Nate Dorward

Oh, right I Want to Live. I've never seen the whole film but I remember the opening scene well, having seen a clip of it. That means I got Mulligan & Rosolino right in my original guess. I think it was Art Farmer & Bud Shank on the front line, but I forget the rhythm section. Zorn, incidentally, covers "I Want to Live" on the 1st Naked City disc. Frank Rosolino was such a great player. As with Criss to some extent, the ugly end means that many jazzfans probably associate him more with the life than with the music. I'll give one more listen to #4 & see if I can nail the piano player but I don't think I can.

Hm, I'll have to go back to some of Zorn's 1980s/early 1990s stuff; I just lost track when he started to get stuck on the same Masada stuff endlessly. Depressing to hear JZ turn the Masada songbook into loud Santana-style rock at Victoriaville last year, for instance. & I found the expanded version of The Big Gundown instructive for the contrast between the abrasive sonic archeology/Frankenstein logic of the original tracks, & the much more conventional "arrangements" offered by the new tracks--they're pleasant enough, but go against the grain of what made the original album so important. -- Playing bop/hard bop he can be quite good--I'm actually surprised people didn't spot him because though he's not associated with playing conventional jazz, he has an immediately identifiable tone (cartoony hard-bop alto)--& while I don't think he handles the changes on the cut you've put on the compilation with fluency, he sounds much better on the modal or blues-based tunes on the Lulu project & the Voodoo project (or on the Masada project for that matter). He sounds really good on "Minor Meeting" (Voodoo) for instance: I've always liked his solo & on the trading fours there. Zorn seems full of ideas on the disc--all his solos have a lot of meat.

Two players who use the melodica regularly (& well) are Michael Moore (the saxophonist not bassist) & John Wolf Brennan. Hm, so I goofed on the Gordon i.d.! Ah well... But I'm sure it's Zorn on 4. No idea who the pianist on it is though. For my money Zorn's best stab at making it as a hardbopper is the Sonny Clark tribute disc on Black Saint, though--it's not bad at all. -- Nice to hear some informed discussion of the percussion rhythms on the various tracks, as that's easily my weakest point (shortly followed by melodica playing, obviously). In discussing any music in this area I usually end up just throwing up my hands & lumping everything together as "Latin", which I'm sure is enough to give anyone who knows something about the matter (e.g. Pete C) the willies.

Hauser's on Koglmann's The Use of Memory, though I suppose Koglmann's an acquired taste..... A good disc, though pretty austere.

Yeah that's the disc. One of the discs of the early 1960s, & probably "Round Midnight" would vie with "Tenderly" as the Dolphy solo that means most to me. I'm not crazy about the weird faux-concrete opening & close of the arrangement, but Dolphy's statement of the theme & improvisation are powerful enough to pin you against the wall. If anyone's curious, the 2nd "Epistrophy" I'd referred to was released on an ICP album under Misha Mengelberg's name. I haven't heard it, though I once held a copy in Ray's Jazz Shop & thought hard about it......

Just thought of one other: if memory serves Dolphy's in the ensemble on that Atlantic disc with Schuller's "Variations on a Theme of Thelonious Monk" (an arrangement of "Criss Cross" built around Ornette Coleman as soloist).

Lacy's gig with Monk wasn't 4 months, I'm pretty sure--I think it was 6 weeks. He's also in the ensemble on Big Band/Quartet though he doesn't get any solo space. Yes, I remember seeing that photo of Monk & Dolphy. A more interesting question: how many times did Dolphy record a Monk tune? There are two "Epistrophy"s on record plus a memorable "Round Midnight" with George Russell. Any others? Stuart Broomer tells me that Dave Baker told him that Monk told him (sorry for the chain of "tolds" but I might as well make the provenance of the anecdote clear) that that Russell/Dolphy recording of "Round Midnight" was his (Monk's) favourite cover version of any of his compositions. Dolphy of course did play with Bud Powell (on Mingus at Antibes).

Sure, I'd do both discs.

A strong 2nd (or is it 3rd) for the recommendation of Forces in Motion. One of the great documentary books in jazz. Incidentally a fari bit of the interview material is appended to the Leo release of the Coventry concert. It's fascinating, & yes you get to hear Mr B sing a solo (Warne Marsh's solo on "The Song Is You" from the Konitz/Giuffre disc). That said, I fully agree with Konitz's splenetic response to Braxton's Tristano/Marsh tribute album (when he was played "April" two or three years ago on a blindfold test for The Wire). A lot of sloppy, too-fast playing on that album. & in general I'm not keen on most of Braxton's standards playing--some of it's terribly verbose & messy (witness the Charlie Parker disc, which is quite charming really but has some appalling goofs on in, including a "Ko-Ko" where everyone seems hopelessly lost by the end of the track). But Braxton is an extraordinary musician in the right context.

Incidentally did Warren ever record any other tunes of his own except that one piece--"Butch Walks" I think it was called--on the Sonny Clark disc?

Here's what I wrote on a first spin without looking at any discussion so far. 1: Oh I don’t know, what do you say about this kind of sonic collage? It’s entertaining, but it’s not the kind of music I’m likely to go back to. The groaning, creaking overlay of sound at the end is a nice touch. 2: Rinky-dink big-band stuff, rather airless & cute. Oh, wait a sec, it’s a put-on I guess – now we’re headed south of the border. It’s still all very airless & cute, though I guess that’s the point. Worth hearing once. 3: OK, now some more riff-based big-band music, but this time the band punches it out like it means it. Aha, the percussion kicks in - a running theme on the compilation so far. Nice light-toned altoist, I should probably recognize him - presumably a West Coast player. If the fadeout was in the original rather than the work of the compiler, it’s a bit disappointing: the track seems barely to have gotten started before it’s over, & the altoist could have used more room. I thought the point of riff tunes was to spur soloists on? 4: The tune sounds like Mulligan but the treatment is out of Monk. Oh come on, you’re trying to slip John Zorn past us here. He doesn’t play all that well here though - is he really on top of the changes on the bridge, for instance? (An embarrassed trailing-off into silence at one point as he makes a wrong turn.) I like his sound & his licks, but he's a very bitty soloist. Can’t i.d. the trumpeter (who plays well) or pianist (plays okay). I’d be tempted to say it was Misha Mengelberg at the piano just because Zorn’s worked with him, but nah: Misha usually sounds a lot more devious & interesting than this. Nice light, swinging rhythm section, though. An OK track, & I could stand to hear more of the trumpeter's work. 5: A little compiler’s free-assocation: now we get Mulligan himself. Nice stuff. I don’t recognize the altoist, he sounds fine. Gerry himself. Got to be Frank Rosolino on the trombone, a really nice solo, making great use of space. Trumpeter’s fine. My one criticism here is that while I like Mulligan’s scoring I wish there was more space for the soloists, they seem crowded out. 6: More riff-based big band charts. Ugh, that’s some horrendous studio reverb. Some unusual dark tonalities here...& here’s what I initially thought was a ticking clock but which turns out to be more Latin percussion. This track started out like it would be interesting, & then by the end turned out to be not very interesting at all. 7: I know I know this bassist...who is it? More riff-based blues stuff. I should know this whole band, in fact. I see that baritone sax is a bit of a running theme on this compilation. Probably Pepper Adams: whoever it is, nice hard-driving solo. A little hysterical edge to the trumpet solo: good. It's a trumpeter I should know very well drawing a blank for whatever reason (Morgan?). The tenor sounds good, & I wish he’d got more than two choruses. Probably Harold Land, if the vibes are indeed Bobby Hutcherson. The bass solo suggests, hm...Richard Davis, I think. Phew, that’s some fast bass playing. A good track, if a bit frantic & compressed. Sounds almost like a sped-up version of a Nelson chart from Blues & the Abstract Truth. 8: More vibes, more bluesy riffs, more added percussion: yep, a lot of common threads running through this compilation. It’s OK, not a big reaction from me. The dinky piano at the end is a little odd, & I should be able to recognize the player from that but I can't for some reason. 9: Yow, that’s weird: old-fashioned Hodges alto on top of the percussion. Rats, it ended after only a minute, I could have used more. 10: George Adams? no, it’s David Murray on the tenor. Otherwise I have no idea what this is. S’alright, not my thing. 11: This is probably the point at which to confess that I’m probably the only person on the planet who didn’t like Buena Vista Social Club much. 12: I initially though this must be that James Carter Django tribute, but once the tenor solo kicked in it was obviously Dexter Gordon. Strange track, but I liked it. The recorded sound is odd, with the piano sounding like it's in a different room from the rest of the instruments. 13: Accordion, eh? Maybe Galliano, if we’re continuing the francophile theme from the last track. Ummmm, I don’t think this works at all - & I even like accordion! But, wait a minute, there’s some hot alto sax: OK, that’s a little more like it. Piano solo which largely keeps in the background so the percussion comes to the fore. 14: This reminds me of some of Zorn’s gentler Morricone settings. Nice stuff: I’ve no idea who this is but this the first track on the compilation I’ve really had a strong positive reaction to. Unlike a number of the other tracks, I feel that the track & the solos are just the right length for the mood & flow of the piece. 15: A slightly odd reverberant acoustic. Lovely opening, so full of space. An old-fashioned saxophone sound. Even stranger sound once the band comes in. I notice this compilation pays little attention to piano (mostly focussing on sax, vibes, accordion, percussion); I probably notice this jealously because I play piano.... There’s what sounds like a skip or bad edit at 3:14. After the opening this track does little for me. I’ve no idea who the players are. 16: A lot of sonic sludge buries some competent but unremarkable playing by all concerned. The least interesting track so far. 17: I know this one well. I’ve never heard the rest of the discs in this series, but have always liked this one. Truthfully, I’ve gone off him in recent years as he seems to have got stuck on endless recyclings of the same compositions in various formations, but this is one of the few of his albums I still play. 18: The alto sax sounds a little Zornlike but this is simply too brief to get much of a bead on anyone. A lovely track, pity it’s so brief. Another film cue? 19: Lazybones blues with a few twists, not bad. Marty Ehrlich. The trumpet is someone like Hugh Ragin, I don’t know. The piano solo’s a little spindly. A nice track, a good surprise ending too. 20: I have no idea! Ugh, the vocalist is (ahem) rather limited in his abilities. Good but not terribly remarkable solos. This was all stuff worth hearing, no duds except 16 & 20, but I think the only track I got a lot out of was #14.

A friend of mine, Peter Manson, asks: Can anyone answer his question?

I'd mostly say that Pelt was unfortunate in his choice of disc to pick up first--I hated The Infinite, which is I presume what he's talking about. Anything from Witness to Charms of the Night Sky to the Tiny Bells would have been a better place to start.

Thanks for the info....yes, it's astonishing the guy's still around, to judge by the bio & the photos! -- The other Naim I've seen listed (don't have) wasn't solo but a disc with him accompanying an unfamiliar (to me) singer, Sabina Sciubba--anyone heard this? (I tend to be cautious about dates with singers, since if they don't click for me then they usually really get under my skin....) -- But that new solo disc on Naim sounds intriguing. There are, I should mention, two really nice solo pieces on None But the Lonely Heart besides the duos with Haden. Hm, so anyone know what's up with Alsut? Who runs it anyway?

Jay Clayton.....the couple of times I've seen her it was fairly excruciating, actually. Nice voice, but no taste. Maybe in less indulgent settings (i.e. ones free of Jerry Granelli) she'd sound better. Recently was sent a promo of a Byard Lancaster disc, The Out Cry, which was so shockingly amateurish (complete with an out-of-tune bassist & clutzy drummer) that it left me really wondering what to think: is all his stuff that bad, or was he more of a force to be reckoned with way back?

Hm, interested to hear what folks say about the 4-bass disc. I was at the concert & found myself largely wishing that I could hear them perform in solo & duo formations rather than some free-improv equivalent of the Three Tenors. It wasn't bad, just overkill. Incidentally, the best recent Victo disc I've heard is Wing Vane from a couple years back--the trio performed last year at the same festival as the four-bass thing. Yes Monoceros is one of Parker's better solo discs: great stuff. The other Chronoscope reissue of his first two solo discs, doubled-up, is also fascinating stuff, & barely resembles anything else of Parker's I've heard (long, gruelling passages of harsh, sustained tones, slowly worked-over). It's some of his most visceral playing, very different from the twiddly ethereal bagpipe music of the later discs.

Lately I've been often playing None but the Lonely Heart, a duo album by Charlie Haden & the little-known pianist Chris Anderson released on Naim. It's a disc which may not be for all tastes: it's very latterday-Hadenish, i.e. all standards, no drummer, low-volume, medium- to slow-tempo, romantic, quietist. But basically Haden's just first on the billing because he's famous & Anderson's not--it's Anderson's disc, & he's an extraordinary player. He's now quite elderly; he's blind, & suffers from glass-bone disease (a la Petrucciani). His technique is homemade--delicate, rhythmically very distinctive (nearly rubato, a bit fragile), not "swinging" in a conventional sense--& his procedure is typically to unfold a tune at great length, restating it again & again (a la Monk) with different inflections & according to a very personal harmonic language (in the liner notes it says he's as influenced by film-music writing as by "jazz"). The tunes are all bittersweet jazz standards--"Nobody's Heart", "The Things We Did Last Summer", "Good Morning Heartache", "The Night We Called It a Day", &c.--plus a short blues improv for good measure. Anyway, was wondering where to go next. Does anyone know anything about Alsut, who released his "solo ballads" discs? I tried to order them through Cadence/North Country but they were out of stock, & Slim at North Country said that they didn't even have a current address for Alsut to reorder them. Joe Milazzo tells me Anderson recorded as a sideman in the 1960s with Frank Strozier; he's on a live Charlie Parker pickup-band recording of the 1950s that I haven't heard; other than that I know little about him other than what's in the liner notes to this disc. He was apparently Herbie Hancock's teacher at one point, though it's hard to hear any connection between the two men's styles.

Jeesh, why do they keep changing the cover art? Especially when the original cover-art (with its echo of Tristano's first Atlantic album) is so nice.

The "Volume 5" is because it was released in a series of CDs from Power Bros. Don't confuse it with vol. 10, Astigmatic in Concert, which is a (I gather very poorly-recorded) live gig from Copenhagen with a rather different band. I got my copy with no trouble from North Country/Cadence. They were asking $16 for it, a little better than Jazz Loft.

Bent Axen, Bent Persson, & Ole Kock Hansen. Masabumi "Poo" Kikuchi. John Gruntfest.

Yeah, that Threads review is memorably grotesque; but I didn't specifically have it in mind--virtually everything he writes is equally drooling (he barely reviews anything without giving it at least four stars out of five). -- There are also other things that are equally inane on the site by other contributors; e.g. the wacky piece on Sunna Gunnlaugs' Mindful, which is evidently by someone whose knowledge of modern jazz is nil (the review suggests it's wild & way-out avantgarde jazz; suffice it to say, this would only be a fair description if you thought Keith Jarrett & Bobo Stenson avant-garde). Jeez, I'm still thinking about what other Blue Note discs of the last 5 years I'm terribly keen on. I've heard plenty but truthfully it's not a label whose new releases really mean a lot to me all that often.

So's anyone discussing this one?

I've never heard a nice thing said about Thesis even among ardent Morris & Shipp fans. The Penguin Guide, FWIW, gives it the lowest rating of either musician's albums (two & a half stars). Just don't try associating Morris & Bailey in front of Morris! He tends to see red at the idea, to judge by interviews. Incidentally one mildly interesting discographical oddity is the disc Registered Firm on Bailey's Incus label: the Hession/Wilkinson/Fell trio with special guest Joe Morris. Frankly, it sounds like a good H/W/F date with a superfluous guitarist.

I've mostly disliked the Joe Morris I've heard--he just doesn't know when to stop--but I do recommend the disc Prophet Moon by Whit Dickey, Rob Brown, & Morris (on Riti). It's great stuff. -- Illuminate is OK but it's very episodic--the longer compositions don't really make much sense as wholes, though there's good bits in all the tracks. I don't seem to have stumbled on many good Morris discs--acquired & then got rid of No Vertigo, Many Rings & the dumb Eloping with the Sun. Probably not the world's best sample of his work, but after having heard 7 Morris records at last count & seen 2 concerts of his, & only really gotten a lot out of Prophet Moon I think I've cut him enough slack. I've never really warmed all that much to the Maneris either, though I've gotten much keener on Mat since he ditched the electric violin & switched to acoustic viola--replacing the ponderous sound of the former with a greater featheriness on the latter. He does have a curiously bitty way of phrasing his solos which is certainly individual, irritating or pleasingly different depending on my mood. -- Haven't heard any of Joe's recent stuff--only have Let the Horse Go & Three Men Walking from the 1990s, both of them quite interesting but sometimes hard going (TMW is very, very dry in places). Yes Mahanthappa is excellent; I don't know Black Water but Iyer's Blood Sutra was one of the major discs of the past year.

Take a look at the liner notes by Thomas Cunniffe & Will Friedwald to the Stash reissue of the Dial sessions (from 1993). There they state that "Yardbird Suite" is based on "What Price Love?" & that "Dewey Square" is indeed based on "Rosetta". I don't know "What Price Love?" at all so can't judge whether that i.d. is accurate. I remember reading somewhere that Dewey Square was a place to score drugs at the time, hence Parker's memorial to it. The only Parker tune I know of that doesn't seem to be based on standard changes is "Confirmation"--or is there a source I've missed?