Larry Kart

Did they find his Sophie Tucker and Belle Barth sides?

But he obviously was needed for the session since he appeared under his real name Anthony Sciacca. Tony Scott was under contract with RCA Victor at the time. John Lewis would probably have not bothered with the legal problems involved if he did not want him. I don't get "obviously needed." Lots of guys at that time, when jazz musicians of some prominence had exclusive contracts with labels, appeared under pseudonyms on labels other than the ones they were signed to. Mike Fitzgerald's website has a long list of such e.g. Art Farmer (Kunst Bauer), Jimmy Cleveland (Jimmy O'Heigho), Lee Konitz (Zeke Tolin). All I was saying in any case, is that for me (not a Scott fan) he sounds pretty weak and twiddly here, while Aaron Sachs ("obviously needed"?) is in fine form. The only need here was for an improvising New York-based modern clarinetist who could negotiate some tricky charts. I suppose Sol Yaged or Peanuts Hucko might not have filled the bill. As for John Lewis's role, my guess is that Norman Granz was responsible for Getz's presence, while Schuller chose the bassonist, flute player, and Janet Putnam, though God knows who urged her/let her try to imitate a rhythm guitar. I'd be curious as to who came up with that particular instrumentation. Off the top of my head, I don't recall Lewis ever again using woodwinds that prominently, with the possible exception of "European Windows" (and maybe that was just strings, rhythm, and Ronnie Ross?) Certainly it was writing for brass that Lewis proved to have a special gift for.

Don't know Ursula Rucker, but I do like Geri Allen and, thanks to you, Monday Michuro. On the other hand, MM seems to me to be representative of her own intensely musical self and doesn't strike me as being about not "conquering" things, while if there's some aura of feminine "family warmth" to Allen, the main thing is that she can think and play.

Joe -- I assume that piece is on the new one, which I haven't heard yet. I'm thinking in particular of "Choro Dancado" and "Buleria, Solea Y Rumba" from "Concert in the Garden."

Listened again: Lewis's writing for the three woodwinds (clarinet, flute, and bassoon) sounds very awkward, sour, and muddy to me, especially on "Midsommer," but then that whole piece is pretty limp; by contrast Schuller handles those instruments on the pieces he arranged, ""Django" and "The Queen's Fancy," with professional expertise, though also a bit blandly. The rhythm section does come close to stasis at times, but that mostly seems to be because harpist Janet Putnam is trying to be Freddie Green. J.J. is in very frigid form IMO, as is Getz (who sounds like he might just be stoned out of his gourd). Lucky Thompson is excellent, and so is Aaron Sachs, who probably gets more into the pieces he plays on (in terms of putting them over as pieces) than anyone else.

Bought it when it first came out, always wanted to like it, but that rhythm section on that day was broken. Also, IIRC Tony Scott was far from an asset here. Again IIRC it felt like parts were not fitting together, and I'd bet that John Lewis didn't chose all of those players or the instrumentation either; his writing sounds rather awkward here compared to earlier mixed-ensemble work for J.J. or many later things under his own name for horns and rhythm.

Haven't heard the new one yet, but I cared much less for the last one than for the first two, in part because the sense of pictorial moodiness being in the driver's seat was so strong there. I don't ask this casually, carelessly, or provocatively. But... ...to what extent could this "sense of pictorial moodiness" perhaps, perhaps, be a distintively "feminine" - a "modernly" feminie - approach to the music? And, is it possible that we're seeing a new "perspective" emerge from some female jazz musicians where trying to do it/prove that they are "just as good as the men" is no longer a motivator? I know it's a loaded question, but still I wonder. I hear what you're referring to in both Mitchell's & Schneider's music, but it strikes me as being less, for lack of a better term, "easy" than it seems to strike you. And I really do think that the "guy thing", that repeated climbing of the mountains just to prove that you can climb them combined with the veni, vidi, vici thing of surveying the land from above once you have, is, if not exactly played out entirely, desperately in need of some tempering at this point in time. And not just in music... A little "travelling around", paying attention, and allowing one's self to be affected by what one sees instead of instinctively trying to "conquer" it ain't always a bad thing, ya' know what I'm saying? Jim -- I think that the real musical preferences/habits/what have you that we've both been talking about here, and that terms like "pictorial" seem to fit up to a certain point, begin to break down when you push the metaphorical aspect just that much further with "repeated climbing of mountains just to prove that you can climb them" (masculine) versus "a little 'travelling around,' paying attention, and allowing one's self to be affected by what one sees" (feminine). That is, while I recognize music that kind of fits the former description, the latter seems rather vague (though unobjectionable) to me and I'd be hard pressed to think of any particular music that fits it. Is, say, Monk's music "paying attention and allowing itself to be affected by what it sees"? And what in this scheme would "travelling around" be? Ingesting and reshaping more or less pre-existing musical flavors from other lands or cultures? Schneider certainly does a good deal of that, but her taste for Latin gestures seems rather auto-pilot-like to me.

Haven't heard the new one yet, but I cared much less for the last one than for the first two, in part because the sense of pictorial moodiness being in the driver's seat was so strong there.

Picked up this compilation of two 1968-9 Atlantic albums for a song at Half-Price Books, opened it up and was a bit distressed to discover that these were seemingly very commercial Joel Dorn-produced dates -- two Beatles' covers, lotsa funk rhythms, strings sections etc. Actual listening dispelled much or all doubt, however -- Fathead is in fabulous passionate form throughout, the arguably commercial gestures seem to stimulate him further most of the time (that the funky drummers are Bernard Purdie or Bruno Carr certainly helps), there's some really tasty keyboard work from Joe Zawinul, and, for those who care, some lovely oboe playing by George Marge on "The Children of Abraham" (I mention this because it is lovely playing and also because Marge is misidentified as a member of the string section in the personnel listing). Maybe I'm nuts, but in some ways this music moved me more than any of the fine recent Fathead Highnote albums I've heard -- I think because there's a hard to define edge of hope to his playing here -- hope that he's about to make it big commercially while still remaining himself. That it didn't quite happen we know, but there's something about the way Fathead plays the bejesus out "Yesterday" and "And I Love Her" that's at once anomolous and thrilling, as though he doesn't know that he shouldn't be lavishing so much soul and zest on two Beatles covers. And, in that pocket of time, he was right to care that much in that way. At one point, listening to Fathead, I could imagine Bird playing those pieces more or less that way.

This actually answers a follow up question I thought about asking. I interpret the above to mean that you respect her flute playing and may be willing to hear her in other settings such as in Frequency with Edward Wilkerson Jr. or as a sideperson, but her conception for her own music, i.e. the Black Earth Ensemble, does not entirely move you? Exactly.

I was going to say Mingus, but I'm not sure about that for several reasons. First, that side of Mingus is pretty heavily indebted at times to Ellington's example. Second, Mingus's use of/susceptibility to mood or moodiness, while often quite dramatic, dosn't often seem programmatic to me; rather, it's as though the drama element is often quite personal, even dreamlike. There is no external "key" or point of reference, other than the sometimes Ellingtonian sensuous lushness; Mingus is dreaming up his own dramas. Bob Graettinger?

OK Mark -- To exaggerate a good bit, if you're writing some music that's meant to accompany images of Snidely Whiplash behaving like Snidely Whiplash or a lush tropical paradise being all lush and tropical, you're probably going to be drawing on a more or less agreed upon stock of sounds that suggest such things, which usually doesn't lead to or allow much room for significant musical invention. I'm not saying that Mitchell's music is all that way or that simplistic, but as tasty as her ear is and as technically gifted as her flute playing is, for my taste I hear too much upfront programmatic thinking in her music. YMMV.

By "travelogue-ish" I mean that the music often strikes me as overtly pictorial/illustrative in mood, like the soundtrack for a travelogue, and not as concerned with what might be called "language principles" as I would wish. That is, if one's goals are dramatic/illustrative and the "plot" elements/what is to be illustrated are more or less pre-determined, then you'll be making musical choices more on the basis of what will tell on those fronts, which however tasty your ear might be will often be stuff that you and your audience already know/recognize/associate with the moods involved. For an Ellington, of course, a whiff or more than a whiff of the programmatic/illustrative often drove him to the compositional heights, but in my experience that's uncommon among composers (Berlioz might be another one of those). I guess the difference is that with those two the presence of external drama/program fired their musical imaginations as much or more than anything else. But IMO that's a rare thing.

Based on what I've heard, right where it should be. She's certainly OK but a bit travelogue-ish for my tastes.

Indeed. The Golson is so good. FWIW -- as an example of how time passes -- I reviewed "Sonny's Dream" for Down Beat back in '68 or '69.

Zero to sixty in no seconds -- he must have been in the mood before he was in the mood.

Drewes fascinates me -- rhythmically, harmonically, you name it. Lots of things with bassist Steve LaSpina as leader, mostly on Steeplechase, all worthwhile; that's probably the representative core of what's available of Drewes, plus I beleive he's on at least one Dave Ballou date on Steeplechase. To be tracked down at at all costs if possible, though it's surely OOP, is an early '90s quartet album on I think Triloka titled IIRC "Double Standard," under Andy LaVerne's name -- versions of standards plus LaVerne contrafacts on the same tunes. As you might imagine, this semi-crazed premise suits Drewes to perfection. One of the odd interesting things about Drewes is that he sounds so much the same on tenor, alto, and soprano that at times it's not easy to tell which horn he's playing. Met him once when the Vanguard Orchestra was in town for a concert. Nice guy. FWIW, Harvey Pekar is a big Drewes fan and has written about him.

You Must Be is Milan Simich, the younger brother of Charles (who dropped the final "h" at some point). IIRC, Milan talked briefly about his background here. I know of him (in addition to what I've gleaned from his posts) as the producer of a tasty 1998 LaMont Johnson disc "242 E. 3rd" (the address of Slug's), with Don Sickler, Howard Johnson, Jimmy Greene, Tim Ries, Lonnie Plaxico, Marcus Baylor, and Dan Sadownick.

Charles Simic, successor to Donald Hall

Always liked (as in "found hallucinatory") Hank's "pools of mercury" solo on "Autumn Leaves" from "Something Else" but suspect that at least a third of its virtues are RVG's doing.

Yes, Mobley wasn't with Miles that long. My point is that during, just before, and within the same year of his time with Miles, Mobley made some of his most striking recordings, while his solo work with Miles usually was far below that standard, for whatever reasons. Some documentation: Kenny Dorham Quintet Kenny Dorham (tp) Hank Mobley (ts) Kenny Drew (p) Paul Chambers (b) Philly Joe Jones (d) Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 15, 1961 tk.2 "Philly" Twist Blue Note BLP 4063 tk.11 Whistle Stop - tk.19 Windmill - tk.20 Sunset - tk.25 Sunrise In Mexico - tk.31 Dorham's Epitaph - tk.34 Buffalo - * Kenny Dorham - Whistle Stop (Blue Note BLP 4063, BST 84063) Miles Davis Quintet Miles Davis (tp) Hank Mobley (ts) Wynton Kelly (p) Paul Chambers (b) Jimmy Cobb (d) Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC, March 7, 1961 CO66235-6 Drang-Dog Columbia CL 1656 CO66236-4 No Blues - * Miles Davis - Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia CL 1656, CS 8456) Miles Davis Quintet With John Coltrane Miles Davis (tp) Hank Mobley (ts) John Coltrane (ts -2) Wynton Kelly (p) Paul Chambers (b) Jimmy Cobb (d) Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC, March 20, 1961 1. CO66500-14 Someday My Prince Will Come Columbia C5X 45000 2. CO66500-15 - Columbia CL 1656 3. CO66501 Old Folks - * Miles Davis - The Columbia Years 1955-1985 (Columbia C5X 45000, C4K 45000) * Miles Davis - Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia CL 1656, CS 8456) Miles Davis Quintet With John Coltrane Miles Davis (tp) Hank Mobley (ts) Wynton Kelly (p) Paul Chambers (b) Jimmy Cobb (d -1) Philly Joe Jones (d -2) Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC, March 21, 1961 1. CO66506 I Thought About You Columbia CL 1656 2. CO66507 Blues, No. 2 Columbia KC2 36278; CBS/Sony (J) 36AP 1409/10 * Miles Davis - Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia CL 1656, CS 8456) * Miles Davis - Circle In The Round (Columbia KC2 36278) * Miles Davis - Circle In The Round (CBS/Sony (J) 36AP 1409/10) Hank Mobley Quintet Hank Mobley (ts) Wynton Kelly (p) Grant Green (g -1/5) Paul Chambers (b) Philly Joe Jones (d) Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, March 26, 1961 1. tk.3 Smokin' Blue Note BLP 4080 2. tk.4 Uh Huh - 3. tk.8 The Best Things In Life Are Free - 4. tk.11 Workout - 5. tk.15 Greasin' Easy - 6. tk.21 Three Coins In A Fountain Blue Note BST 84431, (J) TOCJ 5941/44 * Hank Mobley - Workout (Blue Note BLP 4080, BST 84080, CDP 7 84080-2) * Hank Mobley - Another Workout (Blue Note BST 84431) Miles Davis Quintet Miles Davis (tp) Hank Mobley (ts) Wynton Kelly (p) Paul Chambers (b) Jimmy Cobb (d) "The Blackhawk", San Francisco, CA, 1st set, April 21, 1961 Autumn Leaves (inc.) rejected CO67467 Oleo Columbia CL 1670 CO67461 No Blues Columbia CL 1669 CO67462 Bye Bye (theme) - * Miles Davis In Person, Vol. 2 - Saturday Night At The Blackhawk (Columbia CL 1670, CS 8470, CJ 44425, CK 44425) * Miles Davis In Person, Vol. 1 - Friday Night At The Blackhawk (Columbia CL 1669, CS 8469, CJ 44257, CK 44257) Miles Davis Quintet same personnel "The Blackhawk", San Francisco, CA, 2nd set, April 21, 1961 CO67460 All Of You Columbia CL 1669 Neo (Teo) Mosaic MQ6-220 I Thought About You - CO67459 Bye Bye Blackbird Columbia CL 1669 CO67458 Walkin' - CO67463 Love, I've Found You - * Miles Davis In Person, Vol. 1 - Friday Night At The Blackhawk (Columbia CL 1669, CS 8469, CJ 44257, CK 44257) * Miles Davis - The Complete Blackhawk Sessions (Mosaic MQ6-220) Miles Davis Quintet same personnel "The Blackhawk", San Francisco, CA, 3rd set, April 21, 1961 If I Were A Bell Mosaic MQ6-220 CO67465 Fran-Dance Columbia CL 1670 CO69451 On Green Dolphin Street Columbia CL 1765 Bye Bye (theme) Mosaic MQ6-220 Love, I've Found You Columbia rejected * Miles Davis - The Complete Blackhawk Sessions (Mosaic MQ6-220) * Miles Davis In Person, Vol. 2 - Saturday Night At The Blackhawk (Columbia CL 1670, CS 8470, CJ 44425, CK 44425) * Various Artists - Who's Who In Jazz (Columbia CL 1765, CS 8565) Miles Davis Quintet same personnel "The Blackhawk", San Francisco, CA, 1st set, April 22, 1961 CO67468 If I Were A Bell Columbia CL 1670 CO67466 So What - No Blues - * Miles Davis In Person, Vol. 2 - Saturday Night At The Blackhawk (Columbia CL 1670, CS 8470, CJ 44425, CK 44425) Miles Davis Quintet same personnel "The Blackhawk", San Francisco, CA, 2nd set, April 22, 1961 On Green Dolphin Street Mosaic MQ6-220 Walkin' - Miles Davis Quintet same personnel "The Blackhawk", San Francisco, CA, 3rd set, April 22, 1961 Autumn Leaves Mosaic MQ6-220 CO67469 Teo (Neo) Columbia CL 1670 Two Bass Hit Mosaic MQ6-220 Bye Bye (theme) - Love, I've Found You - * Miles Davis - The Complete Blackhawk Sessions (Mosaic MQ6-220) * Miles Davis In Person, Vol. 2 - Saturday Night At The Blackhawk (Columbia CL 1670, CS 8470, CJ 44425, CK 44425) Miles Davis Quintet same personnel "The Blackhawk", San Francisco, CA, 4th set, April 22, 1961 I Thought About You Mosaic MQ6-220 Someday My Prince Will Come - Softly As In A Morning Sunrise - Bye Bye (theme) (inc.) Columbia rejected * Miles Davis - The Complete Blackhawk Sessions (Mosaic MQ6-220) Miles Davis Quintet same personnel "The Blackhawk", San Francisco, CA, April 22 or 21, 1961 Autumn Leaves Magnetic (Luxe) MRCD 125 Autumn Leaves (inc.) unissued Two Bass Hit / Bye Bye (theme) Magnetic (Luxe) MRCD 125 I Thought About You - Someday My Prince Will Come - Bye Bye (theme) - * Miles Davis - Transition (Magnetic (Luxe) MRCD 125) Gil Evans Orchestra Miles Davis (tp) Johnny Coles, Bernie Glow, Louis Mucci, Ernie Royal (tp -1) Dick Hixson, Jimmy Knepper, Frank Rehak (tb -1) Paul Ingraham, Robert Swisshelm, Julius Watkins (frh -1) Bill Barber (tu -1) Hank Mobley (ts) Danny Bank, Eddie Caine, Romeo Penque, Jerome Richardson, Bob Tricarico (woodwinds -1) Janet Putman (harp -1) Wynton Kelly (p) Paul Chambers (b) Jimmy Cobb (d) Bobby Rosengarden (per -1) Gil Evans (arr, cond -1) "Carnegie Hall", NYC, May 19, 1961 1. CO69842 So What Columbia CL 1812 2. CO69844 No Blues - 3. CO69845 Oleo - 4. Teo Columbia CL 40609 5. Walkin' - 6. I Thought About You - * Miles Davis At Carnegie Hall (Columbia CL 1812) * Miles Davis - Live Miles: More Music From The Legendary Carnegie Hall Concert (Columbia CL 40609) Hank Mobley Quartet Hank Mobley (ts) Wynton Kelly (p) Paul Chambers (b) Philly Joe Jones (d) Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 5, 1961 tk.2 Gettin' And Jettin' Blue Note BST 84431 tk.8 Out Of Joe's Bag - tk.9 Hank's Other Soul - tk.15 I Should Care - tk.16 Hello, Young Lovers - * Hank Mobley - Another Workout (Blue Note BST 84431) As for Mobley's "identity [being] firmly rooted well before he started playing with Miles in 1961" and "most artists [being] at their best on their own projects playing their chosen repertoire" -- of course to the first (though the Mobley of "Workout" and "Another Workout" is arguably a different and more mature player. As for the second, the younger Mobley was in great form on most everything he recorded with The Jazz Messengers and then with the Horace Silver Quintet.

On the one hand, some of Mobley's greatest records were made when he was with Miles but under his own name on Blue Note or as a sideman for Blue Note. On the other hand, Mobley's solo work as a sideman with Miles as by and large IMO far below the level of his contemporary work on Blue Note -- relatively unfocused/routine, even out right distracted at times. What accounts for the difference, if difference there be? The presence/attitude of Miles, who could be one hell of a jerk when he wanted to be (pissed perhaps that he no longer had the cutting-edge Coltrane in his band but a man whom he stupidly might have thought of as a stylistic retread/placeholder), and the effect of that draft on Mobley, who seems like a man who needed a fair amount of empathy to be at this best. The absence of Alfred Lion? (which may be another way of saying the same thing). Mobley's drug problems and Miles's reaction to them? The presence of Jimmy Cobb? (a nice drummer for sure but not one well-suited to bringing out the best in Mobley). Playing the same tunes night after night? In sum, the Blue Notes tell me that whatever the hell was going on here, there was nothing the hell wrong with Hank Mobley then that he couldn't triumphantly control/overcome when he wasn't in the vicinity of Miles Davis.

In my life so far, a little Hovhaness has gone a long way, but that disc of viola works on OgreOgress is excellent. I also highly recommend this one by composer Maria de Alvera-Fuerzas: http://home.swipnet.se/sonoloco2/Rec/OgreO...ressframes.html

Fine drummer.

Your recommendations have proven reliable for me in the past and when I discovered that I was able to legally download the entire Atavistic disc from Rhapsody for only $.89 (it is all one track), I could not pass. Gave it an initial listen yesterday and it was a very favorable first impression. I ordered the Stund CD 9.9.99 and hope to receive it within the next couple of days. I may also order the hatOLOGY release. Anything in particular you would recommend? I have Farewell To Sweden (Hatology), Burning in Stockholm (Atavistic), and Where Is Spring? (Dragon). If I had to pick one, it would be the last of those, though you can't go wrong with any.