Michael Weiss

Sacajawea is a bad-ass tune. Serenata has been arranged and orchestrated beautifully. Angola and Orbits have been given a total reworking over with the depth of detail that only Wayne can give. Get with the program!

I played with Chaka Khan last night at the Tokyo Billboard Live club. She sat in with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. She was very personable and was fearless on the bandstand, not knowing what we were doing. we played Slide's "Frame For the Blues" and she just winged it, modulation and all. Sang her ass off as usual. Had the perfect opportunity to quote "Ain't Nobody" in the tune beforehand.

Great Ben Webster interview (14:23)

1995

Sweet Lou @Vanguard still playing beautifully. One of the very last of "the truth." Love Autumn in NY Things Ain't What They Used to Be Gravy Train Body and Soul Alligator Boogaloo

Thanks Al.

118 Down Jazz saxophonist/flutist Frank

Have seen Chick, Dizzy, Ella (most often) Tito (Puente) in today's puzzle, but never Frank Wess.

West Coast Airlines

Beethoven's Fifth, 4th Movement Brahms Symphony #1 Paganini Violin Concerto Beethoven's Fifth, 1st Movement

No credit on the LP other than Producer: John Hammond

The whole record is very thoughtfully prepared. The second side has Buddy playing piano AND overdubbed vibes doing a suite of tunes from Camelot. Worth getting if you can track it down. Junior was as serious and unpretentious as they come. Don't remember if you said you were at the gig we did at New Morning in September, 1986 (Hardman/Cook Quintet).

Thank you! Re: Feinberg In addition to the 12 sonatas on the BIS label, I strongly recommend Jenny Lin's wonderful CD, "Preludes to a Revolution" on Hanssler Classics for Feinberg's op.8 Preludes as well as other neglected Russian composers. Samuil Feinberg (biography by Christophe Sirodeau in English) Samuil Feinberg (born in Odessa on 26th May 1890) is known as a first-rate Russian pianist and teacher, but has unjustly fallen into oblivion as a composer. He wrote numerous works, principally for piano and for voice, and his œuvre can be divided into two parts according to his stylistic development as a composer. In the works from the period 1910-1933, we can observe an increasingly rich and virtuoso style of writing, very chromatic, often violent and rich in contrasts, but sometimes imbued with a 'symbolist' fragility that owes something to the influence of Scriabin. Then, from 1934 until his death in 1962, Feinberg moved progressively towards greater simplicity, towards a diatonic style and a preponderance of melody - somewhat reminiscent of the development of Prokofiev or of Myaskovsky. In addition, Feinberg made transcriptions, including some fifteen works by Bach as well as music by other composers. Feinberg achieved fame as an interpreter at an early age; in 1914 he became the first pianist in Russia to perform Bach's complete Well-Tempered Clavier in concert (in 1958-59 he made the second recording of the piece, after that by Edwin Fischer), and he later presented various cycles of Ludwig van Beethoven's sonatas and championed the music of Scriabin, Prokofiev and Debussy; his interpretation of Scriabin's Fourth Sonata was much admired by the composer. Starting from 1924, some of his works were published by Universal Edition, Vienna. The Piano Sonata No. 6 enjoyed great success at the Festival of Contemporary Music in Venice on 4th September 1925, played by the composer, as did the Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 20, when it was premiered in Moscow in 1932, conducted by Albert Coates. The American critic Carl Engel - who was to become a friend of Schoenberg - suggested in The Musical Quarterly in 1924 that Feinberg might be a genius. Feinberg went to Paris in November 1925, and he was invited to Austria and German on numerous occasions (1925, 1927 and 1929). He also made recordings for Deutsche Grammophon in Berlin as well as for various German radio stations; he was one of the first performers to give a 'live' radio concert, in Berlin in 1927. Some years later, his increasing success in the West was checked by the political upheavals of Stalinism in the USSR. It was at this time that his friend and editor Nikolai Zhiliayev (who had been his composition teacher before 1914) was imprisoned in the context of the Toukhachevsky affair. Starting in the 1930s, Feinberg was no longer permitted to leave the USSR except for two appearances as a competition jury member, in Vienna in 1936 and in Brussels in 1938 and, as his music did not correspond to the criteria of 'socialist realism', he stopped performing his earlier works, preferring to hide in silence or to produce scores that were relatively simple for the listener. His Piano Concertos No. 2 (1944) and No. 3 (1947) date from this period. After the war, however, Feinberg remained one of Russia's most eminent artists and, towards the end of his life (especially after he gave up performing in public in 1956 for health reasons), he managed to commit a number of recordings to disc. In addition, from 1922 until his death on 22nd October 1962, Feinberg was one of the most outstanding professors at the Moscow Conservatory: he was deeply admired by his pupils who, after his death, fulfilled his wish by posthumously publishing his book Pianism as an Art. Samuil Feinberg never married and lived with his brother, a painter, and his family. This situation may have been partly occasioned by an unhappy 'love affair' with Vera Efron (the sister-in-law of Marina Tsvetayeva) before 1914. He was a very cultured man, spiritual, modest, and with a profound dislike of self-promotion; he was also a deeply visionary artist who was fully aware of the abysses and ambiguities of modern life. As Tatiana Nikolaeva used to say, each of his sonatas represented a 'poem of life'. Feinberg's stylistic evolution may explain why he did not make a clear mark as a composer: his major works were those written before the Second World War. The historical circumstances in Russia, however, did not permit this 'modernist' trend to continue. It is rather remarkable to observe that the Western press could write that Feinberg was an 'official figure' of the Soviet Union, an absurdity for a Jewish musician who had never belonged to the Party and had felt constrained to retreat into silence. Nevertheless, Feinberg - even if he was one of the 'cosmopolitans' in Moscow, received a certain protection from his great 'aura' as a pianist and teacher. During his lifetime, Feinberg the composer achieved public success and enjoyed the praise of musicians who admired him. Even after his death, however, it was not the done thing for his pupils and friends to draw attention to his 'non-conformist' side; this problem means that all the documentation from this period must be interpreted with caution. It is now time to rediscover scores which stand out for their expressivity, their rigorous piano writing and their great imaginative power, and which certainly reflect the anguished inner world of their composer. The great formal originality of scores such as the Piano Sonatas Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 or the Piano Concerto No. 1, often combined with their emotional content, the specific character of the keyboard writing, and even the symbolist, nostalgic charm of his melodies (for instance his Op. 7 [1914], on poems by Alexander Blok), all make the work of Feinberg an indispensable part of the musical inheritance of the twentieth century; he also left an inestimable legacy as interpreter, saved for posterity on his recordings. ©2003 Christophe Sirodeau English translation: Andrew Barnett for BIS Records AB 2003 (Bis no 1413)

Glad you enjoyed the selections. Good luck finding the Buddy Montgomery as it seems to have never been reissued. As I mentioned I haven't seen a picture of this record online anywhere.

8. "Pathways to Unknown Worlds" Sun Ra - Pathways to Unknown Worlds - Saturn Recorded 1973 Sun Ra, keyboards; Akh Tal Ebah, Lamont McClamb (Kwame Hadi), trumpets; Marshall Allen, alto, flute, oboe; Danny Davis, alto; John Gilmore, tenor, perc; Danny Thompson, baritone; Leroy Taylor (Eloe Omoe), bass clarinet; Ronnie Boykins, Bill Davis, bass; Clifford Jarvis drums; Russell Branch, Eugene Brennan, Stanley Morgan (Atakatune), percussion This, along with Heliocentric Worlds 1 & 2, is one of my favorite Sun Ra conducted collective improvisations. It really sounds like a composition, with development, climax and coda all shaped by changing instrumentation. At the beginning, each instrument slips in one by one, setting the backdrop for the harmon muted trumpet solo. Everything unfolds gradually and logically. At around 3:30, Sun Ra plays a little figure on the organ as if to cue for the next open trumpet solo. Eventually things grind to a standstill leaving the bassist by himself. After Sun Ra re-enters the tension increases as the organ plays a kind of cat and mouse with the arco bass and the horns re-enter, only to grind to a standstill again. After another climax the piece fizzles out with a final C major - nice! 9. "Sonata #8, first movement" Op. 21a. Composed by Samuil Feinberg somewhere between 1932 and 1936 Samuil Feinberg - Piano Sonatas #7-12 - BIS Performed by Christophe Sirodeau in March, 2002 It wasn't easy selecting one piece from so many great Feinberg piano works. I've been practicing all of Feinberg's piano music (except the concertos) for a few years now, but don't hold your breath for a public performance. Known best as a pedagogue, performer of the Well Tempered Clavier, Scriabin, and several transcriptions, Feinberg is woefully neglected as a composer. Which is why these recordings of Feinberg's sonatas are so important. As a jazz pianist and composer, Feinberg's sonorities, voicings, harmonies, compositional development, etc. are entirely in my wheelhouse. 10. "Take the Coltrane" composed by Duke Ellington private tape: Junior Cook Quartet at the Star Cafe, NYC Recorded October 10, 1982 Junior Cook, tenor; Michael Weiss, piano: Ed Howard, bass; Jo Jones, Jr., drums After touring with Jon Hendricks for a few months, this was the first serious regular gig I had in New York, working weekly with a real veteran. Rather fortuitous as Junior was on my very first jazz LP as a teenager ("Blowin' the Blues Away") My tenure with Junior lasted a good five years before I joined Johnny Griffin and was a great experience. I brought my Sony Walkman this particular night. That's Jo Jones Jr. on drums! Believe me - I would have been happy to edit out all of my solo, but left in just a few choruses for continuity's sake. The purpose of this track is the focus on Junior. More info from the Junior Cook thread: 11. "More Zajeni Se Ghiouro" arranged by Krasimir Kyurkchiyski Bulgarian State Radio and Television Vocal Choir - La Mystere des Voix Bulgare, Vol. 2 - Nonesuch Recorded 1984 This is some soulful shit. Dig those big fat chords - what daring writing for voices! I've never heard any other vocal ensemble with such perfect intonation, which matched with their full-throttle vocal quality and feeling makes for extremely powerful music. 12. "Holodeck Waltz" composed by Jim Beard Jim Beard - Song of the Sun - CTI Recorded May, 1990 Wayne Shorter, soprano; Bob Mintzer, flute, bass clarinet; Lenny Picket, E-flat clarinet, Jon Herington, acoustic guitar, Anthony Jackson, contrabass guitar; Dennis Chambers, drums; Don Alias, percussion. A former classmate of mine at Indiana U, Jim went on to become not only a highly respected pianist and producer but also an outstanding composer. Like Wayne, whose solo spreads wit and wisdom throughout this piece, Jim's music defies categorization. Impressive music for a debut album. I love the way Wayne blasts the melody up an octave after his solo (3:18). 13. "Taurus People" credited to Steve Grossman but possibly composed by Farouq Dawud Johnny Griffin/Steve Grossman Quintet - Dreyfus Recorded May 30, 2000 Steve Grossman, tenor; Johnny Griffin, tenor; Michael Weiss, piano; Pierre Michelot, bass; Alvin Queen, drums. I laugh everytime I hear this. It's so raucous and freewheeling, but the spirit is infectious. I think this track was recorded on the last day of the session. This was perhaps, for better or worse, the most loosely run recording session I ever participated in. The day would start out with two takes, a break to order lunch, listen to a playback or two, lunch, another take or two... where'd Johnny go? Here he is...Walking back from the corner café with a plastic cupfull of cognac. One more take and we're done for the day. Steve has one of the most thrilling, wickedly searing sounds I've ever heard. Steve and Griff's fours have me rolling on the floor. One of the more jubilant recordings I've ever been on. This tune has some interesting harmonic movement, especially in how the first chord (A-7/D) resolves into the next (Ebmaj7) on the sixth bar. Purely unintentional and quite a strange coincidence (has it happened before?) that I had two selections from the same artists (John Kirby and Sun Ra) included in the preceding blindfold test!

Thanks to all who participated. As there has been no further discussion for a while, I'd rather post answers now while the tracks are still a distant memory. 1. "Man With A Horn Goes Berserk" BUSTER BAILEY - Complete Recordings 1939-1940 - Rarities Recorded December 7, 1938 Buster Bailey, clarinet; Frank Newton, trumpet, Russell procope, alto; Billy Kyle, piano, James McLin, guitar, Johnny Williams, bass; O'Neil Spencer, drums This looks like the John Kirby band minus John Kirby. The same record date produced the reefer song classic, "Light Up." I was surprised to see in a recent "Favorite Clarinet" thread, scant mention of Buster Bailey (1 post out of 87!). 2. "Belgium Stomp" a.k.a. "State and Tioga Stomp," composed and arranged by Billy Moore Jimmy Lunceford - Lunceford Special - Columbia Recorded September 14, 1939 Eddie Tomkins, Paul Webster, Gerald Wilson, trumpets; Elmer Crumbley, Russell Bowles, Trummy Young, trombones; Willie Smith, Ted Buckner, Dan Grisson, altos; Joe Thomas, tenor; Earl Jock Carruthers, baritone; Eddie Wilcox, piano; Al Norris, guitar, Moses Allen, bass, Jimmy Crawford, drums. This tune has a nice forward-looking chord progression for 1939. Not unlike something Monk might have composed later on like Epistrophy or Well You Needn't. 3. "Cuckoo Around the Clock" composed by George Wallington George Wallington - Trios - Prestige Recorded May 23, 1953 George Wallington, piano; Curley Russell, bass; Max Roach, drums Under appreciated, baad motherfucker. 'nuff said. At the time of this recording, after Bud, probably no one could rip on a tempo like this with the exception of maybe Kenny Drew. 4. "Why Do I Love You" Lucky Thompson - Plays Jerome Kern and No More - Moodsville Recorded March 8, 1963 Lucky Thompson, tenor; Hank Jones, piano; Wendell Marshall, bass; Dave Bailey, drums This is one of my all-time favorite record dates. It's perfect from beginning to end. The image above is from a CD reissue. I had to trade away ten OOP LPs to Michael Anderson for my LP copy. 5. "Riverbed" composed by Joe Zawinul Friedrich Gulda - Innefable - Columbia Recorded 1965 Friedrich Gulda, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Tootie Heath, drums I was steered to this LP for another version of this tune which I recorded on my first date ("Presenting Michael Weiss/Criss Cross 1022) in 1986. I think Gulda plays his ass off here and was probably the best jazz playing "classical" musician to come along. 6. "Marjoun" composed by Pete LaRoca Pete La Roca - Turkish Women at the Bath - Douglas Recorded May 25, 1967 Pete LaRoca, drums; Chick Corea, piano; Walter Booker, bass; John Gilmore, tenor I've always found this to be one of the (pleasantly) strangest record dates. Maybe it's the weird, some might argue horrible, recording quality. The personnel is uniquely wonderful: Chick Corea with John Gilmore - gotta love it. And La Roca's compositions are fresh and unusual. Although I'm a hardcore John Gilmore fan, even though he doesn't solo here, I picked this track because Chick is so killin', soloing behind the melody. Pete LaRoca's broken/syncopated cymbal beat is one of THE hippest things in jazz drumming. 7. "Personage Wes" composed by Buddy Montgomery Buddy Montgomery - The Two-sided Album - Milestone Recorded March 1, 1968 Buddy Montgomery, vibraphone; Joe Farrell, tenor saxophone, Harold Mabern, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Billy Hart, drums, Montego Joe, congas Buddy is one of my strongest influences. I learned a lot listening to tapes from his steady gig at a Milwaukee hotel in the late seventies. Buddy brought me out to the ill-fated Oakland Jazz Festival in 1988 to play a set with Stan Getz. At the last minute Stan opted for a different rhythm section so I didn't get the chance to play with him, and instead was relegated to a half a chorus of How Deep is the Ocean with Vi Redd. When Buddy spent time in NYC ca. 1988-1991 I arranged gigs for us at Bradley's, the New School and a week in Paris at La Villa (Buddy's very first trip to Europe). We also played a week at Sweet Basil in Ray Appleton's group. Buddy has certain rare qualities, some of which I think are shared by musicians who don't read music. In some ways they're more gifted then the rest of us - their instincts, their ability to be less hampered playing in unusual keys.... Buddy is one of the most soulful, expressive players I know. He's got the storytelling thing going. And he sounds thoroughly modern without invoking the styles of any of the most imitated modernists of the piano (McCoy, Herbie, Chick, etc.). in fact the only influence I can readily detect is Errol Garner, but not in the obvious ways. Buddy, like Wes, represents the best of the "homegrown" tradition of players who did their own thing in their own territory, and even after "making it" and travelling and recording have their own shit that's very personal and different from the mainstream. This tune "Personage Wes" is one of my favorites of Buddy's and used to be a staple in my repertoire before I started writing my own tunes. Aside: I couldn't find one jpeg of this album cover anywhere! I had to take a photo of it myself.

As most of the tracks have been ID'd and the conversation has ground to a halt, I think I might bail out early and post a reveal thread in a few days. If those that signed up who haven't commented yet, as well as anyone else for that matter, want to chime in, now's the time. Thanks for all the comments thus far.

Michael Weiss could probably answer that money question. I recall seeing Michael lead a quartet that included Pepper Adams at the Angry Squire sometime in the late '80s. (Memorable night, Mel Lewis came in with a friend and asked if he could sit down with me and my wife since we were seated in a booth that could fit four). It was October, 1985. Wow - a quarter century. We would have made around $100 a piece. But WHO CARES! I forgot Mel was there. But I do remember Ronnie Cuber and Gary Smulyan "crashing" the gig. I listen to this tape of Hank with a smile and a cheer for the creative juices flowing in Hank's head. I wish more of you could do the same. As Gheorghe was saying, his situation was what it was so stop trying to compare his playing here to his earlier work when he was healthy, and just dig what DID come out of his horn.

I was there that night, and it was kinda depressing. He sounds better listening to this now than I remember from the gig. With all that Hank had been through - losing his teeth, a lung - for him to be on that bandstand, going for it like that, I give him all the props in the world. In whatever diminished capacity he was in, it was unmistakably HANK. And yes I would have recognized him instantly. If you're familiar with his playing on Cedar's Breakthrough date you would hear it. Dig Hank's quote of Mambo Bounce around 3'45".

That's it. Also recorded under the title "State and Tioga Stomp." Something tells me you could identify track #1 as well.

The piece TOBARI was quite beautiful. Regretfully the music was good in places and kinda sucked in other places - a little too Phillip Glass-y for my taste. I'm sure the music for HIBIKI is better. For anyone interested in Butoh I highly recommend.

I always thought of Lunceford's band as one of the cleanest, precision-wise. This arrangement has a forward looking harmonic progression. Maybe that threw you. Get that title, Marty.

Thanks for your input, Guy. If the titles to tracks #1, #2 and #12 can get ID'd we can put this one to bed soon. I don't expect anyone to ID track #9, although if Mark Stryker would step up, he would venture a viable guess. But I was sure someone here would be familiar with the music of track #11.

Psyched for tonight's opening at the Joyce Theater of this amazing Butoh dance troupe. SANKAI JUKU They only tour the USA once every few years. One of a kind experience. October 5-17 Joyce Theater, NYC October 20 Harris Theater, Chicago October 23-24 Power Theater, Ann Arbor October 28 The Granada, Santa Barbara October 30 Barclay Theater, Irvine November 3 Paramount Theater, Seattle November 5-6 Vancouver Playhouse November 9 Memorial Auditorium, Stanford November 11-14 Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco Music by Takashi Kako who made some good records with Kent Carter and Oliver Johnson in the 1970s Over the course of the past twenty years, the work of Ushio Amagatsu for his company Sankai Juku has become known worldwide for its elegance, refinement, technical precision, and emotional depth. His contemporary Butoh creations are sublime visual spectacles and deeply moving theatrical experiences. As one of the premiere choreographers at work in the world today, the arrival of a work by Ushio Amagatsu is a much anticipated event in the dance landscape. HIBIKI Resonance From Far Away Hibiki is one of internationally-acclaimed pieces of Sankai Juku, and award-winning work of unparalleled simplicity and poetic beauty. It was world-premiered at Theatre de la Ville, Paris in December 1998 and has received high reputation for many countries in the world. In May 2001, Sankai Juku performed it at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, which is known as one of main theaters leads contemporary dance in U.K. In February 2002, Hibiki won the 26th Laurence Olivier Award in category of Best New Dance Production, the most prestigious prize of performing arts in U.K. Performed in a dream landscape with whirling costumes, the company of six dancers blends image, sound and performance to create a truly hypnotic dance experience. The first sound heard in the theatre is that of liquid dripping rhythmically from suspended glass urns into 13 concave glass lenses. Lying on the sand ground, dancers uncurl effortlessly from fetal positions under caramel lighting, and weave elemental movements into a delicate show motion dance. Metamorphosing like statues of granite brought to life, dancers pulse through sand and shadow, splashed by glistening ice which suddenly changes into carmine blood. The Dynamic interplay of large and small gestures, accompanied by a lyrical and electronic score by Takashi KAKO and Yoichiro YOSHIKAWA, brings you chemical reaction of arts in the beautiful garden with sands and small water pools –cracking the kernel of the particular to liberate the universal. "A luminous rite -- slow, enigmatic, beautiful!" - The Village Voice "Image after glorious image unfolds in a beautiful environment ... it's as symbolic as you want to make it, and it's as simple as can be." - The Montreal Gazette "A complete theatrical experience of rare beauty and visual power." - The Portland Oregonian Music Takashi Kako, YAS-KAZ, Yoichiro Yoshikawa Dancers Ushio Amagatsu, Semimaru, Sho Takeuchi, Akihito Ichihara, Taiyo Tochiaki, Ichiro Hasegawa Co-produced Theatre de la Ville, Paris (Paris, France), Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center(Fukuoka, Japan), and Sankai Juku (Tokyo, Japan) World Premiere Theatre de la Ville, Paris in December 1998 TOBARI As if in an inexhaustible flux "TOBARI", the first new production to be presented by the Sankai Juku Butoh dance troupe in two-and-a-half years, was performed at the Theatre de la Ville, Paris, in May this year. All performances were sold out, and the performers received curtain calls every night by impassioned audiences. The Le Monde newspaper gave a glowing review of the performance in an article titled "The Cosmic Dance," saying, "The audience could not help but gaze at this soothing philosophical performance." The starry sky that appears silently in front of us, a small galaxy that emerges as we look down, the dry ground, and the shining blue darkness—Ushio Amagatsu uses fewer elements on the stage than in any of his past performances to create a new world with a dense darkness, and flickering, reflecting light. The performance, which lasts one-and-a-half hours, is filled with the sequence of birth, death and rebirth and invites the audience into "the cosmos of life." The emotion changes, the season shifts, and time flows without stopping—Amagatsu audaciously changed his stoic poetic style in his new work, "TOBARI." In this production, Amagatsu fuses the boundaries of seven tableaus in swaying time and space, displaying a metempsychosis within the cosmos of life as a beautiful current that advances in a single direction without stopping. Music Takashi Kako, YAS-KAZ, Yoichiro Yoshikawa Dancers Ushio Amagatsu, Semimaru, Toru Iwashita, Sho Takeuchi, Akihito Ichihara, Ichiro Hasegawa, Dai Matsuoka, Nobuyoshi Asai Co-produced Theatre de la Ville, Paris (Paris, France), Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center(Fukuoka, Japan), and Sankai Juku (Tokyo, Japan) World Premiere Theatre de la Ville, Paris in May 2008