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AllenLowe
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Posts posted by AllenLowe
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that whole piece in the Baffler is riddled with errors; I sent them a message offering to make corrections but they did not respond.
15 hours ago, jazzbo said:Monk was amazing. And strange. His earliest recordings show him as a sort of Teddy Wilson/Art Tatum player, or at least far more so than later. Then it seems to me that he had a sort of Ellingtonian phase and that he edited his playing down to essentials and beyond . . . until finally he was edited down to silence!
He was able to create captivating ear worms that become major melody components. You can listen to him all your life without fatigue.
I've always felt that the whole "he could play like Teddy Wilson" etc thing was a myth. I have really heard nothing that shows this. From the beginning he plays like Monk.
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On 12/25/2022 at 1:05 PM, kh1958 said:
I like it.
Krestin Osgood was at the Big Ears Festival in 2022, backing up Odean Pope and Immanuel Wilkins. Excellent set. Bought his CD from him with Lonnie Smith on it, and it is great.
Kresten's a great guy and wonderful drummer.
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A few years back I caught some flack here for criticizing a very good musician (Allison Miller) for having no clue about playing in a so-called funky manner. Truthfully I find that both contemporary jazz audiences and jazz musicians rarely have a clue about the deep blues. Mindful of the belief that "those who can.....," since I also teach and write about that history, I wanted to submit the following from our upcoming CD, America: The Rough Cut. This is how you do it, not with cliches and dopey vamps, and a lotta flat thirds and bad drumming in search of a backbeat. The old blues players weren't slick or playing scales, they were looking deep inside themselves and letting the feeling out. I offer this, Full Moon Moan, based on some early blues-like forms which held a single chord while melodically slipping and sliding through the standard old-time blues changes. This is myself on tenor, Ray Suhy guitar, Alex Tremblay bass, and Krestin Osgood drums. if you like it, buy the CD:
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2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:
Distinctive and excellent. For more info go to Marc Myer's' recent post on Madna (1931-88) on Jazz Wax. Lots of tracks from this album on You Tube.
great pianist - just to correct, other sources say he died in 2003.
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His widow Carol has called me a few times for some remastering advice for his old label (was it Improvising Artists?). She lives up in Cherry Valley New York near the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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3 hours ago, JSngry said:
I only know of the autobiography. What's the other one, I'd like to read it.
In my current cognitively-challenged state, it is possible that I was actually remembering reading the one autobiography twice.
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I only went to one concert at Symphony Hall, in the '70s, and the acoustics were very difficult, though the recordings I've heard that were made there (like Armstrong's) are pretty clear. This of course is rough, but everything is there.
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10 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:
Sorry if I asked this 7 pages back, have any members had personal interchange with Paul? He was a fascinating character.
Paul and I were friendly acquaintances, he used to call me 3 or 4 times a year to talk. I loved the guy; he was a bit of a know-it-all, but he really did know it all. I've read both bios. I was most impressed by the fact that at certain key points of his career he took the path least likely to lead to work and money, but succeeded each time. He also told me some funny stories about working with Hawk and Rollins, that Sonny was very consciously trying to lose Hawkins, who asked Bley, on occasion, to cue him in for his solo.
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On 12/19/2022 at 2:39 PM, Teasing the Korean said:
You don't see an option to enter a password?
got it thanks
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can't get to it; when I click the link it says "video is private."
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Percy talked about Coggins a lot; at the time Coggins was playing in a place down in the village, where I only caught him once. His late work was terrific, very original.
those notes are formidable; when I first sent Devilin' Tune out for one of its many rejections, one editor who turned it down complained I didn't have enough footnotes, though I had hundreds. It was maddening.
Aidan, as I've said, is really smart. 700+pages is a lot. I have to admit that in books like this I tend to skip the sections on the early years, which I think often are dragged down by too much research. But he clearly knows the way around this subject (though I would avoid one source cited, Farah Jasmine Griffin, like the plague. She's a classic tenured know-nothing).
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Aidan Levy is a good guy and a smart guy. I am sure the book is worthwhile.
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9 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:
I have googled this. It looks intriguing. The links to HMR and the presence of Elvin Jones.
Interesting! The discussion mentioned in the first post was partly spurred by your description (which I read as positive) of Bloomfield in God Don't Like It. I hadn't listened to it before that, and checked it out as a result (for whatever reason, it seems to be less famous in the UK than the States).
I think Bloomfield was a genius and love his playing. He just did not, like most rockers, have enough of a musical understanding of true modal playing. Same thing with Jerry Garcia, who I also admired; he thought playing scales was enough to be playing "jazz."
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Hampton Grease Band might qualify, as well as Big Brother, depending on what you mean by "extended." Of course not always on record, but in live performance. I'll bet Hendrix did some of that.
I know East West is considered important, and I love Bloomfield, but I think he really didn't have a clue as to how to do that kind of thing, and it showed. In performance Zappa did some long solos. Also, White Light White Heat by the VU is one of the best examples of very advanced soloing in a rock performance.
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7 hours ago, gmonahan said:
I gave up trying to buy a copy of the Teddy Reig book and got it from the library. It is a fun read! One question: how was/is his last name pronounced? "Reeg" "Rige" "Rague"??
REEG
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Wendy Eisenberg? And Xerxes Russell? Looks like a nice fest, but why does all contemporary, non-jazz, in these festivals almost always sound like canned music and outsider music castoffs? I'm no improvised music snob, but a lot of this other music is starting to sound like the aural equivalent of processed food.
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2 hours ago, felser said:
I think the quote is referring to the 1971 Flo & Eddie band, not the amazing original group.
well, maybe - because I know that he did jettison that original band because he thought they weren't really up to playing his compositions as well as some others -
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1 hour ago, Ken Dryden said:
As Frank Zappa told me in a 1989 interview, “It wasn’t really a great band, but we had a lot of laughs.”
Frank was wrong, in my opinion, which is why none of his later bands were as great as the first - I was lucky enough to catch them in 1968, and they were rough, tight, edgy, spirited, and just a hell of a lot of fun. Not that the later ones were bad, but they had a slickness which gave them less feeling.
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On 12/1/2022 at 6:26 PM, Larry Kart said:
Reply from Dan Morgenstern:
It’s been ages since I’ve had contact with NEA and even then
there was no pro forma nomination way. The one remaining jazz person on NEA
staff is Katja von Schuttenbach
a good lady
But it was never a “democratic”
Process IMO….
Katja just announced she's leaving the USA and going back to Berlin.
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I head to Boston Sunday for one more surgery (number 15) but there's light at the end of the funnel - feeling better, have had what is probably my last reconstructive surgery. I have a face again (well, maybe 75 percent of a face) and hope to be playing by the end of January. We are also doing Dizzy's on May 3, 2023, with a nice group including Aaron Johnson, Ava Mendoza, Ray Suhy, Lewis Porter.
In the meantime I am trying to get my "career" back. I did a whole lot of recording last spring, and am finishing a book, as follows:
3 cd set of my own work called In the Dark (featuring Ken Peplowski and others) and a separate, single CD of my own work called America: The Rough Cut. The first is a series of song forms and oddities; the last is a program of older American song forms, from gospel to country to blues and pre-blues. Plus a heavy metal piece (actually 2) with saxophone and electric guitar. All pieces feature Ray Suhy, who I say without fear of hype is the best guitar player in the world. And Aaron Johnson, on clarinet and alto on In the Dark, is not to be missed. Both projects will be out on ESP Disk; I honestly think this is the best work I have ever done. The book is called Letter to Esperanza, with some semi-pithy commentary plus the usual stuff which continues to get me into trouble.
I would like to do an advance sale. This will help finance the project. I offer the following:
1) In the Dark – 3 CD set - $25 plus media shipping (total $30)
2) America: The Rough Cut – single cd - $10 plus media shipping (total $15) –
3) The book – Letter to Esperanza - which will be priced at $30 shipped when issued – for $20 shipped as a pre-order.
Those are all individual prices when ordered, in advance, separately. Or, order all for $55 shipped in the USA. (Contact me for Euro shipping, which has gotten expensive) -
my paypal is allenlowe5@gmail.com
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10 hours ago, Gheorghe said:
Thank you @AllenLowe for sharing this one. If I remember right, this was the first tune, where Don Byas plays the first solo (possibly because Bird was late on the band stand).
Okay, yeah, I don´t doubt that Al had a brilliant touch and technique, but I like his solos more on the 1948 broadcasts with Bird from the Royal Roost. In those two years he learned more about bebop phrasing, at least that´s my impression. In the earlier examples from Town Hall and Billy Berg´s , he plays fine, but has to many "stops" from one A section to the other or from the second A to the bridge. It´s what you play there, that makes the thing into a natural "flow", like Bird always did, like Diz and Fats did and Bud Powell did. I just try to say that it is fascinating to hear how Haig at the beginning still had a bit of classical approach and obviously learned naturally played bebop playing every night with the bop leaders, so after maybe 2 years he got it. I´ll never say else, that the Al Haig of 1948/49 was fully developed. I have not heard much Haig after that. I regret he never came to Austria during his lifetime, I have heard that he had played in Hamburg, and in Londra and at some bop reunions with Diz and on one occasion with Dex in the late 70´s (not the best record, but a wonderful Haig solo on Round Midnight).
Another piano player who really could play bop very fine was Lou Levy, he was underrated I think.P.S.: I love to play the tune "Be Bop". Usually we choose one up tempo number for each set, it may be "Be bop" "Salt Peanuts", "Dizzy Atmosphere" "52nd Street Theme" or a standard tune like "Get Happy" "Cherokee" , that kind of stuff.....
I understand. I guess we have to realize that Haig was about 23 years old (born in 1922; apparently he changed the date later on) and this music was such a racial kind of reorganization. He told me that Dizzy showed him how to voice chords for the new music.
it won't let me correct the above, "racial" should have been "radical" - spellcheck crap, sorry. Anyone else here find themselves unable to edit text?
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I will add that the movie made of Joe's daughter's book is probably the best jazz film/bio ever made. Spectacular, and caught Joe perfectly. It was very painful to watch, but worth it.
On 11/16/2022 at 2:18 AM, Gheorghe said:Sure we shouldn´t try to write Joe Albany off for his weak and unsure playing at the Finale with Bird and Miles. He was not alone. With the exception of Bud and sure Hank Jones and some others, many many piano players at the beginning may have been fascinated with bop and what they heard Bird ´n Diz play but couldn´t transpond it to piano, that´s why they sounded "stiff" . Al Haig at Town Hall and at Billy Berg´s in 1945 is no exception , Sadik Hakim or his original name Argonne Thornton sounds strange on the Savoy sides with Bird, melodically and rhytmically "stiff", Duke Jordan also had his problems in the early days. Lou Levy was good !
I wish you succes for what you want to get from some of Joe Albany´s style, and if you know records from him from the 60´s where he swings hard, this will be the best way to get into his stuff. And hope you got guys to play with who also dig that stuff. Maybe after some repetitions you can do a gig of a kind of "Albany Memorial" or so, if you find an audience who has heard about him, I wish you luck since I assume you a musician, as this is the musician´s forum .
I didn´t know the record you mention and must apologize: In my case there is so little time to listen to records, I got to play and the few times I listen to records it´s mostly to check out a tune if I don´t know it exactly so I have the line and the chords in my memory . That´s why I listened to a Blue Mitchell album 2 days ago which has "Chick´s tune". It´s based on the chords of "You Stepped out of a dream" . Anyway I know the chords, it´s easy cheesy , but you got to know Chick´s line on it, that pedal point section and so..... , so you have to know the stuff to support the horns properly and be "hand in glove" with the drummer and bassist.....I hesitated to buy the book since I´m quite thru with books about musician tragedies. I saw too many fellow musicians die to bear that kind of stuff. Musicians, great musicians I played with and whom I miss.
But eventually I bought that DVD, since my wife once watched with me "Round Midnite" for several times, and Eastwood´s "Bird" (not as good), and I thought the story daughter and difficult father might go, but first I looked at it alone to be sure how it is, and for me it was bull....., maybe that´s why I also didn´t buy the film about the life of Miles, since I heard it´s also more about the drug stuff........, I´m not a moralist and if someone does that stuff it´s his business, but I don´t want to read about a musician for anything else than his music .......I have to protest that Haig at Town Hall - and Billy Berg's, from the airshot I have heard - plays brilliantly. He had it absolutely together. You need to listen again.
better link - piano at 5:23
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17 hours ago, mhatta said:
I think the most important resource for getting to know Joe Albany is the 1980 documentary A Jazz Life, which is probably the only video that captures Albany playing. In the second half of the film, he talks about playing with Parker and other jazz greats. A fragment is on YouTube, but the full version is available on Vimeo.
I am also a pianist and what is interesting about Albany is the choppy rhythmic feel and the intertwined style of the right and left hands. Unlike traditional left hand movements, the left hand is rather moving freely. This is a different story from Oscar Peterson or Phineas Newborn Jr. who also had an exceptionally strong left hand, perhaps closer to John Dennis, Oscar Dennard, or even Brad Mehldau in some ways. You can see a little bit of that in the video as well.
Also, a regular contributor of this forum@AllenLowehas performed with Albany (and I believe his enormous ESP recording set included a tune with Albany). I guess he can give us an interesting insight on Albany from a point of player's view.
I only played with Joe at my wedding, but I heard him play many times. He was best in solo, full of wonderfully dense lines - though he was fine with groups, he had these blank spaces where he just got lost - usually only for a few seconds, but they were weird - and I have heard similar things with other former drug and alcohol abusers (Al Haig on rare occasions, Brian Klahrman frequently). But I loved Joe; he really, at his best, had an almost Cecil Taylor-like intensity (listen to the version of I Love You on the home recording he made with Warne Marsh). But here was a guy who had used not just a lot of alcohol but also, as he told me, horse tranquilizer.
On Thelonious Monk
in Jazz In Print - Periodicals, Books, Newspapers, etc...
Posted
the first person I saw quoted as saying Monk could play like Teddy Wilson was Mary Lou Williams. Not sure where I saw it, however.