Michael Weiss

When I played the Chicago Jazz Festival with Johnny Griffin in 1988 (?), we finished our set with a Chicago all-star tenor blowout with Eddie Harris, Von Freeman, Clifford Jordan and E. Parker McDougal. Gilmore was supposed to join us but Sun Ra put the nix on it. Gilmore seemed a little bugged but he wasn't going to challenge it. Missed an opportunity to play with one of my all-time favorite tenor players. At least we played a game of chess - he kicked my ass in just a few minutes. I performed "Saturn," "Images," and "Horizon" at Gilmore's memorial service with a quartet.

If you're in NYC July 18-23...... same group: Joe Wilder Michael Weiss John Webber Lewis Nash New York Times Stepping Gently Out of the Sideman Shadows By BEN RATLIFF Published: February 3, 2006 Joe Wilder doesn't seem used to making announcements. Taking the stage for his first set at the Village Vanguard on Tuesday, he looked ill at ease, like a guest waiting to be placed at the dinner table. But when he sat down, confident logic poured out of his trumpet. Mr. Wilder is 83 and has been known for 60 years as a high-level sideman. Chatting before he got started — he was in the corridor, scrutinizing the pictures on the walls, rather than waiting in the back room for his dramatic entrance — he said he had never before led a band in a New York jazz club; he consented, he said, when asked by the Vanguard's owner, Lorraine Gordon, and encouraged by the pianist Michael Weiss. He has played with big bands, among them Lionel Hampton's and Jimmie Lunceford's; he briefly joined a powerful version of the Count Basie band in 1953 and did some recording under his own name for Savoy soon after. But he spent a great deal of his career in the straight world. For 17 years he worked as a staff musician at ABC, and he still has a professional, responsible air. Like the pianist Hank Jones — who is a few years older and worked in the studios for a similar length of time — he is almost never seen without a coat and tie. With a quartet including Mr. Weiss, the bassist John Webber and the drummer Lewis Nash, Mr. Wilder played a handful of his favorite standards, blues and ballads. The band cohered beautifully around him. The quartet had barely rehearsed; for sure, its interaction with Mr. Wilder — and Mr. Wilder's chops — will improve through the week. But things already sounded good by the first tune. Mr. Wilder is an old-fashioned, disciplined melodic improviser. His clean, light, elegant sound and upbeat imagination don't lead him toward slurring or shouting or imprecision; instead, at climaxes, he filed down his upper-middle-register notes to make them dartlike. In his first improvised chorus, on "Secret Love," he whizzed through a whole-tone scale; for the rest of the set, he unloaded one bright idea after another. In "Cherokee," he followed perfectly melodic improvised phrases abstracted from the melody, then changed to flügelhorn midsong. He used a mute on "All the Things You Are," played four-bar tradeoffs with Mr. Nash, the drummer, and used circular breathing to hold a continuous note for the song's eight final bars. The only nonstandards in the set were Mr. Weiss's Latin tune "La Ventana" and Mr. Wilder's own "Joe's Blues." It was the most optimistic-sounding blues you could imagine.

I know I'm a bad sport and willfully bipassing established BFT etiquette, but I'd rather just ID tracks rather than give comments. I know this removes about 90% of the intent but as a musician I'd rather keep my opinions to myself and not insult anybody. Does this disqualify me from contributing? If not, how soon can we post track IDs? Anyway, there's a lot of nice stuff on these discs.

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I'll be bringing in a quartet to the Kitano New York, July 14 and 15. Sets are 8:00pm and 9:45pm. With me this time is Steve Wilson on soprano and alto saxophones, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and Kendrick Scott on drums. We'll be premiering some new tunes and trying out new ways to play the older ones. This engagement will be an early warm-up to our debut week at the Village Vanguard, October 24-29, where the group will be augmented by master percussionist Daniel Sadownick. I hope you can come by and hear what we're up to. The Kitano Hotel is located at 66 Park Avenue at the corner of 38th street.

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The link automatically begins an mp3 download onto your computer. Can be opened with iTunes or Quicktime.

Mogie What tune is this and where is it from?

Sonny 1962

Barry Harris has been dealing with this scale for years. You wouldn't want to play it over a Cmaj7 because the Bb lands on the beat. Like a regular bebop scale, the idea is that the chord tones, in this case - root, third, b5 and b7 - are hit on the beat. Symmetrically the same for C7 and F#7.

Around 1983-4 Bucky was a regular sitter-in at the Star Cafe with the house band, which was Harold White or Clifford Barbaro on drums, Junior Cook, Ed Howard and myself. I remember him being a little high-strung, perhaps with a chip on his shoulder most of the time. Being on crutches I'm sure didn't help. I don't recall his playing being particularly memorable.

What I've always wanted to know is who is this??

Buddy Terry's a Newark saxophonist who did some sides for Prestige & Mainstream in the late 60s/early 70s. Natural Soul on Prestige, the one with Shaw & Young, is my favorite, but Pure Dynamite on Mainstream is a real out-of-left-field treat. Terry's always been a solid blues-based soul-jazz/hard bop player, but on this one he ventures into sort of a stretched out late-60s Miles bag. Not necessary a "great" side, but definitely an "interesting" one. I thought that he had sorta "disappeared", but apparently not: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/swingadelic2/from/scottp So hey - Buddy Terry lives! I'm playing a concert in NJ in a few weeks with Slide Hampton's quintet with Buddy Terry. Wish I checked out those Mainstream LPs. Looking forward to playing with him.

Went to hear Maceo Parker in Prospect Park tonight and guess who joins the band for an encore?

Ah yes, the good ol' wind machine.... "War of the Worlds", last scene, taken from our apartment window in Brooklyn, November 30, 2004

The executive editor of Marvel is moving into my building this month.

Serious shit. Listen: Feinberg Sonatas 1-6 Feinberg Sonatas 7-12 Like Roslavets, but even more so, Samuil Feinberg is another unsung heavyweight composer of post Scriabin Russian music. Definitely worth being aware of!

Marvel's executive editor is moving into my building this month.

I met Roy DeCarava Sunday night. Beautiful guy.

Nothing in between Love Supreme and Ascension? I'd drop the Quinechette and add Live at the Half Note or First Meditations or Sun Ship or something from 1965 pre-Ascension.

More information here: hangoverlounge.com There's a private screening in NYC on June 17. If I get any info about public release I'll pass it on here.

From dailymotion.com

Speaking of Mondays, when I played with the big band at the Vanguard a few weeks ago, Alex was subbing for Scott Wenholdt and really sounded nice.

Not sure myself, but I recently got the Fantasy CD reissue of The Mastersounds, and while listening, kept saying to myself how f.......ng great this man was on vibes - he was a monster on piano, but on vibes I think he belongs into the top ten. May I recommend one of my favorite LPs: The Two-Sided Album Milestone 9015

I haven't backtracked through all the posts here but has anyone mentioned Buddy Montgomery?