Michael Fitzgerald

Ralph Bowen was one of the only permanent members of OTB (Out of the Blue). See the discography of Michael Philip Mossman on my website for details of this group's recordings. For about 20 years he has been at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, first as a student then as a professor. He is currently the convenor of the jazz studies program there. http://musicweb.rutgers.edu/info/fac-bio/bowen/ Mike

Blue Note CD 46545 from 1987 has 7 tracks: Soul Surge, Cunga Black, Outer Forces, Blue Spirits, Jodo, The Melting Pot, and True Colors. Mike

Black Music by Leroi Jones and As Serious As Your Life by Valerie Wilmer both have worthwhile info. "Junebug" is in the Black Drama Anthology, Woodie King & Ron Milner (ed). Published by Columbia University Press in 1972. Mike

Yes Yes Yes - love the E/O. I think my favorite period is the Half-Life of Desire era, when they were a bit more eclectic. A friend saw them recently in NJ and was disappointed that there wasn't more variety. Used to be that band was The Variety Show! - as evidenced by the 2-CD live collection. Since Gershon restructured the band it's been maybe a little too focused. Still wonderful, though. Mike

Oddly enough, this was first published in the print version of "All About Jazz" (August 2003). Why it wouldn't get put on that website - well, just glad that it's up somewhere. Mike

I've just remembered that Jazz Improv magazine published a chapter excerpt in their v.2 n.3 issue (Wayne Shorter). Supposedly it's the entire chapters 6 & 7 (pp. 41-48 in the book), this is about three and a half pages in the magazine. He straightens out some facts but it seems like much more could be said. Mike

Re: the food analogy - just because you've eaten 500 different types of food doesn't mean you have all that still lining the shelves of your pantry or refrigerator (or the walls of your living room). If you want to follow that approach, you buy, listen, sell. I certainly don't - I buy, listen, buy - and I'm unapologetic. I think it was Paul McCartney who said that the Beatles were the last group NOT to be influenced by the Beatles - very perceptive. They had everything *else* to listen to. Afterwards, the Beatles became such a focal point that in one way or another just about everyone was imitating them. Pop came of age and some people never bothered to go beyond it to investigate jazz, blues, classical, folk, country, experimental, world music. I think the best pop music came from artists who did explore past their garden gate (bringing us back to the idea of broad musical tastes being important). Agree about the eager clueless labels in the 1960s and also about the artist development process which has been abandoned. Still feel that the later generations have been working from a limited palette, musically. Because the Beatles had a relatively emptier canvas, their influences were more interesting. Sorry, but a punk band nowadays whose influences go all the way back to the Sex Pistols is highly unlikely to produce anything that's going to move past that. Particularly if there is any kind of attempt being made to market them. The idea of marketing to the masses almost insists on dumbing down things. As far as I could ever tell, folks like Oasis never scratched the surface of 1960s bands to find out what *those* bands were listening to, what they were striving for. Or if they did, they didn't seem to have the wherewithal to do anything with this knowledge, because I've never heard anything from them that pushed the artistic boundaries the way The Who or The Kinks or The Zombies did. In many cases, the kids ARE less talented, but I agree that the corporations have latched onto this and made that acceptable - even admirable. I used to teach students musical analysis and we'd take apart a pop tune of their choice and they would be amazed at how rudimentary it was ("Is that it?"). Ditto for the production/execution. Once I took 5 minutes to program a drum machine and set up a loop, it came very close to what is behind a huge amount of dance music today. Of course, that doesn't mean that someone who can do that will immediately have a number one hit - because it's NOT about the music (or lack thereof). It's about the image and the marketing and the networking. The music is largely irrelevant. Mike

I'm going to try to catch him playing with Dr. Art Davis on a special east coast visit - here's the schedule: Monday 9/15 Art Davis and Odean Pope the original compositions of each artist arranged for bass and tenor avant garde to straight ahead Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street (between Bleeker and W. 4th St, west of 6th Ave.) 212-989-0319 www.corneliastreet.com two sets: 9 and 10:30 PM $15 per set ************************************* Wednesday 9/17 Art Davis and Odean Pope Featured performers for the opening of the Equinox Jazz Festival Berklee Performance Center 136 Massachusetts Ave. Boston, MA 02115 617-747-2474 www.jcmcsite.com/home 8:00 PM *************************************** Sunday 9/21 Art Davis and Odean Pope the original compositions of each artist arranged for bass and tenor avant garde to straight ahead North by Northwest 7165 Germantown Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19119 215-248-1000 www.nxnwphl.com 9:00 PM $15 music charge **************************************** Monday 9/22 Art Davis and Odean Pope Coltrane compositions transcribed for bass and tenor sax University of Pennsylvania Tribute to John Coltrane Houston Hall 34th and Spruce 8:00 and 9:30 pm **************************************** Mike

I think the Getting Sentimental tape is what was issued as "Monk - The Transformer" on Thelonious Records, so at least that is available now. The Smith tapes are interesting - some of them are labeled with comments like "Monk danced but did not play at this rehearsal." The bulk of the Monk stuff is big band rehearsals - for the 1959 Town Hall concert, for the 1963 Philharmonic Hall concert, and for the 1964 Carnegie Hall concert. There's also a broadcast of an interview/demonstration that Hall Overton did with the Monk quartet at The New School in 1963. Mike

We had this very discussion fairly recently - was it on the BNBB? Braxton was brought in as I recall. Anyone have that thread saved? Mike

The only Friedman interaction I know of is a Don Cherry gig in Vancouver, BC in December 1957 - Cherry, Ornette, Friedman, Ben Tucker, and a drummer. Supposedly this was broadcast and taped but no one knows more. Is there more information about a tour that Friedman made with this or a related band? Maybe it's in the Ornette bio - been a while since I looked at that. Mike

Another item on SESAC is the 1960 Billy Taylor Trio (with Henry Grimes and Ray Mosca) "Custom Taylored" which later came out on Riverside under the title "Warming Up" (and on Fresh Sound under the original title). Details in the Henry Grimes discography on my website. For some reason BT used his wife's name as composer. Not sure why pseudonyms were used for transcription dates (because on this, the *player* is listed as Billy Taylor - it's just the *composer* who is "Teddi Taylor"). In the jazz world, Chico Hamilton did a record for SESAC with Dolphy. As did Barbara Carroll, Warren Covington, Don Elliott, Hank Garland, Terry Gibbs, Bobby Hackett, Elliott Lawrence, Marian McPartland, Sy Oliver, Don Redman, Bill Russo, Eddie Safranski, Charlie Shavers, and others. Some but not all of these have come out, usually on bootleg labels. But the original issues are indeed collectors items for the reasons described earlier. Recently Billy Taylor talked about these and said it was nice because to make money you could do gigs, do record dates, AND do radio transcription dates. Some info on transcriptions here: http://otrsite.com/articles/artwb006.html Mike

Yes, entirely different music. The Ayler photos were on display in Paris? I'm very interested as I'd love to include such photos in my Henry Grimes book. Mike

A propos the original post, I spent two days last week listening to material from the 821 Sixth Avenue loft (seems that W. Eugene Smith should get more credit than David X. Young, from what I've been told, but others like Hall Overton and Jimmy Stevenson merit mentions as well). There's a ton of great stuff that could, and hopefully will, see issue - and that's just based on what I was able to hear in those listening sessions. I guess it will come down to negotiating with the artists or estates. This kind of recording opens up a window on the life of the musician beyond the stage or the recording studio: rehearsals, jam sessions, conversations, just fooling around. Also shows that there were quality players who were never (well, hardly ever) noted elsewhere. Mike

As others have said, it's difficult (and probably useless) to make such generalizations. Plenty of people listen to a wide stylistic range of music and are not discriminating - same for people who listen to a narrow range. There are even those who may think that being "discriminating" is a bad thing in and of itself. However, refining one's tastes through knowledge and experience is not in opposition to having catholic tastes. Other people are flatly opposed to any kind of analysis - "I like it." "But why? What about it do you like?" "I just like it." Whatever - can't argue with that (lack of) logic - can't even discuss. If the "all music is equally good" philosophy floats your boat - great. It certainly doesn't for me. I know what I like and I know why I like it (and what I don't like and why I don't like it). There's not enough time in the day for all the stuff I do like so for the most part, spending time on what I don't like seems rather pointless. Is it possible to be passionate/fanatical/focused/discriminating on many things? Yes, I would say so. Maybe this is simply in accordance with the original "doubtful" or "almost inevitable" qualifiers. Does depth come with breadth? No. Does breadth come with depth? No. If you want depth, you put the work in. If you want depth in several things, you put the work in for each of them. Neither does depth come with lack of breadth, which is what MacDonald is saying. I know lots of people who don't listen to a wide range of music and still know nothing about their "specialty." BTW, I'm intrigued by a word new to me - "deskilling" - and if it means what I think it does (removing skill) then I think I very much agree with Mr. MacDonald on that point. Mike

Yes, the site mentioned does link to the most current version of the discography. If there are ever any doubts, check what is on my homepage. Mike

Unfortunately, the name of the compiler of the Woody Shaw discography is misspelled on the listed site. It is Todd Poynor. I've hosted his excellent work on my site since it began. Mike

Just because it's not "vocalese" doesn't mean it's not artistic. Absolutely, having the possibility of extending the lyrics through a full-length performance (head & solos) presents a great opportunity, much more than just one or just the other. Mike

I don't even play a lawyer on TV, but..... I've been told by a friend in music publishing that (say) Hendricks couldn't publish or record tunes with his own lyrics unless he got the permission of the (instrumental) tune's publisher. I don't think he can just rename the tune and become a co-writer. I think the original publisher has to approve that too. As I said, I believe that's done to try to make a distinction for royalty purposes. It's my understanding that Hendricks has a TON of lyrics that can't be used. Most of them are probably great. Mike

What I meant is that in the listings of tunes, that site differentiates between listing things as "vocalese" and as "straight lyrics." For example, see the notes on "The Swingers" and the LHR Ellington album. I'm not denigrating the role of the original melody (the head) in a vocalese performance. Absolutely it can play a part in setting things up. When Hendricks writes something like "Sing Joy Spring" and moves from the Fountain of Youth to Shakespeare and elsewhere, it's a beautiful thing. But to me, there's a big difference between the original LHR recording of "Airegin" which is just the head, talking about Nigeria before instrumental and scat solos, and the later MT recording which takes those solos and does the vocalese thing to them, weaving a story of African history from the days of the dinosaurs to the present. The LHR "Airegin" is not vocalese - it's just writing lyrics to a melody. People have been doing that for centuries - I can't call the vocal version of "Satin Doll" vocalese. The MT "Airegin" is vocalese - one of the finest examples of it. I'm not saying that the LHR "Airegin" is worse, it's just different. If a set of lyrics *just* covers the head, it's not vocalese by any definition I have learned (I agree with what is on that site). If a set of lyrics covers the head and an improvised solo, then it is (the part of the lyrics which correspond with the solo). The two could well be very well-integrated, but it's like the difference between the head and the solos of an instrumental performance. BTW, when discussing this stuff, Hendricks himself makes the distinction - he calls writing lyrics to the head of a jazz tune "lyricizing" it and reserves the "vocalese" term for the writing and performing of lyrics to improvised jazz solos. Head-solos-head goes to Lyricized head-vocalese solos-lyricized head. As for Night in Tunisia - I am away from my collection - can someone tell who is credited on the 1961 Ella Fitzgerald recording? The info I could get my hands on said Hendricks. I should have asked Hendricks about this when I spoke to him a few weeks ago. But he was off on a thousand tangential topics. I have a few older interviews of him at home. I'll try to confirm later. Mike

In terms of the different vocal vehicles, when considering the output of LHR(B), it's worth pointing out that they were really quite a versatile group and that they did much more than vocalese. Sometimes it was just lyrics to instrumentals ("Cookin' at the Continental" or the original "Airegin") with or without improvised scat solos. Sometimes it was "normal" (meaning official) lyrics (isn't "Summertime" just the regular Gershwin/Heyward words but done in the style of the Miles & Gil version?). Sometimes it was full vocalese with arrangements and LH & R playing the roles of specific instrumentalists (the Basie stuff). Sometimes it was harmonized ballads ("With Malice Toward None"). Sometimes it was original music & lyrics ("Everybody's Boppin'"). Sometimes it was novelties/oddities like "Halloween Spooks," "Poppity-Pop," or "The New ABC." This site (though incomplete) has some good information including distinction between vocalese and "straight lyrics." http://www.ralf.org/~colomon/vocalese/lhr.html Quite a few jazz pieces that are known as instrumentals have lyrics. The more financially astute composers realized that this would give them a chance to earn royalties from vocal performances. Many times this was just wishful thinking, but worth a shot to: Gigi Gryce, Randy Weston, Duke Pearson, and Benny Golson, to name four, but I'm sure many more did this. Sometimes the composers themselves wrote the lyrics, sometimes it was handed over to a lyricist, frequently Hendricks. It seems the "normal" lyrics to "A Night in Tunisia" are by Hendricks, now that I check things out. I think he wrote that much earlier (c. 1961) than when he did the vocalese lyrics for the Bird solo. There were earlier lyrics (c. 1945) to the Tunisa melody under the title "Interlude." Not sure who did those - possibly Frank Paparelli, though the story was that he got his name on the tune because he did some copy work. Later I guess Mignone wrote what Eddie Jefferson uses, and there are much later lyrics, I think credited to Arif Mardin & Chaka Khan under the title "The Melody Still Lingers On." The "Round Midnight" situation is very interesting. The "normal" lyrics that most singers use (It begins to tell...) are by Bernie Hanighen. They are the official ones according to the publisher. There are alternate sets by Babs Gonzalez (recorded by him and by Betty Carter, at least) and two sets by Hendricks (one recorded by Carmen McRae and by Robert Wyatt, and the other a variant of the first - the Miles & Coltrane set - never recorded as far as I know). If you want to see 3 of the 4 sets, do a search on groups.google.com for [Midnight lyrics Hendricks]. In terms of getting to be the "normal" version, it seems it is getting tougher. In 1961 Monk gave the OK to Abbey Lincoln to do what is now known as "Monkery's the Blues" but was originally just called "Blue Monk." I don't know at what point anything changed to demand the new title. But if you are the "official" lyricist it could be you get money even when the recording has no vocals. And the "music" composers don't want that to happen. I remember some Concord CDs had a note that "instrumental versions included on this album do not include performances of contributions by the following lyricists" or something like that. Mike

That's a reasonable distinction, but there are probably cases where only the solos are given lyrics - meaning the "normal" lyrics are used for the melody. Is this the case with the MT version of "Night in Tunisia" with Hendricks and McFerrin? I can't really recall. But in most cases, vocalese performances take a *specific* recording as a model, so even when Hendricks does Miles & Coltrane doing "Round Midnight" he doesn't use his own lyrics for the regular Monk tune, he alters them to fit exactly how Miles paraphrases it. As for the tempos, I enjoy playing some great vocalese when students say that bebop solos aren't "lyrical." Mike

The legal status is such that the publisher must approve any lyrics added to the original composition. I've been told there can only be ONE approved set of lyrics for a tune. However, the official set can CHANGE - this happened with Body and Soul, for example. So the reason why the new lyrics to "Take Five" cannot be approved is that the estate doesn't want to make them the new approved version. Same situation with many of the wonderful lyrics by Jon Hendricks. There were big problems after he wrote lyrics to "Li'l Darlin'" - I think it was Neal Hefti himself who had written a set and he wasn't about to change. This is also why tunes with lyrics added sometimes get different titles - "Sing Joy Spring" instead of "Joy Spring," for example. There are quite a few sets of alternate lyrics out there. About four or five for "Round Midnight." Also, I have heard about some great new lyrics that Red Mitchell wrote - can't recall the standard right now. And strictly speaking, vocalese is the setting of lyrics to the *solos* not the melodies. What Hendricks does is nothing short of amazing - telling coherent, interesting stories and fitting it to complicated (originally) improvised lines. Check out how he wrote lyrics to *his own* scat solo on "Airegin" (from the aforementioned The Swingers album) on the Manhattan Transfer album Vocalese. Mike

Larry Ridley is definitely not pictured, nor does he play trumpet. Although I have never met the man, I suspect that it is Larry's trumpet-playing brother Mike Ridley. Mike

The entire BAND was Russell's students. Dave Young's name came up the other day when I was talking with David Baker and Larry Ridley about the Lenox School of Jazz. DY was there in 1960 (as were all the rest of the Russell sextet - Baker, Al Kiger, Joe Hunt, Chuck Israels - Don Ellis, who later replaced Kiger, was there too). Young later worked with Mongo Santamaria, Mercer Ellington, Jack McDuff. Pretty sure he is still in Indiana. He still plays there and recorded with Jack Gilfoy and Jimmy Coe. He was inducted into the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation Hall of Fame in 2001. I suspect we could get more info from our favorite Bloomington radio personality. Mike