sgcim

I guess I'm not surprised that no one has mentioned this wonderful duo album by Martial and Jimmy Raney called "The Date":

RIP, Mr. Hendricks. I hope you're singing duets with Dave up there.

Very sad news. RIP, Mr. Riley...

They use their own songs because they don't want to pay the fees involved in recording (and even performing) other people's material. I recorded an album with the clarinetist Joe Dixon, and he only used songs I wrote, because he didn't want to pay anybody any fees.

Thanks!

Ask him why he hates his Blue Moses album so much. Tell him it's my fave LP of his.

That's my fave Bickert LP. It's a reissue of the Sackville LP with a white cover showing the outlines of Bickert smoking a cigarette.

We learned in graduate school that many of the conventions of the American Popular Song came from operetta, which is what American musical theater evolved from. In many of the above examples, the verse's cadence on the dominant of the key of the main song, and are usually followed by an acapella pickup melody. Our Love is Here To Stay is another commonly sung one: The more I read the papers / The less I comprehend / The world with all its capers etc...

I saw that vinyl at the Jazz Record Center. I wanted to buy it, but it was in the $100 section! We were talking on another forum about the albums made by Joe Diorio and Wally Cyrillo on Spitball Records in 1974. They never made it to CD. It was considered a radical approach to intervallic improvisation on the guitar: https://www.discogs.com/Wally-Cirillo-Joe-Diorio-Rapport/release/3711407

I just returned from the concert at Carnegie Hall of Herrmann's and Korngold's only symphonies, and Botstein and The Orchestra Now did a fantastic job on both pieces. My seat was first row in the center orchestra, right between Botstein and the first violinist, and I could even hear her solo pizzicato accompaniment to a wind soli. This made a huge difference in my appreciation of the music, as I've had mediocre experiences at Carnegie Hall in the past with performances of orchestral works by Hindemith, Walton and Honegger when I've had orchestra seats much further back. Tonight was a much superior listening experience than listening to the Unicorn recording of the Herrmann Symphony. I can't say the same of the Hindemith, Walton and Honegger experiences. I came too late to be seated for the Psycho Suite, so I listened to it through the speakers. Other than the Prelude, there's not much there without the film , so I didn't feel bad about missing it. I was VERY lucky they scheduled it first, or I probably would've gotten in trouble for trying to sneak in during the performance. I used the time to load up on Ricola... They opened up the concert with one of the soloists reading something about BH, but I missed it Herrmann's Symphony was magical, his orchestration technique was as close to perfection as any composer has ever gotten. The difficult high french horn parts were performed flawlessly, and it was like a dream hearing this piece performed live. The strangest part was in the third movement. There is a strange percussive sound that I could never figure out. It turned out to be Herrmann ordering the string players to attack their instruments with some black plastic square-shaped object (their resin cases?). It was startling because BH chose a part of the third movement which was silent until it was interrupted by these dainty Asian cellists savagely striking their cellos, and the audience looked at each other in shock! The structure of the Symphony is more programmatic than formal, and the best way to understand it is as BH's story of WWII, with evil being defeated by good in a long struggle that ends in a joyous final movement. It's a tremendously effective piece that the audience reacted to very strongly. The snotty critics discouraged performance of it, because they claimed it showed BH's 'unfamiliarity with composing in the formal structure of the symphony', but IMHO it has held up very well due to Herrmann's endlessly fascinating harmonic/rhythmic/melodic vocabulary. I've been listening to it for forty years, and never tire of it (other than the meandering third movement, which was more interesting live), as opposed to the music of the 'masters' of formal structure. A good example of this form vs. content argument was the Korngold Symphony in F#. It's a great piece, and shows Korngold's obvious superiority in mastering the formal structure of the symphonic form, but the development sections became too 'show-offish' in their length, and I found them too drawn out. The content and mood of the fabulous first three movements was undermined by a light final movement; otherwise it's another masterwork that should be performed more often.

This was the only record John Collins, Dizzy's buddy and musical advisor during the founding of bebop, ever made as a leader. I don't know if it ever came out on CD. https://www.discogs.com/John-Collins-The-Incredible/release/9862178#images/27165407

No one has ever played the guitar like this dude. He used fingerpicks because he said he used to drop the pick all the time when he played drunk. He was member number 11 of The Hell's Angels when he was younger. Look at him. He was one dangerous dude: https://www.discogs.com/Buddy-Fite-Buddy-Fite/master/470825#images/7500534

This guy was a great player who had a serious stroke at a young age and died soon after. This was his only record as a leader. https://www.discogs.com/John-Gray-The-New-Wave/release/4814654#images/9732758

That documentary on McFarland, This Is Gary McFarland, is finally available on the Fandor channel, but you have to have a subscription.

Great record. I found it on CD at a used record store for $2. They also had a CD by Calvin Newborn for the same price.When I picked that up, I realized musical talent isn't necessarily genetic...

They just had a show about this on WNYC: http://sonnyrollinsbridge.net/

Great album. They let you listen to the entire record. In Angel's long bio they never mentioned Arthur Lee, Love or Forever Changes. There's a good account of Angel's sessions with Lee for the FC album in the bio of Arthur Lee, Forever Changes. Thanks for the link!

I don't recall a great use of profanity, but prepare for a lot of collective gasps when they detail BE's personal life. The filmmaker said the DVD contained some extra material that we didn't see in the screening. He recounted that Eddie Gomez wouldn't be interviewed unless he was paid a huge amount of money, so he doesn't appear in the film. He tried to get Jimmy Cobb, but he said Cobb had too many family issues preventing any possibility of an interview. They just did it occasionally on weekends. Neither got hooked.

According to my friend, a pianist who's devoted his life to every aspect of BE, this happened when they were very young. They were just chipping, Denny was smart.

Very sad to hear. he was my fave guitarist of the Canterbury Scene groups. RIP.

I saw one of the showings at the New School with the filmmaker present over the summer. It was well done, but if you're an Evans fanatic, and have read the biography, there's not much new there. The audience didn't seem to be aware of some of the more tragic aspects of Evans' life, and let out several collective gasps when that part of the film was reached. The Q and A session ended abruptly when they were discussing who introduced Evans to heroin. The usual suspect was Philly Joe Jones, but I had heard that he started chipping on weekends with Denny Zeitlin before he went with Miles. When I mentioned this, a friend of Zeitlin's got very upset, and started yelling at me that Zeitlin had never used heroin. The filmmaker got disgusted, and called an end to the Q and A session.

I'm pretty excited about this. Herrmann's Symphony (the only one he wrote) hasn't been performed in concert in many decades. Leon Botstein's NOW Orchestra is going to play it, along with the Psycho Suite and Korngold's Symphony in F# on Nov. 3rd.

This was the first LP Bob Berg ever played on: https://www.discogs.com/Kenny-Gill-What-Was-What-Is-What-Will-Be/release/1546568

Most of the musicians on String Fever were local Staten Island musicians, including Wayne and Joseph. Costa got on the ferry to join them.

I worked with the trumpet player/arranger, Ronnie Woellner from that Bobby Scott LP, but he was playing piano at this point, because his front teeth were all knocked out by some type of accident. He must have been a good trumpet player, because he placed very high on a DB poll in the trumpet category back when the Bobby Scott LP came out. He didn't have great chops on the piano, but he was some type of harmonic genius as far as substitute changes were concerned, and I still play some of his changes on tunes today. The Potts LP was one of the few LPs two of my faves, Phil Woods and Bill Evans played together on. Another one was Geo. Russell's NY, NY, which featured Woods, Trane and Evans.