sgcim

Speaking of KC drummers, I finally received the DVD of the 21st Century Schizoid Band Concert in Japan from Netflix, and was overjoyed to hear the great work of Michael Giles for a full concert. As KC fanatics know, this concert re-united the original band with the exception of Fripp and Lake. IMHO, the highlight of the set was a Giles original from his 1978 LP entitled "Progress", which featured Giles playing a complicated. polyrhythmic accompaniment to a deceptively slow tempo that I had to listen to twice to fully comprehend. Though the concert was recorded back in the early 2000s, "Progress" can stand up to anything current in jazz, fusion or prog., and should be a standard in any of those genres. Mel Collins proves that he came a long, long way in his sax and flute playing since the early days of KC, and really shines on this and "Formentura Lady". McDonald proves that he was the compositional genius behind "ITCOTCK" and does his usual impeccable job on flute and keyboards. A great touch was featuring McDonald and Collins on baritone and tenor saxes rather than taking the easy way out with synths handling everything, an approach that has IMHO fucked music beyond redemption. Unfortunately, the disc had some type of electronic blocking format in it that prevented me from duping it on to videotape on my DVD/VCR Recorder, but would it be possible to dupe such a disc onto another disc in my computer?

I really enjoyed this BBC ND tribute concert " A Way To Blue", as many talented Brits got together to celebrate their country's neglect of one of their most talented singer/songwriers, ultimately pushing the already fragile ND over the edge... But seriously, this is a very nice concert with nary a synthesizer nor a Sting in sight. The orchestra performs the original arrangements wonderfully, and Danny Thompson performs on the ACOUSTIC BASS marvelously. The acoustic guitarist does a wonderful job, also. The only performance I didn't like was Robyn Hitchcock's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X2JDv39tG0

Just finished this. I had never read his column for Premeire, so I was never exposed to his writing before, and I found it uniformly excellent. In the first section he talks about going to jazz clubs in the 60s and 70s, and comments that when he'd see Bill evans towards the end (the late 70s) at the VV, and he was surpried by the "odd, loping shuffle in his right hand lines, as if he was regressing to an antiquated rhythmic style." He also mentions seeing Mingus at the VV, and talked about CM seeing Coleman Hawkins at the bar and calling the Hawk an Uncle Tom. Hawk just smiled politely at him and kept drinking... He also saw Jaki Byard there and Jaki spent an entire break at his table when he asked JB some questions about the music. When talking about jazz radio, he fondly remembers Mort Fega's show, and recalled an incident where Fega played an Albert Ayler cut, and after a minute, scraped the needle on the record and took it off... In the second section he describes his gradual psychic degeneration from what he calls "Acute Tour Disorder", and ends the book with a clinical description of its symptoms as if it was actually listed in the DSMIV-R (or whatever it's called). A great read from one of our greatest living singer/songwriters.

Thanks so much Uli! Jazz piccolo and I guess that was either alto or bass flute. I enjoyed that more than the LPs with Herbie Mann and Jeremy Steig. I knew Herb played the flute, but I didn't know he was that good. Was that ever released as an LP?

I just got back from the most intense jam session I ever had in my life, and the pianist said he had a video from Italy with Herb playing a concert with Bill Evans(!). BE's little seen GF, Elaine was in it. it can only be played on an all region VCR, which I don't have, so I guess i'll have to wait for next time. My pianist friend freaked when he heard Herb had passed...

Like Judee Sill, Drake paid the price for overestimating the sophistication of the music audience of his time...

Very sad to hear. One of the alto greats of all-time. RIP, Mr. Geller.

Charlie Shoemake "Plays The Music of David Raksin" on Discovery Records Never knew this existed, which is kind of strange considering I thought I was going to be doing the first jazz album of DR's music. Found it on Discog for $4.99. Good playing by CS, Peter Sprague, Mike Wofford and Ted Nash.

Phil Schaap is celebrating CT's 93rd on "Traditions in Swing" right now on WKCR. I was ready to hang it up many years ago and get a 'real job' when I got a gig with CT, and decided if he dug my playing, maybe I should stick wid it. He dug me, and I wound up getting a real job later anyway, but nothing can match being recognized by a real giant on the stand. Happy Birthday, CT, and many more!

They're too busy kissing Bloomberg's ass to bother with facts anymore... Nate Chinen was the same genius who wrote that article that said Trane was one of the founders of bebop

One of my favorites, too. Hall and Raney were an intense pairing, especially on "Move It" (think that's the title and think it's a Hall piece). The young Steve Swallow adds a lot to this date, as he does to the Art Farmer Quartet with Hall, and Walter Perkins or Pete LaRoca. The other date he did with Zoot, featuring Ron Carter and some pianist named billevans, was also pretty special...

Yeah, I have to admit I wasn't thrilled to hear him use a chorus device on some of his later stuff. I also wasn't too thrilled about some of the company he was keeping...

Very sad to hear. He was looking very frail, so it's not totally unexpected, but it's still hard to believe. I caught him live so many times in the 70s, I can't remember them all. He's on so many great recordings it would be impossible to list them all. The last time I saw him, he played "Skylark" at Jimmy Raney's Memorial service at St. Peter's, but who's going to play it for him? I'm sitting here listening and taping WKCR's 24 hour tribute to him. Absolute genius. RIP, Mr. Hall...

Wow, that was nice, Ted. Thanks for posting. Jerry was such a lovely player. Puts me in a Paul Desmond frame of mind. Couple of questions - did you take those pics? I'm sure you were at the session. Anyway, it's a wonderful collage and great to see all the guys from some 30 years ago. Also I know Jerry was sadly afflicted with Alzheimer's and went to live in a nursing home. Has he passed away? And speaking of alto players, Boss Brass and Woods (made shortly after this recording) is one of the best big band albums ever recorded. Ever. Period. (IMHO, of course). . But seriously. Sad to say, Jerry Toth passed away in March 1999. There's a Wikipedia page about him... I think I took some of the pictures there, of the producer Fernando Gelbard at 0:37, and 0:54. That's me at 1:13, in my smoking days (and Tennessee Tuxedo). And speaking of alto players, the guy who sat beside Jerry Toth was a pretty good bop alto, Moe Koffman. This live performance also has some hot Sam Noto trumpet, too. Gee, You Tube has my old theme song, also. Rob wrote T.O. for me, and later, T.O.2 as a closing theme... Speaking of Koffman, I recently learned his son made a movie about him entitled "Jazzman". Anyone from the Great White North ever see it?

Unfortunately, Ed Bickert has never done a solo LP. The guy I was trying to remember before was Jonathan Kreisberg. His recent solo CD is unbelievable. Not possible to surpass that shit...

Johnny Smith's "Man With The Blue Guitar" is a prerequisite for solo guitar playing. Harry Leahey recorded one that I've never heard, but I'm sure it was as great as his teacher's, mentioned above. George Van Eps did a few, "My Guitar", "Solo Guitar Recordings" (which featured Smith on the other CD playing Spanish Classical guitar recordings with a pick! ) Kenny Burrell recorded one that I'm picking up this weekend. The Lenny Breau ones mentioned above are also great works of art. I'm pretty sure Cal Collins did one on Concord, but someone I'd need to verify that...I saw him play solo guitar live at Bechet's in NYC back in the 80s and dug it. There's a recent one by a younger player that is incredible, but I can't remember his name. I'll add it later when I remember.

I loved Dick Katz' liner notes for his own "Piano and Pen" LP; I still remember and am inspired by them. Paul Desmond's LNs for his LPs were a joy to read. I think it was Geo. Frazier that wrote the LNs for that Miles LP where he talked about everything about Miles except for music were enjoyable.

RIP, Chico. Thanks for giving all those great jazz guitarists (Jim Hall, Howard Roberts, Dennis Budimir, John Pisano, Ed Bickert, Gabor Szabo, Larry Coryell, Cary DeNegris, and others) a gig. As usual, WKCR is doing a great all day retrospective today; some great music.

Thanx, the clips sound smokin'! I never heard of MF before; he and WN sound great.

Walt Namuth was a great guitarist. Are there any recordings of him available other than the Buddy Rich and Lou Rawls stuff? Is this Left Bank recording going to be available to the general public? If so, how would you get it?

WKCR is going to play six straight hours of his music starting in five minutes (3 to 9pm EST).

Some good stuff there, and they're pretty honest about the 'product'. Read what they wrote about this chuck loeb cd' Creatively, Chuck Loeb has had his ups and downs over the years. Some of his albums have been disappointing, but other Loeb releases have been a lot more memorable. The self-produced Between 2 Worlds, it turns out, is among the veteran guitarist's more consistent efforts -- not to mention one of his more organic. Excessive production has been a problem for Loeb at times; having a great deal of production and programming is fine for electronica, new age, and hip-hop, but it can become quite an albatross in a medium such as improvisation-driven as jazz. Thankfully, Loeb doesn't overproduce on Between 2 Worlds, and his lyrical guitar playing has plenty of room to breathe this time. In terms of production, less is undeniably more on an album that emphasizes pop-jazz but also contains some straight-ahead post-bop. Between 2 Worlds, which was recorded in New York City and Berlin, Germany, tends to be commercial, although it is tastefully commercial. "360" and "Early Turns to Late," for example, fall into the easy listening category, but they have some substance and avoid becoming outright "elevator muzak"; the same goes for Brazilian-flavored items such as "Hiram," the title track, and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "S¢ Tinha de Ser Com Voc?" (which features singer Carmen Cuesta). Meanwhile, "Let's Play" and "The Great Hall" (as in Jim Hall) are straight-ahead post-bop, and this 65-minute CD moves into funky soul-jazz territory on "Mittens" and the boogaloo-ish "Let's Go" (both of which feature saxophonist Eric Marienthal, formerly of Chick Corea's Elektric Band). Between 2 Worlds isn't a remarkable album, but it is definitely a good, satisfying album -- and the fact that Loeb's guitar playing isn't suffocated by an unnecessary amount of production is obviously a plus. ~ Alex Henderson

That's a complaint I hear about her writing -- that it works vertically but not horizontally, that is the chords are all voiced individually without concern for melodic voice leading within the inner parts. So, unlike say with Ellington, where every part is its own rewarding and sometimes independent melody, her inner parts lack melodic content; they just fill out the chord. This can be slippery analysis, depending on how much counterpoint you get going within the inner parts or how you use individual voices within the context of a harmonized sections. Thad's inner parts are more melodically oriented in some cases but in other cases they also just filling out the harmony. I understand the criticism but ultimately it doesn't bother me really because the other formal elements are so distinctive and there's a strong narrative flow in the charts -- "Quadrille Anyone," "Long Yellow Road," "Since Perry/Yet Another Tear," Transcience," "Strive for Jive," "Minamata," "Elegy." For me it's a unique, stimulating voice, a personalized take on the tradition with her Japanese heritage coming into play on certain works. My opinion, obviously. So, did Wess ever write full big band arrangements for other ensembles? I've been listening to the WKCR Frank Wess Memorial broadcast for almost 16 hours, and the only post-Basie big band charts that I've heard that Wess wrote were for Clark Terry's Bad Little Big Band back in the 70s. The sound quality and playing on the "Live At Buddy's Place" LP wasn't anything to write home about, so I can't comment about that, I'm listening to his flute playing this second with Basie, and it's pure heaven. I didn't like his tenor playing when he used all that fucking vibrato in his early days, but as soon as he lost that shit things got much better. The things with him and Frank Foster are the definition of great jazz! I saw The New York Jazz Quartet years ago and was bugged by Roland Hanna's whole concept, and based on the recordings they've been playing today, that feeling hasn't changed much. Thankfully they've been playing most of the Basie shit, and it don't get much better than that...

I'm diggin' this right now- they're playing continuous Basie! When a Black jazz musician passes, you can always count on PS to devote at least a day to their music. When a white jazz musician passes, it's business as usual...

To quote Milt Jackson concerning Frank Wess: "Ain't but a few of us left." RIP, Mr. Wess