Lazaro Vega

http://www.sandnermusic.com/linernotes.html

Marcus has several dates as a leader, though mostly on smaller labels. His most recent recording under his own name that I'm aware of is his nonet tribute to Louis Armstrong, which will perform at the 12th Annual Sutton's Bay Jazz Festival (north of Traverse City on the Leelanau Penninsula) in July. You might check out Parkwood Records of Toronto to see other dates under his own name. Here he is with Doc Cheatham: http://www.jazzology.com/item_detail.php?id=JCD-324 Other sideman dates include McCoy's The Legend of the Hour on Columbia; a Mickey Tucker date on Muse; and a Kirk Lightsey recording on Criss Cross. Over the weekend Belgrave peformed a concert in Detroit, including a rendition of "Georgia" dedicated to Brother Ray. Belgrave remains one of the most dedicated jazz educators on the planet -- his interface with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's student program is one of the most recent examples. Geri Allen, James Carter, Kenny Garrett, Rodney Whittaker, Regina Carter and just about any of the young players to come out of Detroit in the last 20 years probably played with or learned from Belgrave in some way. You might check out a regional (Great Lakes) pianist named Steve Sandner who hired Belgrave as a sideman for recording, including a version "Let The Good Times Roll."

And as much as independent labels will re-issue this, they won't be doing it from the original master tapes, which may give the label of ownership the possibility of adding more tracks, etc.

Larrry: "Not that it could or should have been otherwise, but is there a moment of humor in Trane's music?" Little Old Lady (?)

Don't forget Bix.

NPR has several features on their web page: http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/...re_1947628.html

Thanks Chuck -- couldn't recall for sure. So Nelson only arranged that one Columbia studio session of Monk's music...? Was Don Sickler involved in transcribing anything for that re-union concert, or where those all straight from Overton?

That is just too young. Had the pleasure of bringing the band to Grand Rapids twice and enjoying his incredible company. Saw him play in Chicago and Ann Arbor, too, including a twin evening of duets with Roscoe Mitchell (one night playing Lacy's music, the next playing Mitchell's). His quintet's instrumentation (when his wife wasn't singing) was based on the Jimmy Noone Band of the 1920's. What a man, and what a musical thinker -- his idea that you're either on the offensive or defensive as an artist is something to be taken to heart. I'm very sad to hear he has left at such a young age.

Actually, some of those Black and Blues were in my mind, too, from having heard them in Chuck's basment. Maybe from "The Midnight Slows."

Anyone reading catch their performance at The Chicago Jazz Festival a couple of years ago?

The band played great, but I could barely keep my eyes open. I think the players went to their host families and got some sleep. Our host, a trombonist, had two little kids, a wonderful wife and loads of questions about jazz, so I never zonked out before the hit.

Waller and Pops, or even Bing, but Glenn Miller?

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/cnessa.htm

Yeah, Larry, that's a clear way of expressing it. We talked a lot while he was here in Grand Rapids and it was fascinating. I'll post some of that when it comes into form and there's some time. When I mentioned I'd be featuring Duke Jordon on the radio program he just kept saying with equal parts astonishment and reverence and disbelief, "Duke Jordan!....Duke Jordan!....Duke Jordan....!" God rest Wilbur Campbell. The Chicago scene lost a major voice when he passed. Was playing the Louis Smith/Jodie Christian duo cd the other night. Have you heard that? Jodie carries a big load musically and brings the music a fullness and gentleness that is fullfilling and touching. Maybe I heard Chase live once, but most of his music I recall from the few records he's on. Would love to have talked to him -- there's a great example of a musician going into the tradition, pulling out even one of the most eccentric players in the world to emulate, and yet remaining personal. What a great example few will ever hear or follow. Nicky is only familiar to me from his records with Ira which are fine. By the way, I am Blue Lake, too. Peace.

You're welcome Brownie. I just opened it today, and played the last movement on the radio. There's also a recent one on Justin Time of Cecil with the Italian Instabile Orchestra that's very different. Not really like the Berlin big band recording.

According to Lewis via the excerpt printed in Current Musicology (pg 103), when the post card went out calling for a general meeting to discuss what would eventually become the AACM, trumpeter Philip Cohran was one of the three invitees, the meeting took place at his house, and "Cohran in particular had found sustenance in the work of Sun Ra (and Lewis quotes this from Shapiro 2001), with whom he (Cohran) had performed until Ra's departure for New York in 1961." Lewis discusses the Art Ensemble's first regular performances at the Theatre du Lucernaire in Montparnasse, Paris, as causing a sensation. "The group's unusual hybrid of energy, multi-instrumentalism, humor, silence, found sounds, and home made instruments -- and most crucially, extended collective improvisation -- proved revelatory to European audiences." The notions I put forth above, about Roscoe's early influences and where his personal sound might come from, are part of the problem: seeing the narrative from the hero soloist traditional jazz point of view, when this band, perhaps more than another, asserted the group as primary. Which shows me how far backwards the dialogue about music has slipped in the last 24 years (and I along with it). The AACM is so much heavier than people in the world of jazz today realize -- both the organization's history and the great challenging music in that history, and the ideals it embodied in keeping a democratic, multi-voiced group of artists and musicians going in the same general direction: forward. So much of music is commercialized today, that it is no wonder such a noncommercial, artist driven group would find itself on the outs with the critical, industry establishment. And for those reasons alone this is the group to watch and deal with. Muhal remains a vital, brilliant musician, and it is good to see Braxton getting his music more recorded than he has in years. Hell, it is one of the great jazz stories of our time that Ornette is back out, giving regular concerts since last June. A far bigger story to the music than Wayne's temporary choice to go acoustic again. Or maybe equally important, but Ornette isn't getting his new music recorded and promoted the way Wayne's is and that is just symptomatic of the "jazz business" being too much about business and not enough about jazz, imho. Peace.

Yes, and did an extensive interview with the author that was on the Jazz Institute of Chicago web page, but seems to have disappeared. I have it at work and will post sometime this week. It is a helpful book, many primary source interviews from his work with the BBC.

This may work: http://www.downbeat.com/artists/window.asp...e=Wayne+Shorter

Very good.

It went fairly cheap on e-bay. That the second link offers it for only $14.99 is a great price for a double cd import.

Cool Larry. Thanks for sharing. Seemed like you were observing and asking a question in relation to bars Shorter raised for himself, and in the end hitting a note of appreciation for what was possible. Is that Downbeat piece on line anywhere we might read the whole "interview"?

Quote: Protesting Shorter's growing "devotion to sonic color, virtually at the expense of any other kind of energy and invention," the critic Larry Kart attributed this to his "seeming desire to renounce the notion of the improvising musician as the purveyor of a competitive, flamboyant ego." "A noble impulse at first thought, but one that cannot be achieved, I think, by the amplification of simplicities and restraints that amount to little more than a toning-down of invention. What I hear on this album is a musician trying to disappear. I wish he wouldn't." Is that really a protest? Skipping to my Lu....lol

Ubu, we're cool. I was hearing you. And, yes, Two T's is exactly that: a week at work for the Feel Trio. William Parker is impressive in this setting -- he is an incredible fit.

Thanks for putting the sense of humor from both bands into sharper focus Simon. Last night we featured Gary Peacock on the radio program, always a good excuse to play some Ayler, and man, "Vibrations" is a hell of a record. Of course led off with "Ghosts: Second Variation" from "Spiritual Unity." In any case, Roscoe's well quoted about his encounter with Albert Ayler in Europe and how that combined with mid-60's modal Trane ("Out of this World"), Ornette, some of Dolphy, Benny Golson and some r&b cats helped to shape and define his own sound. The players in Ra's band, just as players, seem to be coming from their own personal places and influences which pre-dates some of this activity. I mean, Marshall Allen is 80.

Those points are all on the money. By saying Ra was more "traditional" I didn't mean to imply he had no audience among the young. The notion that Ra was a traditionalist in essence expands the idea of traditionalism, too, because as we all know he was OUT THERE. The apects of Sun Ra that dealt directly with Dameron, Monk and Henderson don't seem to me to have as strong a correlation in the Art Ensemble (which isn't a bad thing, just a difference, and a percieved one at that -- I may be all wet). You hear "Old" which harks back to an earlier form, and there's a version of "Creole Love Call" on Dreaming of the Masters, but the AE's connection to the past seemed more diffuse, or catholic (small c), whereas Ra's roots as Henderson's helper at the Club De Lisa gave him a very personal connection to one of great leaders of the Swing Era.