Nate Dorward

Oh, right, Jason Yarde--yeah, I caught one of his freer gigs: the Louis Moholo band at Freedom of the City in 2002. If memory serves it was: Yarde, Moholo, Francine Luce, Veryan Weston & John Edwards. It was a good gig, I thought, & I'm a little surprised that it wasn't released on Emanem's small-groups compilation from that year's festival.

Glad to know Warleigh's was here! I wonder why he records so rarely.... Anyway, just thought I'd say that it's 5 days till this AOTW "officially" begins. Not sure how many people actually have this disc, but it's easily available, & in any case if this thread ends up just loosely discussing Stevens & UK jazz that's OK too. I'll be putting together a report on the disc, though, not least because I have to draft a review for Paris Transatlantic this week so will be spinning it.

The Pettinger bio says that Evans & Coltrane weren't great friends, largely (if I recall) on the strength of Evans' never playing with Coltrane again outside Miles' band with the exception of their appearance as sidemen on a George Russell album.

Tommy Lee cracks the books, uh, sort of Okay, so TV producers made him do it. But the Motley Crue rocker did attend classes and even joined the drum line, albeit with his clothes on and his piercings out, CATHERINE DAWSON MARCH writes By CATHERINE DAWSON MARCH Globe and Mail, Monday, August 15, 2005 Back in 1979, 17-year-old Thomas Lee Bass faced a life-altering decision. There were still two months to go before he could graduate from high school, but his garage band had been offered a recording contract. "Finish school or go make records, tour and rock the world. That wasn't a hard decision for me," says Lee (who dropped his last name when he dropped out of school). "You would not believe how many times I heard, 'You gotta have a diploma. What if this music thing doesn't work out for you, Tommy?' " But Lee told his parents that he was "put on this planet to make music and entertain people." Within a year, he invited them to Motley Crue's sold out concert at Great Western Forum in Los Angeles. "It's, like, 16,000 people in there. I remember the house lights coming on and I could see my parents out there. Both of them had huge smiles on their faces. "For me that was the definitive moment of like, 'Now do you guys get it?' And they got it." And now, it would appear that Lee gets it. Twenty-five years later, his gluttonous appetite for sex, drugs and celebrity sated, it seems he has acquired a taste for higher learning. Last fall, the 42-year-old rock star spent a semester at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He studied American literature, chemistry, horticulture and played drums in the marching band. Was it for real? Not really, but it's fun to watch. Lee went back to school because TV producers asked him to (and Journey's Steve Perry said no). The adventure became a six-part comedy-reality show, but it's more comedy than anything else. Lee was never enrolled at UNL; he just attended classes. He also never lived on campus, despite how his very funny search for a compatible roommate plays out. (How else could Lee get away with a dorm-room makeover that included a huge, flat-screen TV, video games and La-Z-Boys?) Tommy Lee Goes to College premieres tomorrow night on NBC and CTV. If the incongruity of the title doesn't grab you, maybe the rocker-out-of-water concept will. Tommy Lee is one of the baddest boys in rock, playing for one of the most hedonistic metal bands in an era known for its excesses. Motley Crue took off in the eighties and sold more than 40 million albums. Lee played drums, naked much of the time, and when the metalheads weren't on stage, they were backstage downing Jack Daniels, shooting heroin, and having more sex than most men ever dream of. They were even out-partying Ozzy Osbourne; Ozzy dropped the band as his opening act during the 1983 Bark at the Moon tour. For Lee, marriage (to a Penthouse pet for 30 days, Heather Locklear for seven years and Pamela Anderson for three years, until he was jailed for hitting her in 1998, and they have been on and off again ever since) didn't slow him down much. Parenthood (Brandon, born in 1996 and Dylan, born in 1997) just changed the fun (he once gave Brandon a bath in cherry Kool-Aid because it was his favourite drink). Lee is a heaven-sent celebrity for the tabloids. His mother can't stop reading them, and it drives Lee crazy: "She buys all of them and will call me up and say 'Hey, I heard about . . .' And I'm like, 'Mom, you've been buying those . . . magazines again, haven't you? Stop!' " So imagine his mom's relief when she found out he was going back to school, even if it was just to tape a TV show. "She was trippin'," said Lee, on the phone from Utah, where Motley Crue is performing, after a six-year break, as part of their reunion tour. The series begins with Lee giving his mom a kiss and promising to get good grades. (Despite the fact he didn't actually enroll, UNL still graded his work. Lee is tight-lipped about his marks. Even his Mom has to wait for the finale to find out how he did.) He drives up in a shiny red Shelby Cobra and nods, signs autographs and gives the occasional hug to stunned students who can't believe Tommy Lee is on their campus. These scenes are priceless, and likely the only unrehearsed bits of the entire series. There were a few professors who didn't like the idea of Lee, a convicted felon, making a TV show at their school. What kind of an image would Lee bring to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, they asked. They were overruled by the school chancellor; prime-time advertising on a national network was too good to give up. Guess you can't blame the academics for grabbing a piece of Hollywood PR. Lee is doing it too: If you listen, you'll hear him singing in the background. The theme song is taken straight from his just-released album and many of its songs make up the show's soundtrack. Coincidentally, Lee's autobiography was released around the same time he started at UNL. So, in an upcoming episode, watch as Lee's American literature teacher uses Tommyland -- which opens with a dialogue between Lee and his Johnson -- as a class text. Walt Whitman. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tommy Lee. Whatever, Lee dug it. "It was kind of cool to be chilling on that New York Times bestseller list and having people in the class review my writing." Any criticism? "No, everyone actually really enjoyed the style of the book," he said, sounding just a little surprised. At least that was one book that Lee was familiar with. His teacher gives him the gears about catching up with the class and he said he did, eventually, read one of the books he was supposed to: "It was [called] something like Women of the Dunes? Was that the name of the book? When I got there, they just threw all this stuff right in my lap and I was playing serious catch-up. . . . There just wasn't enough time in the day -- you're making a TV show and you're supposed to study at the same time?" Even joining the drum corps proved troublesome, and that's something Lee expected to ace. He used to be part of the drum line in high school, but it's been decades since he had to read sheet music. "When I play drums now, I play by heart and by feel, I just do my thing. . . . It took me a while to refresh my memory on time signatures and note values." Eventually he "rocked it" and learned the routines. "They've got the hot-chick beat, when a hot girl goes walking by we play this really sexy salsa beat, and then we've got the mullet beat, when a guy in a mullet walks by." But there was no way the UNL drum major would let Lee play at their legendary football games until he looked a little more Nebraska, a little less L.A. "They were so serious about your appearance, it was really regimented. I had to take my piercings out and cover up the tattoos. I had tattoos on my hands so I had to wear gloves." A turtleneck covered the lip tattoo on his neck. For a guy who used to play naked, covering up had its appeal: "For a minute there, I got to not be Tommy Lee, I got to just be part of the Nebraska drum line. It was like, no tattoos, I'm just like everyone else."

I assume the Screen Actors Guild membership is because of his (playing) role in Altman's Kansas City.... or has he been in anything else?

Sorry, but I wanted to start this one early given that I'm not sure how many people already own a copy...!

p.s. Warleigh is amazing on Stevens' Chemistry. I believe this was available at one point on a twofer from Konnex, but I'm not sure if it's still in print. In many ways I'd like to replace my LP of this as it's got a really bad case of print-through, which I'd hope the CD remastering might correct......

There's a review of New Cool here-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/jazz/reviews/jo...s_newcool.shtml Oh, right, there were two vols of Bobby Bradford with the SME on Nessa! Any plans to put those out on CD, Chuck? If you weren't interested in doing it yourself I bet Martin Davidson might be interested......

Yes--there aren't too many later Stevens albums: a few with Derek Bailey (Playing, One Time, & that one with Frode Gjerstad), plus the last SME disc A New Distance. All of them excellent (I haven't heard the one with Gjerstad but have all the rest). Stevens died in 1994. He was a major driving force in UK jazz, mentor to an incredible number of notable musicians. His bands at various points included Trevor Watts, Derek Bailey, Allan Holdsworth, Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, Ray Warleigh (great, underrated player--most people here will at least know him through his work with Nick Drake), Evan Parker, Courtney Pine.... There was I think more than one disc with Bobby Bradford but the one akanalog has in mind is Love's Dream on Emanem. I haven't heard it yet, but am told it's excellent.

Then you haven't heard Iskra^3 or The Grass Is Greener...... But aside from those two, yes, everything I've heard on the label has been A-1.

Just a heads-up to say that I've put forward John Stevens' New Cool in the Album of the Week forum--link here. Just in case people here wanted to pitch in (I know that the AOTW forum is sometimes a bit of a backwater on this site).

I'd like to see this picture again soon. I just read a bio of the director, Howard Hawks. Apparently, Krupa came up with that routine on the set and Hawks decided to include it in the movie. Hawks was famous for encouraging actors to improvise and for tailoring roles to the actors as the film was being shot. Kinda "jazzy." ← Oh, the Todd McCarthy bio? Yes, been poking around in that a bit: very interesting to learn a bit about his methodology. -- Incidentally, which was shot first, The Lady Eve or Ball of Fire? There are a couple of bits in Ball of Fire which seem to glance off the Sturges film (in particular a memorable bit of dialogue involving apples).

I was thinking a while about what to pick for the AOTW. So many of my favourite albums are either such obvious choices that I didn't see the point in devoting a new thread to them, or else were too obscure or were out of print. My initial thought was something by Mary Lou Williams, in part as a spur to myself to pick up Zoning (as I was hanging out this past week with Zita Carno who plays on a few duets on that album). But I still don't have a copy of that one, & while I could name another Williams disc in my collection, I got to thinking about other things. I've instead decided to go with John Stevens' New Cool, from 1992. This was issued on bassist Danny Thompson's The Jazz Label, which seems to have died out as a going venture though I think copies are still floating around. But it has in any case been reissued this year by Emanem, with a bonus track to boot. John Stevens, drums Byron Wallen, trumpet, fluegelhorn Ed Jones, soprano and tenor saxes Gary Crosby, bass I thought this disc would be a good pick because: (1) it's easily available from most distributors of small jazz labels like DMG, Verge, Cadence, &c; (2) it's terrific music; (3) it would be, I think, enjoyed by pretty much anyone on Organissimo. Emanem usually issues music from the farther, avant-garder end of the spectrum, & though I was tempted to pick something of that sort for an AOTW (e.g. SME's marvellous A New Distance, also recently reissued) I wanted something with broader appeal. New Cool is very different from Emanem's usual roster: it's hardswinging Ornette/Trane-inspired freebop that will delight pretty much anyone interested in modern jazz. Probably my favourite of Stevens' "straight" jazz output that I've heard, with the exception of Chemistry (a 1970s date which is I think currently o/p). Anyway, this is just advance warning, in case people want to track down a copy before discussion starts, if they haven't already got it. If it turns out few people have heard it, I'd be equally happy if the thread turned into a more general discussion of Stevens' music. If you haven't heard Stevens at all, I think this is a good disc to start with.

Just been watching Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire--has a substantial appearance by Gene Krupa's band including the famous matchbox drumming routine. Who's the one black guy in the band (the trumpeter who takes a brief solo) by the way?

Sorry to hear of this. Hooked on him ever since I heard "Grits ain't groceries, eggs ain't poultry, & Mona Lisa was a man" in my dad's record collection when I was small.

That disc with Breau & Tal Farlow had slipped under my radar--hm, I'll have to get that one. The few snippets on the website sounded pretty intriguing. How're the other ARt of Life Breau releases, do you know? I know I've heard one of the collaborations with Buddy Emmons though neither album cover there resembles the one I'm familiar with. Or maybe it was a 3rd LP?

To judge by the entry for it on the IMDB it doesn't look like the kind of thing I'd want on my c.v., which may explain the mystery of who did the music......

Mwanji Ezana discusses jazz blogging here: http://be-jazz.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_be-...253650625117984

& incidentally re: free jazz on film: I remember that in The Fabulous Baker Boys at the end after the group splits up, the pianist follows his muse & becomes an avantgarde jazz pianist--there's a short clip.

Tell me about it--I remember Mo Better Blues as one of the clunkier "jazz movies" I've ever seen. The things I remember about it are the awful montage with "A Love Supreme", the sequence where a blank-faced Bleek is chewed out by both women in his life, & the headbobbing, cartoony Jewish twins in charge of the club. I remember Malcolm X & Clockers as OK though I haven't seen them since first release.

Thanks for the comments Jim. Have you heard the ones I mentioned at the start, by the way? Definitely not "produced"! (Five O'Clock Bells & Mo Breau are charming stream of consciousness things from the studio, complete with a few bits of talking to the engineer, some dodgy half-sung vocals, some blues lines invented on the spot, &c. Despite all that, they have some remarkable stuff on them--"Toronto" for instance & "Visions".)

The four Lenny Breau albums I've heard are some of my favourite records--Mo' Breau, Five o'Clock Bells, Quietude & Legacy (the first two are now available doubled-up on a signle CD, the latter two are now available as Live at Bourbon Street, though I still just have the original LPs). I was wondering what else of his people had heard, & how it was. Randy Bachman has recently been digging up a lot of previously unreleased material, & I know some of his other recordings have been issued on CD. My impression was that the available documentation was rather haphazard, given Breau's short & messy life, but I was curious what else was worth getting. The good news is that there's a forthcoming bio of Breau--Daryl Angier at Coda tells me they'll be running an excerpt from it later this year.

All this reminds me that one film I really wanna see is Hellzapoppin.....

....but, alas, Blue Note ain't going to go for Byron playing "free".

Most recent example I can think of is the appearance of a few musicians pretending to be the Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker quartet in LA Confidential. Nice touch, I forget which tune it was (& I think it was right off the original hit single, not modern musicians recreating it).