Eric

I am guessing JohnS meant this should be in the artists or new releases category versus album of the week. Anyway, thanks for the info - didn't he play on a Hank Mobley album in the late 60s?

this is a wicked-good early 80s live recording:

Charles Kynard and Hank Marr

I did just that tonight. Lovely!!!

Cool, I will look for it at the office! Congrats!

here ya go (no photo in the online version): For This Jazz Drummer, the Beat Goes On By JOE GOLDBERG January 24, 2006; Page D8 Not many people have been playing the Village Vanguard for almost 50 years. Not many people play the Village Vanguard, the most revered of jazz clubs, at all. And certainly not many people who stay at the top of their field for that long a time approach such a date with a new band and new music. But Paul Motian, who will be 75 on March 25, has done just that. At present, there is a lot of attention being paid to a recording he made at the Vanguard on June 25, 1961, when he played drums in a trio led by the pianist Bill Evans, whom he met when they both worked for the pianist Jerry Wald, and which included the splendid bassist Scott LaFaro, who would be killed only weeks later in a car accident. "Scott LaFaro was incredible," Mr. Motian says. "There are a lot of bass players who play like that now, but they don't get it." That recording, in which each man functioned as an equal rather than as an accompaniment to the leader, forever changed the idea of the piano trio. And Mr. Motian helped expand that concept later, when he joined the American Quartet of the pianist Keith Jarrett, which also included the bassist Charlie Haden and the tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman. As far as the Vanguard is concerned, however, Mr. Motian's memory extends beyond the Evans session to New Year's Eve 1957, when he played the club with the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. But for all his illustrious past -- and there is more -- he keeps his attention firmly fixed on the future. Take his new group, now called the Paul Motian Band. It began life as the Electric Bebop Band, with instrumentation as unusual as its name: two saxophones, two guitars (now three), electric bass and drums. The idea was originally to send up bebop by using young musicians who didn't know the music. "But," Mr. Motian says, "it became serious." Given the prevalence of guitars and saxophones in present-day rock, one would expect loud music. But one would be wrong. Instead, the music is quiet and intricate. Mr. Motian often seems to be in a softness competition with the other players, on many occasions responding on impulse to ideas from the soloist. On the band's ECM CD "Garden of Eden," to be released today, which is also opening night of the band's weeklong Vanguard engagement, Mr. Motian takes only one solo. There are several of his compositions, as well as two by Charles Mingus, including his masterpiece "Pithecanthropus Erectus," one by Thelonious Monk, one by Charlie Parker, and one, "Bill," by Jerome Kern, from "Show Boat." "Kern, Gershwin, Berlin, Richard Rodgers, I love that stuff," Mr. Motian says. "It's great music." "I Have the Room Above Her," a more obscure Kern song from "Show Boat," provides the title to another recent ECM release, a trio recording with guitarist Bill Frisell and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano. By any definition, an all-star group. "A lot of stuff just happened in the studio," Mr. Motian says. "We got it in one take." Each year, the trio plays a two-week engagement at the Vanguard. And though the players have recorded together several times in the past, they have done so only once before as a trio, and that was 20 years ago. Obviously, Mr. Motian is not a man to forget a good idea, nor is he in a particular hurry to get back to it. He is, however, always eager to return to the Vanguard. "These days, it's about the only place I am playing," he says. "I really love the sound there. It's so wonderful. I played Dizzy's Coca-Cola Club [at Jazz at Lincoln Center] and it took me two or three days to adjust. I had to change cymbals." Mr. Motian's retreat from other venues was gradual. He fondly recalls the old days in New York: "I played with Lennie Tristano at the Half Note for 10 weeks. He used a different bass player every week but kept me. In those days we'd do three months at the Hickory House, nine weeks at the Half Note." And with Bill Evans, he practically became the house band at the Vanguard. "We played opposite Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Sonny Rollins, all those people." In those days, he still traveled. "I played with Monk in Boston for a week at Storyville. We came off the stand and I said, 'I think I was rushing.' He said, 'If I hit you upside the head you won't rush.' That got my attention. It was fantastic to work with him. I learned a lot." Mr. Motian went much further afield than that, playing with Arlo Guthrie at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. "When I was eight years old I wanted to be a cowboy. Playing with him was like playing cowboy music." The first thing that began to bother Mr. Motian about traveling was transporting his drums. Getting them on and off planes was expensive, and a hassle. So he began to request a drum setup in the places where he worked, but the results were not always satisfactory. He recalls with admiration the time that Keith Jarrett, at an outdoor venue in Pennsylvania, encountered a piano he did not like. Though it was a Sunday afternoon, Jarrett sent the concert promoters on a search for a replacement. Then, after an acceptable one was found, 2,000 people were kept waiting while it was tuned to Jarrett's satisfaction. Mr. Motian is also aware of the economics of the industry: "A lot of recording studios are closing because people don't use tape anymore, and that's where the recording studios make their money. Everyone comes in with their hard drive, puts it on their computers." These days, Mr. Motian gets up every morning and jogs around the lake at Central Park. He is also a member of two other groups -- Trio 2000+l with bassist Larry Grenadier, and another trio, Tethered Moon, which includes the Japanese pianist Masabumi Kicuchi. He has his memories of Bill Evans ("I really loved that guy, we made such wonderful music together") and of the drummers who influenced him when he first came to New York -- Max Roach, Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey. "What they played was so musical, like a symphony. So much music!" Those drummers of the bebop era began adding accents that commented on the soloists, a practice called "dropping bombs," which expanded until strict time became the function of the bassist. Now Mr. Motian -- while hardly ever raising his instrumental voice -- prods, agrees with or lays down an aural carpet for a soloist, usually without sticks and often on cymbals. He's taken his instrument a long way from the marching bands of New Orleans. Still, as befits a modernist, he keeps his eye on the future. "Music is my whole life. I'm still learning. As long as that's happening, I'm having a ball!" Mr. Goldberg is the author of "Jazz Masters of the Fifties," available in paperback from Da Capo.

I have all three of his CDs and I enjoy them. It has been a while since I listened, so unfortunately I can't give you much on the two others. If I recall, at times he shows an attractive edge to his playing that I wish was present more often. I have never seen him live. Yes, lame.

KCUR 89.3 in KC http://www.kcur.org/ KANU in nearby Lawrence (we get reception in KC) http://kpr.ku.edu/ Both NPR.

What kind of a session is Gleam? Always wondered about it ...

There is an ad in the latest Jazz Times that has the orange and white inverted. In other words, the background is orange and the "lines" are white (as is Hill's name). Much more attractive IMHO. In the RVG ads, I see the are also using a different cover for Tom Cat - perhaps the orignal Japanese cover?

Boy do I feel better now. Can someone help me out here? This is a generational thing, right? I was raised on the concept of home taping. This was something my friends and I did all through high school and college. Want to share some good music with a friend? Make 'em a tape. I don't think there was *any* music that I was exposed to in high school and college (including jazz) that I didn't have *first* on a homemade tape. So then CD burning comes into play. I burn discs for friends, they burn discs for me in exchange. Is this a foreign concept? The idea was always to trade music for music. No one ever profits. If I like something a whole bunch, I'll usually pick it up in a commerical copy. It seems to me that the "ethics" of copying only came in once CD burning became a factor. No one was complaining when we were making dubs onto tape. Why is that? Is it a sound quality thing? Not sure exactly which generation I fall in, but it seems there is a difference between making a burn (copy) of something for a friend to turn them on to something vs making them a burn so they don't have to spend the $$$. I was introduced to jazz by a high school buddy who went to a different college than I did. When he was a freshman, he discovered this wonderful thing called jazz and sent me a couple of cassettes (one was McCoy Tyner and another was Wes Montgomery). In my situation, what could once be viewed as denying McCoy Tyner a royalty lead to a new consumer of his music (and today I own about 30 of his CDs, all paid for by me). I agree that from a hard core perspective, what my buddy did was illegal, but in that context, I have a hard time believing it was wrong. On the other hand, if he and I regularly made copies for each other of new material that came out, I clearly think that is ripping off the artist and the record company.

A couple tracks from Super Blue show up on a recent Columbia (or Sony) FH complilation (CTI material comprises the rest of it).

Here is a review with personnel: http://www.jazzreview.com/cd/review-17433.html

There appears to be a cut from the new Hill record on the "Blue Note Presents 2006 Jazz Sampler" (the cover of which apes "True Blue" by Tina Brooks). There is a 30 second sample of the track "Smooth" on iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore...441&i=113548721

one for now: Are You Experienced? I caught it on the radio once, in the middle of the guitar solo. I didn't know it was Hendrix but thought, man, that is some amazing, cutting edge, fresh stuff. The man could resonate ...

Got mine today (I live in suburban KC). I can see why an earlier poster commented on the skin-like texture of the box. It is slightly creepy. Anyway, glad it arrived and I can't wait to start spinning it!!!

To deal with the Jack Johnson issue you referred to, I created a couple of playlists in iTunes that don't duplicate takes. Makes for some very tasty listening that way. My Cellar Door should be arriving soon

CD Universe lists this as their top seller (today). Interesting. Monk/Coltrane is still no. 3 over at Amazon. That is damn impressive. I would guess there are decent marketing $$$ behind this, but still. I think it showed up at either Pitchfork or Pop Matters as one of their top 2005 records. Hell, Parker/Gillespie is no. 216 at Amazon. Not too shabby. I sincerely hope the folks that buy these (or receive them as gifts) enjoy them. Boy, if you consider yourself an open-minded music lover, I would think these might have a shot. I turned a friend on to Live-Evil a few years ago. He is a Parliament/Funkadelic fan and so L-E was a natural step forward.

How about a hotel room close to the airport the night before?

mine says shipped yesterday (Monday) with Priority Mail, so I am guessing it gets here this week

Yep, I agree that ipodlounge is very good. Sometimes I have just typed my particular ipod issue into Google and am taken to the answer. The Apple help for ipods is decent too. They can be frustrating beasts. I just updated my itunes and ipod software and in doing so, my PC refused to recognize my ipod. Went through a bunch of steps and it started to work again, but I'll be damnned if I can remember which step fixed the problem. Still, the combo of the ipod and itunes is hard to beat ...

Chuck - let me ask RT's question this way - have sales met or exceeded expectations? Hopefully the latter!

I understand this format is free from all security issues ...

I remember they broke into Monday Night Football to announce it. I tracked down a friend I had not spoken to in 5 years (a huge Beatles fan) to share thoughts. Senseless ...

Wow ... hard to believe. I remember it well. Very sad and senseless.