Larry Kart

I'd recommend two guitarists who came to notice with Gil Melle in the 1950s, Lou Mecca and Joe Cinderella: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mecca http://www.gould68.freeserve.co.uk/Review/review.htm http://www.guitarsite.com/newsletters/021118/3.shtml http://www.classicjazzguitar.com/artists/artists_page.jsp?artist=40 http://www.classicjazzguitar.com/artists/artists_page.jsp?artist=49 http://jazztimes.com/articles/60591-guitarist-joe-cinderella-dies-at-85

Get in the way of 'what'? ...'who'?... - You? Read Crouch's liner notes for all those Wynton Marsalis albums and you'll know what his agendas get in the way of, though I might have put it differently, feeling that there's not much more there than the agendas themselves, and thus little or nothing for them to get in the way of. As for Crouch's prose, here's an excerpt from the new book: "Parker was basically a melancholy and suspicious man, a genius in search of a solution to a blues that wore razors for spurs.” I kind of see what he's getting at there, but "a solution to a blues that wore razors for spurs” is the kind of b.s. "poetry" that leaves me grasping for my secret decoder ring. Well, you may see what he's getting at here, but it's a mystery to me. gregmo What he's getting at, I think -- and I'll have to get a bit flowery myself here -- is that Parker sought a solution in music to a broader "blues" condition/state of life that was at once intensely galling and that, in its pain, stimulated in him a correspondingly intense musical expression of that state. Whatever, if I were Crouch's editor I sure would have suggested that he swap "a blues that wore razors for spurs" for "a blues that wore razor-sharp spurs." Also, unless surrounding context does this, I would have suggested that he not use "blues" in such a way that the term's literal musical meaning and its broader metaphorical meanings (as in the title of LeRoi Jones' "Blues People") could be confused.

Get in the way of 'what'? ...'who'?... - You? Read Crouch's liner notes for all those Wynton Marsalis albums and you'll know what his agendas get in the way of, though I might have put it differently, feeling that there's not much more there than the agendas themselves, and thus little or nothing for them to get in the way of. As for Crouch's prose, here's an excerpt from the new book: "Parker was basically a melancholy and suspicious man, a genius in search of a solution to a blues that wore razors for spurs.” I kind of see what he's getting at there, but "a solution to a blues that wore razors for spurs” is the kind of b.s. "poetry" that leaves me grasping for my secret decoder ring.

Many Ella admirers feel that her finest recordings of standards were her pre-songbooks Gershwin recordings with pianist Ellis Larkins: http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Ella-Original-Decca-Recordings/dp/B000003N3Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8oYz55KSlA

Wasn't the Left Bank Jazz Society at a place (if it was only at one place) with a horribly out of tune piano?

Yes yes it is is

Don't know the Pass-Ella CDs but heard the two of them in concert twice late in her career and was struck by the dramatic power of her singing.

I agree about Ella's vintage "pop" performances being more satisfying by and large than her "jazz"" jazz ones of that time. In that vein -- and I wish I could recall this more accurately -- I once was listening to one of her recordings of the first sort from a fairly abstract (can't think of better term) point of view, perhaps as though she were Benny Carter or even Don Byas stating and lightly embellishing a melody, and suddenly it was as though I saw and heard the whole picture, that Ella poured so much into (as in way inside) the interstices of the song, especially in terms of tone and timbre, that if one heard what she was doing and expressing there, one heard something very special. Haven't found that point of focus with Ella that often since then, but I sure did hear it. I would add, as the mentions of Carter and Byas suggest, that this aspect of her struck me as a '30s and early '40s thing, which was after all the era that Ella came up in.

The setting that I heard her in in later years that seemed to bring out previously uncommon depth was just her and Joe Pass.

Yes, but later in her career, based on live performances I heard, her understanding of the dramatic content of the songs she sang deepened considerably.

My favorite (or "favourite"), which I actually encountered in London, is "face flannel" for washcloth.

Hmm -- forget all about that Jazztet set. Glad it was a good one (but then they pretty much all were) and that I got to say so.

Sorry, Mark -- should have checked first. It was "Split Images." The Trib archives pre-1985 are behind a pay wall. My library can get then through some intermediate service but only as PDF files, and AFIK they can be turned into type that can be read in a post here or elsewhere only if one types them in manually. But try "Larry Kart" and "Split Images," though you may just get a scan of my brain.

I've now got PDF copies of them from my local library but don't have the energy to type them out right now -- in part because they strike me as good, especially for their time, but not as good as I remembered them being. Also, the other one I reviewed wasn't "Stick" but IIRC "Sideswipe."

Who's that guitar player on her version? "[Ronstadt] wisely continued her relationship with arranger/orchestra leader Nelson Riddle whose experience and talent kept her and the project true to the sound and style of the material. For his part, Riddle recruited such musicians as guitarist Bob Mann (who'd go on to play for Rod Stewart in his forays into the same type of material), drummer John Guerin, bassist Bob Magnusson, and pianist Don Grolnick, all of whom were veterans of the big band and lounge scene, making them perfect for this project."

Different strokes, but though her voice is sumptuous, albeit in a fairly generic way IMO, I find Ronstadt's version of "When I Fall In Love" to be an annoyingly obtuse reading of the song -- as in, lots of candy-sweet voice, little understanding of what is or should be going on in the song dramatically: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECI0RRV7RCw By contrast, Nat King Cole:

Heard that group live at the Birdhouse in Chicago in '61.

My favorite is Daniel Ericourt. Yuri Egorov is also quite something -- not quite the consistent insight of Ericourt but pretty fabulous pianism. I also have and like Peter Frankl's Vox boxes and Marcel Meyer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwR-3ekLu7o

Bemused that you find Simpson on Bruckner to be pedantic. Can think of few if any verbal accounts of how and why particular pieces of music work that are more insightful and (which I suppose goes with saying) not redundant in the face of the actual realized-in-performance music. About Bruckner versus "musics that require a little more - say with '...explosante-fixe..." -- I'd say that were talking about very different musics in terms of style and language. I respond positively to both kinds, and many other kinds as well. Also, I don't think that Bruckner's alleged conservatism has anything to do with his music's ultimate value, though it may have something to with its appeal to some listeners.

From poet Jonathan Williams' book "Mahler Grooves," section VI from his poem inspired by Mahler's Sym. No. 3: Anton Bruckner counts the 877th leaf on a linden tree in the countryside near Wren and prays: Dear God, Sweet Jesus Save Us, Save Us . . . the Light in the Grass, the Wind on the Hill, are in my head, the world cannot be heard Leaves obliterate my heart, we touch each other far apart . . . Let us count into the Darkness P.S. (me quoting from an article about AB): "He suffered from extreme mood swings, and at his most depressed or anxious would resort to obsessive counting rituals -- there’s an account by a friend of him being found in a field, just before his 1866 mental breakdown, trying to count the leaves on a tree."

According to Hoyle.

Judy Kahn, the wife of a friend of mine, jazz musician Bill Kirchner, was Harris' dresser for many shows.

Hirst

Scones are on the hard side; biscuits, especially the ones depicted below, are on the airy side.

9:30PM at Constellation, 3111 N Western ($12) Michael Moore, Josh Berman, Jason Roebke, Frank Rosaly