sgcim

From Spotify's website, this is how much the artist gets per stream on Spotify: "Recently, these variables have led to an average “per stream” payout to rights holders of between $0.006 and $0.0084. This combines activity across our tiers of service. The effective average “per stream” payout generated by our Premium subscribers is considerably higher." I think that pretty much leaves out any jazz or classical artists making more than a few CENTS, if they're lucky. I don't know ONE jazz musician who makes a living from ONLY playing music today.

I used to hear them on WBAI in the early 70s.

Thanks, Susan! Now I remember that the Spanish title was something like "Day of the Crazies". He studied arr. with Hall Overton, and we played many of Aaron's arrangements in two of the bands I played in with him.

Yeah, Breau and Snow were the best part of the film.

Which one was Don Thompson- the painter? Some nice Lenny Breau, when he still played an archtop. Thanks.

Wow, where'd you meet Dick Morrissey? One of my faves!

I ain't sayin', but check this stuff he wrote about Q: "credited as the composer. My late father was a jazz musician who worked with Quincy Jones a number of times over a number of years, particularly on film and television production. (My family still receives small royalty checks from various films that Jones is credited with scoring, INCLUDING "The Pawnbroker.") Quincy Jones has utilized the talents of many, many jazz musicians over the years, so many of our close family friends have also worked with him on various recordings, as well as in live concert settings. The thing to remember about Mr. Jones is that HE DOES NOT ACTUALLY WRITE MOST OF THE MUSIC WITH WHICH HE IS CREDITED. It is called "ghost writing" in the business. Everyone I've ever known in the professional music world agrees that his great talent is that of a PRODUCER of music projects...but he is NOT A MUSICIAN. He does not sit at a keyboard with score paper and scribble notes as do most composers/songwriters of his generation. Even when he played trumpet (very briefly) on Lionel Hampton's band, long before he became well-known, his musical skills were decidedly sub-par by all accounts (including HIS OWN, if you ever catch the documentary "Listen Up: The Lives Of Quincy Jones"). He hires superior musicians, who have no interest in "the spotlight," to do the actual writing/scoring of his various projects, pays them handsomely, uses them time and again, and lists himself as the composer (or co-composer), and often copyrights the work under one of his own publiching entities. Jones is a MASTERFUL and insightful producer, an outstanding "politician" in entertainment circles, who came about at the right time in history, met all the right people, and negotiated the ever-changing world of comercial music with skill and savvy, while maintaining an unmistakable aura charisma and charm...but any critique of "his" musical compositions is purely academic, and therefore meaningless.

Sometimes, on a little-known film like this, you get some interesting behind-the-scenes stories from people who were involved with the film, posted on the IMDB: "My father, who passed away in 2002, was a well-known jazz trumpeter who played with the Maynard Ferguson, Duke Ellington and Woody Herman bands among many others. He was the Technical Adviser on "Uncle Joe Shannon," meaning he taught Burt Young to appear as though he could play the instrument. He thoroughly enjoyed this gig because Burt is a genuinely nice individual. I remember spending time in Burt's trailer a number of times and appearing as an extra in the orphanage dormitory scene. The producers offered dad the opportunity to perform the trumpet solos on the soundtrack but my father felt that Maynard's style (the legendary high notes and amazing technical prowess,) would be more appropriate and dramatic for the film and the character of Joe Shannon. My dad's trumpet playing style was more subtle, muted, and lyrical. Additionally, Maynard had a hit with the "Rocky" theme at the time. Chartoff-Winkler produced both the "Rocky" films and "U.J.S." Maynard said his work on this film was the best-paying job he'd ever had, (considering the short amount time he spent in the recording studio.) "Uncle Joe Shannon" is obviously no "Citizen Kane," but the acting is good, a lot of the first-time crew members got their union cards, and ultimately I doubt the producers lost any significant money. I have fond memories of this period, and of this film".

I stumbled on to this 1978 flick that starred and was written by Burt Young: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.jots.200020248/default.html It starts off with BY doing a recording session for a film, screeching like Maynard, for no discernable reason. He hangs with his beautiful wife and son, and then hurries off to a concert with a symphony orchestra (whose members are all dressed in white robes) where he's the soloist in some kind of Baroque/Jazz Concerto for Trumpet that features him screeching again like Maynard, for no discernable reason. When he comes home after the concert, his wife and kid have been turned into unrecognizable toast by a fire in their house. Next thing you know, he's a homeless, alcoholic bum, carrying around his trumpet without a case throughout the entire movie. I thought that maybe the avocados I've been having with my salad caused some type of cinematic hallucination, but I checked the IMDB, and sure enough, this movie was released, and then went to the Meeker cited above, and found out whowas associated with it. No musicians on the gig tonight ever heard of this flick. Please tell me that someone has seen this weirdness...

I showed it to Johnny Amoroso, and he smiled and said it was Carl Gianelli, but Stan Auld (Georgie Auld's nephew) disagreed. Johnny Amoroso was the star vocalist and trumpet player with Tommy Dorsey for many years, and told a story about how Neal Hefti burst into his hotel room at 3:00 in the morning, completely blitzed out of his mind, and told him Tommy wanted him to write an arrangement on "Angel Eyes" for JA by the next day. JA said the arrangement was so incoherent that he couldn't even find the key when they tried it out. Like most horn players, they couldn't give a shit about who the guitarist was... Dick Johnson seems like a good guess- it sounded more like him than anyone else.

I'm gonna bring the LP cover to the gig tonight. Between Jimmy Miller and Johnny Amoroso, one of them has to know. This mystery shall be solved!!!!

Definitely not Phil or Quill. Probably some studio guy who could read flyshit. After listening to "Soul Guru", I doubt Wally Richardson had the technical and reading chops to handle Hefti's quite demanding charts, but Soul Guru was another genre, so maybe in this swing setting he could cut it. WR sounded pretty weak on the Joe Wilder LP with the Pete Brown group, so I don't know if he had the chops for this. I don't know if this was East or West Coast, but I know Hefti used Bud Shank for his score to "Barefoot in the Park".

My father bought this LP back in 1960, when it first came out. He was a guitarist up till the time he got married, so most LPs he bought had something to do with the guitar. On the back cover, there's a picture of NH in the studio with a white alto player, and a black guitarist (playing through a Fender Tweed amp,Tremolux?), which probably was the reason he bought the LP. The first side features the trpt, alto, guitar bass and drums. Side two replaces the guitar with piano. I've been wondering, lo these many years, who is this guitarist, because the musicians are not listed on the LP. Your mission, should you decide to accept it; identify the musicians on this LP. This post will self-destruct if personnel not ID'd.

Aaron wrote one Latin big band thing that Louie Bellson used as one of his theme songs, and he didn't get credit for it, so called up LB, and eventually received credit. I forget the tune. Something like "Prime Time"? The guys in the Terry Gibbs group, AS, TG and Tiny Kahn, used to get together when they were kids in the Bronx, and Tiny came up with a line on "Indiana" that they recorded with the Terry Gibbs Quintet years before "Donna Lee" was written. I transcribed it, and it's obviously the source of Donna Lee, although there were some differences. Aaron was a guest on Phil Schaap's show on WKCR discussing the evolution of Donna Lee. He said Phil grilled him for two hours about it. It is fascinating how jazz used to be more of an oral tradition back then, and lines would get passed back and forth at jam sessions, and eventually evolve into a recorded tune. A lot of bop and swing heads were "communally" composed.

I did a search on the guitarist in the United States of Mind, RR, and it seems he passed last year in Fla., after being thrown from his wife's car. For some reason, he was on the back of the car while it was moving(?). They said it was under investigation...

I remember seeing Horace Silver and the United States of Mind on WNET when I was a kid. He had the guitarist Richie Resnikoff with him back then. I only knew RR from Buddy Rich's Big Band records. I've done a few gigs with John McNeil, I didn't know he worked with HS. Did they record together?

OMG, what personnel! Featuring John Lewis, piano ; the composer, arranger, conductor. #1, 4, 6: John Lewis, piano ; Nick Travis, Louis Mucci and Freddie Hubbard, trumpets ; Mike Zwerin, trombone ; Bob Swisshelm and Bob Northern, French horns ; Don Butterfield, tuba ; Billy Bean, guitar ; Richard Davis, bass ; Connie Kay, drums. #2, 5: John Lewis, piano ; Harold Jones, flute ; Eric Dolphy, alto flute ; Phil Woods, clarinet ; William Arrowsmith, oboe ; Loren Glickman, bassoon ; Don Stewart, bassett horn ; Gene Allen, baritone sax ; Jim Hall, guitar ; Richard Davis, bass ; Connie Kay, drums. #3: John Lewis, piano ; Eric Dolphy, alto sax ; Benny Golson, tenor sax ; Jimmy Giuffre, baritone sax ; Herb Pomeroy, trumpet ; Gunther Schuller, French horn ; Jim Hall, guitar ; George Duvivier, bass ; Connie Kay, drums.

I turned on WKCR, and they were playing great jazz that swung, had great soloists that could swing, and make musical sense, and played great tunes that also swung and made musical sense. I figured something cataclysmic had happened and it was the end of the world. RIP, Horace.

Cool, thanks for the report! No keyboard or guitar? Do you remember any of his comments?

Thanks, mucho. Great stuff!

That reminds me that when one of the musicians tried to compare Charlie Watts' jazz playing with Ginger Baker's, Giampaolo gave a GTFOH reaction to the comparison. Not in the same league...

I'm up to p.426 of "Straight Life", and am completely blown away by the book. I had no idea that Pepper led the life he did in betwixt recording sessions/gigs, and like Chet Baker, I'm amazed that he managed to accomplish what he did, in spite of the huge obstacles he faced. BTW, I heard a Pepper Live LP from the 50s, where AP showed he could play as fluently as Bird or Stitt on double-time and up tempo things. Does anyone know what LP this was?

The first question I ask drummers I work with nowadays, since seeing "Beware of Mr. Baker", is what they think of GB as a jazz drummer. A big band, Buddy Rich-type drummer said words to the effect of, "Get the fuck outta here." A bebop drummer, who's more open-minded, considered it for a few minutes, but wound up saying GTFOH, also. However, I did a gig with the great Italian drummer, Giampaolo Biagi, who was in Europe when Baker was playing jazz, and he defended Baker's rep as a jazz drummer against the condemnation of some older musicians. He said Ginger stood up very well in his drum battles with Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Art Blakey.

Sadly, one of the guys said that Aaron passed away last week, and they had the funeral two days ago on Sunday. He said Aaron was 91 when he passed. Everyone was shocked to hear about it. He passed away after a fall caused a hip fracture, and he died as a result of an infection from the fracture. One of the guys was talking about how Aaron was child prodigy on the clarinet, and was expected to be the next Artie Shaw. He claimed that Aaron had gotten involved with drugs when he married Helen Merrill, and that had derailed his career, but the guy who said that was just speaking from rumors that were circulating back then. Aaron himself had told me that he was supposed to be the 'great white hope' in response to Bird, but it didn't work out for some reason. He once told me about walking down Broadway at that time and running into Bird, who said to him, "I know who you are, but don't go thinking you're something special"! Another time he told me that John Lewis heard him practicing Bach on the flute before a concert he did with him and was surprised that he was playing classical music, because all the other guys were too busy getting high. Aaron studied arranging with Hall Overton, and we played his arrangements in the two bands we both played in. He wrote a great chart featuring himself on Tenor on "Who Can I Turn To", and it was a profound experience to hear him improvise on tenor. I could best describe his tenor sound as a cross between Getz and Paul Desmond, and his improvisations were melodically very deep, definitely on the level of the melodic giants, such as Giuffre, Getz, Young, and Desmond. I've got a disc and a tape he gave me of live concerts he did on clarinet with a quartet featuring Janice Friedman, and a trio featuring Joe Puma. On clarinet, he sounded more mainstream and technical than his Tenor playing. Although he was a first call studio player, and could sight read anything, improvisation was where he was truly at. He turned to me on a gig we were playing with charts, and dramatically said, "You see all those notes on the page- they mean absolutely nothing. Nothing!" I'm really going to miss him. The younger guys and guys around my age, don't have that special melodic thing that Aaron and the few deep jazz players left had. Not many left. Thank God I still play with a few. RIP, Aaron.

The guys in the band that I'm playing with tonight should know about Aaron. All the best, older players from the Bronx used to play in it, but they're gradually passing. We already lost Eddie Bert, and Aaron's been in bad shape recently. I was playing regularly with Aaron for the last 20 years, but he retired a year or two ago. I've written a lot here about his significance in jazz history, Although he was about 90, he still had the attitude of a young guy. On the last gig we did together, he said to me, "It looks like they don't care about our music anymore." Based on what's going on in jazz today, I'd have a hard time disagreeing with him...