Larry Kart

Jolly said that his inspiration was singer-accordion player Joe Mooney, who was a popular figure in the 1940s. Gunther Schuller raves about Mooney's subtle, in some ways musically quite advanced combo (clarinet, accordion, bass and drums) in "The Swing Era," and there are (or were) two collections on the Hep label of Mooney's '40s work. Mooney's music certainly has its charm, but for me a little goes a long way -- it's a bit on the cocktail-lounge hip side. Also, Enevoldsen doubled on a lot of instruments, tenor sax and bass as well as valve trombone and accordian (though the last I've never heard from him). I wouldn't be surprised if he made a few sides on musical saw.

Correction -- the name is Mat Mathews, not Matthews.

There's some Jolly accordion on the Fresh Sound compilation "Pete Jolly -- Quartet, Quintet, and Sextet." I recall his accordion work as being pleasant and swinging, but based on admittedly limited experience (for one, I've never heard Tommy Gumina) my favorite jazz accordionist is Holland's Mat Matthews, who made at least two albums for Dawn in the 1950s. The one with Art Farmer, Gigi Gryce, Oscar Pettiford, Kenny Clarke et al. is really nice and includes a heroic Pettiford cello solo on his own piece "Now See How You Are."

Konitz from 1957 or so with a string quartet (excellent Bartok-flavored arrangement by Bill Russo): http://www.amazon.com/Lee-Konitz-Meets-Jim...e/dp/B0000046ZG

A raft of interesting Bregman stories from his website: http://www.buddybregman.com/stories.html Some of what he says there confirms that he hardly knew what he was doing as an arranger early on, but it seems pretty likely that that he learned.

I'll check to make sure the "Fable of Mabel" one is the same piece, but if so (which seems more than likely), it also more than likely that "Slam!" is a typo or record producer's ignorance/mishearing.

That's it. And I've got both of them. It was "The Swinging Sounds" version that was in the back of my mind, but it refused to migrate from back to front.

I remember reading one of a series of long autobiographical posts by trombonist Milt Bernhart on the Jazz West Coast list several years ago (BTW, I can't call up that list any more, anyone know why?) in which Bernhart was quite caustic about the rote blandness of Bregman's writing. Bernhart also made it clear that this was not just his opinion; rather, there was consternation throughout the band at what they were expected to play. (I think this was on Bergman's first date with Ella Fitzgerald.) The feeling was that the Jules Styne connection got Bregman his gigs, though what leverage Styne had on Granz I don't know.

BTW, I'm not trying to come on like an Ivory Tower elitist here. I know from experience what it's like to write something honest and would-be clever that is read the next morning by, potentially, 800,000 people, and that sometimes -- by accident (usually of given subject matter) as much as design -- is noticed by a fair number of those potential readers, who then make it quite clear that what you wrote got them het up one way or another. That can be both fun and fairly weird and is at odd times arguably even valuable, but there's no way to talk about jazz since maybe the heyday of Leonard Feather that's even remotely comparable -- and if you're going to talk about it honestly, then your potential audience is even smaller. But it's still fun and (in the eyes of some) necessary to do, and, if you and others value it, valuable.

Not to bore y'all, as EDC might put it, but I don't think of my book is being that lost. It got about seven or eight reviews, maybe more, every one was favorable, and several who wrote about it got exactly what I was trying to say. Also, it got into the hands of a fair number of people here, and their responses were everything I could have wished for. OTOH, I think EDC is talking more about the machinery of exposure/reception, and there he has a point. Dealing with Ratliff and Ross's books seems to be obligatory on the part of many major publications, in part (perhaps mostly) because Ratliff and Ross themselves write for major publications (the best review I got -- most favorable and most insightful -- was from a new name to me at the time, Stephen Schwartz, who wrote it for a classical website whose name I don't recall). But, then, if my book was as nice as I hoped it might be, I still think I came out ahead in the exposure/reception game, because if Ratliff and Ross's books are as empty as some of us think they are, it doesn't matter if they're reviewed all over the place and sell a fair number of copies -- except in terms of money (and I'll bet it won't be that much money for those two authors or their publishers; you'll probably see both books on remainder tables by next year) and the noise level inside the echo chamber in which Ratliff and Ross already exist. But if I've made, say, Jim Sangrey or EDC or -- fill in the blank -- think a thought that they otherwise might not have thought and that they then find interesting/stimulating, what more do I want? It should all be carved in cuneiform on stone tablets and buried in the sacred tomb of Ra?

Indeed, Mr. Ross is in the "tantalizing hints" business.

Unless you forgot to add a smiley face or the like, are you're saying that Walt Whitman wrote science fiction?

LaFaro said in an interview in "The Jazz Review" in 1959 or 1960 that "I don't ... like any of my records except maybe the first one that I did with Pat Moran on Audio Fidelity." Recorded in Dec. 1957, "This Is Pat Moran" (with pianist Moran and drummer Johnny Whited) is now out again, coupled with vocalist Beverly Kelly's Audio Fidelity album with Moran's trio. LaFaro is in quite hellacious form, gets a lot of solo space on the eight trio tracks, and is vividly recorded, too. Pat (full first name no doubt Patricia) Moran was from Cincinnati (as was Kelly). The links below lay out their backgrounds and what they've been up to in recent years. The classically trained Moran's formative influence is said to be Oscar Peterson, but she sounds more like Kenny Drew to me -- albeit rather too cocktail lounge-bluesy, if you know what I mean. On the other hand, Moran has good time, and she and LaFaro and are locked-in rhythmically. Kelly is one of those singers of that era who were poised on the jazz-cabaret edge; the conception is hip (or "hip"), the execution a bit studied. Moran was not conventionally attractive, but for some reason the Ray Avery photo of her on the back of the CD case fascinates me. Perhaps it's because she looks so casually real -- her expression, at once "flat" and alert, looks like she's waiting to come in after the drummer finishes a four- or eight-bar break. http://cdbaby.com/cd/patti http://cdbaby.com/cd/kellyfelber

Tunes whose titles are taken from specific novels or tales is what I had in mind. Thus, the Ornette and McBride recordings wouldn't count, or the Corea pieces or lots of Sun Ra things either.

In particular, does anyone know who wrote/recorded the piece "Slan" (almost certainly named after the A.E. Van Vogt novel)? Also, Shorty Rogers "Martians Come Back" doesn't count.

How lovely that Wynton would turn up bonded to a Pritzker offspring. The gumbo thickens.

The several times I heard her in clubs, that was my impression. Gave me a headache.

My (and Chuck Nessa's) friend Terry Martin wrote never surpassed (IMO) essays about Art Pepper, Coleman Hawkins, Ornette Coleman, and others (plus topnotch reviews) for Jazz Monthly in the early 1960s.

That one is a gem, as I may have eaid earlier in this thread. Max at his best, plus brilliant contributions from Cooke and James, and very good work from Atkins and Morgan. Unfortunately, my copy walked away from me several years ago, damnit.

About this part: "Of course, jazz, which emerged from post-Reconstruction black America, wasn’t like any other art. Its primary promise — which attracted Larkin, among millions of others — was to entertain a paying audience..." A passage from my book: "Obviously there had been a shift in values--in the music and in the society, too. And among those who prefer the orderliness and optimism of older jazz styles to the hectic beauties of bebop, one often hears the complaint that none of this need to have occurred. At one time, so the argument goes, jazz musicians were content to think of themselves as entertainers, not self-conscious artists. If the practitioner of modern jazz wants to please himself and his peers first and the audience second, if at all, he must endure the consequences of this unrealistic, willful act. "The problem with that argument, though, as British saxophonist Bruce Turner says in his whimsically titled autobiography Hot Air, Cool Music, “is that scarcely any jazz musicians are able to recognize this picture of themselves. There are some jazzmen who are great entertainers. Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, and Lionel Hampton come immediately to mind. But they are the exception, not the rule. For the most part those of us who play jazz for a living do not know any way of entertaining an audience other than by making the best music we are capable of…. The ‘jazz is entertainment’ theory is only about money, when you boil it down. Jazz finds itself sponsored by the entertainment industry, and in return the latter feels entitled to demand its pound of flesh. Fair enough, but why in heaven's name confuse the issue? The distinction between what is done for love and what is done for quick cash is an obvious one.” Also, while Larkin was a dickhead about a fair number of things, he never felt that jazz was attractive because its "primary purpose ... was to entertain a paying audience." Yes, he was drawn to the relative unpretentiousness of early jazz versus things that he felt to be self-consciously "artistic," but obviously there was a whole lot of wildly popular, unpretentious, and money-making art that Larkin didn't care for at all. A dickhead, at times, but not an idiot.

Selections from the above on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...p;search=Search

To hear/see Peacock at a youthful, brilliant (though arguably somewhat egomanical) peak, check out this 1962 Jazz Casual broadcast with Shorty Rogers: http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Scene-USA-Shell...y/dp/B00005LDCO

This Bunky Green album on Vanguard, "Places We've Never Been" (with R. Brecker as a sideman) is topnotch for everyone: http://www.mmguide.musicmatch.com/album/al...?ALBUMID=965074 Hell of a rhythm section: Albert Daily, Eddie Gomez (on his best behavior IIRC), and Freddie Waits.

In that interview, Charles's chronology is way off at one point. Benny Goodman's infamous (among bandmembers) tour of Russia took place in 1961, not just before Charles joined Chubby Jackson back in 1949.

Tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin's father was/is a California-based vibes player. Drummer Ben Perowsky recorded an album, "Bop On Pop," with his tenor saxophonist father, Frank Perowsky ( a fine player). On the other hand, pianist Bruce Barth is not related to drummer Benny Barth (of The Mastersounds).