GA Russell

Dom Um Romao - Hotmosphere This was recorded for Pablo in 1976. It's a solid little record, what might be called a party album. Brazilian music, heavy on the percussion and horns. No ballads, all uptempo. The band is 18 members, though maybe not all at the same time, plus three female vocalists. The musicians include Claludio Roditi, Sonny Fortune, Ronnie Cuber, Lou Del Gatto and Ron Carter. Not five star, but a pleasant change of pace from what all else is available from the Prestige and Riverside recordings included in the sale.

Happy Birthday!

My first was the Teddy Charles version on the B side of the Miles/Konitz Ezz-thetic LP, which Quincy has mentioned is now available on the New Directions CD. It's still my favorite.

I was surprised to read in her obituary not too long ago that the lady who was the voice of Olive Oyl was also the voice of Betty Boop!

Happy Birthday!

Does anybody have an opinion of Harry Nillson? He sure got a lot of publicity budget behind him when I was in college, but other than the song from Midnight Cowboy and Me and My Arrow, I'm not aware of anything he did. Should I pick up his Best of album?

I don't know if it's still in print, but my favorite Helen Merrill is an album she recorded in the mid-50s for Leonard Feather which Verve released on CD entitled You've Got a Date with the Blues.

From that era, my favorite is Blossom Dearie. A few of her Verves are available from BMG/Your Music. My favorite is her first for that label, just called Blossom Dearie. I also like among the contemporaries Dena DeRose. Her voice is a little thin, but I like her trio's general style and song selection.

Since you think so highly of it, I'll add it to my Your Music queue.

Here are the album's liner notes: Perhaps it will be a letdown for me to say this, but this is not a “tribute record” in the conventional sense. It is not intended as a definitive sampling of the works of a genuine original, Mr. Andrew Hill. There may even be wrong or strange notes here and there. I transcribed everything from the recordings before arranging it, and I’m no wizard! On seperate occasions, Andrea Parkins and Ben Goldberg had been guests with my regular trio, The Nels Cline Singers (with Devin Hoff and Scott Amendola). Andrea had played with us in Los Angeles, lending her wild and woolly accordion to the occasion, heightening the mayhem. Ben played with us in Berkeley on a more low-key affair, and the set included pieces by Jimmy Giuffre, Carla Bley, and Thelonius Monk, as well as some by me. It occurred to me that an ensemble with The Singers plus Andrea and Ben would be of interest, and I immediately began scheming to play music with them that was not written by me, but rather written by someone among us today, still working and growing and perhaps under-appreciated, whose music was flexible and varied enough to allow us latitude to explore it and be OURSELVES. It took about 3 or 4 seconds for me to come up with that composer’s name: Andrew Hill. As I studied the music with this in mind, I realized that I needed a brass player. I called Bobby Bradford, an old friend and inspiration, and I was delighted that he was excited about the project. Bobby and I had played together on and off for years, but had never had an opportunity to record together. So a sextet, albeit a slightly odd one, would do our take on Andrew Hill music - not attempting to be in any way definitive, nor to recreate classic sessions. It is a view - ONE VIEW - into the music of Andrew Hill. Mr. Hill, whom I had met briefly while playing at the jazz festival in Skopje, Macedonia with Gregg Bendian’s Interzone back in 1997, is a delightful man to meet, but crucially he is an artist whose music has continued to change and expand its parameters, becoming freer than the early, classic Blue Note sessions. Mr. Hill’s music has always been unpredictable, perhaps a bit knotty, always forward-looking and beautiful. And, as I was to learn, he had managed to be quite under-the-radar for any but the most ardent jazz-o-phile. It would be a great feeling to send a little energy from the younger listeners his way. Some of his pieces, like “No Doubt” and “McNeil Island” attempted here, are like chamber works and have rarely (if ever) been covered by anyone else. Others are more recent, like “Not Sa No Sa”, which, though whimsical at times, is episodic - an aspect of Mr. Hill’s composing that began as early as the piece “Spectrum” on the classic album “Point of Departure”. It was important to me that this record at least allude to Andrew Hill’s total oeuvre - there are so many compositions that it would be impossible to do otherwise! But the reason for this is to point to ALL the work, work still being produced, work that is open and part of a living tradition. With these points in mind, I decided to play a lot of the pieces as suites. It seemed like a natural way for the group to play, it reflected the methodology of a lot of Mr. Hill’s music, and it enabled me to squeeze more music into this document. I endeavored also to vary the tone or mood of the repetoire. Andrew Hill’s music touches on almost every musical mood or sensation. To “Yokada Yokada” I rather slyly added the “The Rumproller” just to be fun, to have fun with the material. In other areas, darkness may descend, or it may just be time to jam out! Also, with the exception of “Dedication” and “Yokada Yokada/The Rumproller”, we generally eschewed playing on “changes”, instead favoring a free approach. This is not only how we all tend to play naturally, but it is also the approach that Andrew Hill’s music has favored for many decades now. My brother Alex was brought in to supply the percussion drive and color needed for the turbulent “Compulsion” - one of my personal favorite Hill pieces, here given an almost apocalyptic treatment - and he stayed for “Dedication.” There were things that I did not know before embarking on this project. I did not know that Mr. Hill was about to enjoy a resurgence of sorts, once again recording for the Blue Note label. Great news! I didn’t know that Mr. Hill is seriously ill, fighting cancer. Terrible news! Smaller items: I learned that Ben Goldberg had played with Mr. Hill and that he loves this music. I learned that accordion was Andrew’s first instrument! But with all these rather charged revelations floating around, I hope that the real revelation will simply be the music itself: Andrew Hill music. We can approach it, twist it a bit, look into it, try it out, find beauty and inspiration, find OURSELVES as well as the genius who created it in the first place. Right? Thanks to all the musicians for making this concept a reality as well as a beautiful experience. This record could not have happened without the enthusiastic support of my good friend Jeff Gauthier. As usual, he is THE MAN. Thanks also to Michael Cuscuna, who proved a valuable source for information and impressions, and who was always amazingly approachable in musical and in business-related matters. Thanks also to Rich Breen, Bob Hurwitz, Ron Horton, Marty Ehrlich, Paul “Junior” Garrison, Adam Rosenkrantz, Los Wilcos y Compadres, the Crypto clan, kind listeners and gentle comrades everywhere. Special thanks to the visionary artistry of Mr. Andrew Hill. Long may he create and inspire. - N.C. 6/13/06

Here are the album's liner notes: I wrote most of this music in June of 2002. It’s the first set of new music I completed since returning from India almost a year earlier (though earlier that spring I had written a few individual pieces for my quintet, the Tent, and the collective trio, Equal Interest). I was waiting to see what would emerge naturally from my experience as opposed to trying to make something happen. One of the things I notice about this music is the layers of simultaneous activity, not unlike life in modern-day India: a continual bombardment of the senses and a mingling of the peace of the ancient with the hustle of the present. In Calcutta, in particular, the commotion can be overwhelming, yet at the same time I experienced incredible joy and a certain calmness at the heart of it all. For this album’s music I turned once again to the Sufi mystic poet Rumi for inspiration. This time all of the music came from one poem, The Image of Your Body, which in hindsight is an apt metaphor for my own journey of the last 2 years, as indeed I’ve made it out of the city. I spent 2002-3 at an ashram in upstate New York, and now I’m in Berkeley, CA. I first played this music on the melodica and as a result, much of it is based on melody. It’s conceived as quartet music, but what’s important here is not the instrumentation but rather individual musical personality. Brandon and Cuong each brings his own voice to the music in a way that’s beautiful and quite different from the other, and so I include performances with both of them. I also include here two older pieces, Equal Grace and Yellow Are Crowds of Flowers, II, written for my group Crush (which toured both as a trio with Stomu Takeishi and Kenny Wollesen and quartet with Cuong). I so like the way this band plays them that I felt they were worth revisiting for this recording. This is my first project with drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee, whose sensitivity to what’s happening in the moment and whose ability to enhance it make him a true joy to play with. And Stomu’s sense of time, space and esthetics provides enduring inspiration and support. As always with music like this, which depends so much on the individual players’ contribution, my heartfelt thanks to these musicians for making it happen. May we all, musician and listener alike, become the ones that, when we walk in, luck shifts to the one who needs it. Myra Melford Berkeley, California June, 2006

B. Goren, I have a review copy of this one. I have four Cryptogramophone albums, and they all remind me of music from the 70s, although in different ways. About the time that the Blue Note board was shut down (Has it been three years?), the British guys over at AAJ were singing the praises of a 70s album by Neil Ardley called A Kaleidescope of Rainbows. I gathered that for some of them it was their favorite record. The Image of Your Body reminds me of Kaleidescope. It's a good album, but my least favorite of the four Cryptogramophones. I find the songs impressionistic without a handle to grab onto. None of the songs are hummable, but they are pleasant to listen to if you are in the right mood. I had never heard of Melford before. B. Goren, tell us what you know about her and why you like her!

Sounds like when it rains it pours! Hope everything turns out OK for everyone including Fido!

I see that barrons.com posted yesterday that EMI has now signed on with SpiralFrog: September 6, 2006, 2:08 pm EMI Agrees To Offer Music Through Spiral Frog Free Music Download Site Posted by Eric Savitz Spiral Frog, the startup that recently announced plans to offer advertising supported free music downloads, today said a second major music label, EMI, had agreed to participate in the site. Universal Music had previously agreed to offer songs on the new site. That’s two down, two to go: the company has yet to sign up Warner Music Group or Sony BMG for the new service, which is supposed to launch later this year. edit for typo

My pick for this month is Blossom Dearie - My Gentleman Friend. This will be my eighth Blossom Dearie album, but my first since 1999. I still listen to what I have quite a bit.

Happy Birthday!

Noj, I put that one in my queue the other day. Let us know what you think of it!

Get well soon, Paul! I hope this won't affect your beer drinking long term!

OK, Late. I've been putting off getting this one because 1) I already own a number of tracks from the Best Of PJ LP of his that was put out I think in the late 70s; and 2) I've been listening to his latest, In My Time, quite a bit since I got it in December, and I figured I needed a rest from Gerald Wilson. But The Artist Selects is pretty close to the top anyway, so it won't hurt to make it the choice for next month.

His The Artist Selects is inching its way up my Your Music queue.

I dug out the two LPs I had in mind when I made my comment about Paul Bley, and I see that they were recorded in 1965 and 1966. The drummer on both was Barry Altschul.

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Happy Birthday!

I vaguely remember the video from Donald Fagen's The Nightfly. As I recall they went into a bomb shelter listening to Time Out.

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