Nate Dorward

I had a promo of 80th Birthday Concert for a bit (gave it away to someone on this board, I forget who). It basically seemed to me entirely of a piece with records like The London Concert, So What, & The African Game, to the point of total redundancy--the same pieces, & not really much to choose between versions (though the 80thBD album does have a very odd moment where the band drops into a lengthy uncredited lift from In a Silent Way). Basically everything I've heard from Russell's post-Riverside career has been rather disappointing (though I haven't heard the two Soul Note discs which I gather are OK, nor the disc with Don Cherry from the 1960s). It's also disappointing that his compositional output has dried up to the point where he just seems to tinker with the same half dozen pieces over & over. On the other hand basically all the early work is gold.

Mr B: "blandsville" is just my shorthand for saying it's too syrupy/smooth/easy-listening to my tastes. -- Aha, that is Nabatov. Possibly one of those Klaus Konig discs? I just tried sampling them on AMG but my connection wasn't working. Anyway, pleased to spot Simon because (unlike the two tracks I spotted on disc 1) I don't own the disc!

1: presumably Slim & Slam, no idea who the vibes player is. Hm, I expected to enjoy this a little more than I did--I think I prefer Nat King Cole's version! I've always heard it as "Flat-Fleet Floogie" not "Floozy", though. 2: some realllly fleet bass playing there on a theme that is surely an Ornette tune (though I haven't heard it before I believe). Impressive, not exactly the kind of thing that mvoes me/excites me though. 3: After that interesting offkilter intro I was kind of bummed when the bland soprano sax & synth came in. Fun counting this one (alternating 7 and 8 I believe)....uh, I think I was concentrating too hard on that not the soprano solo! Now there's a smoother interlude for the piano in 6. -- I think that all this goes to say that I enjoy the architecture of the piece more than the actual solos. Slick stuff, though. 4: Blandsville, even if the tenor player isn't whispering sweet nothings all the time. 5: Curious piece in that is takes a latin-jazz context & builds tension via extra-long suspensions rather than climaxes. Can't say that it's the best context for a tuba solo though.... Still, this one kept me guessing!! 6: Yow, quite the cultural collision! Probably it's that Michael White album on Impulse. The voices really, really, don't work. 7: More blandsville.... sorry, not my thing, esp. that ostinato from the guitar pasted over everything. 8: I note a distinct fondness for tracks that open with a bass solo ..... Pop tune with a cute arrangement centred on, yes, multiple basses. This is a rare instance where I prefer the bass solo to the head.... Sounds like it might be some period instruments on the head??? Anyway, if I want jazzy chamber music I'll head to Kent Carter's Intersections...... 9: a nice bad-news opening & an "orchestral" feel here. The pianist sounds like it's probably Simon Nabatov, even though without a solo it's hard to tell (the run at circa 1:30 is very Nabatovian). Interesting track, maybe part of a longer suite? 10: hm... one of those world-music/fusiony things. I guess it just sounds too clean & bright for me, though it certainly kept me guessing (the first bass feature with spacey swells & swirls of accordion in particular, plus the bagpipe feature near the end). 11: Well, no prizes for recognizing the tune! More bass-centric music.... 12: This is one of those "good for what it is tracks" in a mode that I'm basically not interested in. Hm, two electric bassists.... 13: Well this is a familiar track--it's of course the great AM with Jaco &... I forget who the drummer is, is it Mouzon? I have this on the MPS threefer; here's the original album. I think this track is "Zores Mores". What can I say: classic music. 14: Pleasantly mellow but I keep waiting for the players to actually do something other than flipflop between two chords.... It's only when the bass clarinettist steps outside of the key after the 3 minute mark that anything leaps out at me. I take it that multiple-bass combos are a theme of this BFT... 15: They're definitely pushing it by saying they're "the finest band in town" (one wonders how many actual musicians rather than sequencers participated anyway), but this cheesy mangling of rhythm changes at least made me smile. 16: And a merry Xmas to you! -- Nice to hear an imaginatively reharmonized version of this, usually one of the dullest of Xmas tunes.

Hey, Barry's great! But I don't think I'd call him a "jazz bassist", really. Was impressed by a recent Nick Stephens record I heard. Hey, any good words for Dave Green? Peter Ind?

Bleeeah, I can't believe I didn't recognize Tchicai's voice! Ah well.

Yep--one of the best!

No, it's simply that I found the track entertaining! Yeah, I should have thought twice about calling this "Arabic" in its influence! My favourite album of the ones I've heard is the solo disc Canvas in Quiet which is mostly Corsican in inspiration... a little like some of the folksong material on Ran Blake's Compleat vol 2.... -- If you like YY, check out the Dutch pianist Michiel Braam, who is a YY fan (you can hear the influence quite strongly at times on his trio album Colors).

1: 2: CC, & surely you picked this because of her wry tip of the hat to Mr OP! Track 9 here. Not my favourite CC Atlantic (that's the Gershwin) but she's one of my favourite vocalists of the period. I find this album a little cluttered (the extra percussion, vibes, two horns, the cute Sharon arrangements) but there's still plenty of choice CC on it (isn't this the one with "Moon Ray"? Sublime!). 3: Nice updating of this cheesy chestnut to a Bo Diddley kind of rhythm! I love the exchanges between the guitar & piano there, plenty of gusto to the pianist's comping! No idea who this is. 4: Lovely baritone/bass waltz, doesn't strike a lot of sparks maybe but I liked hearing it. 5: OK rhythm changes tune. The irritating sound/balance on the drums & bass dates this one. No idea who it is, though I probably should. 6: Well, another one I know well--YY's trio with Lovano guesting. They did a few albums together but if memory serves it's the titel track off this one. I loved YY's playing the moment I heard his album with Bennie Wallace, which I sampled on my own BFT a few years back--he's sort of Japan's answer to Don Pullen. I think it's criminal that Verve keeps letting this guy's albums drop out of print, & really they put little effort into promoting them in North America. One of the interesting characteristics of his music is that it's got a "Spanish tinge" and also an interest in Arabic musics--this track is a good example. 7: Pedalpoint Shorter/Hancock waltz, sounds nice but not really my thing. Give me jittery ol' YY any day. 8: Handsome tune based on "Cherokee" with a little Hampton vocalizing at the vibes. I enjoyed it. 9: Doesn't quite gel, but I mostly liked this one anyway. Odd track. Was this a regular band? 10: Hm..... violinist & bassist with a very contemporary rhythm track. Enjoyable. 11: Guitar used as percussion--nice. The kind of track I can appreciate--with all the spotlit breakneck stoptime stuff--even if it's not really my thing, & all the tapping does go on a little too long.... I suppose it could be Uwe Kropinski, judging from the one time I saw him live with Doppelmoppel. 12: Sounds like a jazz standard I should know but can't place it. I dunno, this is an accomplished track which does exactly what I expect it to--in particular the way the pianist opens the solo, & the habit of plunking the same note in a teasing/playful fashion, is a bit overfamiliar. Can't say who it is, my ability to distinguish between the many post-Evans/Jarrett piano trios is not finely honed. 13: Minor-key blues with a trombonist with a few quirky multiphonics things going on, & frazzly alto saxophonist. & for once a pianist who really keeps surprising... some real out-of-nowhere phrases in that solo! No idea who it is, but excellent stuff. I definitely don't know the pianist as he's pretty distinctive. Is the bassist the leader? A little surprised at the ordering of solos, though I suppose it could be that way because the bass leads more naturally back to the head. 14: Hm.... interesting. The soprano sax began in John Surman territory but towards the end of the solo there are a few phrases that are hallmarks of Marty Ehrlich, so I'll go with Ehrlich.... though I hadn't previously thought of them as players who could be confused for one another!! (I guess the link is that both are players with an interest in bringing a certain folk-music quality to jazz.) No idea who the guitarist is. The track is good if not especially memorable. 15: An attractive signoff. I'm guessing they're trying for an African flavour here?

As a great intro I'd recommend Trio and Duet on Sackville. Limited edition but was still in print last time I checked.

Got it--thanks! --N

No: my point was actually nearly the reverse: I find trivial nods to the avant-garde by basically mainstream players irritating.

Yeah, & I hate it when he goes "avant-garde" & brings out a kid's raygun or something for one track on an album. I think he's a player that maybe I get irritated with because he's everywhere, to the point where I'm guaranteed that at least one CD per month I receive for review has Matt Wilson on it.

These are classics: Decent but unremarkable: (Barry & Kessler really don't hook up in the rhythm section, too!) This one is one of the best of Braxton's standards projects--which is to say it's problematic but very interesting:

Just received Miller's new collection of interviews, reviews & articles from Mercury Press, & have been reading it off & on all day. It's a great book, & I'd recommend it to anyone who likes well-turned prose & shrewd judgments about jazz, from a writer whose interests range widely (it covers everything from the ODJB to Derek Bailey), whose expertise in the Canadian jazz scene was formidable but never uncritical or boosterish (non-Canadian readers will learn about figures like Freddie Stone & Paul Plimley from the book), & whose only bete noire was the repackaging of jazz as a slick commodity or nostalgia trip. The book, perhaps unfortunately, leaves out most of his negative reviews--the only one I've found so far is a review of a Wynton Marsalis concert which analyses it as the musical equivalent of a corporate boardroom meeting--but given that it's a very selective gathering of material (184pp for 26 years' work) it was certainly the right decision to keep to the highpoints rather than the lows. Some nonCanadian readers will have seen a few pieces from Coda, but the majority of the pieces are from the Globe and Mail so I imagine they'll be news to nonCanadian readers. There's also a lengthy 1980s piece on/interview with Cecil Taylor which only appeared in Banff Letters. The book is published simultaneously with David Lee's The Battle of the Five Spot, an account of Ornette's debut (a glance at it suggest it's heavy on the Bourdieu)--haven't yet dived into that one.

Bennink can play just about anything he touches (you heard him play banjo?).

Those are the worst. My least favourite Halloween treat, only marginally better than those horrible cinnamon hearts from Valentine's Day.

Sure, sign me up.

Saw them in Toronto. Gravatt's great, Tyner still playing well despite looking very gaunt; Moffett was a horrible showboat, & the extra horns were pointless. I was still glad to see it just to see Gravatt & Tyner.

Incidentally Michiel Braam has recorded a fine album in tribute to Nordine's also called Colors. No direct relation between the albums except the track titles. (Apparently Braam had the poet/vocalist Jaap Blonk do the vocals on the original project, but the CD is just a piano trio.)

Cadence is $17, DMG $16...... no idea where you can find them cheaper! Verge is $19 Canadian.

Well, in many cases, but I can think of people who have improved not one whit after decades of writing, too! I just remembered that I'd come across Sallis when I was reading a pile of Chester Himes earlier this year (I think he wrote the intro to one of the books). Right, I'll have to check him out. I think (I know this is probably boring the hell out of 99% of readers but anyway) that rather than confusing people with strictures on the passive, it would be more beneficial just to teach it correctly. It's all about point of view and the placing of emphasis, like most issues of syntax: "Joe Blow was born on January 1st, 1970" (passive voice--"born" is the irregular past participle of "to bear") would be the obvious choice for a bio of Joe Blow; "Marie Blow gave birth to Joe Blow on January 1st, 1970" (active voice) would be more appropriate for a bio of the mother. It's simply a way of shifting the emphasis from subject to object, which is actually very important for coherent narration. (For instance: "After the overdose, he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, where he was pronounced dead on arrival." -- two passives, which keep the emphasis on "him". This is far better than "After the overdose, ambulance attendants rushed him to the hospital, but the doctor pronounced him dead on arrival." -- converted to active verbs. We know who performs the tasks associated with these verbs so there's no reason to identify the performers.) Anyway, I'm probably stating the obvious.... but then again given the persistence of strange prescriptions about passives & confusion about identifying them, maybe not. Being able to use them naturally is actually the mark of a fluent speaker/writer, which is why it's a crucial stage in ESL learning.

Nate, can you elaborate? It got a 3 (out or 5) star review in the UK Guardian. Guy Yeah, I saw that--I have no idea why (especially since, as I recall, the actual text of the review by Fordham was positive, just the star rating was ehh). It's one of my favourite releases from this year. What I wrote for STN:

& of course you should have And His Mother Called Him Bill, the Strayhorn farewell, if you haven't already got it.

The duo album in tribute to Jimmy Blanton (Duke + Ray Brown) I remember as being very good. There's a lengthy piece on Ellington's private stash of recordings, with a discography, in a recent issue of Coda -- July/August I believe.

No, not yet! Lately a run of Jim Thompson novels (Killer Inside Me, The Getaway,, &c).