sgcim

Yeah, just the fact that this chick lived with Graettinger, makes her full of possibilities. And the fact that everyone who describes her used the same adjective to describe her. Here's Madden with Forrest Westbrook in 1960:

From Barcelona, Andrea Motis. New to me: I just finished "Fifties Jazz Talk" by Gordon Jack, and on the parts where the musicians from LA talk about Mulligan, three names keep popping up, Bob Graettinger, Dave Madden, and Gail Madden. Graettinger, I'm familiar with, but the two Maddens are new to me. Gale Madden, who took her name from Dave Madden, even though they weren't married, became a GF of all three of the guys mentioned above, and suggested Mulligan omit the piano in his groups of the 50s, and played maracas on a few of those Mulligan LPs. She and Mulligan hitchhiked across the US, from LA to NY, and then nothing is mentioned about her. Does anyone know what became of her after that? Dave Madden played tenor in a bunch of big bands in the 50s, but Jack Montrose said his style was too 'avant garde' for those bands, and got kicked out of them after a short time (e.g.- he got kicked out of Woody Herman's Band after three months). He wound up playing in Las Vegas (Harrah's), and passed in 2006. Does anyone know of any recordings featuring Madden's 'avant garde style'? I don't see any listings of recordings of him as a leader, but he did record in a small group with a pianist Forrest Westbrook, whom along with Graettinger, went to the Westlake Academy. This was re-issued by Fresh Sound a few years back. TIA

Best line in the book so far: Don Joseph on being kicked out of most big bands in NYC for general carousing, and exiled from Charlie's for bumming one too many drinks, yells out to Charlie from outside the bar, "Hey, Charlie, it's me, Don Joseph. I'm banned from bars, and barred from bands!"

"Fifties Jazz Talk" by Gordon Jack. What other book has loads of stories about obscure musicians like Tony Fruscella and Don Joseph? Who knew that Don Joseph was Gerry Mulligan's favorite trumpet player (other than Chet), and that he was supposed to be the trumpet player in the sextet that Mulligan formed in 1955, but he just didn't show up, so he had to get Idrees Sullieman. Or that Getz phoned the A&R man the day after they recorded "The Girl From Ipanema", to make sure that Astrud Gilberto didn't get any kind of deal on the hit record, and that all the money went to Getz. Although I have some records with Frank Isola playing drums on them, I had no idea that he was considered one of the most respected drummers in NY. I'm only up to page 70, but this has got to be one of the best collections of oral history on jazz musicians of the 50s ever compiled into one book.

A lot of those greats from the Herman Band died too soon. Getz-64, Cohn-62, Zoot -59, Chaloff-34 , even Bernie Glow, who I did a week long show with, was only 56. The guy looked like my dentist! They all became junkies on the Herman band, and some alcoholics after they kicked heroin. Most died of liver cancer. One of my fave Cohn sessions was "Jimmy Raney In Three Degrees". The blend between Raney and Cohn was beautiful. Cohn was always writing tunes, doing small group and big band arrangements, and he even arranged "Sophisticated ladies on Broadway.

Eric was so cool when a DB interviewer asked him about what he was doing harmonically when he improvised on changes. He just said something like, "Yeah, I'm just adding some extensions or something", and then he laughed.

I hear a big difference between the sound of the old LPs they play on KCR, and the slick, overproduced digital crap they play on BGO.

I never realized how powerful he was live, until my dept. chairman, an art teacher, saw him in concert. He raved about the experience for months. If he can walk on gilded splinters, he can find a way to come back...

The counterpoint in the first movement of Hindemith's "Mathis Der Maler Symphony" builds up to pure ecstasy at the orchestra tutti. Charles Koechlin's mastery of counterpoint is evident in his numerous chamber pieces, but takes on mystical proportions in the last section of his masterpiece, "Les Bandar-log, Op.176 William Walton's powerful use of counterpoint in the last movement of his first Symphony established his reputation as a symphonic composer. One of the movements of his Second Symphony uses fugal technique to great advantage. Honnegger's Symphonic Movement "Rugby", has some great contrapuntal writing for the winds in this energetic, episodic piece.

Oh no, that's horrible. I had his nephew in one of my classes, and he used to tell me stories about his Uncle. His family treated him like royalty. RIP, Mr. Atkinson...

He also called Lem Winchester a sax player. He was a vibes player, who died of a handgun accident at the age of 32. Alright, hand in your papers. I'll grade them when my busy social life quiets down a little; probably next month...

Completely through my myopic, solipsistic, personal (you get the idea) lens, the only 'explosion' that happened in 1971 in 'rock' music was the release of Judee Sill's self-titled album.

I finally got my hands on the book I mentioned above, and there is no doubt that "The Big Note" will be the definitive resource on FZ in the 21st Century. It is 740 pages of exhaustive research on every aspect of FZ's 60 commercially released albums, and even information on the 40 bootleg albums still circulating. The central thesis of the book is FZ's contention that his entire output is interrelated, and one can listen to his last works, and still find connections to aspects of his first album "Absolutely Free", recorded in 1966. FZ called this "Project/Object" Just reading the introduction, I learned that musicians as disparate as Don Ellis, Van Dyke Parks and Jim Fielder were involved with the early MOI. When I finally finished the 35 page Introduction, I encountered the basic outline of the whole book. Each song on each album is analyzed musically, lyrically, and historically, with FZ's incredible use of quotes from pieces such as 'Agon' and The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, coupled with obscure 50's R&B songs, current hits, and of course, "Louie,Louie"! Every interview with FZ is used as commentary on musical, social, historical aspects of the song, and respected musical theorists, former band members, and FZ family members are also quoted. The fact that my name is mentioned in the Acknowledgements section will firmly cement my street cred in the quickly aging (if not already dead) world of FZ groupies.

RIP. There was a good documentary film on him a while ago.

Was Claude Bartee still around then? An ex-GF used to live with him and KG, a pianist with a 'habit' we've mentioned before. Don't wanna get too specific here...

Very sad to hear. He always used top notch swing players on his records. I did a great gig with his touring drummer, Giampolo Biagi,, and he said playing with Leon was a gas. RIP, Mr. Redbone

All the Packers were nice guys. They even had "The Golden Boy". How could you beat a team with Bart Starr and The Golden Boy? When Hornung got suspended for gambling, it shattered my conception of the world.

One of the all-time greats, RIP.

He sat in with this band I was playing in, and on the break, he went up to anyone in the band who was near him and said, "You sounded pretty good; how did I sound?" The last time I saw him was about ten years ago. He was playing a small group concert outside a library, on one of those stages on wheels, and he was trying to play the tenor sax for some reason. He sounded so bad, I had to leave. He could probably still play the clarinet, but I couldn't handle his tenor playing. RIP, Sol...

Just saw, "Karaoke Terror- The Complete Japanese Showa Songbook". It was written by the same guy who wrote Miike's "Audition", so I knew we were gonna be in for fun and games. It didn't disappoint. Imagine a 'gang war' between six middle-aged Japanese women, who are Karaoke enthusiasts of pop songs from the Showa Era, and six twenty-something Japanese slacker guys, who are also Karaoke enthusiasts of the Showa Era (1926-1989). All I can say is it escalates a bit...

That sounded a lot like Clark Terry. Even that great descending/ascending run he started off with on the break was something you'd associate with CT more than JW. My brother, a CT freak, yelled out , "Clark Terry!", when he was listening to the solo. He was playing all of CT's little 'bends' of pitch on the intervals that CT used them on, he was playing with CT's fluidity and rapidity of thought. I never associated JW with CT, but they must've influenced each other a great deal.

As far as a bio goes, I'd say the Pettinger book was best. As far as his music is concerned, there are many PhD dissertations on that subject. In France, there's even a Bill Evans Piano Academy, that a friend of mine wants to visit.

Thanks for posting that. From that interview we can assume that Miles left Bill's name off as composer (or in the second case, co-composer) of two songs on Kind of Blue: As composer of "Blue in Green", and as co-composer of "Flamenco Sketches". It's also interesting to hear Bill's opinion for the first time of Miles' music 'meant to reach a larger audience'. I think it's not a stretch to say that he didn't think too highly of it...

When you have a Hellview in Bellvue, it doesn't matter what you play.

I read about it in the book that was written about Ornette's first gig in NY I think it was called "1959: Ornette Coleman In New York" or something like that. One thing I noticed after I wrote about some of these violent episodes with jazz musicians; they all involved drummers or trumpet players doing the aggressive acts. Clifford T. even mentioned an incident with Richard Williams. I think that ties in with Larry's impression of some musicians as being similar to pro athletes. The trumpet and the drum set are the most physical instruments to play, and according to the multi-instrumentalist, Bob Bruno, there is no more volatile personality than the lead trumpet player in a Latin big band.