Tom Storer

Tell me about it. A hearing check recently revealed that I have lost more hearing in the upper registers than my fiftyish age would normally explain. The doc told me to give up the iPod before it's too late, so I did. My wife said, "You've been sticking those things in your ears for twenty-five years. You're surprised?" When she put it like that, I was surprised. But it's true, ever since cassette Walkman days I've been using these things. The chickens have come home to roost. I can almost hear them faintly clucking.

They're from the same era, would have known the same repertoire, both lovers of bebop; they're both lyrical players; I think their individual sounds would have blended well. Hall's inclination has been increasingly to quiet, concentrated music, whereas Jackson's preference was on the bluesier side. But Jackson also excelled in the MJQ's chamber-style jazz, even though he complained, and Hall could play with Rollins without flinching. I don't know how it would have worked out, but I wish my curiosity had been satisfied.

I've always thought Jim Hall and Milt Jackson should have made an album together. Maybe with Ron Carter and Billy Higgins. Or maybe Jackson could have made a quintet out of the Desmond/Hall quartet...

I think Copeland's real sin in the eyes of us jazz nerds is that he isn't taking jazz seriously. He says as much himself. Daddy was into jazz, so he becomes a rock musician and thumbs his nose at jazz. Plus he's a rock star, so he can condescend to whoever he wants to. Nyah nyah! I heard a few of those Police songs on the radio back in the day. I guess if you like rock enough, it makes a difference if he's a really good rock drummer or not. But to not even know enough about Miles's career to realize that the band with Tony Williams wasn't early Miles--sacrilege! Blasphemy!

In the 60's, "Poindexter" was commonly used as a disparaging playground epithet for bookish boys who wore glasses. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Personally I'd say that that's true of hackneyed, unimaginative metaphors, but not of metaphors in general. And I'd be very skeptical of any writer's confidence that he or she assists a reader on the way to "true experience." "True" anything, for that matter.

Ethan Iverson is a big Westlake fan, and mentioned in Do The Math recently that Westlake came out for The Bad Plus's recent gig at the Vanguard. Surely someone has written a thesis on relationships between crime novels and jazz.

I'm willing to allow someone else's description of Pee Wee Russell's feet to enter my own constructed mental image of a man who died long before I had a chance to actually see him play with my own two eyes, without feeling that I'm running any terrible risk of corrupting my perception of the music with unverified information. The Real Truth of Russell's feet, sad or not sad, is forever inaccessible to me, and in its place I willingly accept what seems to me a useful hypothesis. So there!

Having read the description of him, I think of sad feet when I think of Pee Wee Russell. And I think of Pee Wee Russell when I hear Pee Wee Russell play. So, in an indirect way, yes. Is that a good thing? Well, it's not a bad thing. Having seen Woody Shaw live on several occasions, when I hear his playing I think of the tai-chi exercises he would do on stage during other people's solos (if that's what those movements were). Is that a good thing or a bad thing? How to judge? I think more information about the physical human being doing the playing does help us hear the musical personality more fully on some level.

Balliett was not a philosopher of jazz, but big deal. We have those, too, although few of them can write well. All Balliett did was chronicle jazz concerts and jazz musicians in New York, with style. That style, that talent, is worthy of respect. "The sound of a man walking on eggshells" is a comment on Miles' music--for me it evokes its simultaneous delicacy and violence. When he described Pee Wee Russell's feet, he was describing the man himself--it makes no sense to complain that a journalist described what the subject of a profile looked like, and in a memorable way at that. The flair he had for getting across aural perceptions in visual imagery was no small thing. Many writers would kill to have that gift. Others may have to rely on would-be-creative punctuation, typeface and capitalization that express little more than an attitude, but crafting elegant sentences that capture something accurate about the music, grab the readers' attention, make them want to hear that music, and are fondly remembered decades later--now that's good writing, considerably more than simply neat turns of phrase. In my humblest of humble opinions.

A bit of an understatement, in my humble opinion. What is "the rest" you would reject?

From the evidence on this thread, it's just as well Balliett didn't try to make it as a poet. His jazz writing, on the other hand, was very good indeed, and there are few who did it or do it as well. He wasn't a musician and he used careful but finely drawn images to describe musicians and their methods. The result was fascinating, insightful, accessible and memorable descriptions that made you want to hear the music you hadn't heard yet and gave a little shock of recognition of the music you had. Complaints that he didn't give enough kudos to one musician or another are without merit, I think--every reviewer has personal tastes which by definition can't be all-embracing. They're not there to reveal the truth, but to share their own reactions and analysis. Balliett's were always interesting and the man could write--more than can be said for all but a handful of jazz journalists, now or ever.

I'm not up on the Senegalese scene but I'll keep my eyes peeled as May approaches...

The February 2007 issue of the French monthly "Jazz Hot" has a review of a 9-CD history-of-jazz box set, compiled by Organissimo poster Allen Lowe, that is only the first of four volumes. Reviewer Jean Szlamowicz rated it "indispensable." What follows is my own rough translation of the review: Allen Lowe That Devilin' Tune Vol. 1, 1895-1927 9-CD box set 10:58:11 WHRA 6003 (www.musicandarts.com) Rating: Indispensable Allen Lowe is a guitarist and saxophonist, often seen with David Murray, Julius Hemphill or Don Byron. He's also a researcher and author (1998, American Pop: From Minstrel to Mojo). Here he offers the first volume of his history of jazz (1895-1950). Each of the four box sets includes nine CDs and a 100-page booklet. He retraces the roots of jazz, its links with other types of specifically American music (minstrels, ragtime, coon songs, military music, etc.) but perhaps goes a bit far when he says that the importance of the blues is less musical than ideological. The nine CDs let us travel in time, with well-picked examples of: John Philip Sousa, Vess Ossman, Sir Herbert Clarke, Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Jimmy Europe, Eubie Blake, Ethel Waters, Isham Jones, Noble Sissle, W.C. Handy, Jelly Roll Morton, etc. In the final analysis, these well-known names are perhaps less interesting than those one wouldn't have gone looking for, notably in the pre-Original Dixieland Jazz Band period, i.e. before 1917 (Voss's 1st Regiment Band, Orquestra Typica, etc.). One could always object that certain dimensions are more or less passed over, but what is most interesting is the way the collection demonstrates the phenomenon of a global confluence of heterogeneous sources from the American reality that led to what we call jazz. A fundamental source. By Jean Szlamowicz, in Jazz Hot magazine, Feb. 2007. Lowe wrote a book by the same name, apparently released in 2001 or 2002, that gets a good review here. I haven't read the book or heard the box, but I plan to do both!

Which of its names are the official name: "The Theme," "52nd Street Theme," "New York Theme"... ?

OK, that's an easy one. My antithesis to Art Tatum is Thelonious Monk. Tatum's musical genius was inseparable from his mastery of the piano. He was a technical virtuoso who impressed the greatest classical interpreters. Monk was not interested in that kind of technique. He achieved his own musical mastery by reducing the elements of jazz to startling abstraction. Tatum's ideas flowed in extravagant harmonic detail, Monk's stomped and jerked in bold, angular gestures--arguably no less elegant, but with radically different means and values. Now--who was the synthesis?

I remember seeing a Braxton concert with Holland, Lewis and Altschul in Schenectady back in the day. It was a college crowd, and after the concert Braxton came out to do a question-and-answer session. He talked just like the excerpts above, really fast, and totally excited. He illustrated his remarks by singing some of his compositions of the period. People's jaws were dropping in bemusement and awe.

You could get his latest, "Time Lines." It's a beautiful CD.

I would love to eavesdrop on a conversation between Braxton and Ornette Coleman.

Looks great! Reading this, I regret that I didn't participate.

I've seen Curson many times and always enjoyed it. He had an octet for a little while, including, if memory serves, Chris Woods, Nick Brignola and... Harold Mabern? Not sure. Anyway. He often had Brignola with him. Used to come through Paris and play with the Georges Arvanitas trio. I haven't heard him in a while, though. The next time he's in town I'll make it a point.

As it happens, I just had my hearing checked recently and was told in no uncertain terms to give up the iPod. Which I have done, not without deep regret. On this test I can hear 14 KHz faintly, nothing past that. As I was railing against fate, my wife pointed out that I've been listening to portable audio devices in one form or another since the Walkman cassette days, so it's no wonder. But it never felt like I was listening to it too loud... Let this be a lesson to all of you iPod etc. users out there. Beware!

Hope springs eternal - the Tower Records site (still up) says "This item will be available to order 12/4/2999." Only 992 years to go! I'll mark it on my calendar.

Forking over more potential dough to the option recipients. You never know when the stock price is going to dive. At the company where I work, people typically get some options when hired. There was a period when the stock was way low, and people hired when the stock option plan reflected that low price are in a very good position; others were hired when the stock was much higher than it now is, and their options are currently worthless. Stock options are always a risk.

Beautiful! Thank you so much for that.