bertrand

Didn't notice when I saw this in theatres, because I was too busy shaking my head in disbelief at how truly awful this movie was. Melanie Griffith lisping through the line 'I've got a head for business and a bod for sin'? Please! Bertrand.

It turns out there was a typo in the Mosaic box - the track is actually called 'Hootnan', according to the copyright deposit and the first vinyl issues. Bertrand.

Action is indeed an overlooked masterpiece. Bertrand.

Tony Williams Lifetime - 'To Whom It May Concern - Them/Us' and 'Allah Be Praised', both from Turn It Over. Bertrand.

Wayne once was quoted as saying something like: 'Composition is just improvisation slowed down' (I'm paraphrasing - I don't have the article handy). From my years of thinking of Wayne's music, I have never come across a better synopsis of his musical conception. Bertrand.

http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/ind...Genre&genre=JAZ Even better: it's the Dave Holland Big Band scheduled for 1/22/05 - I'm there! Bertrand. P.S. They have Roy Haynes doing his bird tribute on 3/12/05, i.e. exactly on the 50th anniversary of Bird being killed by Art Blakey

Happy birthday! Bertrand.

Dewey has been slowed down a bit (principally due to illness), but he can still catch fire. I saw him last year in a septet setting with Jane Bunnett and Stanley Cowell (they did a CD with this lineup), and Dewey took some beautiful solos - not too long, but extremely melodic and thought out. He's been doing that crowd-pleasing/clap yo' hands blues/rock and roll tune for years at a lot of gigs - it's usually either 'Turn Over Baby' or 'Blues For J.A.M.' It's fun the first few times, but it's kinda getting old. But for people who only see him once in their lives, it's probably fun. Bertrand.

Happy birthday! Bertrand.

Happy 73d birthday to two of my favorite musicians, Jackie McLean and Dewey Redman, both born on this day in 1931, in NYC and Texas respectively. What are the odds? They have yet to record together. Neither has a contract with a label in the U.S. Anyone want to start a record company? Bertrand.

Stefan, You forget to mention the amazing light show at the Dave Holland concert. It was like being back at the Fillmore without the acid. Bertrand.

These 'commissioned pieces' are a back-door the Library of Congress uses to put on jazz concerts. They have some money from a fund (it's called McKim, I think) to commission a violin/piano duet from a composer, and they then build a concert around that. I've seen several concerts there where this was applied in different ways: - Oliver Lake and his quintet (including Russell Gunn, Charles Eubanks and Cecil Brooks III) ran through some originals and a few of the Dolphy/Little collaborations. The second set opened with the duet, which was a classical-type piece played by Anthony Davis and Regina Carter. - Cecil Taylor chose to turn the whole concert into what I suspect was a completely improvised duet piece with Matt Maneri. I was told he played a bit of solo piano in the second set. I left after the first set, because I really could not stand Maneri's sawing away. He's part of that slew of avant-garders I just can't bear to listen to - pretentious crap with no aesthetic value whatsoever. Music is meant to be enjoyed, not suffered through. Bertrand.

How does Francis Davis know when Golden Boy was recorded? Bertrand.

Chalupa, You can start a thread entitled 'I met Francis Davis'. Bertrand.

C-ball addict and Stefan and I met at a Dave Holland concert last night at the Library of Congress which was absolutely fabulous. They played a new Chris Potter tune, 'Vicissitudes' that was totally amazing. The whole band (Potter, Eubanks, Nelson, new drummer Nate Smith, and of course the leader) were on fire throughout. A truly memorable evening. Bertrand.

I have a question about the Harold Mabern slated for 5/25. It combines the LPs 'A Few Miles From Memphis' and 'Rakin' And Scrapin'. A search at AMG shows that the first has 7 tunes, the second has 5 tunes. The Fantasy catalog shows 12 tracks, so no track was dropped. Does anyone who was the LPs know if they're short enough (i.e. under 40 minutes each) to both fit on one CD, or will Fantasy have to edit a track? Thanks, Bertrand.

According to a blurb in the new Downbeat, Steven Spielberg's upcoming film The Terminal (about a guy who has to live in an airport due to a bureaucratic glitch - this must be based on the true story of the guy who lived at Charles de Gaulle airport for a decade or so) has a jazz subplot involving someone (the main character?) who is an avid autograph collector. He has the autographs of everyone in the Great Day In Harlem photo except Benny Golson, and part of the story has him searching for Benny. How hard can it be to find Golson in New York? All the musicians know him, he most certainly is an AFM member, and he did a lot of TV work (including the Cosby show a few years ago), so he can't be too hard to find. Obviously, they were limited to the half-dozen or so musicians from the photo who are still with us, but I'm sure there were guys in the picture who were a lot harder to track down. Take Gigi Gryce, for example: he dropped off the face of the planet about 3 years after the picture was taken. I'm mightily impressed that the guy had the foresight to know right after the picture was taken how historic it would be, and that if he wanted Gigi's autograph he better move fast. It just doen't make sense. Bertrand.

Rooster, Weren't there six tracks on One For One? Bertrand.

Mike, According to this site: http://www.binkie.net/wrdisc/Sweetnighter.html Vitous plays electric bass on only two tracks on Sweetnighter; Zawinul hired Andrew White to play on the other cuts because he was funkier. Two tracks feature both bassists. Eric, What is the Atlantic? Is this something I can get on newsstands? How long is this article on Wayne? Thanks, Bertrand.

It was Matt Pierson (sp?) who said this in a Jazz Times interview in which he came off as a complete asshole. Based on the personnel, song titles (or lack thereof), and recording dates, there is no way in hell that this can be a funk date. It clearly must be along the lines of Super Nova/Odyssey Of Iska/Moto Grosso Feio, and in fact the personnel is basically the first Weather Report group with Tyner in place of Zawinul, and no Airto (Barbara Burton and Don Alias both play on the first WR record, but Zawinul took out their names due to some financial dispute). My guess is that Pierson was confusing it with Herbie's unissued BN session, which, based on the sole released track on the Lost Sessions, may indeed be a rather lame funk session. Pierson also called the unissued Lee Morgan session from 1968 a bad funk date. The three issued tracks (on the Sixth Sense) are hardly bad funk. Either that, or I'm all funked up and don't know what people refer to as 'funk'. Maybe I need a refresher course from George Clinton! Bertrand.

Jim, She is just adorable! Congratulations again to both of you. Bertrand.

In an editorial cartoon in the Washington Post, Clinton was swamped at a signing for his book at the Democratic Convention (while Kerry was completely ignored). In this cartoon, his book was called: 'Bubba: A Memoir'. Can we think of any titles better than 'My Life'? How lame. I propose: 'Bill Clinton's presidency: Eight years that shook the chandelier' Any other suggestions? Bertrand.

The liner notes to Feio give a clue as to how the recording dates might have gotten mixed up. Supposedly, Blue Note had trouble finding the tape (big surprise) and Wayne remembered it as being recorded the day after his birthday, which would be August 26th. However, Iska was August 26th - I think Wayne remembered recording an album the day after his birthday, but got the two albums mixed up. Only when Michael Cuscuna got access to the session logs was he able to clear up this mistake. We know that he got the session logs for the Alfred Lion era from Alfred himself, but I'm not sure when he got the post-Lion information - perhaps from the estate of Frank Wolff or Duke Pearson? Bertrand.

As of noon yesterday, 5/7, Elvin was very much still alive, according to a guy from Zildjian who spoke to Keiko. Let's not be too morbid prematurely. Bertrand.

Fred Lacey was indeed a Philadelphian. Bootsie Barnes knew him well - he was his teacher. Apparently, McCoy Tyner did an entire record of Lacey tunes that has yet to be released. Lacey also spent some time in the slammer - Jimmy Heath knew him there. Lacey was a guitarist, so it is possible he is the one with Lester. A mystery figure, for sure. Bertrand.