Larry Kart

I'm at page 201. Lots of old friends, but my favorite so far (and not only, I think, because it was new to me) is the 1962 Hot Lips Page piece. Seems to me that it encapsulates with special strength (as do "Lester Leaps In" and "Paul Desmond" to come, of the ones that I recall right now) one of the "secrets" (if that's to way to put it) of Dan's character and thus of his relationship to the music -- the width and depth of his empathy with the width and depth of what's really going on, which in turn can lead to the same thing flowing back, wide and deep, from the music and the players to him ... and back and forth and on and on.

"Does he see you when you're sleeping?" That's along the line of what struck me as funny, but I might have been thinking of an ad for (or the title of) a '50s William Castle horror movie or the rhythm and sound of an ad that used to be on Chicago radio all the time in the '60s -- "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday ... at U.S. 30 Dragstrip" etc.

To answer your question, while I didn't hear DeFracno the last time he was in town, about a year ago, a friend whose opinion I respect did hear him and said that Buddy was in fine form. My sense is that a lot depends on who he's playing with and what the overall concept is. A good rhythm section with Buddy calling the shots as far as repertoire and you should be more than OK; on the other hand, I didn't much care for the band he had with Terry Gibbs (though the players were fine) because it pushed Buddy into a neo-Benny Goodman role.

No disrespect intended to DeFranco (I'm a fan) or to Tel-Aviv (I'm Jewish), but there's something about the rhythm/sound combo of the phrase "Buddy DeFranco is coming to Tel-Aviv" that just cracked me up.

"Been reading Ralph Ellison's writings about jazz recently and it seems he's the main critical inspiration for some of the philosophical bent of Murray, Crouch and Co. especially in Ellison's story about Bird and his relation to modernism, audience and aesthetics..." Well, yes -- up to a point. But Ellison did write a great novel, compared to which Murray whittled some useful sticks and then cancelled that out times two, while Crouch has all the "philosophical bent" of a sack of shit.

Another classy Chicago tenorman, Eddie Johnson, whose only album AFAIK, "Indian Summer," was recorded by Chuck Nessa in 1981, when Johnson was 60.

Hi Ghost -- Met your brother. Signing went well, or at least that's what they told me -- sold about 10 or 12 copies, which they said was good (at least on a lousy weather day). Most important for me, it was pleasant in simple human terms -- someone nice to talk to as long as it lasted (about 2 1/2 hours), including two older gents who hadn't come for the signing but bought copies of the book after leafing through it. One of them turned out to have moved three weeks ago from Chicago to Whitehall, Mi., where Chuck and Ann live. This guy, in his mid-70s it seemed, had some great stories about gigs at South Side Chicago clubs like the Crown Propeller Lounge, including one where both Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff were on the bill, and they played at each other for part of the evening from opposite sides of the room.

I'm impressed by Christophe Schweizer -- as a player and, especially, as a composer, though in his case it's hard to separate those things.

Correction: On that defective Shaw CD on Prism, the vocal with the striking arrangement (the coda in particular) is "He's Funny That Way." It's sort of Gil Evans-ish in the way that there's little or no sense of sections, just a shifting cloud of sound, with Jimmy Raney dancing in and out of view and the pulse almost obliterated by a "Jeux"-like hovering, but I'm sure it's not Evans; the fingerprint is different.

I have an apparently O.O.P. CD (copyright 1987) on the cheapo English Prism label of radio transcriptions (not airchecks) by Artie Shaw's superb 1949 band -- the one with Don Fagerquist, a sax section of Herbie Steward, Frank Socolow (altos) Al Cohn, Zoot Sims (Tenors), Danny Bank (bari), Jimmy Raney on guitar, and charts by Geroge Russell, Johnny Mandel et al. Sound was fine, and several pieces, including a mindboggling setting for pure-toned vocalist Pat Lockwood of "You Do Something To Me" (arranger unidentified -- no liner notes at all), were not recorded commercially by the band ASFAIK. Played it once, everything went OK; next time several tracks wouldn't play at all, and others skipped and jumped. Damn.

Thomas' name came up as one of the lyrical Swing Era players that Fruscella and Don Joseph might have liked and been affected by. There's no "controversy," I think, because his work on that Hawkins album, tasty though it is, doesn't compare to the recordings he made in his 1944-46 prime for Keynote and H.R.S. Check out his solos on "Russian Lullaby" with the Red Norvo Septet and "She Didn't Say Yes" with his own band (both Keynote) or his exchanges with Johnny Hodges on "Sumpin' Jumpin' Round Here" with Sandy Williams' Big Eight (H.R.S.) for example.

Hi Jim -- Just read the thread. Some very good people gather here, and one of the main reasons they do is that they know right off that you're a very good person. I hope (and, having read it all in one gulp, somehow believe) that you and Allison will come out the other side of this.

I bought "Handyland U.S.A." way back when (haven't had it for years -- think Leon Levitt got it when he paid me a very creepy visit some 25 years ago) and agree with Chuck. There's something (or several somethings) about that date that aren't what they should be. As I recall: The pieces are too short, three minutes or so, for what is essentially a blowing date and a bit cutesy at times; Eager, one of the two soloists most of us would be most eager (sorry) to hear sounds a bit thick-fingered and thick-headed, like he's got a bad cold or hasn't been playing steadily enough (Eager admirers will still want to hear him on this though), while Schildkraut (the other main attraction IMO) seems, like most everyone else, to be a bit detached from the proceedings. Sound is not quite right too and might have contributed a great deal to this feeling; it's like they're in a big hall (Webster Hall, probably--normally a fine place to record I believe), but the engineer got too much of an empty big hall sound (this doesn't help Art Mardigan ins particular). The soloist who comes off best, I recall, was Ernie Royal.

I have a not-in-great-shape copy of the "Showboat" LP. It's very commercial in intent -- a bit along the lines of Enoch Light's Command label ping-pong stereo stuff -- and in the liner notes Teo Macero says "We hope you will find the sounds in this album pleasing, modern -- but not too modern!" etc. Also, Macero explains that the project was, from our point of view, more less screwed up by him, or by others at Columbia. Barry Galbraith had a multiple-guitar rehersal band and asked Carisi for some arrangements. Carisi came up with a five-guitar setting of "Israel," liked what he heard when he heard Galbraith and friends play it and approached Columbia with the idea of doing an album of originals with that instrumentation, plus horn soloists and rhythm. Columbia (perhaps that was Macero) said "OK, but lets forget about the originals and use the music from 'Show Boat.'" That said, the album has its moments -- a tasty Carisi theme statement and solo on "Nobody Else But Me" and a track or two where Carisi has written out Lester Young-ish "solos" for the guitar choir, which they play with considerable elan (in addition to Galbraith, the "choir" includes Jimmy Raney).

Don't recall whether it's come up before on this thread, but Coleman Hawkins loved Costa's playing (according to D. Morgenstern). Wish there were more evidence of Costa and Hawkins together. All I know is those two old Crown LPs with Thad Jones. Are they on CD? That material sure could do with a decent remastering, especially since Crown pressings were vile, but if they're now on Fresh Sound (which seems a good bet), they'll probably be dubbed from the LPs.

Don't doubt that there are plenty of good scenes and good youngish players elsewhere; I mentioned Chicago (while making an arguably self-serving point) because that's where I live, and it's the scene I can partake of whenever I decide to leave the house, so I've gathered a fair amount of follow-your-own-nose info on it. On the other hand, I would be surprised if the communal vigor of the current Chicago scene wasn't something special -- from the communal vigor point of view, it reminds me (minus the presence so far of such immediately/lastingly towering figures as Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, etc.) of the early days of the AACM. Can't comment on Down Beat's "Chicago bias" because I don't see the magazine very often. Of course, Chicago is the mag's home town, and one of its prominent contributors, John Corbett, has played a producer/promoter role over the years in the Vandermark-plus-lots-of-European-visitors scene that sort of flowed into the one I'm talking about (Rempis, Bishop et al. have been Vandermark sidemen). FWIW, Vandermark does nada for me.

Sorry -- I meant to say that Richter's Schubert should be heard, because if he is for you, you can't live WITHOUT him. From what I'd been told about Pollini's Schubert, I thought I'd hate it/be bored by it. But while there are times when it seems a bit like he's delivering an essay about Schubert, it sure doesn't strike me as a boring one.

Don't assume that because I'm from "that generation" I've got a grudge against youngish players. Yes, the whole Wyntonian Era left me cold, or even (to be honest) indignant, but right around town (i.e. Chicago) right now there are a lot of interesting/promising youngish guys (mid-20s to mid-30s, with a few past that) and a real scene (with places to play) that furthers sharing of ideas, growth and individuality. Some names: altoist Aram Shelton, cornetist Josh Berman, tenorman Keefe Jackson, drummer Tim Daisy, bassist Anton Hatwich, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, altoist/tenorman Davis Rempis, clarinetist James Falzone, bassist Jason Ajemian, bassist Jason Roebke, trombonist Jeb Bishop, guitarist Jeff Parker, cellist Ken Davis, guitarist Matt Schneider, drummer Frank Rosaly et al. And most of those players are also composers and/or they think compositionally. I'm excited.

Heartily endorse Clementine's suggestion to look at Berkshire for Richter's Schubert on Regis. I have three of those discs, and it's deep (sometimes very strange but deep) stuff. He may not turn out to be your taste, but he should be heard, because if he is for you, you can't live with him. Also agree about Kempff -- the definition of ehat the Brits call "po-faced." If you want things without the standard rhetorical gestures underlined, try Pollini, whose choices seem to spring from intense, austure (perhaps a bit puritanical) conviction, but Kempff sounds like he's sightreading on Valium.

Definitely agree about "Modern Art." But then I'm one of those bastards who doesn't care for most everything Evans recorded after the death of LaFaro.

A good example of how a muddled memory of what you were told by someone else can become imbedded in your head as a non-factual fact. Need to watch out for that.

No, That would be "That's Earl Brother" that Ira played, not "Bebop."

They're sideman dates from first-stage Evans, but I think he's in fine form on George Russell's "Jazz Workshop" and "Jazz in the Space Age," and Eddie Costa's "Guys and Dolls Like Vibes."

Chuck, is that the one during which, frustrated with the way Ira was messing around with some New Age-y stuff flute-and-guitar stuff, you testily said, "Play bebop!" -- whereupon Ira literally played that tune?

"Cannonball Takes Charge." I also think he's in very fine form on most of Kenny Dorham's "Blue Spring" (as is Dorham), though that date as a whole is a bit limp and Keepnews-y at times, doesn't have the at once utterly locked-in/mellow/fiery feel of "Takes Charge." "Something Else" does have one of Cannonball's most effective solos ("Autumn Leaves"), and it's a wonderful record, but I think of it as more of a Miles album, even though Cannonball is the nominal leader. In fact, I'd say that Blakey has more to do with the overall feel of "Something Else" than Cannonball does.