bertrand

Soul Stream, Simple - D.C. is not a big organ town. Bill has been doing more piano/vocals gigs, which of course are much more lucrative. What he does outside D.C., I do not know. B3-er, I'm being more careful about how many gigs I go to (for example, I decided to pass on Barbara Dennerlein, because her set at the Kennedy Center will be short), but I still can go to some gigs. I've only seen Bill on organ once as a sideman, so this leader gig is very tempting. Bertrand.

Rooster, I'll have to dig up the interview. Lee is listing some recent recordings of his, and he mentions a recent date with the 'avant-garde' organist Larry Young. As for the Bitches Brew/Mother Ship connection, you had the same idea as me, but I can do you one better! Here are the clues: 2/7/69: Mother Ship is recorded 2/18/69: Miles Davis In A Silent Way is recorded; according to the notes to the recent box set, Larry Young is present in the studio, although he does not play 8/19-21/69: Miles Davis Bitches' Brew is recorded Here's my theory, based on the clues and the strong similarity between some of the licks on Lee's solo on 'Trip Merchant' and Miles' solo on 'Pharoah's Dance' (one of the two BB tracks on which Larry appears): Larry is at the Silent Way session, brought in by one of the musicians (Williams or McLaughlin?). He is not there to record, but to bring an audition tape to Miles. The tape? Mother Ship, of course, which was just recorded less than two weeks before. Miles listens to the tape, digs Lee and Larry's playing, and hires Larry for his next studio album. While he's at it, he picks a few select Lee Morgan riffs. But, much more importantly, the whole feel of Bitches' Brew is inspired by Mother Ship. How far-fetched is this? I don't know. I had a chance to run my theory by Herbie on Sunday (we were talking about Larry), but he had to go onstage and I didn't think of asking him until it was too late. Damn. Note: My theory comes apart if Rudy Van Gelder has a firm rule about no one taking home copies of the sessions at his studio. However, we know Coltrane would do this, so there probably is no such a rule. Feel free to point out how wrong I must be... Bertrand.

Mother Ship, no hesitation. Even though it was not released at the time, Lee mentioned this session in an interview, so you know he had a soft spot for it. Ever notice the similarities between some of Lee's playing on this album to Miles' playing on Bitches' Brew? For example, compare the end of Lee's solo on 'Trip Merchant' (around 5:30) to Miles' solo on 'Pharoah's Dance'. I have a theory... Bertrand.

... but doesn't get too many organ gigs. Anyway, he will be at Twins this week-end, in a trio with Scott ? on sax and Marty Morrison on drums. They confirmed that he would be playing organ. I'm tempted, although money is real tight these days. Anyone else game? Bertrand.

Did you try the curried haggis?

I have been told (although I never found the source) that Wayne once said in an interview that he wrote 'Elegant People' in his college years. I did read an interview where he said that he frustrated his composition teacher by mixing styles, and according to the interview I did not read, 'Elegant People' was the piece in question. So, unless Wayne knew Alex Acuna in 1952-1956... In his speech at Berklee, Wayne also seemd to be saying that he wrote 'Aung San Suu Kyi' in college as well, although it had to have had a different title back then, of course. Bertrand.

I'm not at all surprised that Wayne comes up as a frequent example of this. If you read his interviews, his albums are designed to grow on you slowly, rather than knock you out on first listening. This didn't work for me, however. Most of his records blew me away upon my first encounter. There were some exceptions - Phantom Navigator, Joy Ryder, and High Life. Alegria was an instant smash, however. Bertrand.

For what it's worth, I saw Herbie Hancock on Sunday. We were talking about the internet, so I mentioned the BNBB and what happened. He seemed really puzzled at Blue Note's behavior. Bertrand.

Leeway, Sorry we couldn't meet - I got here at 9:29. Can I call them or what? The only 'new' tune was 'Two Timer'. And Ray Gallon told me there were no 'new' tunes in the first set. The second set was: Epistrophy I Mean You 'Round Midnight Ask me Now Two Timer Evidence Four In One I enjoyed it a lot. Bobby Porcelli and Ray Gallon were particularly good. Bertrand.

Let's have a Blue Note convention in Anchorage!

Barak, I just called the Monk Institute. The auditorium will open at 10:30, so you may want to be there a little bit before. We suspect that it will hardly be packed however. See you there. I will be doing a lot of running around, so you may spot me. Kevin, I definitely see your point. The interview where T.S. really ragged on Sonny Clark kind of shook me up. Even if he did steal the tune, you have to feel sorry for him. I often toy with starting a thread in the musicians' forum as to whether this tune is more characteristic of Monk's or Sonny's writing. It would be a very interesting topic for a jazz researcher to pursue. Both composers have their little tics - are Monk's more noticeable than Sonny's in this track? Bertrand.

Barak, The semi-finals are on Saturday 4/26, not tomorrow! It starts at 11:00; I would imagine 10:30 would be good enough. If I have time tomorrow, I'll try to confirm that with the Monk people. A lot of people will be going in and out, so I think it will be easy to get in. Bertrand.

Oh, and are you going to try to go to the trombone competition? Bertrand.

Leeway, Keep an eye out for me on your way out (I might be in line for the next show) - maybe we can chat five minutes. I'm 6-2, 225 lbs., with a beard and glasses. If they do play new tunes during the first set, it would be great if you could try to get the titles. I would need them for my own-going project of inventorying the compositions of many of these composers, although for Monk, Chris Sheridan's book has a great inventory already. But he doesn't know about these new pieces... Bertrand.

If the board does come back up, I have a suggestion on how to improve their censorship software. Rather than replace offending words or groups of letters with ***, as in 'en***led', 'b***' (for bass), '******ian', and 'mother******', they could take a cue from our friends in Belgium, the creators of the comic strip the Smurfs (Schtroumpf in the original French). All offending words or groups of letters could be replaced by the word 'smurf'. For example, this would yield: 'You are of course ensmurfled to your own opinion, but I think bsmurfist Smurfian McBride is a mothersmurfer'. Bertrand.

It's BN's pathetic way of justifying to EMI why EMI should spend the 'big bucks' to reissue this album. Blue Note hits a low note. If only Fantasy could buy BN and add it to their umbrella of companies. I can dream, can't I... Bertrand.

Please delete this thread.

That's damning it with faint praise.

I'll be at the second set. If you are going to the second set also, I'll give you my seat number and we can meet after (or before?). I suspect the 'new compositions' thing is an error on the Kennedy Center's part, but I hope to be disproven. Unless they mean 'Two Timer/Five Will Get You Ten'... T.S. Monk is (not coincidentally) also in town for the Monk trombone competition. I'll post the details in Live Shows. Bertrand.

The Vamp they play in this version of 'Sidewinder' is from a Freddie Hubbard tune called 'Clarence's Place' (The Body And The Soul, Impulse!, 1963). When the Lighthouse set came out, I was really puzzled how Lee would have known this tune - it is hardly one of Hubbard's best known. I have the theory that since Freddie wrote it when he was still with Blakey, perhaps it was part of the Messengers' repertoire, and just didn't make it onto any live or studio recordings (official or not). Any other ideas? Bertrand.

Don't know, but I recommend that the week John Patton's Got A Good Thing Goin' is released in the U.S. (sometime in May, right?), this be the album of the week. I just LOVE that record. Bertrand.

Brad, Good decision. The last thing you want to do is clog up your new septic system by flushing a Mizell Brothers production down the toilet

When Blues For Lou came out, there was a ton of whining on the old board about how much they hated it yada yada yada. I knew that when it went OOP, someone would start looking for it! Good luck, Big Al. I know I'm keeping mine. Bertrand.

Sorry about the late notice, I've had some computer problems in the last two weeks, but I'm back in business. I was able to post a couple of times from work, but I was so busy at work this week I never got to post this announcement. Tonight, 4/18, at 7:00 PM, Noal Cohen and fellow Organissimo member Mike Fitzgerald will be at the Border's books in D.C. at 18th and L (Farragut North or West metro stops) to present and discuss their excellent Gigi Gryce bio, Rat Race Blues. They will be interviewed by Larry Appelbaum. The Frankie Addison quartet will perform a few Gryce classics. I hope some of you see this in time. Again, sorry for the late notice. Hope you can make it, Bertrand.

Sorry about the late notice, I've had some computer problems in the last two weeks, but I'm back in business. I was able to post a couple of times from work, but I was so busy at work this week I never got to post this announcement. Tonight, 4/18, at 7:00 PM, Noal Cohen and fellow Organissimo member Mike Fitzgerald will be at the Border's books in D.C. at 18th and L (Farragut North or West metro stops) to present and discuss their excellent Gigi Gryce bio, Rat Race Blues. They will be interviewed by Larry Appelbaum. The Frankie Addison quartet will perform a few Gryce classics. I hope some of you see this in time. Again, sorry for the late notice. Hope you can make it, Bertrand.