced, etc. I could easily find masterpieces in any one of those areas. I do consider Corea to be one of the greatest pianists alive, almost on a par with Keith Jarrett. Obviously the two sometimes have very different musical philosophies, but they also have a lot in common. Wish I could have been in Japan to hear them play Mozart concerto for two pianos together. I did get to hear Corea play Mozart and then the US premier of his own concerto. It was a wonderful evening. But Corea is much more than just a pianist, in my view. Jarrett has written some nice pieces, but nothing like the body of repertoire that Corea has. The other member of the triumvirate is Herbie Hancock, who has a far greater ratio of crap to music than Corea. Don't get me started on the night I saw Hancock and Corea together - not during the duo tour, but with both their electric bands. Worst show I've ever seen. Mike

Without question there are additional performances by that band (and by other DG quartets - with Kirk Lightsey and David Eubanks). Reportedly, Todd Barkan taped every show at the Korner so the run including 10/29/81 (with Lightsey, Eubanks, Gladden) probably exists. Also the runs including 12/74 (personnel unknown), 5/30/77 (with Woody Shaw & Louis Hayes), and 12/2/77 (Cables, Reid, Gladden). The DG quartet elsewhere - Storyville has a recent issue from EJ's in Atlanta from 5/5/81 with Lightsey & Reid. There was a bootleg on West Wind from 10/78 from Rome that has 2 long tunes (My Secret Love & Tanya). However, I am skeptical that we will see more Keystone material in a legit issue anytime soon. Mike

Very slowly - we'll have to wait for the summer to devote serious time to it. Majority of time spent working on researching and updating various discographies, studying history of discography, as well as doing some original compositions and working on concert band composition projects. Did make some good contacts on the Grimes front at the IAJE conference in NYC. Mike

So I hear the air is a bit fresher in here now. It's nice to be remembered (especially if it's fondly), but for heaven's sake, it's not like I dropped off the face of the earth! I've got three websites running (some major updates to various discographies) and am certainly not incommunicado - I've had the same email address for nine years! If you think I've fallen and I can't get up, please drop me a line via email (I don't use the private message system). Regarding why I haven't been around here - it's a matter of principle. I won't stay in a public place if there's some offensive asshole verbally attacking people. I'll get up and leave (and believe me, in a private place where I have any control, it's VERY different). If you find my contributions informative (and that could well be a big "if"), then the problem needs to be fixed. Apparently it has been, and I'll say that it's nice to be back and hope we don't see any more of the same. I look forward to catching up on a few things. I have no interest in the little soap operas of bulletin boards, only in rational, informed discussion of the music. But I will not tolerate someone with a history of attacking friends of mine without any provocation just because he can. I won't continue on as normal. The adulation laid on that person by others here is, to me, reprehensible. There is no excuse for such boorish behavior. However, I'm all for giving the people what they want. If that's what you prefer, you got it (well, at least you had it). But enough about the bad old days - Mike

I hear from Peter Pullman, currently living in Paris, on a fairly regular basis. He is still working hard on the book. Mike

I couldn't tell you about Horace, but he is working on his autobiography. Perhaps there will be comment there. Mike

Perhaps there was a fixed budget for this event? Obviously you can't invite everyone. And perhaps the organizers wanted something more structured than just everyone who ever recorded for Blue Note showing up. I wouldn't blame them one bit. Regarding Wayne Shorter and the "old tunes" - in 1983 he did play them, and *not* very reworked at all, at a celebration of his 50th birthday at William Paterson College in NJ. And a few months after the BN celebration he was in Paris with Dexter Gordon and others recording and filming Round Midnight. I don't find reference to him being on tour in February 1985. WR had been in Japan in October 1984 and then in the summer of 1985 Wayne was playing with a new band in support of his Atlantis album. At some point before that he had to be recording that album. Don't have specifics. Mike

Am I right that this is by Sam Stephenson? When I met with him at the end of the summer he was working on a Haynes piece. Mike

Apparently not. Here's the rundown: Trilok Gurtu & Nana Vasconcelos Gateway (John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette) Oregon (Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless, Glen Moore, with Trilok Gurtu) Baikida Carroll with Paul McCandless, Steve Gorn, Jim Pepper, Marty Ehrlich, John Abercrombie, Glen Moore, Dave Holland, Trilok Gurtu, Nana Vasconcelos "Jaco Pastorius tried to join this group on soprano sax during its last chorus, but was eased offstage without incident." Meredith Monk Don Cherry & Nana Vasconcelos Don Cherry, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette Lani Harrison David Darling John Abercrombie & Ralph Towner "Without a doubt, though, the finale provided the most powerfully healing moments of this celebration of Walcott's life. Before a joyous Matisse-like backdrop created by Moki Cherry, tenorist Pepper led the assembled musicians and audience - which spontaneously rose and chanted along - in the Native American song Witchi Tai To. Together, players and listeners followed their musical impulses, to end in a glowing ritardando which seemed pretty close to an immortal chord." by Howard Mandel - Down Beat 8/85 p.52 But since Stanko is not mentioned, perhaps he was among the multitude playing in the finale - and who knows who else was in on that. Mike

Bingo - http://pages.prodigy.net/cervantez4/ It's a visualizer, used to study the embouchure. Mike *** Which now makes me wonder - was this photo taken in a mirror, with Eldridge looking at his own embouchure????? So it would be a NON-reversed photo of a mirror image!!!! Anyone got photographer Burt Goldblatt's email address?

I challenge the idea that what has been recorded is "the proof in the pudding." Recordings have never captured the true beauty of music. Probably never will. I do enjoy LaFaro, but have heard plenty of criticism that he was not strong enough in live situations. Most recent was in an interview I did with Jon Hendricks. Mike

Interestingly, when LaFaro died, Getz was playing nearby in Saranac Lake, NY and the substitute bassist was Henry Grimes (with Steve Kuhn and Roy Haynes). According to Kuhn, after Newport LaFaro went home to help his mother pack up the house to move to California. Mike

Leslie Gourse or A horse, of course.

Cylinders? Whaddaya mean - Wynton was THERE! How else would he know all those things about people's personalities. re: the actual question - Schuller singles out Armstrong's solo on "Chimes Blues" with King Oliver (1923) because it is not accompanied by other horns, but still has reservations about it being a true solo ("in character and conception"). How are you defining "solo" - an improvised line made prominent because it is played against rhythm section only? Does it need to be a certain length? Does it need to *not* be a melodic paraphrase or variation on a theme? Mike

Oh man - you're telling me that my name appears in a Leslie Gourse book? Not good. Mike

There was a review last Sunday in the NYT of a book that sounded interesting: === DOING OUR OWN THING The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care. By John McWhorter. 276 pp. New York: Gotham Books. $26 ''I HAVE something to say to the world,'' W. E. B. Du Bois wrote in a composition class at Harvard in 1890, ''and I have taken English 12 in order to say it well.'' The Berkeley linguist John McWhorter is right to flag this sentence as ''truly astounding'' to modern ears. Formal English of the sort taught in writing classes is no longer valued, he says in ''Doing Our Own Thing''; it is derided as boring and inauthentic. At some point in the 1960's, Americans lost faith in their written language, and settled for reproducing a less demanding (but more ''real'') oral variant on the page and in public. The result, McWhorter asserts, has been a steep and steady decline in the quality of political oratory, poetry, musical theater, preaching and -- ultimately -- thinking. entire review on NYT site (11/16/03 Book Review "Talk Is Cheap") === As an educator (music, officially, but also English and more if you ask my students), I do my damndest to instruct students on the proper use of language - the main problem is that they do not read enough quality literature. (The final two words in that last sentence are optional.) They are bombarded with poor writing and speaking. The *wrong* way is constantly reinforced - so much that the *right* way sounds "wrong." Mike

Problem is, the trumpet itself is reversed. The bell of a trumpet is on the left side of the player's face. The photo has been screwed up. Somebody tell Mosaic - I don't know if there's any chance this could be fixed before it's too late. Mike

Some further thoughts: I took the time to thoroughly investigate what is included on v.4.4 - For $149 (limited time offer to those who dropped their money on v.3.3 or even the poor suckers who spent all the money for the complete set of books AND CD-ROM 2.2 which was only available to book subscribers AND v.3.3), you will get the following additional information not included in CD-ROM 3.3 - Updates on letters A-Bou That's it. Lord tries to make it sound like you're getting more by saying that v.4.4 includes everything in volumes 1-33 (1-26 were the original books, all of which are on v.3.3). Sounds like you're getting SEVEN more volumes added! But 27 and 28 were the musician index - already on 3.3, 29-31 were the tune index - already on v.3.3. So a "significantly upgraded" software revision in fact only has two books worth of updates, plus an improvement in functionality - searching appears to be much better and copy and paste works. For me, it's only the searching that makes it worth the money. Less than 2 alphabetical letters of updates for $149 is a clear rip-off - but not as much as the books: book volumes 32 and 33 together cost $155. Man, the least Lord could offer us is throwing in the Cadence All-Years Index for free on the same CD-ROM....... Boy, I do feel sorry for those who bought the whole ball of wax: $60/book x 26, plus $115 for CD-ROM v.2.2, plus $277 for v.3.3, plus $149 for v.4.4 - those are the cheapest prices, let alone whether they bought the addendums - $585 total for those - even without them it's over $2100. And in terms of updated information, letter C is still stuck in 1992.... Mike