Larry Kart

My longtime (since high school) friend Doug Mitchell has died at age 76. Doug was an excellent jazz drummer, might have been world-class if he had tried to make it as a professional, but other interests took precedence, though he played regularly for most of his adult life. Doug was best known as an editor at the U. of Chicago Press, particularly in the field of sociology. He more or less launched the field of gender studies: https://pressblog.uchicago.edu/2018/11/29/a-notable-retirement-a-reorganization-of-responsibilities-and-two-promotions-a-new-era-at-the-university-of-chicago-press.html

Was listening to some 1928-9 McKinney's Cotton Pickers yesterday, and Jones' trombone solos sounded very fluid and lyrical for the period.

With a band: Will Faber guitar; Joshua Sirotiak tuba; Tommaso Moretti drums.

P.S. Forgot. I enjoyed trumpeter Ben Lamar Gay's set a great deal.

Partial report for Sunday -- darn headache came back again and I had to leave earlier than I'd planned. In the afternoon was torn between two sets on different stages that took place at the same time; tried to heard some of both. Julie Wood's Big Bari Band, with her and Rajiv Halim: both baris sounded fine, but the sound setup couldn't quite handle that much low-register, high-volume playing. Third tune of the set, Horace Silver's "Peace," was the gem. Then trotted over to hear trumpeter Russ Johnson with altoist Greg Ward, drummer Dana Hall and a very over-miked bassist. I love Greg's playing -- agile as hell; he makes so much sense and conveys much warm emotion; Russ is masterly and unique, and Hall's extended solo on one piece was a trip. This band needs to record. Mainstage: Dave Rempis with Jim Baker, Ingebrit Haker Flaten, and Avreeyal Ra. There a level below which Rempis never falls, but on this night he seemed not to be at his best. Can't put my finger on why (headache may have been kicking in). I'm used to wall-rattling intensity from Dave, but it was as though the walls were too far away this time. Camilla Meza -- lightweight Latin pop-jazz from this clear-voiced 34-year-old Chilean vocalist who also plays nice guitar solos. Too lightweight for some, no doubt, but I was pleased. Her properly/clearly miked (after several days of boom-boom-boom) bassist Noam Wiesenberg was a plus. At this point the headache won out.

Sorry -- no report for Saturday. The group I wanted to hear most was the Chicago Trad band Fat Babies because the remarkable Texas-based former Chicagoan Jon Doyle was scheduled to join them for this performance, but Doyle didn't make it for some reason, and the set lacked his solo voice on tenor saxophone and clarinet (the Fat Babies tenorman was rather lame). Later in the day I developed a nasty headache and headed for home before the evening performances. Will try again tomorrow.

Didn't know that. P.S. I hope that Mitchell piece or series of pieces was recorded and will be issued. It was something else. When a musician like that who has done so much hits you with something quite new! I really want to hear it again to experience and think about the writing for the two vocal soloists. Undeniably "modern" but unlike much modern writing for voice, it sounded as organic and graceful as (believe it nor not) Samuel Barber at his best. And again, you could tell from the facial expressions and body language of the two vocal soloists that they loved what they were singing.

Friday night's concert concluded with a Roscoe Mitchell piece (perhaps better, series of pieces) for large ensemble (strings, soprano and baritone vocal soloists, brass, African percussion, three bassists, flautist Nicole Mitchell, etc.) that was quite mind-boggling. In part it was the most overtly classical piece I've heard from Mitchell, and his mastery of writing for strings and voice was exceptional, as were the performers; OTOH the African percussion corps was unleashed at other times with full force. Trumpet work by Hugh Ragin and Fred Berry was exceptional. Would like to know what the text was that the vocalists were singing; they certainly seemed committed. Before this, of the main stage artists, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire again struck me as a cipher (if Akinmusire had stuck around to hear what Hugh Ragin and Fred Berry played, he would have been embarrassed), while I thought young vibist Joel Ross was callow and fidgety (lots of notes, virtually no shapes). What the heck, I wondered, was Ross doing on the main stage when Chicago is home to vibes master Jason Adasiewicz; is it merely because Ross records for Blue Note? Earlier in the evening George Freeman and Billy Branch were a nice warm pairing.

I've got Goldstein's "Bunita Marcus" too. I agree with the reviewer.

Me too. Top notch for sure; I bought mine direct from Goldstein; he may still have a few copies. You can contact him at the university where he teaches, U. of North Carolina IIRC. He also did a great recording of Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. Very nice man.

I've got that one -- don't recall it that well though. I also have more Laderman (there's lots on CD) and further Trimble (not much more on CD) IIRC. I remember thinking that "Lester Trimble" was the perfect name for a somewhat conservative but also individual American classical composer of his vintage.

Here she be. But IIRC the CD with all three was rather pricey so I went for the much cheaper vinyl, which plays just fine. Both the Messiaen and the Boulez seem to me to be terrific performances. Special kudos to Dorati; that piece must have been a beast to conduct, especially right out of the box in 1962 or so. His performance will take the skin off your back.

Speaking of things from the past that speak of the past, I've been listening to (see below). Odd thing is that while I more or less turned my back on this sort or vein of music a year or so later on, as I got into Blakey, Horace Silver, Rollins, Jackie McLean et al., Niehaus' music seems to me to have dated much less than I would have thought. Yes, both his rhythmic and harmonic approach are to a considerable degree quite symmetrical, for want of a better term, but the ensemble writing, the precise execution of that writing, and Niehaus' solo work, are more than merely clever, or so it seems to me. The compactness of most of these pieces adds to the effect -- I'm reminded, switching eras, of the John Kirby Sextet.

Garth -- I wonder if kids who are the age we were in the early '50s now have similar feelings about the inherent "pastness" of survivals of archaic styles and habits in popular culture. Maybe not because such survivals have become few and far between these days; the corporate shapers of popular culture don't tolerate their presence, and we certainly don't have many eccentric creators around like Harold Grey (of "Little Orphan Annie"), who have the clout to keep doing it their way no matter what.

A steady diet of McKenna can be wearing, but in moderate doses I find him quite satisfying/interesting. I'd recommend his duo albums with Buddy DeFranco.

Not that surprising at all. The person doing the "home recording" was Ray Heindorf, music director at Warner Bros. One would think that Heindorf's home would have rather sophisticated recording equipment in place.

Because there was some Percy Dovetonsils in him? (And I like Niehaus.)

Dave McKenna

Some of the performances are a bit dated in style (though still good for the most part) but the version of Thomas Tomkins' stunning madrigal "Fusca, in thy starry eyes" is worth many times the $2 I paid for this vintage two-LP set.

Yes, Nic did lay the wood to Hamelin on r.m.c.r. with much specificity, and it was Hamelin's interpretations of Alkan that he objected to, though similar objections could be raised to many Hamelin performances. I agree with Chuck's Alkan recommendations and also would put in a good word for Jack Gibbons on ASV, Huseyin Sermet on Musique Francaise and Auvidis Valois, and Steven Osborne on Hyperion.

Jus about to give it a spin. A Boulez maven tells me that this is by far the best recording of Le Soleil Des Eaux, and I've heard good things about Dorati's Chronochromie and Les Bander-Log. Just hope the used LP is in decent shape. I just bought a used Odyssey LP of works by Maderna snd Schuller, and the surface noise was louder than the admittedly rather quiet music. When I contacted the bastard third-party seller on Amazon, he said, 'Tough s---; we didn't grade it "like new."'

Very funny http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/marcel_dick.html

If he sweated that much, probably it would have made no difference. See the story above about the boy in the wet white bathing suit, which probably had a mesh inside pouch, but so what?

Looking again at the book, I see I didn't get the Emperor of China story just right. Marcel Dick, violist in the Kolsich Quartet, talking: "[It was Schoenberg 70th birthday celebration] and Schoenberg noticed that a group of his old friends were whispering around in the corner and laughing and smiling, and S. couldn't tolerate that anything should happen in his surroundings that he didn't know about and had no control of. So he said, 'You over there! What's that? What are you laughing at?' Finally, one of them took the courage and -- after so many years they were all grandfathers and what have you, but still hesitantly one of them told him the story of Schermann the graphologist and what he said and that he the said that the man thinks he is the emperor of China.' 'What, what? Well, didn't you tell him that I am?' So this was Schoenberg. Of course he was!"

BTW, don't get the impression that this book is filled with gossip. A series of interviews with members of Schoenberg's circle, it's full of fascinating information. E.g. this from Felix Greissle about Schoenberg's teaching methods: "[Except in performances] he never touched otherwise contemporary music. He talked most about Beethoven, very much about Bach, little about Mozart and Haydn. About Mozart he didn't talk because he found him too complicated, invariably too complicated, because too irregular ... seven measure phrases and so on.... Otto Deutsch adds: "Bach [to him] was a modern composer; Brahms, a progressive composer; Mozart, the most modern of all! He said: 'I am that pupil of Mozart!' -- not one, that -- the only! He said that. I heard it there."