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Joe

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  2. Sonny Clark -- an interesting article

    in Miscellaneous Music

    Posted · Edited by Joe

    My take (posted on Facebook a few minutes ago in response to Cliffford Allen's line there) seems to make me the odd man out here:

    'Rather creepy, almost vampire-like-in-tone article IMO. I would hope that Stephenson passes on the material on Clark that he has gathered to someone with a different, less neo-hipster-rides-again sensibility. Also IMO, "The Jazz Loft Project" book fell between two stools. One was the desire to capture the jittery, relatively random texture of the life [W. Eugene] Smith was leading at the time; and this the book did accomplish -- by more or less imitating that texture. But if one were interested in the actual musicians who played at Smith's loft and the actual music they played there -- lots of luck. IIRC, little or no knowledgeable sorting out of the material from that perspective was done.'

    While I agree with your take on the Jazz Loft book, I don't remotely understand where you find a creepy, vampire-like tone in the article. You may be right that this author doesn't have the jazz knowledge to do a Sonny Clark bio justice (at least as rabid fans like us think it should be done) but then again there's no one else out there even conceiving of one, is there?

    I think we should just be hopeful that his research sees some sort of release and we learn more about Sonny Clark.

    The creepy tone I refer to stems from several things. First, the focus on whether the body that was buried as Sonny Clark's actually was his. Either it was or it wasn't, and if it wasn't it may well be a sign of social-racial indifference or worse on the part of the relevant authorities, but this is a primary piece of info about Sonny Clark?

    Second, the fact that Stephenson says he may write a biography of Clark. I know -- not creepy in itself perhaps, but given the junky-life associations he understandably leans on, I sense, as I said in my previous post, a neo-hipster orientation in Stephenson, which IIRC was also present in "The Jazz Loft Project," and I almost always find that creepy, though YMMV. I'm thinking he'll give us, if he gets around to it, something along the lines of James Gavin's Chet Baker bio, "Deep In A Dream."

    Finally, there's something about Stephenson's account here that doesn't quite track; and if so, that gives me a queasy feeling. He says that he heard Clark's music for the first time by chance in a Raleigh, N.C., coffee shop in 1999, but he also says that at this time he had been working on what seems to be what eventually would become "The Jazz Loft Project." Then, some unspecified but apparently short time later, Stephenson discovers that the Sonny Clark whose music he had heard and been moved by in North Carolina not only was a habitue of Smith's jazz loft but was also at the center of one of the more bizarre episodes that Smith captured on tape -- almost dying from an overdose in the company of Lin Halliday.

    Maybe I'm pushing this too hard, but that seems to leave us with two options: 1) Stephenson not only had never heard Clark's music until he just happened to encounter it in that N.C. coffee shop in 1999, but he also at that point had never heard of him at all; or 2) he was already aware of Clark's name from his work on the Smith material but hadn't yet bothered to check out his music. Option 1) is not impossible -- it doesn't violate the physical laws of the universe -- but unless I've misunderstood what Stephenson says, it seems like a whopping big coincidence to me that he would be entranced by Sonny Clark's music out of the blue and then discover that Clark not only was a habitue of the place he'd been researching but also was at the center of one of the more sadly dramatic events that took place there and that W. Eugene Smith would capture on tape. Option 2) seems a tad more likely and also seems to me to fit the rather loose way the music and the musicians are treated in "The Jazz Loft Project" IMO, but I don't like that sort of looseness; it feels exploitive to me. And if option 2) is the case, what does that do to the N.C. coffee bar story?

    The opening to Stephenson's piece is pretty run-of-the-mill NEW YORKER-school "portrait" writing, but no less creepy / junkie-prurient for partaking of those cliches.

    A sincere question: has a really good, honest account of heroin's role and function in the world of modern jazz been written?

  3. Phil Woods?

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    Another vote for the European Rhythm Machine material. In addition to the 2 releases cited above, there's also this one on Atlantic:

    c4072382u7u.jpg

    AT THE FRANKFURT JAZZ FESTIVAL

    Also, I'll go out on a limb and recommend this late-ish period Woods session...

    d14775hn6vn.jpg

    As much for Tabackin and Jimmy Rowles as for Woods (who plays clarinet on one track.)

  6. Mystery Novels

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    Technically "police procedurals," I suppose, but both Chester Himes Coffin Ed / Grave Digger Jones novels and Jerome Charyn's (original) ISAAC QUARTET are some of the most adventurous and "literary" detective novels out there.

    Or you could pass the time with some Simenons. Many, many Maigret novels to choose from.

  7. Best track you heard all week

    in Miscellaneous Music

    Posted

    Bud Powell's rendition of "I Remember Clifford" from the so-called "Edenville holiday" tapes of 1964 (originally issued on Mythic Sound, then again on a Pablo disc entitled BEBOP.) The piano is badly out of tune, the fidelity (uh...) informal, and I've always found Golson's elegy a little staid, even drab, but Bud, here on the cusp of his final decline, colors and shades the tune masterfully. And he finds a seam of deep, deep emotion here and mines it like no other modern jazz pianist could.

  8. Movie: True Grit 2010

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    Take an iPod to a movie?

    Hmmm...that's kinda like wearing shoulder pads to a baseball game....

    Or a condom to a...?

    Bris.

    I wince at the vulgarity, but I would have said "a blow job."

    Better to match Richard Dawson than Brett Somers (9 times out of 10, anyway.)

    (And thanks for the reminder re: Laughton's use of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" in NOTH... this recent Slate article by Elbert Ventura on that film might be of some interest... http://www.slate.com/id/2273576/)

  10. Movie: True Grit 2010

    in Miscellaneous - Non-Political

    Posted

    All i want to know is if they used the same "True Grit" song as from the old movie or not.

    Am I not asking the question correctly?

    No, the song isn't featured, thank goodness.

    Oh. Guess I'll wait for it to come to cable then.

    The new score -- by longtime Coen Bros. collaborator Carter Burwell -- is actually pretty interesting, if occasionally a little too Ken Burns-y. It's based almost entirely on "new" solo piano arrangements of old spirituals (e.g., "Hold To God's Unchanging Hand," "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms.") My wife recognized quite a few of these motifs.

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/01/soundtrack-review-carter-burwells-true-grit.html

    http://filmexperience.blogspot.com/2010/04/carter-burwell-on-scoring-coen-bros.html

  12. Johnny Mathis' "Open Fire, Two Guitars"

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    Was he lazy? No, not really. King of Cool (as a reissue of some of his stuff a few years ago was so-labeled and logoed)? Could be. I don't know much about that type of thing myself.

    However, he lived and died long enough to sing "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" in a Waco barbecue restaurant men's room in 2010 without having to actually be there. How much more of a triumph is there to be had?

    It ain't marinara, but BBQ sauce is still red. And you can bet your fried okra there's no Vic Damone reverberating in the hallowed halls of any Central Texas smokehouse.

    What if they'd cast Johnny Mathis as Bama Dillert in SOME CAME RUNNING?

  13. Johnny Mathis' "Open Fire, Two Guitars"

    in Recommendations

    Posted

    Have scanned the book, not read it, probably won't unless I get laid up in bed for a long time...don't care that much overall, but read enough reviews to get the gist and what I suspect are all the pertinent insights. A lazy man's approach, as befits the subject, perhaps.

    Was Deano lazy or just the ne plus ultra of cool (not synonymous with hip) as temperament-turned-philosophy? That here was a celebrity who lived his life counter to the redemptive narrative reserved for most celebrities like him is a kind of triumph... I guess...

  17. Marty Ehrlich

    in Artists

    Posted · Edited by Joe

    LINE ON LOVE is excellent, as is the earlier "sister" recording SONG on Enja, with support from Uri Caine, Michael Formanek, Billy Drummond and, on one track, Ray Anderson. Rather low-key / late-night feeling, but not lacking in intensity at all.

    enj9396.jpg

    As noted, he's an important presence on many another leader's records: Bobby Previte, Jerome Harris, John Lindberg, James Emery, Julius Hemphill etc. I first took notice of him, though, on John Carter's Gramavision dates, especially FIELDS. He's also recorded "standards" with Anthony Braxton's various piano groups, Andrew Hill (the mighty DUSK) and Muhal Richard Abrams. The duets with Abrams (OPEN AIR MEETING) are nice, but ONE LINE, TWO VIEWS is superb.

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