Ted O'Reilly

The late Dick Wellstood was a friend of mine, a great pianist, a grumpy wit, a pool-shooter, a bicyclist and wonderful writer. Among his best prose was a liner note for "Quintessential Continued", Hines' second solo Chiaroscuro LP released as CR-120. I copied it out once, for a journalism student who had asked for an example of Writing-About-Jazz-In-A-Jazz-Way... I think this Hines topic is just the right place for it. (I trust this is okay with Hank O'Neal, who had the wisdom to ask Wellstood for the words). EARL HINES -- AN APPRECIATION Behold Earl Hines, spinner of yarns, big handed virtuoso of the black dance, con man extraordinaire, purveyor of hot sauce. Behold Earl Hines, Jive King, boss of the sloppy run, the dragged thumb, the uneven tremolo, Minstreal of The Unworthy Emotion, King of Freedom. Democratic Transcendant, his twitchy, spitting style uses every cheesy trick in the piano-bar catalog to create moving cathedrals, masterpieces of change, great chains of tension and relaxation, multi-dimensional solos that often seem to be about themselves, or about other solos -- "See, here I might have played some boogie-woogie, or put this accent there, or this run here, that chord there...or maybe a llittle stride for you beautiful people in the audience..." Earl Hines, Your Musical Host, serving up the hot sauce. For all the compexity in his playing, Hines exercises fairly simple harmonic vocabulary, and in any event his peculiar stuttering rhythmic sense gives his phrasing so much force as to make harmonic analysis almost meaningless. The dissonances he uses are more the result of his fascination with the overtone of the piano than of any concern with elaborate harmonic substitutions. Accented single notes making the upper strings ring, or open fifths or octaves sounded a tone or semi-tone apart (either will do) at opposite ends of the keyboard are to him amonong the most beautiful of sounds. His is the music of Change, based on the rhythms of the body in a graceful way unique to the older Jazz players. This may be why he is more successful as a soloist than as a trio pianist. The trio's oscarine petercision, a crutch for many, is a cage for Hines. It's need for relentless accuracy and predictable responses only betrays the tiny imperfections of freedom in his playing; when he is playing alone, these imperfections meld into a sweet flexible instrument of expression. Hines is not a "stride" pianist. His rhythm is too straight four-four, too free. He does not possess the magisterial dignity of James P. Johnson, the aristocratic detachment of Art Tatum, the patience of Donald Lambert, the phlegmatic unflappability necessary to maintain the momentum of stride. Hines needs silence in the bass, room to let the flowers grow, space to unroll his showers of broken runs containing (miraculously) the melody within, his grace-noted octaves ("That's the way we make the piano sing!", -- Eubie Blake), and his wandering, Irish endings. His is Freedom in Discipline, infinite choice in a limited sphere, the tension of Will vs. Material -- his is human creativity. Behold Earl Hines, King of Beasts! --Dick Wellstood Now, that is Earl Hines! That is Jazz Writing! That was a great pianist himself, Dick Wellstood speaking with affection, knowledge and skill. He nailed what Hines was about, and was jazz is about, in my opinion.

"....they were quite happy to say goodbye to fooling with chemicals and dark rooms!" I dunno....at times, I've had great times with both...

Don't understand...why would the possibility of them being promos have anything to do with the number? 'Cause maybe he didn't pay for a record it doesn't count? (Half of my 4K-ish are promos....still take up the shelf space and sound as good. (Remember too: promos are always first pressings! Like super-virgin olive oil. )

Claude Hopkins did a solo piano LP for Sackville Records in 1972 which is now part of a 2CD release presenting 3 LPs, "Grand Piano" Sackville SK2CD-5001. Hopkins' Soliloquy, Sir Charles Thompson's Portrait Of A Piano at the duo of Don Ewell and Willie The Lion Smith Grand Piano are all included. Hopkins is also featured on two other Sackvilles, The Jazz Giants (with Wild Bill Davison et al.), and Old Tyme Modern with Herb Hall. I met him on many occasions when he came to Toronto, and he was an elegant, well-spoken man, on the quiet side. Much like all his music...

That's odd. This set is supposed to be the 1959 songbook sessions with drums instead of guitar. Or are these three tunes quartet dates? Kessel definitely played on the 1952 Ellington recordings. Well, I'm guessing the request from Toronto went to the archives for something like "the Oscar Peterson recordings of Duke Ellington material" and some intern pulled the proper 1959 trio things, and noticed other OP/DE and tossed them in.l (You wouldn't expect a jazz fan in the archive section, would you?) My question is why there was only 3? The OP Mercury trio with Kessel did more than 3 of Duke's compositions: the Mosaic box has 11 tracks if I recall correctly.

....and?

Paypal sent from Toronto...even used US funds! Happy to keep Organissimo forum active...

As I mentioned, the man who wrote the intro to the set, Ron Gaskin, is a friend. I asked him if he had any information about the "30+" tracks, and he said no, that his work was after the fact of the content preparation. But interestingly, he emailed me "when the first pressing (do they call it pressing?) was made of the set, no one at Verve realized that on the Ellington disc there were 3 tracks prominently featuring the guitar of Barney Kessel. But good old Ron spotted it (jazz fans tend to listen) and it was quickly corrected." I don't know about the Kern being released last week...this is as a single CD, I assume? Perhaps different branches of Universal work independently, and the Canadian office originally worked on the complete set for Canadian release only, as (don't forget) Oscar Peterson was Canadian, through and through, and never lived anywhere but Montreal as a young man, and Toronto for the rest of his life.

I wouldn't call the packaging "cheap", but there's nothing fancy. Mono-colour oranges on the box (making the negative white-on-orange script hard to read), and just black print on the booklet and the paper CD sleeves. It's all solid quality, but Budget. All manufactured in Canada. I'm wondering if the '30+ new' claim may mean something like "we at Verve have never released 30 of these 108 tracks on any other CD releases we've done" rather than "we have 30+ tracks that have never been heard outside the recording studio on the day they were taped". I'm not complaining, by the way...these are very pleasant recordings, done for easy listening rather than stretching boundaries. I like 'em... They're playing in the background right now. Can't you hear them?

Okay, I just went and bought this at L'Atelier Grigorian's Toronto store. (The official release date is Tuesday, but they have it on the shelves today). It's a very spare production (at least compared to say, Mosaic) with 5 CDs in paper sleeves in a basic cardboard box. A booklet is equally basic, with an articulate foreword/overview/intro of sorts by a friend of mine, jazz fan/poet/retired record retailer Ron Gaskin (I didn't know he had done this). As personnel on all tracks is OP with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, and dates indicated as July 14-August 9, 1959 in Chicago, little research is needed, but: the claim is "30 + tracks never before on CD – amazingly, there are still some new things to discover" and there is no indication anywhere as to what is 'new'. There are 108 tracks in total, brief readings with most under 3 minutes, with 3:39 the longest (I Only Have Eyes For You). Disc 1 is 12 tracks of Cole Porter, 12 of Richard Rodgers. Disc 2 is 12 Irving Berlin, 12 Jerome Kern. Disc 3 has 12 Ellington. Disc 4 is again 24 tracks, 12 each Harold Arlen and George Gershwin. Disc 5 has 6 from Harry Warren, 6 from Vincent Youmans and a dozen from Jimmy McHugh. Nothing is noted as an alternate, or previously unreleased, though each track does have the master take number noted (showing that they didn't go in and do all Porter one day, Ellington the second, etc.). Going strictly by memory (my Lord discography is unfunctioning these days) I'd be stunned to learn that there is anything new here. I suppose if you have the original LP you would know what is extra, but it's sloppy to make a claim, then not follow through with the details. The compilation supervisor is Thom McKercher (of Unversal Canada) who thanks the Verve NY staff for "unearthing" the material, so if there is previously unavailable material, they surely should know what it is, and should tell us... The essential thing is the sound, and it's first-rate, nice and clear and open. It's an official Universal release, not pirated (maybe they're fighting off the 50-year thing by getting it out a couple of months early) so you can ethically pick up a very good value package that's also legit! Very good price at $32 US through http://www.grigorian.com/webstore/view.php?iid=353291

I think Medjuck's right about the imposed intermission... 'Twasn't presented that way on this side of the Atlantic. I saw "Silence of the Lambs" in Zurich, and was stunned when, just before the big reveal as the camera looks down into the pit, the screen jumped to a jaunty "Let's all go to the lobby and buy some candy" and a 10 minute intermission. The tension was completely broken, never to be recovered. I wondered if they would have done the same in "Psycho", just as Janet Leigh is soaping up...

That Grigorian price of $35 CDN is very good -- the HMV Canada website has it at $55 CDN. http://www.hmv.ca/hmvcaweb/en_CA/advancedS...cordLabel=Verve And, Atelier Grigorian is a very good record store, though I've never dealt with them online, just in the shop... Mailing CDs is costly these days....12 bucks to send 5 CDs from Toronto to a friend in NYC.

Since many re-issue projects (especially LPs) came from the marketing side of record companies, perhaps the objective in some cases was to make old material somehow sound more "Hi-Fi", emphasis on "High", meaning brighter sound. It was certainly the marketers who came up with the idea of reprocesssed stereo -- breaking down honest, clear mono with slight channel-to-channel delay and different EQs. Bad in "stereo", worse if you had the misfortune to hear it folded back to mono. I remember some particularly bad Decca things in the '60s, the Lunceford band, for example.

Bad transfers, I'd say. I have good versions of most of that material...

Interesting that the Grigorian website (it's a first-rate record store, BTW, for classical and jazz material) indicates that it's a CANADIAN EXCLUSIVE BOX SET!!! The legendary Oscar Peterson, an icon on the world’s jazz scene since the early 1950’s, recorded all of the tracks on Oscar Peterson: The Songbooks in July and August 1959, with the artists that would become to be known as the “classic” trio – Oscar Peterson on piano, Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums. 30 + tracks never before on CD – amazingly, there are still some new things to discover. 5 CDs of some of the greatest standards ever written – Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin & more - a who’s who of the Great American Songbook. 108 tracks – this is the first time these tracks have been available at a super budget price. I'll drop in and get one!

Italian jazz? Aren't most of them from Switzerland, with a Swede for good measure?

Nor to Canada, or anywhere other than the US and territories. Too bad...it's a very good price.

Just turned 67. One of my earliest memories, probably late 1944 or early 1945, is visiting the troop transport on which my dad was a signal officer, this at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard north of San Francisco. Gotcha by a year... My dad was in the Canadian Merchant Marine, doing North Atlantic convoys and ship deliveries for the Navy... Hazardous work, and no pensions. And Seeline, you could HEAR the marchers, as I recall. Radio is the most visual medium there is. (I worked in it for more than 40 years...)

I'm just old enough to have thought that radio shows like the Breakfast Club were a novelty, because all I knew was TV. I remember liking Don McNeil's voice and thinking he sounded friendly, but that's about it. I must be of Larry Kart's vintage or more (late 60s), since I too recall the radio version from the 1940s, and thought it wonderful (I was a child). Didn't they always do a "march around the breakfast table"?

Does this mean they'll send new discs to those who've already received their copy, or that they're holding up on shipping until correct discs are inserted into waiting boxes? It would seem that they've shipped 900 so far? It could be pricey re-sending that many individual discs. I ordered mine 'way back in March, but Canada Customs is (as usual) holding up delivery, no doubt to justify its exorbitant warehousing/handling costs. (What's this Free Trade stuff???)

How about no number? I have the Nat King Cole set (still unopened) that's marked "Grieveson", or pre-number, since my friend the late Gord Grieveson (who supplied much of the material) supplied my copy. He got several copies as payment I suppose...

Matt, this is great info...just what I was looking for. Thanks a lot. (And good luck with that Cold Fusion stuff. Good item on 60 Minutes last night).

Can current TV sets (LCDs, plasmas) take cold weather? I mean REALLY cold weather... A friend wishes to replace the old set at his summer cottage in pretty-far North Ontario, where temps can get down in winter, like -20, -30 celsius. Not wishing to move the set in and out, he wonders if the new sets can withstand the winter? Would Liquid Crystal Display become Ice Crystal Failure??? What'cha think?

Is "Thelonica" not a combination of Thelonious and Pannonica? You know, the Baroness? Nica, as in Nica's Dream and Pannonica?

This is funny! I went to http://www.ibdb.com/ to learn more about the production of Pipe Dream, and see that Braff played the part of Pablo, "a wetback". Further clicking leads to the discovery that Ruby Braff is female!!!: http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=94882