Michael Weiss

I like to tell my students that when they solo they're a guest of the song and to treat their host with respect. As a soloist you're there to enhance the song, not to use it exclusively for harmonic gratification. A tune's identity is more than a set of chord changes. Charles McPherson, who in addition to being one of the great instrumentalists is also IMO one of the best verbalizers about jazz. From one interview: "See, here we go with, “There’s a lot of ways to be a typewriter,” because a lot of people chase chord changes. But harmony and chord changes are just there as collateral. They tell you what group of notes might be valid for the moment, but they don’t tell you what’s the best note for the moment. Your eyes can tell you right notes if you know harmony, but your ears — if you got some — will tell you the best notes out of the many right notes. It’s up to the melodic ear to eke out the greatest four or five notes for the moment. That’s when the phrasing and rhythm comes in.... ... But Bird and Dizzy played so well and so correctly that it was very easy for the younger players to start treating chord changes as the greatest thing of all. There’s a danger there because chords are not the “reason why.” Chords shouldn’t be the jumpstart of your creation. Your jumpstart of creation is your melodic ear and rhythm. The chords are there, they’re like parts of speech. Nouns, verbs, prepositional phrases, adverb phrases: they’re meaningless on their own, but they’re there to create sentences, paragraphs and stories. But parts of speech are not the reason for your creation. When you get ready to speak your thoughts and express your feelings, you’re not saying, well now let me use a noun or a verb or an adverb. It’s the same when you play an A minor seven. An A minor seven has no dignity unto itself. It just is what it is. The A minor seven is just acting as part of speech, helping you express your emotion. A lot of the players after bebop on became top heavy with the harmony. Now we have a bunch of players who will basically chase chord changes, that’s all it is. If they’re grammatically correct, they think they’re great, you know? And that’s part of it, of course. At least you’re in the ballpark if you outline the changes. But that ain’t the main event!"

As a "younger" regular at the Star Cafe perhaps my name should have been substituted for Joe Albany, although I did meet him there. He showed up on a couple of occasions.

New biography just released. Have Horn, Will Travel: The Life and Music of Herman "Junior" Cook by Courtney M. Nero https://www.amazon.com/Have-Horn-Will-Travel-Musician/dp/157441982X

If you’re in the nabe please come and check us out. Joey Ranieri on bass is bad ass. And Pete Van Nostrand is on drums.

Hope to see Kevin and other Boston area peeps. Tickets now on sale: https://www.ticketweb.com/event/michael-weiss-trio-scullers-jazz-club-tickets/14137923

Yes. That was taken at Johnny Griffin's memorial service. Lou played a solo version of Thanks For the Memories.

FWIW, found this excerpt at the end of a cassette tape. A little documentation of LD and Al HArewood playing together in 1986. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL6ZC0TxGHw

My quartet's set from 1999 was slated to be included in Episode 3 but alas was bumped. MOMA was a great venue, great audience and Melanie Monios was a great producer. They did everything right.

I went to Echo Hill Ranch several summers in the 60s.

Check Smoke's website

I enjoyed some great times with Tootie over the years, in concerts with the three brothers, gigs at the Vanguard with Jimmy and Tootie and trio gigs at Smalls. Around Tootie you had to be on your toes on and off the bandstand, or you might get run over. Acerbic like a MF, but big fun always.

Thursday - Sunday, April 11-14 @Smoke, NYC George Coleman with Peter Bernstein (Russell Malone on Sunday) Michael Weiss John Webber Carl Allen

April 11-14 at Smoke with George Coleman, then Way Out West for a couple of trio gigs in AZ: April 19 – Ravenscroft, Scottsdale 7:00 April 20 – Century Room, Tucson 7:00

When I played a week at Bubba's in Fort Lauderdale with Jon Hendricks back in 1982, Eddie was in residence there and played solo piano in between our sets, any song in any key, wherever his fingers landed at the moment. It was great to hear him every night. Beautiful guy.

Jon Herington