Larry Kart

I'll get back to you on that later on today -- interesting aspects to this, I think, but I've got to leave the house.

See -- not without interest. I know I could bring you around. OTOH, while I agree about the specifics of Evan's latter-day "mush" insofar as I understand them, they are pretty specific musically, not just ready-made slop, and the specifics do matter -- up to the point where people who want to remain sane need to flee the room to preserve what's left of their minds.

I can't even get to this side of the money wall.

Can't find the article. What search terms should one use? I tried humor, then Jewish humor, then Woody Allen, then Sasha Baron Cohen -- no luck.

I'm no Frishberg fan myself, and my mixed views on Evans are known to the FBI, but that Frishberg (and there's no reason to doubt his account) tells us that Evans told him that he went to school on Dearie the pianist in at least one respect is a fact that is not without interest -- parallel universe or no.

Thanks, guys -- I ordered the DG set. That recording in mono, without the swimmy reprocessed stereo effect, should be just fine sound-wise, and I can't imagine a performance I'd like more. BTW, the reason its relative un-inflectedness (to coin a term) works so well IMO is that I think that the work itself is, among other things, an essay in un-inflectedness and "purification," an attempt on Beethoven's part to see just how much of his habits of inflection he could throw overboard and what would be left if he did. Thus its foreshadowing of the late Schubert piano sonatas. P.S. Given the stylistic rhyme between this version and the Oistrakh Trio's version, I wonder what if anything the story is behind this. One doesn't think of Russian virtuosi of that era as necessarily being inclined to soft-pedal overt emotional gestures, though again I think that is what this particular work demands. I I would guess that behind this approach to the Archduke lay a common pedagogical or otherwise exemplary figure.

Teddy Wilson named her as one of his favorite pianists, and according to Dave Frishberg, she was a significant influence on Bill Evans, FWTW: "During the late sixties I played a couple weeks solo opposite the Bill Evans Trio at the Village Gate on Bleecker St, and had some conversations with Bill. I asked him how he came upon his piled-fourths voicing of chords, and his immediate answer was that he heard Blossom Dearie play that way and it really knocked him out. Then he did a little rave review of Blossom, naming her as one of his models of piano playing. It was such a surprising response that I never forgot it." What Evans heard in her piano playing is evident I think in this performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZQuVRox5l0

FWIW, Miles was a great admirer of Blossom:

The other day I picked up what would have been my ideal Archduke Trio recording -- Gilels/Kogan/Rostropovich, rec. in Moscow in 1956 and issued on Monitor -- except for one thing; it's electronically processed stereo LP of the nasty sort, with instruments wavering in and out of focus. What I love about the performance -- and it's in contrast to virtually every other performance I've heard -- is that especially in the first movement it presses firmly, almost liquidly, onward, without the little (and often not so little) pauses, swells, and other nudges of emphasis that mar (at least for me) so many other recordings. Not that I'm automatically fond of relative plainness in interpretation of Beethoven, but I think it's essential for this magnificent but IMO quite special, even quite peculiar, piece, with its near mono-thematic insistences (which probably prefigure Schubert). Scouting around, I did find one other recording that has a kinship with this one, and oddly enough it too features Russian artists of the same vintage -- Oistrakh, Lev Oborin, and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky -- which suggests that this approach to the work was one that Russian artists of that vintage probably agreed upon. In any case, it sure as heck isn't the way the Archduke is played elsewhere in the world, based on all the other performances I've now listened to. So I'd go for the Oistrakh except that it lacks the first movement repeat, and if there ever were a work that needs such a repeat, it's the Archduke. So, any suggestions? Other, that is, than "shut up" or "go shoot yourself."

For those who care, the Blossom Dearie story -- from Joel Siegel, by way of Bill Reed: http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com/2008/05/bill-reed-presents-blossom-dearie-day.html?zx=cf136449d82a916d

Oy -- I've heard some Blossom Dearie stories that would curl your hair. She could be finicky beyond the point of psychosis/starting World War III. And those stories come from hard-core Dearie admirers. As for Mose's piano playing -- while he's nice accompanying himself/doing his own tunes, the recordings I've heard where he backs the likes of Getz or Al and Zoot make me wonder how he ever got work.

Because it was a bit less annoying than the competition, e.g. Gerry Mulligan's end-of-set sign off of the time, Julius Fucik's "Entry of the Gladiators": For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zrAWk0WTSk Aieee!

I don't get what you just said. In any case, I simply meant that the craft of both performers depended significantly on archness/would-be hip attitude. Further, I found Dearie at best to be arguably more hip than Allison and a good deal more musically interesting, though I can see where the East Side side of Dearie might be so off-putting to some that they couldn't dig her at all. OTOH, at times Allison's "down-homeness" struck me as at least as arch as Dearie singing "Peel Me a Grape" or "Surry With the Fringe on Top."

Where the hell (in this world, anyway) is the "there" (or "general bag") to which one would go to get both Mose Allison and Blossom Dearie to show up at the same time? The Land of the Arch and the Wink. And the Coy.

IMO, Mose Allison is a stretch. (Would like to have Baraka's take on that one.) Were she still alive, in that general bag I would have preferred Blossom Dearie, if one has to go there. On the other hand, looking a list of all the NEA Jazz Masters from 1982 until now, who among the still living is worthy? But then among those honored one year was jazz immortal Luther Henderson. Next up, Sammy Nestico. As for advocacy and the like, hasn't Jamey Abersold has had more of an impact on the music than Lorraine Gordon? And what of Cuscuna? Quite a track record there. http://www.nea.gov/honors/jazz/jmCMS/JMalpha.php

Yes, Marc Copland played alto and tenor in the D.C. area in the '70s, under the name Marc Cohen. Don't know about the reasons for the name change (perhaps there was another player around of the same name?), but the switch to piano was pretty remarkable, because Copland has become a pretty amazing keyboard executant. Copland interview, where he talks about the switch to piano: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=17196

BTW, I vaguely recall an ancient Village Voice piece by Stanley Crouch at his most obnoxious in which he wondered why Art Farmer was using this unswinging, un-balls-y pianist (IIRC, Crouch came close to saying limp-wristed, but I didn't pick up on the allusion at the time because I didn't then know that Hersch was gay) when there were so many deserving African-American pianists around. Crouch may even have cast aspersions on Farmer himself for his choice of Hersch, implying that that Art was trying to cover his "white" flank, a la his previous use of Jim Hall. Can anyone link to this piece, if indeed I'm not imagining it?

Reading the Blindfold Test alongside the interview helps to bring things into focus for me. Ego? I'd say, perhaps instead, defensive certainty. OTOH, his opinions are at least based in genuine musical issues, and this gives one something to respond to/think about at the least. It's not like you have to agree with him in any or every case. Besides, these are more or less "what's your opinion?" situations. It's not like he's walking down the street carrying a dis Horace Silver sign or calling up people at random to raise doubts about Bill Evans. BTW, a slightly Hersch-like dig at the man himself. A veteran NY-based jazz musician I know, referring to the care that Hersch takes in the studio on his own dates in particular, once told me that "Fred isn't the best pianist in town, but he does make some of the best records." Also BTW, I wonder what Hersch's take would be on Marc Copland. Not a pianist that all here would like, and at times I myself find him a tad too romantic (for want of a better term), but it seems to me that he and Hersch are quite comparable figures and that Copland at best has a real "schwung" to his playing that the arguably too-careful Hersch typically lacks. Finally, FWIW, my favorite Hersch recording is his solo Rodgers and Hammerstein album -- a real melding of minds. His Monk, not so much.

What does this mean? It's turned down so low, when it's used at all, that all it does is give a slight fuzz to his tone. One hardly notices it.

Thanks to Marc Meyers for recommending this one (which combines two '60s LPs) on his blog: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000000ZF0/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00 Stitt is in very relaxed and inventive form, backed by rhythm sections led by Jack McDuff or Gene Ludwig (with Pat Martino on the Ludwig tracks). Stitt used the Varitone on the Ludwig date but not so as you'd know it.

Ordered the Hamp box (even though I have the RCA box on LP), the Benedetti -- the latter long overdue for me -- and, in a weak moment, the first of the two Helen Merrills. The Braff I didn't like back then (just an uncomfortable date IMO, and I love Ruby; he may have found the Berigan-tribute premise a bit off-putting, and Nat Pierce's neo-Basie comping is a drag at times). Have the Farmer, which is very nice; have the Slide Hampton, which I don't much like (Lateef doubters like Allen Lowe will find their doubts confirmed here); have the Zeitlin, which is great if you care for him; have much of the Cohn,Newman, Greene stuff on various RCA CDs and LPs; have Blakey's "Hard Bop," Duke's "Cosmic Scene"; also have a nice collection of etchings in my attic.

He's an LAPD homicide detective.

In Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, Harry often listens to Art Pepper and Frank Morgan recordings.

I think you could have come up with the same answer via a little judicious research yesterday. No doubt. But I preferred to talk to a vastly experienced professional in the field whom I knew personally and therefore, because of his track record, felt I could trust, rather than take the word of authorities I don't know. Of course, one often is in the latter position of necessity, but this time I was not and decided I should take advantage of that fact. No doubt you could have Googled the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for pedophilia. It's not exactly unavailable on the web. If you have never really dealt with the fallout from adults who prey on children for sex, then I apologize. But I think the ages of Sandusky's victims kind of spells things out. (8, 10, etc.) Yes, but as I said, I preferred to talk to a real person in the field whom I knew and trusted and who also could respond to any questions I might want to ask. Further, while the iterations of the DSM over the years all strive to be "scientific," in some areas they also are or can be "political" (i.e. responsive to various societal pressures), and I wanted to talk to someone whom I thought would tell me the truth as he saw it regardless of whose nose might be put out of joint, my own included.

I think you could have come up with the same answer via a little judicious research yesterday. No doubt. But I preferred to talk to a vastly experienced professional in the field whom I knew personally and therefore, because of his track record, felt I could trust, rather than take the word of authorities I don't know. Of course, one often is in the latter position of necessity, but this time I was not and decided I should take advantage of that fact.