Tom Storer

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.

Is that Martino's Wes Montgomery Tribute Project? That's how he's billing himself for a March 9 concert here in Paris (for which I have my ticket). Be sure to post a review!

Actually, I think Wynton probably did a good job of providing a comfortably swinging, bluesy backdrop to Willie. I mean, blues and standards are what each of them do, right? Willie doesn't need a cutting-edge modern jazz group, he needs a few pros who can play the blues behind a singer. I'd be surprised if Wynton's quintet didn't fit that bill fine. One reason I think so is that I heard a recording of the Wynton septet backing Bob Dylan on a couple of Dylan tunes--it worked much better than you would think.

I was annoyed when the format changed to CD because I didn't want to have to spend money on a CD player. On the other hand, vinyl was getting worse and worse. I used to buy an LP, immediately tape it, and then listen to the tape, because the vinyl was so quickly damaged just by normal playing. So I was happy to be able to just buy the music and listen to it without further operations. And let's face it, digital music has many advantages we would be unhappy to do without now. Which is not to say that the music industry's motives were not purely venal.

CROAK. RIBIT.

D'OH! [slaps forehead] I got Clifford Thornton and Clifford Jarvis confused. But obviously Jarvis loaned Thornton his drum set that day. I wouldn't be surprised if we find a companion picture of Clifford Jarvis playing trombone. Or--wait--was it tenor sax? No, that was Clifford Brown. Unless it was Clifford Jordan on trumpet?

Since you asked... Your first sentence should read: "Welcome to the wacky world of Organissimo; stick around, it gets even better!" A semi-colon is usually preferable to the dash. If you must employ the dash, then you should have put a space between it and the word "organissimo." You should have two spaces between a punctuation mark that ends a sentence (such as an exclamation point) and the first word in the next sentence. I beg to differ! Using the em-dash (a longer mark than the dash, and inserted without spaces) is a perfectly acceptable way to vary punctuation. When the em-dash is unavailable (as it is here on this forum), the usual practice is to put in two dashes, again without spaces--like this. In addition, nowadays it is only dusty academics ( ) who put two spaces after the final punctuation of a sentence. The two-spaces rule dates from the days of monospaced fonts, when it helped visually mark the end of a sentence. With today's proportional fonts, it's no longer necessary. All professionally published material nowadays has only one space after final punctuation. As one grammar and punctuation geek to another, I salute you!

So the answer to your question could have simply been "yes"?

Damn, I was there! I remember that 52nd St. thing. I recall seeing Roy Haynes and the Hip Ensemble, and a big band that would have been Sam Rivers. Later in the day Haynes could be seen on a bench with a woman friend, the two of them sharing a huge spliff. As for the drummer in photo #1, doesn't it look like this gentleman? I would have thought our own clifford_thornton would have caught this!