Michael Fitzgerald

No, unfortunately. Full details here: http://www.attictoys.com/jazz/TC_intro.html It's from 1963 - the last thing Teddy Charles did as a leader before retiring. Let's see, who can we blame for holding up the reissue of an album originally on United Artists.......oh right, Blue Note. There's another good Russian to Jazz thing from more recent times: "Red Square Blue" with Fred Hersch and others. I have it on CD, now whether it's in print, I don't know. Mike

A concept album is one that has an overall plan or theme - some common element that holds the album together. It might tell a story, it might not. It might be a source (spirituals or folk music, say) or it might be intended to set a particular mood. Some people call Frank Sinatra's "In the Wee Small Hours" the first concept album. The album might have a political message or everything might be musically related. Basically, it's something that makes the album an album - a large work rather than a bunch of small works. Sometimes these concepts are grafted on afterwards. Those albums are less worthy of the term, in my opinion. And compilations just do NOT fit the bill. Blue Note issued some "Ballads" CDs. Those ain't concept albums. But Coltrane's "Ballads" album on Impulse might be. Here's one definition: http://www.musicweb.uk.net/encyclopaedia/c/C211.HTM How about that Teddy Charles "Russia Goes Jazz" album? All Russian composers' works turned into jazz. To me, that's more along the lines than a Cole Porter songbook album. Mike

It would have been licensed, I assume. Also, as I understand it, the alternative takes from that album are in the possession of someone else - not the label. This is why we haven't seen them before. Those would have been licensed too. My most recent Candid CD is Booker Little: Out Front, which says "Licensed in the USA and Canada to Artists Only! Records" www.artistsonly.com - there is a 1989 date for Candid Productions, Ltd. and website URL - www.candidrecords.com but the remastering date is April 10, 2000. Mike

"The Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet" concept is kind of like that of the Golson 1-10 album. And since we were just talking about it - We Insist! Freedom Now Suite by Max Roach. There are dozens of ones like that: the album-length suites - A Love Supreme, Meditations by Coltrane; Free Jazz by Ornette; Uhuru Afrika by Randy Weston; Gillespiana, Perceptions by Dizzy; Sing Me A Song of Songmy by Freddie Hubbard; Canadiana Suite by Oscar Peterson; October Suite by McFarland & Kuhn; then there's the operas/oratorios/chronotransductions - Escalator Over the Hill by Carla Bley; X by Anthony Davis; Shala Fears for the Poor by Anthony Braxton; The Light in the Wilderness by Brubeck; not to mention all those Wynton Marsalis commissioned pieces. Oh - and though it's not been updated in nearly 5 years, here's a list that might be worth looking at: http://www16.brinkster.com/fitzgera/by_show.htm I suppose records like those are sort of built-in concept albums. Ditto for the songbook/tribute/cover albums. But I find some of those mentioned earlier to be very interesting because they aren't known as suites - like Maiden Voyage - unless you know the liner notes (or look at the titles as as whole), it's just a group of tunes. The pieces on Speak Like a Child have sort of a common theme, but not everything holds to it. Here's a couple more like that: Don Friedman: A Day in the City Chick Corea: The Leprechaun Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now Dave Brubeck: Time Out (and others) Max Roach: Jazz In 3/4 Time Wayne Shorter: Odyssey of Iska Some are programmatic and tell a story from the start of the record to the end, others take a concept (jazz waltzes, say) and just group pieces together for presentation. Some of my very favorite concept albums are the Liberation Music Orchestra records by Charlie Haden. The original one from 1970; Ballad of the Fallen; and Dream Keeper. Though they may not hold to the concept 100% of the time. And just a few days ago I heard the premiere of a great new piece, a ballet by Randy Sandke. "Subway Ballet" describes in music a NYC trip from lower Manhattan to mid-town (apparently the stops are not entirely accurate, but are more a composite from various lines). Dance of the Punks; Dance of the Wall Street Brokers; The Blind Beggar Encounters the Korean Peddler; Dance of the Hasidic Diamond Merchants; and Dance of the Midtown Career Women). It's written for big band - no choreographer has come forward to make the ballet a reality, so it's more a suite for the moment. But it was wonderfully played by an all-star band with folks like Lew Soloff, Scott Robinson, Ken Peplowski, Wycliffe Gordon, Virgil Jones, et al. Mike

I very much like Charlie Haden: his sound, his compositions, his bands, but I have heard the criticism (and I think it is not without merit) that Haden has only one solo that he plays on everything. I know one guy who doesn't want to hear Haden so much that he excised his solos from a tape he made for himself. That's going a bit too far, in my opinion. Mike

Gigi Gryce's "Nica's Tempo" (1955) has nothing to do with Horace Silver's "Nica's Dream" (1956), other than they are both dedicated to the same woman. Bertrand, if you make that gig and speak to Mike, please say hello from me. Mike

Caravan is not Wayne Shorter's arrangement, it's by Freddie Hubbard. And it's the trombone who has the melody while trumpet and saxophone play that line, which is a completely original idea of Hubbard's. Mike Mossman told me the story that when he was brand new to the band, Caravan was called and it had never been rehearsed or anything. The tune started and they were in the middle of the vamp when the veteran who was playing saxophone suddenly realized the implications of this situation. Petrified, he turned and said, "Do you know that line!?" Mike smiled and said, "I know that line." The moral of the story is: Be Prepared. The Impulse version by Hubbard is very good also, with John Gilmore. But listen to how sloppy the horns are on the later Delos version is (Wallace Roney, Kenny Garrett, et al.). BTW, Mossman recorded that same arrangement with Kevin Mahogany on "Songs and Moments." Mike

I thought, well, it's too bad the original Verve plan for the Max Roach boxed set didn't get implemented, because it would have included all the Mercury stuff (including the Boston Percussion Ensemble record), all the Impulse stuff, *and* the Freedom Now Suite - including alternative takes which have never been issued ever, before or since. It would also have had comprehensive new liner notes on all the sessions and we would have reflections by all the participants. But, that concept got pared down and pared down and we now have the Mercury Max Roach +4 sessions box on Mosaic. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Then I thought - but the Freedom Now Suite *was* reissued at one point - on Columbia LP in 1980. Luckily, I still have my copy and just as I had hoped, Nat Hentoff wrote NEW notes to accompany his original Candid LP notes. Quite a bit is paraphrase from the earlier essay, but there is some new information too, that is not in the Candid CD issue notes (strictly the 1960 originals). Anyway, I typed it up and here it is: http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Essays/fns.htm Mike

No - the Max Roach album for Time was done in January 1959, according to the best research right now (in the Mosaic set notes). No way was the band with Booker, Coleman, Art Davis, Draper playing in November 1959. That band was done in the end of February 1959. Roach did play as a sideman on albums done for the Time label into 1960, as we mentioned in the Tommy Turrentine thread. At this point, I don't have any evidence to support the idea that Freedom Now had been suggested at an earlier point. Nat Hentoff might be someone to ask, but he's very busy making the world safe for democracy. The first new recordings for Mainstream seem to be 1964. The last for Time seem to be September or later in 1963, so the change does seem to be pretty smooth. Bob Shad's daughter contacted me a while back, haven't heard anything lately. After about 5 years of inactivity, Debut was purchased by Fantasy in the early 1960s - but I think it is a fallacy to consider that in any way a real continuation of the Mingus-owned Debut. Celia Mingus moved to San Francisco around 1958 and then married Saul Zaentz, owner of Fantasy. Mike

I saw Kenny Barron playing with Ornette at Avery Fisher Hall a few summers ago, with Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins. It can work. I think that some people believe that it can't because when the first Ornette stuff was happening, the piano players hadn't figured out how. Now (45 years later), people know. Keith Jarrett is an amazing Ornette-style player (though I don't think he's ever actually recorded an Ornette tune), check out his American quartet stuff with ex-Colemanites Redman and Haden. The Hillcrest recordings are from fall 1958. Earlier that year there are the sessions with Walter Norris for Contemporary. Mike

Time was out of the picture for Roach by then. Beginning with the Newport Rebel Festival (organized by Mingus) in July 1960, Candid was the place to be and Roach didn't do just Freedom Now (late August/early September), there was Abbey Lincoln: Straight Ahead (Feb. 1961), and also Booker Little: Out Front (Mar.-Apr. 1961) - he was closely linked with both leaders (one more than the other). Debut doesn't come into the picture, since the last session for that label was around October 1957. As for the why - I couldn't begin to say. Max was very erratic personally at this time in his career. Remember, this is the guy who had to be removed by security at the Miles Davis Carnegie Hall concert in 1961. Mike

I know it from the recording with Mingus, not from the later one with Zoot. Somehow I want to say there's another well-known recording of this tune - perhaps under another title but maybe it's just too late and I need sleep. Mike Now I'm really confused - I have a Glenn Wilson record titled Elusive and the title tune is credited to Thad, but it's what the 1954 Debut album calls "Bitty Ditty" - which I know from the Miles Davis recording, which is the well-known recording I was thinking of. OK - I'm slowly coming around. The tune listed as Elusive on the Mingus Debut box is actually Bitty Ditty - yes? So just clear things up - is the Pepper & Zoot one the tune that starts with a repeated minor second or the one that starts with a triplet with a pickup? Mike

But of course - he recorded it twice (and no one has ever done it since). First in 1955 with Art Farmer on "Art Farmer Quintet featuring Gigi Gryce" (CD on OJC) and then in 1957 with Donald Byrd on the Jazz Lab's "Modern Jazz Perspective" (CD on Collectables). Mike

Don't ask me for money - but advice is no problem. It's worth investigating the compositions of Gigi Gryce and Benny Golson. They were really stretching things in terms of form in the 1950s. Go check out a tune Gigi wrote called "Satellite." It's so deceptive - it sounds easy and swings, but it's very complex in form with key changes and also meter shifts. Plus the head chords aren't the solo chords, and the different soloists get different chords, with interludes, etc. There are plenty more where that came from. Gigi could write a great contrafact, or a great simple tune, but to me, his greatest accomplishment writing-wise was how he brought in those odd phrase lengths. Benny was being discussed elsewhere here. Mike

On January 1, 2000, I posted this to rec.music.bluenote. The discussion was about "first wave bebop" players who were still active but that can get kind of subjective in terms of style. I've slightly edited, removing those who have passed in the interim. ------------------------------- Perhaps if the criterion was that the individual had to begin recording in the 1940's? You might require pre-WWII to narrow things down, or you might require a recorded appearance in the 1990's to prove "active" status - I don't know. Here are a bunch of names with birth dates and the earliest recording dates I could find (without a huge amount of effort - a lot of New Grove material here). I left in some who right now don't meet the criteria for a couple of reasons: someone might know of an earlier debut (sometimes there are radical revisions because of one early recording); and it will stop people asking "what about so-and-so?". Of course there are definitely folks that have been omitted. But it's a start. OK, here's the list, sorted by recording debut - Eddie Bert 1922 1942 Illinois Jacquet 1922 1942 Tony Scott 1921 1943 Buddy DeFranco 1923 1944 Barney Kessel 1923 1944 No longer active Max Roach 1924 1944 Gerald Wilson 1918 1945 Danny Bank 1922 1945 Pete Candoli 1923 1945 Hal McKusick 1924 1945 Conte Candoli 1927 1945 Andre Previn 1929 1945 Abe Most 1920 1946 Dave Brubeck 1920 1946 Buddy Collette 1921 1946 Chico Hamilton 1921 1946 Cecil Payne 1922 1946 Lucky Thompson 1924 1946 No longer active Johnny Griffin 1928 1946 Louie Bellson 1924 1946 Britt Woodman 1920 1946 Lee Konitz 1927 1947 Hank Jones 1918 1947 Marian McPartland 1920 1947 Jimmy Giuffre 1921 1947 No longer active Duke Jordan 1922 1947 Idrees Sulieman 1923 1947 No longer active George Russell 1923 1947 Charlie Mariano 1923 1947 Percy Heath 1923 1947 James Moody 1925 1947 Milt Bernhart 1926 1947 No longer active Anthony Ortega 1928 1947 Yusef Lateef 1920 1948 Terry Gibbs 1924 1948 Jimmy Heath 1926 1948 Jackie Cain 1928 1948 Claude Bolling 1930 1948 Maynard Ferguson 1928 1949 Teddy Charles 1928 1949 Clark Terry 1920 1949 Marshall Allen 1924 1949 Oscar Peterson 1925 1949 Roy Haynes 1926 1949 Doc Severinsen 1927 1949 Don Lanphere 1928 1949 Sonny Rollins 1930 1949 Frank Morgan 1933 1949 Jimmy Cleveland 1926 1950? Bill Russo 1928 1950 Quincy Jones 1933 1951 Urbie Green 1926 1951 Horace Silver 1928 1951 Billy Taylor 1921 1951 Bud Shank 1926 1951 Kenny Burrell 1931 1951 Jackie McLean 1932 1951 Lennie Niehaus 1929 1952? Bill Holman 1927 1952 Jon Hendricks 1921 1952 Lou Donaldson 1926 1952 Annie Ross 1930 1952 Joe Morello 1928 1952 Benny Golson 1929 1953 Herb Pomeroy 1930 1953 Sam Most 1930 1953 Herbie Mann 1930 1953 Harold Land 1928 1954 Frank Foster 1928 1954 Charli Persip 1929 1954 Phil Woods 1931 1955 Ray Bryant 1931 1955 Von Freeman 1922 1969?? Please add, delete, correct, update, revise, etc. Hope I don't have too many dead guys in there..... Mike

Thanks for posting that - also, www.HenryGrimes.com is now more or less operational. There will continue to be some tinkering but it's good start, if I do say so myself. Please stop by - sorry we have no complimentary beverages or tote bags at this point. But we do have some gigs for those of you in the LA area. With some new big names you might recognize like Bobby Bradford, Bennie Maupin, Joseph Jarman - plus some others familiar from the earlier LA gigs that Henry did. Mike

Looks like a good old minor blues. Make that #329 in the books for the next gig. Mike

It's more the melody that's a mess, the vamp is way wrong - also wrong chords there. It says Dm7 to Dm6 - but the tenor plays A to B-flat, not B and there's no mention of the pedal point being on A - the chord should really be A7 to A7b9. I'm using the Miles version. There's also a significant melody note that Miles plays as D which is written as E. The book lists the Miles version only, but that is NOT any proof that it was what they were attempting to notate. I haven't compared the Getz version. But basically this has marginally better relevance to the Miles version than the sheet on My Favorite Things has to the Coltrane version of that tune. Mike

He definitely does have a stutter. Sometimes it's more or less pronounced, in my experience. Mike

Red plays the Miles solo from "Now's the Time." It's from Bird's first session as a leader, on Savoy in 1945. Mike

Nope - I do not now nor have I ever owned that album. Never heard it other than that 1 minute sample, I'm pretty sure. I would like to own it, though. I don't suppose anyone would be willing to trade the CD for a sweater and some ice cream? Haven't you ever seen those demonstrations of standardized tests where they show you the multiple-choice answers only and you can figure out the right answer without seeing the question? This would have been a lot harder if it were a free-response test. Mike

I will go with Ronnie Mathews on Breaking Point the track "Far Away." Mike

I don't have a problem with the sound, but I'm a musician not an audiophile. I can get past a lot of problems in sound that upset others. I have the Columbia/Odyssey Lp somewhere. Maybe I'll drag it out. I haven't ever heard any other complaints other than that one by Henry Schmidt. The Collectables 2-fer of the Blakey Hard Bop/Paris albums missed one track, I'm almost positive. I forget off which. I already had the Japanese CD at that point. Mike

I don't own Bearcat - any chance for an online mp3 of the example? Mike

Personally, it would seem to me that, as an artist, one would want to STAY with Columbia as long as possible. They were the pinnacle in terms of production and promotion. I'm not privy to the ins and outs of the contract, but drugs definitely played a part in the split-up and the successor bands (until Benny Golson) could be quite variable. I think the Atlantic album with Monk has some of their best playing for whatever reason. The quintet half of Drum Suite comes from the same sessions that produced the entire Hard Bop album - could be these were "leftovers" and the percussion ensemble session was set up to fill out the album. Maybe the label wanted to unload Blakey because the quality dropped. Pure speculation on my part. Shortly before the percussion ensemble session, the quintet recorded Ritual (aka Once Upon A Groove) for Pacific Jazz - part of a trade so that Columbia could record a Chet Baker album. Orgy In Rhythm was done less than a month later for Blue Note, then then following day, Blakey recorded for Elektra (Midnight Session, aka Mirage aka Reflections Of Buhaina) and then a few days later was recording for RCA. That didn't last long as he moved on to Jubilee, then to Atlantic, then to Bethlehem. Somewhere in there he recorded for Cadet (in Minneapolis!?). All this done in less than 12 months. The French CD of Drum Suite sounds fine to me - there are some points where Pettiford's cello distorts, but it's no big deal. The two halves of this album were recorded at different times (A in 1957, produced by Cal Lampley; B in 1956, produced by George Avakian) so different studios might have been used. Drag that the CD doesn't have the photos! BTW - the CD issue reverses the dates and producer credits, as far as I'm concerned. 99% sure that Avakian produced the Hard Bop album and it seems that he ought to be the producer for the quintet session. Unfortunately my Japanese CD of Hard Bop doesn't list ANY producer but Avakian personally told me he produced the Hard Bop album, so I'm trusting his word at this point. The quintet stuff was definitely done in 1956 not 1957. Mike