Larry Kart

Nice chapeaus, too.

Lovely photo.

"The Soft Swing" and "Hamp and Getz" -- don't think they've been mentioned on this thread; if they have, I apologize. The former is a real sleeper, maybe the most relaxed Stan ever got, while much of the latter is genuinely, mutually hot, Hamp being known to have that effect on other players.

Craft's '50s Webern performances were, as he later freely admitted, in many cases train wrecks, with the exception of the works for voice and piano and voice and voice and small chamber ensembles. Which is not to say that they weren't at the time very entrancing/influential on me and lots of people like me around the world. His Berg and Schoenberg recordings of the time were better -- in particular, his Altenberg Leider and Pierrot Lunaire, both with Bethany Beardslee, and his Septet Suite, with Pearl Kaufman terrific in the demanding piano part, the most difficult in all of AS's music someone, maybe AS himself, once said. Kaufman, whom I got to know in the '80s when she came to town as Anna Maria Albreghetti's accompanist (!), was a first-call Hollywood studio mainstay for many years when someone with classical piano chops and big ears was needed. She was the pianist on Oliver Nelson's "The Kennedy Dream," played the Bach pieces on the soundtrack of "Five Easy Pieces" that Jack Nicholson mimed, and on Stravinsky's rush-job recording of "The Flood" she improvised a key passage at IS's urgent request when the clock was ticking and that portion of the piano part turned out to be blank. She had lots of stories to tell.

An interesting and I think sound take: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/opinion/the-attacks-in-paris-reveal-the-strategic-limits-of-isis.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad&_r=0

I do, kind of -- although I would say that it's more a matter of a sovereign state not being able to declare war on a stateless entity. Sure, you can say it and can do your very best to damage/destroy that stateless entity militarily or otherwise, but if it is stateless and is not totally or close to that destroyed, it sure can't surrender.

If you want a top-notch recording, I'd suggest this one: http://www.amazon.com/Berlioz-Damnation-Faust-Hector/dp/B00000I9WV/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1447626334&sr=1-2&keywords=monteux+faust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuAQAJhT6Sk This one is also excellent but has some annoying cuts: http://www.amazon.com/Damnation-Faust-Harold-En-Italie/dp/B00006L76O/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1447626458&sr=1-1&keywords=markevitch+faust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCHs2xxtxWU

Hope it's a good performance, but it's a GREAT piece, if somewhat weird and ungainly in spots. One way to think of it -- this came to me while listening to it some years back -- is that here Berlioz more or less invented the motion picture (using musical-dramatic means). One is transported via more or less cinematic dissolves/changes of scene from vast panoramas to closeups, dialogues, interior monologues, etc.

I think John is right about fewer new folks these days, at least not arriving in town from other places. I do think, though, that Nick Mazzarella on his Anagram Series at Elastic has been making a good attempt at presenting new or newish Chicago area people. In fact, of the people that I'm most familiar with, Nick himself may be the newest/youngest really top notch player on the scene, and Nick has been around now for maybe four or five years, albeit growing all the while.

From what I can tell, "the cross-fertilisation across social/racial lines that Chuck mentions above still happening without a focus like the Velvet Lounge" (aptly put) is still happening, as is the mixing in of players from the continent. The Mazzarella-Flaten-Ra trio is one of many examples. Another key factor in this multiply fertile mix is drummer-leader-impresario-clubowner-idea man, and at times even a philanthropist Mike Reed. You name it, and Mike is probably in there, assiduously and shrewdly tilling the soil. In particular, the various tours that Reed-led bands have made to the continent over the years have laid the groundwork for others to do the same, and of course the musicians that they meet over there then tend to come over here when they can. A further point, is that all during the time the Chicago scene of this time has been happening, the city itself has been a place where by and large guys can find places to live, rehearsal spaces, a good many places to play where the musicians themselves control or play a major role in how things are run (albeit they often played for what was in the passed hat, but most people seem to come up with a decent suggested amount, and usually people are there and listening), day gigs if desired/needed, etc. ... not a paradise to be sure but... -- this by contrast with, say, the NYC metro area, where I believe the constraints across the board are much greater. About KV, I've said my piece, reported what I know and/or believe to be so. How relevant that is and in what ways is for others to say.

I have no sense that jealousy is involved, just personal musical judgment.

Without doubt KV before and after his MacArthur gave the scene a good deal of impetus -- and leave us not forget the role played by the man behind KV, impresario John Corbett -- but (and I don't like to say this because KV seems to be a nice and obviously very generous guy), a good many of the talented younger players on the scene, many of whom have been part of KV's ensembles at various times over the years, have only lukewarm if that feelings about his actual musical gifts. They won't say this for public consumption for obvious reasons, but that's how they feel. I should add that I agree with them.

mjazzg Paul Giallorenzo's GitGo - Emergent [Leo Records} Great fun. Mars Williams and Jeb Bishop almost guarantees so Another of the seemingly endless line of contemporary Chicago bands that sound so modern whilst they pay respect to their forebears without sounding in the slightest hidebound by any tradition. What's in the water up there? Larry Kart 14 hours ago, mjazzg said: Paul Giallorenzo's GitGo - Emergent [Leo Records} Great fun. Mars Williams and Jeb Bishop almost guarantees so Another of the seemingly endless line of contemporary Chicago bands that sound so modern whilst they pay respect to their forebears without sounding in the slightest hidebound by any tradition. What's in the water up there? Good question. As Chuck has pointed out several times, to some extent it goes back to Hal Russell, also to the AACM,, though along the lines you've mentioned the fertility/responsiveness/inventiveness of the generations that have arisen in the last 15 years here or more is special. In particular, I've been struck by how communicable/collegial this ethos is. Players, sometimes very experienced ones, have arrived from other places, at times with a fair amount of virtuosic chops/ baggage, and within short order their playing has become more or less compositional and not about how slick they are. Yes, "compositional" is a broad term, but I think it's the key principle on this scene -- as in "Let's make a piece.” mjazzg 11 hours ago, Larry Kart said: Good question. As Chuck has pointed out several times, to some extent it goes back to Hal Russell, also to the AACM,, though along the lines you've mentioned the fertility/responsiveness/inventiveness of the generations that have arisen in the last 15 years here or more is special. In particular, I've been struck by how communicable/collegial this ethos is. Players, sometimes very experienced ones, have arrived from other places, at times with a fair amount of virtuosic chops/ baggage, and within short order their playing has become more or less compositional and not about how slick they are. Yes, "compositional" is a broad term, but I think it's the key principle on this scene -- as in "Let's make a piece." What strikes me from afar (and obviously from recordings only) is precisely that inter-generational and intra-generational willingness to collaborate. That's got to produce fertile ground indeed. There's an apparent preparedness to work at other musicians' work in a way that allows many different voices to the fore - this is what creates the number and variety of such great bands with crossover personnel. As you say, the heritage is in place to be tapped and it seemingly continues to be so to great effect. AACM, Russell absolutely and from my own listening lifetime I suspect Vandermark has been influential on the younger generation in a number of ways. I could reel off any number of names that practically act as guarantee of thoughtful and exciting music. To live amongst the live scene that nurtures these projects must be very rewarding too. "Let's make a piece" will be the title of the festival I curate in London of all these musicians - when my lottery numbers come in of course

Got hearing aids some six years back, on my second pair now -- much needed, major benefits/relief. On the rest I'll pass -- I hope forever.

The notes can be found here. Scroll down and click on them; the type is small but readable. BTW the album title is "Setting the Pace," not "Settin'" etc. as I mis-remembered. The person on whose site the notes appear refers to them as "painfully hip," which is one legitimate response. Acknowledging their strain of self-indulgence and moments of excess, I have a more positive take overall. At the very least, they bring back vividly an era that I lived through, though I didn't live through it in quite the same way that Himmelstein seems to have. https://londonjazzcollector.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/ervin-setting-the-pace-rearcover-1800-ljc.jpg

Based on stylistic evidence, I'd bet a good deal on "Raven Screen" being a pseudonym for David A. Himmelstein, he of the deservedly famous notes for the Booker Ervin-Dexter Gordon "Settin' the Pace." Himmelstein and Schlitten were good friends, and while I don't know why Himmelstein would have used a pseudonym here, the over-the-top, but also personal, inventive, and perhaps cannabis-fueled vibe of the prose is similar (albeit the "Settin'the Pace" notes are a bit more grounded because Himmelstein was present for that recording session and the odyssey of what led up to it). E.g. (from the Criss notes): "Screamsong sirens of broken glass shatter the shaft of life, a dome of rain and daydreams where things fly together and no birds are.... Eyes of blinking destiny and bleary forgiveness stare on crimes of suffering in the ecstasy of a naked light that could raze the world pure once more and reforge the heart of everyone it touches." Whew.

More from the same source and aircheck -- the only recording where Herschel Evans and Pres play back to back. Also, lovely exchanges up front between Buck Clayton and Basie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQf8p2hRecc&feature=share

February 1937, an aircheck from Pittsburgh.

It's kind of different than anything that came before -- the first "slow" Pres as the person who posted it elsewhere said. It's "Moten Swing," taken more "down" than usual by a fair amount. Dan Morgenstern said, when it was posted elsewhere, that just before the announcer comes in Pres sounds like Bud Freeman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miPMXdPO_BA

That's a good one. All the Xanadu Most albums are. Schlitten and Most picked excellent rhythm sections. "Flute Flight" had Lou Levy, Monty Budwig, Donald Bailey. "Flute Talk" with Joe Farrell was nice, an interesting contrast in styles.

Joel -- These posts from The Raney Blog suggest that it might well have been Eddie Diehl, even if the man himself says no: http://www.jonraney.com/forum/solos-discussion/who-have-i-seen-play-with-jimmy/ Wait -- I know, let's ask Phil Schaap!

At least with the Cubs, one of Dusty's key issues was fostering among his players a pissy, whining, "the media and most of the rest of the world is out to get us," attitude. This helped to make his Cubs teams pretty darn insufferable even when they were winning and perhaps contributed to their brittleness under playoff stress.