_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
Alexander Hawkins
-
Posts
2,795 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Donations
0.00 USD
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Posts posted by Alexander Hawkins
-
-
I think Pope is still good if he's healthy and I like Bocanegra, Hudjuk(sp?) can run all day!
Clint Mathis has never impressed me at any level. And Josh Wolf is speedster with little ability. He wouldn't even travel with my squad! The other guy which I've seen less of lately, which is more than fine by me, is Conner Casey. That guy has ZERO touch. He's certainly no replacement for McBride any time soon! Mc Bride gets a lot of credit for his strength in the air and his work rate, but he's a great passer too. At Fulham he creates a lot of chances for the others with some nice touches around the box. He has also scored some long shots from 20 yds or so that I didn't know he had in him.
I've heard a lot of people dish on Convey but though he's not a scorer (scored two this weekend for Reading however) he's a great crosser of the ball and is versatile. I really like him as a left back making overlapping runs and sending dangerous balls into the box.
As far as Adu not being ready, I'm on the fence on this one. He's not the player he's going to be but even now he's a nice playmaker and is excellent on corners and free kicks.
It's interesting to hear the slightly equivocal comments about Adu. Over here a few months back, everybody was raving about him, and the chances of him starting a bidding war between Real Madrid and Chelsea.
I haven't seen him play, but agree that if he's so young, it's going to be difficult to tell how good he is. Certainly, the 'new Pele' spiel we were getting over here must have been bluster.
-
Still not my "favorite" Monk tenorist (that would probably be Rollins),
I'm taping a Monk/Rollins program tomorrow morning and have been listening to all of their sessions for the past three days (and for the first time in several years). It's addictive, because I seem to hear more each time through... even "Friday the 13th" (a tune which Gitler or whoever was producing the session allegedly exhorted them to keep extending) redeemed itself when I listened to it a second & third time. There's an ease there in Rollins' & Monk's rapport that's remarkable, esp. given that Rollins was what--23 at the time? They recorded together only four times (if you count the BRILLIANT CORNERS sessions as one); Rollins was the only musician that Monk recorded as a sideman with more than once. (Coming in at the last moment for Elmo Hope on the late-1954 "I Want to Be Happy" date.)
My favorite tenor w/Monk as well.
'The Way You Look Tonight' by Monk/Rollins is a desert island choice for me!
-
One that immediately comes to mind is Wynton Kelly's choruses on 'Stars fell on Alabama' from Cannonball and Coltrane. Small and perfectly formed.
-
I'm sure there's a thread here somewhere on Coltrane and Jimmy Smith playing together (a did they/didn't they type-thing). Just saw this, whilst not looking for anything in particular:
Odean Pope Saxophone Choir
Fiery post-bop tenor saxophonist Odean Pope got his start in the pit band of Philadelphia’s Uptown Theater, playing backup for people like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. But when John Coltrane asked him to sub for him in the Jimmy Smith trio, his jazz chops came to the fore.
...clearly an excerpt from Odean Pope's bio. Does it suggest that Coltrane/Smith had a working engagement, of sorts..?
-
In my view, this is still important to reissue for a newer generation of fans, then if for nothing else.
I agree. Having been really young when most BNs were issued first time around, I'm just stoked to get the music.Good sound is nice and all, but just let me hear the dots!!!
-
Herschel Evans was indeed the first to come to mind here.
I also love Lockjaw's playing. If 'Flight of the Foo Birds' isn't one of the nicest tracks of all time, then...
-
Yeah these rankings are funny - I'm not sure how it's calculated precisely, but it's a strong example of the inferiority of quantitative methodology to qualitative!
I mean this wih all due respect to the US and Mexico - both of whom I think are good teams (and I agree that in Europe we tend to undersell the US game in particular) - but I'm not sure that these teams are better than Italy, Spain, Portugal, France etc...
-
I think the more you look at a Monk tune, you realise how wonderfully engineered they are. Sure, the changes are usually a refreshing change from the I-VI-II-V-I standard fare etc., but the way he uses melodic shapes so subtly...
Now, there's something that doesn't get commented on nearly as much as it should. A lot of Monk's tunes (not all, certainly, but a lot) ignore (or at the least, downplay) the implied single key center that a I-vi-ii-V progression creates. Instead, the consist of blocks of dominant chords that, when traced from beginning to end, create a bold but logical journey, each stop along the way creating a zone. The symmetry of these structures is as organic and, again, logical as it is bold. They very sound "mathematically", if you know what I mean.
Even the tunes where he uses a I-vi-ii-V progression as the foundation gets tweaked. Take "Bemsha Swing" - the changes of that tune are an exercise (hell, a textbook!) in different ways to apply tritone substitutions over the most basic of progressions.
With Monk's music, moreso than most "songs" digging into the micro reveals the macro, and vice-versa. Get a grip on one and discover the other, over and over and over. It's the never-ending spiral of logical genius.
Agreed, on almost all counts! A nice example of the 'tweaked' I-vi-ii-V progression is 'Shuffle Boil'.
This thread's inspired me to spend most of the day with my Monk fake book. It's just awesome.
BTW, I think in a post up above I mentioned 'Oska T.' This is a weird, and in some ways pretty un-Monk-like tune - modal, effectively (just the one chord all the way through). I wonder if there's a story here?
-
Four players to watch:
Robert Huth for the Germans. Young Chelsea defender - very big bloke! - and a class act.
And of course, Zidane and Makelele back for France! IF the French qualify, sparks could fly - this'd be Zizou's swansong...
Rounding out my - admittedly Chelsea biased - contribution - I say watch for Frank Lampard in the England midfield. Some would regard him as the best midfielder playing the game at the moment. On last season's showing, that's a good shout.
England were truly dreadful against Denmark. On Tuesday, we'd called ourselves favourites for the World Cup; on Wednseday evening, we were going to be lucky to qualify for it. Ah, I love our tabloid media!
P.s. I agree with all the sentiments about African/Asian sides doing well. But also, I'm a sucker for genius: so if Brazil are going to win it, but playing beautiful stuff - I say bring it on!
-
Oh, I have no problem with Branford not enjoying Henrikson. It's a world away from the part of the jazz world he works in. None of us can like everything.
It was his attempt to built his personal lack of interest into some wider thesis about what jazz is that I can't agree with him on. But giving where he's coming from that view was not surprising.
Despite his 'issues' I thought he made a very good presenter.
Sure - I agree, he's definitely quite personable, despite his own views (in a way, for instance, his brother might not have been!)
-
Chuck, I remember you commenting (perhaps in a discussion of '3 Compositions of New Jazz'?) on the size of Smith's tone. I'm not sure if it's the way this is recorded, or what, but this is very much brought home by portions of the Kabell box. And what a tone! Reminds me, in some ways, of Jabbo Smith...
-
I think the more you look at a Monk tune, you realise how wonderfully engineered they are. Sure, the changes are usually a refreshing change from the I-VI-II-V-I standard fare etc., but the way he uses melodic shapes so subtly...
I wasn't necessarily a fan of Ken Burns' series, and Wynton's commentary therein much less
, but one interesting sequence was Wynton doing an (albeit very simple) anatomy of 'Epistrophy', pointing out the various inversions/symmetries etc. of the melody.[edited for spelling]
-
my favorite stevens (and keith tippett) is still amalgams "innovation". and again, i remember the penguin guide saying stevens had a hard time getting into that kind of a groove-but to my ears, though a little heavy handed, i like stevens playing a lot. i wish tippett did more like this too. his fills and just general comping style on this are insane-a real shining example of simultaneously playing inside and outside-a description which is used often not so usefully.
Sounds great - I'll be having a look for this.
Yes, I enjoyed it too. There were many faces in that programme I never expected to see on UK TV!The sequence of Branford looking non-plussed at Arve Henriksen was priceless!
My thoughts exactly, on both counts! I enjoyed hearing from Roscoe Mitchell, for instance. [i have to say, whilst I hope I would have made a bit of an effort to look interested at Henrikson, I see where Branford was coming from...not really my thing!]
-
I very much thought Marsalis was twisting things to his own agenda ... I found him terribly patronising.
Quite! Although I have to say I did enjoy much of the rest of the programme.
-
I quite agree, it'll be interesting to here the new Soweto Kinch...
There was an interesting show on channel 4 a few months ago hosted by Branford Marsalis. I don't know if you saw it - there was a not-so-veiled 'warning' to Soweto against going the Courtney Pine route (Branford said he was friends with CP, but was fairly openly disapproving of Pine's direction).
Did you here the BBC jazz awards on Radio 3 the other week? Tony Kofi playing with Guy Barker's band. Kofi was fine - the backing group, however...
-
Listening to 'Song of Humanity' from the Kabell box. Stunning stuff. Smith has a wonderful ear for colours.
Oliver Lake is great here, too.
-
I spent half a year studying nothing but Monk tunes with Kenny Barron (who knows a thing or two about Monk). What I found to be the biggest challenge were the tunes that don't seem to do anything - like "Green Chimneys" and to a lesser degree, "Well, You Needn't". They just vacillate between two chords. Even the melody of "Green Chimneys" doesn't give you much to go on. Playing the head is a breeze, but when your solo starts, everything sounds wrong.
That's exactly how I've felt on more than one occasion. I played a jam a little while ago where someone called 'Friday the 13th' which should be the easiest thing in the world (it looks ridiculously simple on paper) but nothing I did seemed to be working. That was an elevator shaft moment and I was about 20 storeys up.
These are tunes that have their own 'logic' that has nothing to do with how harmony 'should' work. Forget everythiing you think you know, 'cos it ain't gonna help!
It's been a while since I tried playing it but 'Bye-Ya' was another one where I just couldn't make anything work.
What I love about these tunes is that they really hang out to dry the guys who just run the chords and scales. Payback for all those times they roast you up on the stand over Giant Steps etc.
-
I'd have really liked to see that Louis Moholo band. Does he still play around much? Keith Tippett is another player I'd very much want to see. It's interesting - I was reading Jason Yarde's bio somewhere or other and it mentioned all this much freer playing. This was the side of him I thought was most apparent - unsurprisingly, I guess - in the Rivers gig, and was probably what attracted me to him.
That Mark Lockheart band looks interesting...I'm not sure I like his playing too much, but in fairness to him, I haven't seen him that much (maybe only 2-3 times). I must say, I couldn't STAND his soprano work!
I saw that Jazz Britannia concert repeated on BBC2 the other week. That gospel version of 'Look Back in Anger...' UGHHH! Felt like it could have worked - the chords of the song probably lend themselves quite well, but otherwise...I very much enjoyed Alex Wilson's feature, though. I wasn't too impressed by Byron Wallen there either, but I agree, Tony Kofi was on it. Some really nice bass playing as well, especially on the more groove-orientated stuff. (Although I agree with your assessment of Courtney - a little too much unintersting funk and electronica).
BTW, enjoyed the Evan Parker photos in that other thread - was thinking of making it down for the gigs, but was playing myself, as I remember.
-
Bev - just rereading my post, I came over a little strong. I didn't mean 'that crowd' to sound pejorative - my mistake. I like a lot of those players - I tend to think, as well as Soweto and Tony Kofi, of people like Jason Yarde in the same bracket (the F-Ire collective people). All I meant by it was that there often seem to me to be clusters of players on our scene - I think, for example, of the group we've just mentioned, adding others like Jonathan Gee, Winston Clifford, etc; and then the Larry Cottles, Gerard Presencers, Ian Thomases, Mike Bradleys; and then the Peter Kings, Don Wellers, Art Themens, Steve Watermans, etc.!
I know it's a simplistic breakdown, because I've seen groups mixed from these groupings, but I think it captures a bit of a truth?
I really like Tony Kofi's playing, definitely...some of the Monk stuff is great. I'm curious to hear the new organ record (although I'm not sure when it's out).
Of the guys in the Hill/Rivers big bands, the one who's impressed me most was Jason Yarde, actually - it'd be nice to see him get some more exposure.
I'm not too familiar with much of the Jazz Jamaica stuff. I'm absolutely all for going back to the various traditions - and entertaining as well - I've got no time for a lot of the pretentious players we've got kicking around - it's just that the way Courtney Pine does it sounds very staid and generic to me.
I was sorry to miss the Kenny Wheeler gigs!
-
I'll be looking forwards to this discussion.
Byron Wallen and Gary Crosby are interesting names here. Wallen is often in the horn sections for big bands for touring artists - for instance, he's done the recent Andrew Hill and Sam Rivers tours over here. I wasn't particularly inspired by his playing, but in fairness, he did get limited solo space, and I suppose we're just not brought up any more with the discipline of 8-bar big band soloing etc. Mind you, I've also heard him stretch out with Courtney Pine, and was similarly uninspired there...
On the Courtney Pine thing, Gary Crosby's one of that crowd. I was interested to learn the other day that Courtney Pine played a bit with Stevens himself in the early days. An interesting 'might have been', given Pine's detour/descent/retreat/[insert word, probably pejorative, here] into generic, dancey, hip-hoppy, reggae-lite. Don't misunderstand me - Courtney can play some awesome stuff, but how often do we hear it nowadays?
I wish Stevens were still around. I think younger, freer-leaning musicians in this country could use a figure like him.
-
I spent half a year studying nothing but Monk tunes with Kenny Barron (who knows a thing or two about Monk). What I found to be the biggest challenge were the tunes that don't seem to do anything - like "Green Chimneys" and to a lesser degree, "Well, You Needn't". They just vacillate between two chords. Even the melody of "Green Chimneys" doesn't give you much to go on. Playing the head is a breeze, but when your solo starts, everything sounds wrong.
For a pianist, seeing Monk play the tunes is revelatory - even if it is not something to copy. His fingering is just absurd. Watch "Rhythm-a-ning" on the Straight No Chaser movie. No one plays it like that. Only Thelonious.
Mike
Bright Mississippi is another one that makes your point, I think!
I agree about watching Monk. He makes you think about phrasing and space (as piano players, I guess we don't have to breathe as such, so there's no
necessary incentive to 'break in play').
He also makes you think about touch. It's a real lesson in getting a 'sound' out of the piano, where so many 'trained' players come out with a non-descript, mushy touch.
I love playing over many Monk tunes, although I don't feel ready to play any but a very few on gigs just yet. I definitely agree with Jim's point about playing over the melody. I also think Monk is one of those composers where I hear 'wrong' notes into improvisations - e.g. I often feel more than happy not hewing too closely to chord symbols.
Some tunes I especially like to play at the moment:
Shuffle Boil, Oska T.
One that I'd love to play better than I do is Evidence.
Interesting comments about horn players v. pianists playing Monk. On the whole, I prefer to hear horn players do it - but obviously there are notable exceptions!
-
I'm afraid I don't know much of his playing at all, but he is superb IMHO on Don Cherry's 'Complete Communion'.
-
Just picked up 'Song for My Sister'. I'm enjoying it very much (perhaps not so much that long track with the extended instrumentation).
The Note Factory is a great band. I think I prefer Hugh Ragin to Corey Wilkes, perhaps. I can't wait to hear 'Bad Guys'. Listening to the Wadada Leo Smith Kabell box as I type, and he's really a fabulous player.
-
I'm not entirely sure, but I've heard about this as well. On the one cut I've heard - from the Gilles Peterson's 'Impressed...' CD - Joe Harriott is great here!
bass clarinet
in Artists
Posted
I don't know much Murray. I think the first I heard of him was on Kahil El'Zabar's 'Of Love and Dreams', and I was a bit equivocal about his slap-tonguing in particular. However, yesterday, I was listening to 'Clarinet Summit' (India Navigation) and there is an astonishing solo feature for Murray (it's a really nice album all round, in fact).