johnlitweiler

Saw Pigmeat Markham at the Fillmore East about 40 years ago. Can't remember who else was on the bill and am too lazy to look it up, but I hazily remember it was a strange gig that night. Lucky you. I wish I'd seen him in a theater. Although I did see some of his comedy routines done by white comedians in burlesque theaters about 50 years ago, when we still had burlesque theaters in Chicago. Those comedy routines were probably old even before Moses grew his beard.

Johnny Griffin told me he was drafted in 1950 and, along with a group of other Chicago draftees, was shipped off to fight in the Korean War. They were flown to Hawaii. While they were waiting for their flight to Korea, there was a military band event for which an oboe player was suddenly needed. Somehow word got to the band officials that one of the new privates, Griffin, could play oboe and was a good sight reader. (Chicago teacher Walter Dyett had taught Griffin to play several woodwinds.) He not only played in that band concert, he would up playing saxophone in a dance band at an officers' club party that night. A drunken officer heard him and demanded, "This private is such a good musician, he should be a member of the band, not a soldier." As a result Griffin stayed behind while his fellow draftees flew to Korea the next day. Johnny said that every other one of those Chicago men who had been drafted with him was killed in action. That war was utter horror.

Xlento! Allen, please keep us posted.

And the Louis Armstrong big band with Russell, Pops, Barbarin or Catlett.

Leonard Jones, photographer? Can he possibly be the same Leonard Jones who played bass with Kalaparusha, Muhal, and others? Kalaparush has always been a beautifully soulful musician and he's brought a lot of joy into the world. His solo in Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound" is a perfect, very early statement of sound and space in tension; then there were his more lyrical work in the late '60s and, by contrast, his intense, violent music in Chicago in the mid-'79s. Since then, from his few records and his very rare returns to Chicago, he's again a lyric artist. Subtle, too - his is not jazz for dummies. Too bad there aren't more opportunities to hear him. He's a bit shy about playing with his peers. Aloc, thanks much for posting this video. Kalaparush has been urging people to see it. There's also a good interview with him in George Lewis's "A Power Stronger Than Itself."

Stan Tracey quintet with two young saxophonists and an absolute inferno of a rhythm section: An incredibly aggressive, on-the-beat bassist; Clark Tracey, a hyper, kick-ass, tough-guy drummer; and Stan Tracey, piano heir to Monk (and to Monk's great swing) in solo and accompanying with off-center chords and rhythms. Heard them in a London pub two autumns ago and for a long time thereafter I was convinced S.T.'s was the only way piano ought to be played. Do any forum members in England happen to know the bassist's name? Wilbur Ware is a prime attraction on every recording he made.

Late last summer I heard Organissimo in a club in South Bend, then, a week later, Deep Blue Organ Trio at the Chicago Jazz Fest. Organissimo smoked the DBO3 something fierce. Usually over the years I've enjoyed Foreman and Rockingham, but Alfredson and Marsh put them to shame.

Including his arranging. Hank said that he composed the arrangements for "A Slice of the Top" while he was in jail - he was Duke Pearson's ghost writer. Good music. Of course, he was always an ingenious composer-arranger, kept the music lively with intros, interludes, codas, etc.

First jazz concert I ever heard was the Kenton band in Wheaton, IL in about 1959. They played arrangements by Niehaus and Jimmy Knepper and Kenton featured both of them soloing in some of their pieces. Billy Root, baritone, was the other soloist I recall, don't remember the other arrangers. Did Kenton record any Knepper scores? How can we despise a bandleader who had offered young Ornette Coleman a gig about 5 years before that? (Ornette turned him down.)

Fasstrack, in NYC, if that asshole cop doesn't show up for the court hearing, will the judge automatically dismiss the charges?

An excellent interview. Anthony Ortega is a distinctive, valuable, and courageous lyric artist. Besides the HatOlogy CDs there are some fine latter-day CDs of Ortega playing original songs by himself and Mona Ortega, with French little-big bands, on French labels - rather hard to find and wonderful to hear.

Thanks for the blog post, Ricky. I quite agree with you about Louis w/Luis' band. Those broadcasts are a joy. And the album has an absolutely priceless track of latter-day Armstrong playing trumpet along with his 1923 recording of "Tears" w/Oliver.

Point Of Departure is now a quarterly. Look for the new on-line issue in, I believe, December.

Phooey. A few decades ago the G.R. Press was a thick daily paper that had national stories and was especially full of local reporting. Wonder what it's like now.

First time I heard Monk was the quartet w/Rouse, Dunlop, and (I think) Ore - that was 1961 and in the subsequent 50 years I may never heard anyone swing so much as Monk on those nights. Monk really stretched out that time, Rouse played short solos; in 1962 Rouse was more at ease, stretched out, Monk played short solos. At any given time Monk apparently had a small repertoire, maybe a couple dozen songs. Some of the interest, or strength, of the "Monk's Dream" LP was that Rouse seemed to be learning some of the songs and his solos were theme variations. In time, as he knew the songs better, he would improvise on the changes. The whole quartet swings so fine in those It Club and Italy-France Riverside concert LPs. Monk did not comp, any more than Ellington or Basie ever comped. He played orchestra backgrounds, on the piano, to his soloists. Hank Mobley said he only played w/Monk for two weeks but he thought he played Monk's music very well. I believe it. It's good that Rouse and Griffin, for the rest of their lives after leaving Monk, continued to play Monk songs.

same plot, and based on the same Civil War incident, as "The General" by Buster Keaton

Go White Sox.

I wonder where this 2/4 time claim came from. The 1920s pre-swing-era styles were in 2/2 and 4/4, not 2/4. Even the Johnny Warrington etc. stocks we played in high school, ca. 1950s, were in 2/2. There's a weird recording of "Snake Rag" by Wynton Marsalis in 2/4. He must have read somewhere that early New Orleans jazz was played in 2/4.

David Meeker's Jazz on Film site lists: Lorenzo Tucker, The Pope Sisters, Bobby Hargreaves Orchestra, The Six Sizzlers, Harlem’s Apache Chorus. I'll ask Mark Cantor if he knows any other musicians in the film. Mark responded: The Bobby Hargreaves orchestra is indeed a very obscure unit. Your film scholar associate is probably aware that there are two bands in Underworld....the Hargreaves band and the one led by Billy Hick, both with different personnels. At or around the time this film was made Bobby Hargreaves and his Orchestra was featured at the kit-Kat Club in New York City. In terms of the tenor saxophonist, I think that this may well be Sonny Fredericks, Jr. Frederick recorded around this time with both Red Allen and Buddy Johnson, and he solos on a half-dozen tracks, perhaps a few more. I have never made the time to compare his sound on the recordings to the tenor sax on soundtrack, and therefore (possibly) confirm his presence. If your researcher carries through on this, I would certainly like to hear back from him/her. Thanks, Medjuck and Mark. Especially, thanks for pointing out the existence of the Meeker site, though I'm disappointed. The credits to the J-P Melville film "Le Doulos" include Martial Solal but none of the other jazz musicians, and Meeker doesn't even mention Solal. No musicians named for Melville's "Le Samourai" either (saw it this week). JSangry, thanks for pointing out the existence of that Tyler, TX film collection. I think Williams or Micheaux may have lived awhile in Tyler. Contrary to the old jazz-underworld 1950s films, in "Sweet Smell of Success" the white jazz musician is not only the good guy, a black musician leads the band. The movie is said to be an anti-Senator McCarthy parable.

Yes, Vlatkovich is another good one. And Jeb Bishop, a Chicago trombonist, is special.

Yes, he really is.

They can make good eating, when fried.

Minnie Minoso is on the Veterans Committee's ballot of Baseball Hall of Fame candidates. Damn it, it's long, long overdue to vote him in. Don't blow it, Committee.

Paul Rutherford did two masterpieces: The Gentle Harm of the Bourgeoisie (ca. mid-1970s), which is the ultimate in spontaneous improvisation, and Tromboleneum (21st century, IIRC), which is the opposite, structured solos. The man was a creative wonder. I've heard some old, good Conrad Bauer, Albert Manglesdorff, and Gunter Christmann solo trombone albums, too. Happy hunting.

Tomorrow, Monday, October 31, "Zoundz!" will be a Halloween show from 6:30 to 9 pm on WHPK Chicago, 88.5 FM and streaming on whpk.org. Armstrong, Ellington, Dallwitz, Monk, Ayler, Mitchell, Bowie, Russell, and other frights...