jeffcrom

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Satori, with Martial Solal, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette, is one of my very favorite Konitz albums.

I played tonight with my Edgewood Saxophone Trio at the Elliott Street Pub in Atlanta. The only reason I'm posting about this is that the Elliott Street Pub was, back in the 1950s and 1960s, an after-hours joint called Dee's Birdcage. After the Royal Peacock and the Magnolia Ballroom closed for the night, the jazz and R & B musicians and hard-core late-night party crowd would gather at the Birdcage. The neighborhood it's in is now known as Castleberry Hill, known for its restaurants and art galleries, but back in the day it was called Snake Nation(!). Anyway, I always love playing there, in part due to the history.

Some primo blues/country harmonica: DeFord Bailey - Alcohoic Blues/Evening Prayer Blues (Vocalion, 1927) Then I had a 1950s teen dance party, apparently: Chuck Berry - No Money Down/Downbound Train (Chess) Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes/Honey, Don't! (Sun) Fats Domino - So-Long/When My Dreamboat Comes Home (Imperial)

Congratulations!

Joe "Fingers" Carr DeFord Bailey Bailey White

Wardell Gray - Way Out Wardell (Crown). The second pressing (the first on Crown), as I now know, thanks to Mr. Harrod.

Also a fan of Larkin's poetry. I enjoy reading his jazz writing for the same reason as I enjoy Boris Vian's: they're both entertaining because they wrong so often, but write so well. They both make me chuckle, at least until I get so exasperated that I put the book down.

A cool one arrived in the mail today; I had been looking for an affordable copy of this one, and finally spotted one. It's a 1949 vinyl (not shellac) 78 - the first issue of Caruso's 1916 recording of "Vecchia Zimarra" (The Coat Song) from La Boheme - a bass aria, not a tenor piece. On the flip side, Frances Alda tells the story of how Caruso bailed out a bass singer who lost his voice on stage during the last act of the opera; he was subsequently persuaded to record the song. The record uses the "batwing" label design Victor used between 1914 and 1926.

Sidney Bechet - King of the Soprano Saxophone (Good Time Jazz). French recordings, 1952-55, mostly with Jonah Jones. Bechet always benefited from being paired with a strong trumpeter.

Close enough! Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons, was based on Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons.

This came out in March, apparently, but I just became aware of it: Bob and Ray: Keener Than Most Persons, a biography of the duo by David Pollack. I ordered a copy, of course. Points to the first fan who can name the Bob and Ray character who was "keener than most persons." Double points if you can identify the show Bob and Ray were parodying with that character.

Mats Gustafsson - Solos for Contrabass Saxophone (Table of the Elements). One-sided, clear vinyl, and silk-screened with gold decorations on the back side. The music and the record are equally cool.

Lots of folks have disagreed with you on this position; my turn! Your analogy is wrong. It's like touring Chartres with different tour guides. Imagine that you have a guide who doesn't turn on all the lights, hurries you past the Belle Verrière as if it's just another window, and doesn't seem to have much knowledge of the history and symbolism of the carvings of the Portail Royal. I would prefer a guide with deep, broad knowledge of the Cathedral, and with the taste and instinct to know just how long to linger at every window, tomb, and statue. In both cases, you've seen Chartres, but the experiences aren't equally satisfying. I agree that the quest for the perfect interpretation can become an obsession, but.... Here's a personal story. Some years ago I was shopping in Tower Records in Atlanta. I already had two or three different recordings of Barber's Adagio for Strings - not that I had sought them out; it just worked out that way. I walked into the classical room just as the Adagio started playing over the sound system. It was the Thomas Schippers/NY Phil. version, recorded for Columbia in 1965. I had an immediate, visceral reaction to the music, stronger than on past hearings of the piece. I didn't know who it was, and I wasn't analyzing the performance in any intellectual way. I was just standing there dumbstruck, with a lump in my throat, and (I'll admit) brushing away tears. Needless to say, they sold a CD that day. The Schippers Adagio remains a different, and more powerful, experience for me that any other version I've heard. And the Furtwangler 1951 is my favorite Beethoven 9 as well - not that I've heard as many as some folks here.

New Orleans banjoist/guitarist Les Muscutt died on August 9, 2013, according to Thomas Jacobsen's New Orleans Notes blog. I started hearing/reading rumors about his death several weeks ago, but this is the closest to official confirmation that I have come across. Les Muscutt is not a name likely to be familiar to many people here, but I held him in high esteem. On my first visit to New Orleans, in 1990, I bought an LP called Four Leaf Clover on the 504 label which collected unreleased tracks from various 504 sessions. I knew some of the names, but was surprised to see that the same banjoist was used on every session - someone I had never heard of. It soon became apparent why Muscutt was popular with New Orleans bandleaders - he was versatile, able to play banjo or guitar in traditional and more modern styles; his pulse was supple and swinging, and he apparently knew thousands of tunes. I called him a New Orleans musician above, but Muscutt was an Englishman, born in Barrow-in-Furness in 1941. He moved to New Orleans in 1966, and by the 1970s was an essential part of the jazz scene there. I saw him perform many times, often at Preservation Hall or the Palm Court Cafe. I won't try to list the recordings he played on - it sometimes seemed like he was on half the traditional jazz albums made in New Orleans in the 1980s and 1990s. I suppose that his most "mainstream" recorded appearance was on the Verve Doc Cheatham/Nicholas Payton CD which came out in 1997. That album also has work by two other New Orleans-based musicians we lost this year, Jack Maheu and trombonist Tom Ebbert, who (as I just learned) died in January at the age of 94. (I saw Ebbert perform several times in the early 1990s, and he looked ancient then.) Sorry about the length of this post, but Les Muscutt's death is not making any impact in the press, and I thought he deserved a memorial here. RIP, Mr. Muscutt.

Jack Maheu was a fabulous clarinetist - beautiful sound and great technique, fluid in all registers. Swing That Music, a Jazzology album with fellow clarinetist Tim Laughlin, is one of the great jazz clarinet albums, in my opinion. Maheu was from upstate New York, but as many great traditional jazz clarinetists do, he moved to New Orleans in 1990, where he led a band which had one of the greatest band names of all time: Jack Maheu and the Fire in the Pet Shop Callithumpian Band. I'm giving his 1973 LP Blue Prelude (on the Fat Cat's Jazz label) a spin in his memory. RIP, Mr. Maheu.

Dave Holland/Derek Bailey - Improvisations for Cello and Guitar (ECM). Enjoying that mellow ECM sound.

A pretty good review of what is still the "new" album here.

Thanks, NIS! I got that Foxes Fox CD in my last Emanem order, but haven't spun it yet, so I have an excuse.

Art Blakey/JM - The Witch Doctor (BN). Dark blue label/Van Gelder stamps, for those who are into that kind of thing.

Duke Pearson - I Don't Care Who Knows It ("new" BN)

Duke Pearson - It Could Only Happen With You (BN UA)

Mary Lou Williams/Cecil Taylor - Embraced (Pablo). Finishing up with side four after listening to the first three sides late last night. I like this performance more than most folks seem to, but it all falls apart by side four.

Or "Blues for Norman."

Curious why you went to the concerts. To hear Mary Lou and Max? As I recall, Cecil was all over NYC at that time. Gary Giddins praising him to high heavens, the New World releases getting wide acclaim, all these Japanese Trio releases hitting our shores (like Akisakila), etc. I kinda knew what Cecil was about, but it doesn't hurt to experience it for yourself. At least I thought it wouldn't hurt. The Cecil/Max concert was the worst. Max is a great drummer, and I could always focus on him when the going got rough, but I thought Cecil's music was pure aggression, sort of the piano pummeling my head for however long the concert lasted. It felt like punishment. I remember when the Cecil/Mary Lou concert was announced, Mary Lou saying there was enough common ground in their music and in the jazz tradition to make for an enjoyable, enlightening concert. I kinda suspected it would be a train wreck, albeit perhaps an enjoyable one. It was even more of a hoot to see Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker as the rhythm section. This would make sense as a Mary Lou rhythm section, but they had no insight, affinity, connection with what Cecil was playing. It was so weird to hear Mary Lou w/bass and drums playing something traditional, only to hear Cecil chattering away concurrently, almost like Unit Structures and Earl Hines played at the same time. It was nice to see and hear Mary Lou; that's about all I can say. The recording's around in case anyone wants to check my impressions. It's still remarkable to me to see how many people profess a love for Cecil's music; the most recent one is in the Bill Cosby article I posted. Perhaps someday I'll "get it"; that why, every so often, I'll try again. But I think I'd rather bash my head against a wall than hear another Cecil concert. Mjzee, I'm not trying to change your mind, especially since the Williams/Taylor concert/recording has been bashed by folks from both sides of the pro-/anti-avant-garde fence. But your post inspired me to change my late-night listening plans and spin Embraced instead of the soul jazz I had been planning on playing. I love the album. Cecil's "chattering" almost always reflects what Mary Lou is playing at some level, albeit reflected through a series of funhouse mirrors. I think the recording shows Cecil to be more flexible than Mary Lou; he is responding to her playing, but she pretty much goes her own way. Your comments about the rhythm section are right on target. In an interview, Cecil talked about campaigning for Andrew Cyrille to be the drummer, since he had played with both pianists; Ms. Williams insisted on Cranshaw and Roker. But hey - I can understand how many (most?) folks think this concert was a hot mess. It just happens to be a hot mess I really enjoy - I hear the connections in what they're playing. The Taylor/Roach concert is something else - an unqualified masterpiece, in my opinion. But if you don't like Cecil, it's like my man Steve Lacy said - it's a matter of affinity. Some people are drawn to challenging, abstract music, and some aren't. Nothin' wrong either way.