Joe

One cannot overstate the incredible influence Black high school music teachers and bandleaders have had on the evolution of American music. Dyett in Chicago, Samual R. Browne in LA, G.A. Baxter at I.M. Terrell in Ft. Worth... And was it Harry Begian at Cass Tech? https://ethaniverson.com/black-music-teachers-in-the-era-of-segregation/

It's a good question. I've always thought of him as belonging to the Prez family tree. But then there's the Walter Dyett factor. Von Freeman, Cliff Jordan, John Gilmore, Johnny Griffin... he tutored a lot of unique tenor players.

Getz had clearly been listening to Sonny and Wayne, but he's still Getz. With Stanley Cowell, Miroslav Vitous, and Jack DeJohnette.

Thank you for sharing this.

Professor Fate David Gates He Hate Me

Slow down Zev! (Actually, please don't).

Hell yeah!

And Jeff Parker. It's a good 'un, and 'un I'd almost completely forgotten about.

Yeah, they've been cagey about it, but this is definitely a track Page and Plant finished together post-Bonham. You can audition the original backing track on YouTube.

Here's an exhaustive if not official analysis of Plant's relationship with his voice.

Veruca Salt Cinnamon Carter Scary Spice

Claire Daly has been mentioned, but she's worth mentioning again. Always liked her work with People Like Us, and she's still making records. https://clairedaly.bandcamp.com/album/2648-west-grand-boulevard

Some nice recollections and invaluable early documentation courtesy of one of my CalArts writing teachers, Bruce Bauman. The interview shared here dates from 1975. AS Bruce says, "I don’t think he’d ever again be so vulnerable." https://trouserpress.com/souvenir-from-a-dream-memories-of-tom-verlaine/

"Richly illustrated with seventy-two pages of photographs and posters from Adger Cowans, Marilyn Nance, Val Wilmer, and others, A Strange Celestial Road interweaves the author’s own moving story—his battles with addiction, spiritual development, and life as a working class performer—with enthralling tales of tutelage under Cal Massey, collaborations with the likes of Ed Blackwell, Marion Brown, and Andrew Cyrille, and profound, occasionally confounding, mentorship by Sun Ra." More info here: https://www.blankforms.org/publications/ahmed-abdullah-a-strange-celestial-road

It contains what might be my favorite rendition of "How High The Moon."

Siouxsie and the Banshees covered "Little Johnny Jewel" on THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS.

At the height of Television's notoriety, some performances could veer into "sheets of sound" territory. But he pared back his style over the years. There are also a couple of freely improvised tracks on WARM AND COOL (1992). Tonally, I hear some similarities with between Verlaine and Richard Thompson. To a much lesser extent, John Cippolina. But there's hardly any blues vocabulary in Verlaine's playing, and he played guitars that rockers oh his era had no use for (Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar, which became the axes pretty much every post-punk guitarist picked up). I'm not sure where else some of his notions of structure, counterpoint, and — dare I say? — swing could come from but jazz. E.g., this solo: Patti's Smith's elegy for him provides some additional insight into his musical origins. According to her, he started out as a saxophonist.

This one hurts. I so wish I'd had a chance to see Verlaine live, but the stars just never aligned. He's one of the most important artistic influences in my life, and I've probably spent way too much time trying to unravel the mysteries of his iconic solos. He also took rock about as far into Coltrane territory as anyone. Exhibit A.

RIP to maybe the most original "rock" guitarist not named Hendrix.