Tom Storer

Personally, I don't see much point in over-earnest analysis of Woody Allen films at this stage of his career. He's been repeating himself for years. Still, I go see his movies as they appear, because I enjoy their warm, relaxed charm and light humor. So I saw "Midnight in Paris" but was disappointed, even though I don't demand much of them. I didn't get the impression that he or the actors made much of an effort with it. This time the whole thing felt sort of phoned in. Oh well. You can't win 'em all. I'll still go see his next one.

My wife is Irish and grew up drinking strong black tea with milk. Think English Breakfast tea, or as they call it there, Irish Breakfast tea. She converted me to it. Years later, she visited China and came back bearing green teas and oolongs. Now that's about all we drink. The good ones are expensive but very generous, in that you can easily get three or four pots out of the same leaves. Green tea is also a good way to make Chinese-style iced tea. You take a big bottle or jug, put in some tea leaves, fill it with cold water and put it in the refrigerator overnight. You end up with delicately flavored cold tea with a light green color, nothing like the orange-red iced Darjeeling or, even worse, the commercial varities. I drink the odd espresso from the office coffee machine but it's not very good. I'm in the States now for a couple of weeks' vacation and have had occasion to meet people at Starbucks. I just order a tall Americano and each time am astounded at how revolting it is. Next time I'll try something else.

A few days ago I saw a Paul Motian "Tribute to the MJQ" band at the Village Vanguard. Motian, Steve Nelson, Craig Taborn, and Thomas Morgan on bass. As you could guess, it was not a slavish imitation. It was like the MJQ in a funhouse mirror. And it was good!

I loved "Free Jazz" the first time I heard it, and still do. I love the rich double rhythm section, the mix of personalities among the horns, the whole free-association liberty of the thing. I would take it to the desert island (but not "Ascension").

The recent "Captain Black Big Band" album is getting lots of attention from reviewers. That and several other Evans CDs are available on eMusic.

Ethan Iverson was impressed by Solal's technique but miffed that Solal seemed to diss Monk as "not a serious pianist." Iverson's grumblings are here.

Back around the turn of the 80's I saw Olu's band the Okra Orchestra a couple of times. At first they had Threadgill and Craig Harris, Jean-Paul Bourrelly and Coster Mossamba, don't recall the bassist, and they played a gorgeous, lilting, down-home, Delta cum Carribean vibe, rarely going very far outside that groove. After a while he made it a louder, funkier affair, with electric bass, much more a party band. I believe I recall Greg Bandy on drums. Both versions were fantastic. If they had ever recorded I'm sure it would now be considered a classic. I've never even seen a torrented boot of the Okra Orchestra from those days, and goodness knows you can find torrented boots of just about anything at all.

I think I probably do get Zappa, and that's why I don't like him. But Zappa's many fans are fiercely loyal so I tread carefully.

Coleman is a fantastic bassist. I saw him quite a few times in the 80's, for example playing with James Williams and Billy Pierce's groups. Really outstanding. I'm sure he's sincere about admiring Sting and learning from him, although perhaps he overdoes the fawning in that article; I'm also sure Sting knows that Coleman could teach him at least as much in return.

In my opinion, musicians are more arrogant and manipulative when they try to second-guess their audience to achieve a predictable response than when they trust their audience to be open to honest art, be it a matter of passionate craftsmanship or leaps into the unknown. The very best thing Lee Konitz or Paul Bley, or any jazz musician, can do for listeners is to just play, following their own compass. It won't work for everyone. What does? Personally, I love melody and I love all sorts of music where melody doesn't figure much. When Lee Konitz plays, I'm in delight. What I don't want is to have the impression that someone is taking me by the hand and spoonfeeding me "melody" or "swing" or "blues" or whatever because they think it will make me smile and be happy for them. Konitz doesn't choose his notes based on whether I will like them or not: he has enough respect for his listeners to leave it up to me to decide. He's doing it not for him, and certainly not for me, but for the thing itself.

Yeah, I read it. Very good. I think they got that "at the table with" idea from the weekend Financial Times, which has celebrity interviews over lunch as a regular feature. Mind you, the FT probably got it from somewhere else.

Can't say I'm a Portal fan, but he's considered an important figure in France. He has a long career as a respected classical clarinetist and can be seen doing clarinet concertos with symphony orchestras as well as playing with hip international jazz musicians in projects of his own.

I haven't investigated Moran as much as I should have because when I did check him out, he was doing clever post-modern stuff like incorporating recordings of other sounds, conversations or I don't know what, into his music. I got impatient with it quickly. Maybe I'm just a middle-brow. But he sounds great elsewhere, such as on that Paul Motian record with Chris Potter. I'll get to him sometime soon. I'm a longtime Hersch fan. Saw him last year with John Hebert and Eric McPherson, sounding beautiful. Vijay Iyer is impressive but there's a mad-scientist aspect that puts me off. "My fiendishly clever algorithms follow a stochastic process! I will take over the world with my brilliance! Bwahahahahaaaa!"

I have been listening to Guillermo Klein's "Domador de Huellas" on Sunnyside. I've been hearing about Klein for years without getting around to checking him out. He's an Argentinian pianist/composer/arranger/bandleader and casual (but pleasing) singer, who went from Berklee to New York and was a pillar of Smalls in the 90s; now back in Buenos Aires. This release is his arrangements of songs by a 20th-century Argentinian songwriter, "Cuchi" Leguizamon, who seems to have written in traditional Argentinian forms but with a modern sensibility. This is one of the most beautiful and fascinating albums I've heard in years. The rhythms are Argentinian, the band, particularly the trumpet, also has a Latin sort of sound, but it's not percussion-heavy dance music or sing-along folk songs. Nothing like that. Most of the pieces are slow to medium-tempo developments of rich melodies, subtle harmonies and deceptively effective rhythms for a band consisting of piano, electric piano, two trumpets, sax, clarinet/bass clarinet, electric bass and drums. Not too much soloing. Klein sings on some pieces, guest vocalists on some others (including the excellent Liliana Herrero), and the rest are instrumental. One of the distinctive things about it is Klein's use of piano and electric piano as separate voices, with the electric piano adding color and cool spice to the arrangements. There's lots of depth and space, and great economy of movement. Nothing is wasted, and every note counts. I've been listening to it over and over for a couple of weeks and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. I am resolved to get all Klein's other albums, for he is clearly a rare talent. Here is a review that sums it up nicely.

Yeah, people like Allen are just the worst! Them and their ilks! But seriously, I don't think Allen was imposing any tests. Someone suggested that Henry Grimes would have been a good fit for Sonny Rollins' 80th birthday concert, and Allen speculated that, IF he were no longer in the habit of playing changes, maybe he wouldn't have been a good fit. For that specific concert. I perceived no judgment of Grimes' playing in a "non-changes" context. On the other hand, you make a judgment in the other direction by implicitly putting down "changes" when you characterize Grimes as having "gone beyond that," as if mastering harmony were merely a way-station that "great" improvisers "go beyond."

If we let them, anyway. "Zero tolerance" is stupid. Does using intelligent judgment cause a risk? Yes. But exercising horrifically bad judgment to protect against a hypothetical risk leads, in this case, to actual (not risked) mistreatment of a young child. Teacher, school administrators, police... all adults. All acting irresponsibly, and the vulnerable party, the child, is the one who gets traumatized. (They might say they are acting in accordance with their legal responsibilities, but they are ignoring their responsibility, as members of human society, not to frighten, intimidate and shame little children for no good reason.)

I pretty much agree with Sangry that this is a rearguard kind of debate. The generations are marching on, jazz doesn't sound like it did even twenty years ago. People are upset that some people have some kind of racial bias when listening to jazz--as if it were surprising to find racial bias in any setting. Albert Murray thinks this, Randy Sandke thinks that. Yeah, OK. It's an interesting debate, sometimes. But I suspect it will be increasingly irrelevant and that in 2030, maybe even 2020, people will look back at this little commotion and think "Wow, I guess that was an important debate back then." Personally, I think age is the most important element in who can play what (not to mention who can hear what). Younger players, in general, just don't swing the same way older players do, independently of their skin. Not necessarily any worse, just different. When I was a teenager and young man, the swing I heard was coming from the 40's-through-60's generations, and that's still something magic to me. Sitting in the room with Max, Elvin, Blakey, Haynes, Higgins, Kenny Clarke, etc. on the drums, it defined certain things. I love a lot of younger players, but it's a different flavor now. That's life. Things don't stand still. Chris, any gossip about why Albert Murray and Crouch aren't on speaking terms any more? I thought Crouch idolized Murray. Not that he doesn't have a history of changing his mind.

He's been announced as playing the New Morning in Paris on March 15, I think, but it doesn't show up on that list. Now I'm worried.

I haven't been back to that area since forever and have never been to the store, but Stereo Jack's has been so universally praised by those who know it that it has become legendary for me, and I suspect for many others among the widely dispersed jazz Internet tribe. My sympathies to you and all your customers, Jack. It's a damn shame about that lease.

Fingers crossed for the Queen.

I haven't been buying anything recently so I made up for it in an end-of-year splurge on five CDs, all of which have generated a lot of enthusiasm among critics and fans: Cassandra Wilson, Silver Pony: I like her more and more. Tarbaby, The End of Fear: Orrin Evans/Eric Revis/Nasheet Waits with strong guest stars (Oliver Lake, Nicholas Payton and J.D. Allen). Sam Newsome, Blue Soliloquy: solo soprano sax. Randy Weston and his African Rhythms Sextet, Storyteller: Sounds very promising, with Lewis Nash on drums. Kenny Werner, New York Love Songs: solo piano. Ought to be a good mix. Supposedly they'll cross the Atlantic before Christmas, but I won't hold my breath.

I'm terribly sorry, Rolf. Julie was clearly an extraordinary person. Hang in there.

Sad news. An anecdote: my wife was for many years a literary agent, and the agency she was with represented the novelist John Le Carré in France. She got to know Mimi Perrin, and one day she mentioned in passing that she was going to have lunch with her. I said, "Really?? The singer?" "No," she replied, "She's a translator, not a singer. She translates Le Carré." I thought it was odd that there should be two Mimi Perrins, and explained about the Double Six, etc. To my wife's surprise, it turned out to be one and the same.

I like Cage's excellent critical article, "4-1/2 pages."

Yeah, but Haynes has been a leader for decades. But OK, OK. The Roy Haynes Defense League will let you off the hook.