mikeweil

Matthew Shipp Talks Herbie Hancock’s MemoirPossibilities, and Not Dying for Your Art

That's Jim Hall and his daughter, he took her along on that trip to Berlin where he performed on the Jo Berendt conceived Guitar Meeting during the Berlin Jazz Festival, and recorded a nice trio LP on the side. Not meaning to spoil your fun, but ...

Spendy indeed ....

JPC in Germany has them listed - I pre-ordered the Nelson. Gave the Sam Jones a spin this morning - very nice, as I said. The string quartet is only on half of the tracks and used very tastefully, as a coloration of the arrangements - really a trio album with Jones as the main soloist. I remember that I tried to get a copy of every new Sam Jones release as a leader in the 1970's and never was disappointed. Glad I saw him live with Walton, Higgins, and Bob Berg back then - what a beautiful bass tone! I second the questions about the Lucas and Eaves albums!

I must admit I like Joshua Rifkin's recordings a lot, he doesn't hit the keys as hard as others and plays just a trifle slower - Joplin must be played with a groove and not just as a display of great stride technique. But my favourites are the albums done for Golden Crest, partly combo, partly Rifkin solo piano, part of which was on two EMI-Angel CDs. Gunther Schuller had a hand in these.

That's a nice one, it was on CD before, but is still rare. I'm waiting for them to reissue 'Blues At Carnegie Hall' ....

What about West Side Story? There are many tunes from many shows that were played by jazz musicians at some time or another, but I think only tune that was widely used deserves this attribution. In that sense, Porgy and Bess may be the winner. Perhaps a look at the first fake books ('The Real Book') will provide an assumption, becasue there you can find the tunes that were done real often, that you had to know to play a gig with little or no rehearsal.

There are others whose voices I like better, but I appreciate her a lot for being a real jazz singer, which is becoming a rarity these days. Her choice of tunes is great, especially the ones the wrote lyrics for. That she did that lobby performance is another sign she's a real jazz singer. Great story.

The Sam Jones album is really nice, one of the most listenable jazz LPs with strings I know. Almost forgot I have this ... I'm curious about the Oliver Nelson - must be one of his last dates before he passed. Anyone heard this? p.s. That album was his last session ...

I noticed a tendency towards higher pitched conga drums, as the traditional lower tuned drums get in the way of the mid fequency range of guitars and keyboards, muddle it up, and they are more difficult to pick up. Drumset bass drums are now muffled to death, producing just a kick, the soundman tickles out whatever remains of low frequencies there are at the mixing board. Mel Lewis had a low pitched bass drum with tone, but played with a real fluffy beater to be able to handle it in an unobtrusive way, but it kicked when he hit hard. Listen to the unmixed raw takes of Miles' Jack Johnson sessions - sometimes you can hear a totally unmuffled bass drum that meshed perfectly with the band's sound, but was muffled in the mix. I heard DeJohnette a few years ago, his bass drum had more lows than average, but not that much. The 1950's timbales were brass shells and calfskin - sounded warmer than today's but have less volume, besides that calfskin is very sensitive to temperature and humidity changes - it drove the players crazy when their drumheads loosened in sweaty dancehalls. You simply need differently sounding instruments when playing acoustically or miked - the latter inluenced recording techniques, too, due to the same close miking procedures. An instrument, even a woodblock, that sounds fine acoustically, has to be picked up with a mic at some distance, as the room shapes the sound, but that is impossible in today's studios or stages. You need instruments with different sound characteristics for recording - percussionists told me that thirty years ago. There's hardly a band, no matter what genre, that can play in balance without amplification, even when it would be possible, even percussion bands. How can you learn when you daily experience is that the soundmen make the balance? And, you need a room with good acoustics to play unamplified - but these are getting rare.

I have experienced many of the things mentioned in this thread. I always hated to be at the mercy of sound people who thought they knew what a drum set had to sound like instead of listening to the sound of my set and traying to get it across as good as possible. Most had no idea of dealing with a rather soft and totally undampened set, with no hole in the bass drum for the mic to put in. Most musicians are unable to hear themselves properly on stage and think amplification or monitors will help them; I rarely had problems in hearing myself in an acoustic context, besides that I know what I play ... I think it's a problem of ear training. I learned to listen from the start; others seemed to be mostly concerned with their own playing and how they sound on their own instead of going for a group sound. You have to learn how to play softly - I had to due to the situations I was playing in. Most drummers I know can play only at a certain volume and rely on the soundmen for dynamics, or use brushes or multi-rods for softer sounds without changing their strokes. Maybe I was a bit naive when I got me a drum set after years of a percussionist, and simply tried to make it sound good acoustically, which it did - but it did not work for the sound men. They are used to picking up kick drums that sound as dead as a cardboard box. When I heard one of the best local drummers with Harold Mabern last week, his small Gretsch bass drum was absolutely dead. Think of someone like Mel Lewis - driving the hell out of the Kenton orchestra and playing subtle stuff in a combo with probably the same kit. Similar experiences with musicians I saw perform: Wallace Roney - hiding a mic in the bell of his trumpet although he would have been heard clearly in that small room, making him unbearably loud. In the same room they put a mic over Harold Mabern's piano (they amp the piano a little bit in every concert) and so there was a little distortion, but he didn't play that loud per se - he plays lots of thick chords, for sure. Playing softly with a groove is an art which is dying out, it seems to me - it's real hard to do.

They're all gone again - I received confirmation on my order of the Mulligan before I received the e-mail informing about the relocated stock from Universal .... thanks to this board, I got one!

The Art Farmer / Benny Golson is gone again - glad I got me a copy many years ago, lots of fine music. My current interest in Gary McFarland and Bob Brookmeyer made me order the Mulligan Concert Jazz Band Set. In fact there are five McFarland arrangements included. Carpe Diem!

For direct comparison, Hubbard and Henderson can be heard side by side on a few tracks od Charles Earland's "Leaving This Planet": Do not misunderstand the cover: Both Joe and Eddie Henderson (no relation) are on the record.

I think he still had a sense of direction in the 1980's, although you could argue about its musical value. That vision kind of got lost after 1990, that he didn't have a real working band may be a symptom. His "projects" after 1990 never convinced me that much, and if they did, there were bandmates from the Headhunters involved. His playing on the Joe Henderson Jobim CD on Verve was much more loose and ispired than on his own Standards CD, IMO. The crack use may be a symptom of his rather low level of inspiration, or be (at least be part of) the reason for it. That whole process of drug acquisition and hiding its use, the double life, consumes so much energy ... before that, Herbie was a maker, just creating the ideas he got. After it, less dreams, and less energy to make them come true. Just my two cents. What's depressing to me is that it took away so much of his potential from us, and himself. Creative potential = Possibilities ?

Remember he was a mainstay of Boyd Raeburn's band, too, and must have been Dodo Marmarosa's favorite drummer during the latter's California dasy. Do we have an unsung drum hero in Mills?

Jackie Mills plays very well on some Wiggins piano trio album, too.

Saw Harold Mabern tonight - John Webber on bass, but Joe Farnsworth was not yet in town, so the local radio big band's drummer, Paul Höchstädter, was called. Not an easy job, as Mabern plays standards his very own way. My wife was disappointed as the groove wasn't nearly as tight as with Farnsworth. But I'm glad I caught the old man live - at 78 he still has plenty of energy in his playing and has a very nice stage persona.

Behind every great man there is a great woman (my wife included). Very nice you give her credit, Chuck!

He speaks frankly and in detail about it in the book.

Weill, if oil paintings are included, these are among my favorites:

Good move!