Larry Kart

Anyone know this pianist-bandleader? I picked up a copy of his 2008 album "Hot Bread": https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Bread-Pulpo/dp/B0018AAQQO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1473969701&sr=1-1&keywords=hot+bread and while I'm no Latin jazz or Latin music expert, so far it's knocked my socks off. Tremendous rhythmic density, plus a kick-ass recording job.

As you may know, a staple of classical music are viola jokes, that being THE disrespected instrument in the field. Last night I was at a string quartet performance at Ravina where the cellist broke a string. While he was backstage taking care of the problem, the violist told some viola jokes. Violist driving home sees a cluster of flashing red lights as he turns the corner. He gets out to see what's up, is met by a cop who says, "I'm sorry, sir, your house has been burned to the ground and your wife and children are missing." Violist: "My God! Who did this? "Cop: "The conductor." Violist: "The conductor came to MY house."

Wonderful movies.

No nuance? I can think of few players this side of Johnny Hodges who have more nuance going for them than Ammons. Just about every phrase is spun out, coddled, caressed, stroked, chucked under the chin, you name it.

Perhaps you're just being facetious, but in case you're not, while I certainly don't agree with Brookmeyer on Ammons, I assume his opinion was based the usual stuff we all base such opinions on -- recordings, live performances, his own background/assumptions/prejudices. Or maybe he just got it straight from Martin Willliams.

I remember once Brookmeyer on his site tearing into French hornist Tom Varner because he couldn't play "even eighth notes."

I did listen again to "Strings for Holiday." If anything I dislike it more now, for same reasons, than I did before -- but that's why they play ball games (or however that saying goes and whatever it in fact it means). My wife's been away in Italy for almost two weeks, leaving me to take care of my teenage stepson, our dog, and our cat, and as wonderful as all those creatures are, I'm beginning to babble.

Thanks. I think I should listen again. BTW, a sublime record with Lee and a small group of strings is the one he did with Bill Russo "An Image": https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Albums-Konitz-Harvard-Square/dp/B009RQZKTO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472335151&sr=8-1&keywords=konitz+an+image In fact, that probably is the best soloist with a small string ensemble record I know. Russo also did a nice one with Cannonball playing material from Ellington's "Jump for Joy," but the major Russo composition on "An Image" is a genuinely major composition.

I have some respect for arranger Daniel Schnyder, but my memory of this one is that the strings' rather intrusive, near-soloistic lines kept getting in Lee's way, more or less pushing him into outlining the melodies of the songs rather than embellishing them, which is what the strings were doing. My sense was that Schnyder was trying to do too much; I'd rather hear Lee's ideas than his.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/in-a-twentieth-century-drawing-room-mw0000570419 Title makes it sound like pure frou-frou, but it's not. Albam also did that fine Hank Jones with strings album that Mike Weil mentioned above.

Just read and enjoyed Jimmy Heath's autobio, "I Walked with Giants." No, the Konitz book isn't technically an an autobio, but there's lots of information about and insights into the man.

Took me longer than it should have, but in the last decade or so I really began to dig him. "Affinity" with Bill Evans was the one that turned on the light in my brain. Bless his sweet soul.

I don't think Cook needs any particular practical motive to kiss some butt. His lips are permanently pursed. OTOH, Miles' irritation, bitchiness, or what you will sounds pretty genuine to me. The details of what he says about Bird and Trane and Wayne are not the sort of things one just makes up late in the game or because Richard Cook is there with his ears wide open -- whether they're true to the "truth," they strike me as long-nurtured feelings.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/nov/06/miles-davis-interview-rocks-backpages Some interesting stuff here, if you trust Richard Cook, though in this instance I think I do.

"Old Devil Moon" swings like mad.

Here's an interview I did with Rodney in 1980 (click on the "view story jump" button at the end of each page if you want to read the whole thing): http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1980/07/20/page/144/article/night-scene

Thanks, Bertrand. Good news that Williams is out there playing, and that he is outstanding. My impression from the Larry Willis album I mentioned (from 2000) and from earlier recorded work of his I've run across was that he was well on his way to being outstanding, but 2000 is a good while ago. I suspect that there are more than few players of Williams' age or thereabouts who made a bit of name for themselves at one point but have since vanished from all but local radar screens while continuing to grow artistically. It would be nice if he got another chance to record.

Can't say -- other than this album, my knowledge of Sting and the Police is only what drifted in over the transom.

Yeah -- that track is a highlight.

Apparently he's more or less vanished into academia (teaching at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, hasn't appeared on a record since 2001) but tonight I was listening to Williams on Larry Willis' "A Tribute To Someone" (AudioQuest) from 2000, with Curtis Fuller, John Stubblefield, David Williams, and Ben Riley, and Williams could really play -- a whole lot more than any of the so-called "young lions" who come to mind. A genuine story-teller. His bio says that he plays drums, too, now. http://www.tomwilliamsnet.com BTW, that Willis record, a tribute to Herbie Hancock, is a good one.

Picked this up at a library sale a few days ago, not even knowing it existed, and was bowled over by it. Among other things, it strikes me as one of most heartfelt and sensitive homages to Gil Evans imaginable, while still very much an expression of Belden. How Bob got that depth and variety of textures out of 12 horns, plus keyboards and rhythm, I don’t know, though I suspect that a good deal of it has to do with the wide range of non-brass winds he uses (flute, alto flute, bass flute, piccolo, wood flute, English horn, bass clarinet, soprano, tenor, and baritone saxophones). Lovely to hear Bob take a strong tenor solo, too; tears almost came to my eyes. Heck of job by all the players (Tim Hagans is in especially fine form) and the various engineers and mixers, too. I feel lucky to have stumbled across this.

Great album. I like this track:

Greer, Mitchum and Douglas in "Out of the Past": Don't think the Golson piece was a reference to the movie. It's a common phrase, and the piece itself has a "parlor with lace curtains" feel.

Watched "Out of the Past" yet again. I think I finally figured out what the secret (at least for me) of Jane Greer's appeal is. Not to discount her eyes (like pools), her mouth, her shape and walk, but I think above all it's the sound and pitch of her liquid, almost gargling at times, voice. It's seductive, vulnerable, and, in the end, uniquely, profoundly menacing. That plus the fact that her voice at once somehow reveals and conceals her nature. BTW, Kirk Douglas is fantastic as Whit; his hair deserves a credit all by itself. Also, we're not told or shown how Greer deals with Douglas' character eventually, but when you think about it, what happens speaks of an almost unreal vulnerability on his part (given what he and we already know) or a sublime deviousness on hers'. Finally, what do we make of the scene at the end where Mitchum's former girlfriend asks the deaf-and-dumb young gas station attendant her crucial question. Is he telling her the truth as he sees it, or what he suspects is the case, or is he conveying what hr knows or thinks Mitchum's character would want him to under the circumstances? I vote for the last, but I recall reading an account of the film from some cineaste that claimed that what the boy does speaks of his disappointment in/even disgust at Mitchum's character.