Lazaro Vega

The Go:Organic Orchestra is about as different as large ensemble music can be. Interesting to read Lateef's comments regarding John Coltrane. While I'm tempted to say Go:Organic is in the spirit of the great artist collectives of the 70's, and though Lateef puts it in perspective as post-Coltrane, soundwise they freely mix creative improvised music, "contemporary" classical music and folk sounds (if not forms). Please click on link to enjoy an article and interview with Yusef Lateef and Adam Rudolph in this LA Weekly http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/04/music-burk.php

Smart, but like his friend Dick Reynolds, Phil's writing is witty, too. Liking this.

Was reading Alyn Shipton's "New History of Jazz" on the subject of "Free Jazz" and he reminds us that Taylor's first influence from the 1950's was Horace Silver, "a player who in some respects paralleled Thelonious Monk, in that his technique was unorthodox, yet he poured his personality and his feelings into his playing. In a conversation with A.B. Spellman. Taylor compared Silver's total commitment to his music to that of the soul singer James Brown, as part of 'the genuine tradition of a people." Shipton also notes that Val Wilmer's description of Taylor playing "88 tuned drums" and Taylor's idea, "We in black music think of the piano as a percussive instrument: we beat the keyboard, we get inside the instrument" is highly Afro-Centric, an important part of the decade's dialogue on black identity. Which seems to me to be, ah, Right On. To say Taylor is more aligned with European classical music than jazz is an impossibility for me: without Gospel, Blues and Jazz there would be no Cecil Taylor. To use another more familiar example: in his quest to change jazz forms, Dave Brubeck involved his music with many classical music methods, and I don't hear folks saying that he's nothing other than a jazz musician, "Two Part Contention" notwithstanding. An interesting point in Shipton's few pages on Taylor vis a vis this thread: after his period as a bandleader and the mid-60's classic recordings, Taylor found a period of solo performance to be most sustainable in the 1970's, and though in the late 70's he would tour with a band from time to time, he "began to specialize in working in duo with percussionists, starting with Tony Williams on his album "Joy of Flying." Later percussion partners included Max Roach and the South African drummer Louis Moholo." (End Shipton). So whatever early troubles he had with drummers, they eventually became equal partners in his musical interplay. The paths opened up by Sunny Murray and Andrew Cyrille are still well marked and unlike anything else in the jazz woods.

The Shepp/Bill Dixon Savoy session has alluded me. Would love to have that. Was reading in Alyn Shipton's "New History Of Jazz" today, and he made the interesting point that Shepp's radicalism was more in his poetry and dramatic writing for the stage than in his music, and pointed to the Impulse that has Trane's band on one side, Shepp's on the other. In general Shipton observes Trane's music as more intense and "radical," less tied to, say, the ballad tradition that Shepp was so in love with. (Obviously I'm talking about that one recording). Though Shepp came up in Philly with Cal Massey and some of the same musical teachers and influences Coltrane experienced, Shepp said he got a lot out of Cecil Taylor's intelligence, too. Shepp's return to the recording studio in the 1980's on Steeplechase was even more "conservative" than his previous work, with Ben Webster and images of pouring molasses coming to mind. (That, of course, is not to knock the duo with NHOP in a program of Bird's tunes, nor the Gospel or Blues records with Parlan). Fire Music directly inspired Chicago tenor saxophonist Edward Wilkerson when he put together his band "8 Bold Souls." The recording Shepp made on Delmark with Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio and the Verve concert tape with Roswell Rudd and Grachan Moncur III (isn't that the one?) show Shepp in the 1990's as a horn player, frankly, out of practice, with the Verve album finding him playing piano and singing to take a break from that big tenor. Thanks goodness he was well documented, thanks to Trane, in his younger prime. The New Contemporary Five still rocks my world.

There's an Ornette Coleman thread at All About Jazz.com that relates to an editorial running there. Thought maybe some of the fine folks here might want to contribute their insight, history and participation in Coleman's music. http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread....35332#post35332 and for good measure, some links to articles/interviews. http://jazz.xs2u.nl/interviews/Ornette%20Coleman_1.htm http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/7332706.htm http://www.jazzhope.com/review_CT_2003_09_...etteColeman.htm

The first time I saw the Sound of Jazz it was being projected on a record warehouse wall from the film collection of Bob Kester, and it was fabulous in the film version. The video tape is about 100th generation. They need to remaster it from a better source, but as the material is public domain, there's no real effort being put into it. It's easier to just find something and put it out, no matter the quality.

Some bands have tried to make the most of bootlegs as a means into the market, almost encouraging trading to build enthusiasm in a fan base. With jazz, recordings are more of a snapshot, a series of moving stills from the on-going dramatic musical life of a leader and their band. They hold a moment in evolution like spots on a cat; document the changes and refinements that are worked out nightly on the bandstand. What becomes frozen on the recording could shift by the next night, or after 6 months, a year. So in a sense jazz recordings, by which I also include the New Thing and improvised creative music, are less a product than they are a window into an evolving artistic process. Which begs the question, without prior judgement or moral stratus in the response: "What price love?" Should trees be broadast, frequency modulated, like waves from Jo Jones' cymbals? Or garretted in dehumidified basements, let out to run like big dogs over waist high speakers?

Would love to hear that Monk radio broadcast from his Blue Note period come out, too.

Thanks Jazzbo. I went to the site, signed up, and saw a name in one of the branches of a dude I know, e-mailed him and await his response. What are the ethics of these things? They were "advertising" another tree's stuff, including music played by Peter Brotzman, who's very much alive and would seemingly like to see some bread for his music. What do you think of the listener's responsibility to the artists?

I'd be very interested in having this material, but the link mentioned the Miles tree is no longer taking subscribers and is "propogation mode." Sounds like Miles to me! How would I go about getting this stuff at this point? The All Jazz site?

Thanks Spontoon -- was wondering if that was a blues. Thanks for the help.

During our recent on-air fundraiser I played Rhapsody In Blue from the set and had at least five calls immediately saying they had to have that. I usually don't get any. Then three or four e-mails. Then a voice message on the machine. I finally just went on the air, played it like a 45 and everytime mentioned Mosaic Records web site, and that the set was going away. It was already on the endangered species list when I started, soooo, maybe a few people in West Michigan helped this along...Lazaro

Jim mentioned it was a warm-up device on the other Roy thread, the one about the covers reversed. I have a Curtis Amy session on Pacific Jazz, is it, that I picked up because it had Marcus Belgrave on it. Haven't heard it in a few years, though.

Let's talk about the music on this one. I've collected a few of the things here: Diz and Roy, the Talk of the Town record, which is a producer's "answer" to Jonah Jones success, perhaps, and the Dale's Wail single anthology of this stuff, which is incredible: it's been a long time coming for people to have the Oscar Peterson/Roy Eldridge material in toto, or Kansas, or Oz, lefty, righty or staight-ahead...

How about that version of "Rhapsody In Blue"? Having the bari play the clarinet intro was a stroke of genius in simplicity.

Gary, thanks for reposting this thread. Excellent.

I think that's fair, K-U, and would recommend earlier Shepp/Rudd Impulse issues first, though there are moments. Featured Rudd last night on my radio program and really thought "Mixed" with Cecil and Rudd's arrangement of 'Naima" on "Four For Trane" were incredible, still. Especially the chamber sound world of Mixed juxtaposed with the entrance of Jimmy Lyons. Also played Communication #11 from the JCOA which would have to the high water mark of Rudd's classic avant period.

"Broad Strokes" has more of Ros's singing on it than I remembered. What do you think of the Steve Lacy/Roswell Rudd Verve recording, or the Rudd/Archie Shepp reunion on Verve? Here's a link to the Kohlhase Cd mentioned above: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&u...l=Alrf8zff2eh4k

COUW: From what label are those records you posted? Especially the Kenny Clarke. Thanks.

There are a few newer ones to add to the list: HIGHLY recommended is "Broad Strokes" on Knitting Factory, a 'ballad' album including one riotous cut, "God Had A Girlfriend," about the birth, life and death of a jazz club in Greenwich Village in the 1970's; Elvis Costello's "Almost Blue"; the "Theme From Babe" (That'll do, pig.). There's also a Roswell "songbook" record featuring Roswell with the Charlie Kohlhase Quintet on Nada that is out of sight. Includes a 12 minute blues called "Joel" written for Herbie Nichols Dad. And though not as strong, a recording called "MaliCool" on Sunnyside where Ros plays with African musicians, including "Jackie-ing" and Beethoven's "Ode To Joy."

I remember "The Jazz Skyline" as being one of the great Savoy sides, especially "Lover."

"Nicky's Tune." Thanks Larry. I should have checked my dates re Pharaoh and Harris. There was something I heard in Harris' playing last night which reminded me of some of the almost chordal patterning that Pharaoh does in some of his work: not the harsh, overblown, throaty stuff, but his trilling. As for the straight ahead guys who Harris may have influenced, ??? Maybe we could go back to Jim and ask who are the players he hears who aren't playing homogenously. The individuals -- Vandermark, Mwata Bowden, Fred, ???. I'm just fishing. Wondering how to answer the question, wondering if it were someone in Chicago, or just a general reaction to the over all fabric of the music. Maybe the answer is in "the way." That is jazz as a way of life, not a noun but a verb. Not a style, but a way of life that comes out in music. Maybe the Chicagoan never left that path, whereas some of the New York dudes, for whatever reason, did.

Those Vogue sides with Martial Solal have led Anthony Wilson to inspiration (The Parisian Knight). Haven't heard the disc you're alluding to. Most folks know his "Walkin' " solo with Miles as a starting point. Lucky on soprano is also lovely ("When Sunny Gets Blue" on the Nessa LP 'Body and Soul' is a good example). Have dug those Kenny Clark quartet tracks as much for the tunes as the playing (The Squirrel is it? Now's The Time...). Lucky is still alive, living near Seattle, God Bless him.

Thanks Larry: that is what I meant, that maybe Eddie Harris was an influence on the straight ahead guys around Chicago because of the frequency of his playing there, and his inside/almost outside approach (do you think any of that method came out of Pharaoh?). So you're saying Harris trick bag, however hip, may have limited him from attaining the fullness of the freedom principle? Hey man, Ira started playing alto again just a year or two ago. After doing a week of alto around the Chicago Jazz Festival (was that just last August, or two years ago?) he played in Saugatuck for a concert produced by Jim Cooper (Terry Martin was there). Holy Son of Charlie Parker! He was about 30 years in front of the rhythm section talent level wise, and 60 years behind them -- that bop syntax in the right hands is still thrilling, or as Jim was implying, inspiring! Ira was thee bop guy in Chicago, but how that translates into not becoming homogeneous, who knows. Now he's the man in Miami. John Bailey, trumpeter in Ray Baretto's band, is, partially, one of his "progeny." The music reflects the times. Creativity is not at a premium right now: stardom and economic success are, and those are formulaic endeavors, or just dumb luck, whereas music as individual expression in an artistic continuum...As Monk said, "Work." As Cecil said, "Artists are workers."

I can't think of another more ensemble oriented saxophone/bass/drums trio ever recorded up to this point in jazz history. The high water mark of the instrumentation, of course, being the great Sonny Rollins trio, yet for all of Rollins group interactivity, this band at this (Air) time took it to another level, and perhaps documented themselves living the principals of the AACM as never again. Sure, soloistically there is Threadgill's tonal-timbre extension/phrase-distillation/rhythm-deconstruction of Rollins in the slowly building crescendo that is "Keep Right On Playing Through The Mirror Over the Water," but the South Side meets Elliot Carter's string quartets that is "Subtraction" is orchestrated to a balancing point of mobile like sounds; poetically, if I may, touched into motion by Michigan avenue exhausts and Lake Michigan breezes. (Smart ass thing to say, but maybe the influences played out in this number go even further than the totality of black music and the Eastern micro-tones found in Threadgill's flute or Hopkins zither/bass on "GvE": there is an awareness of contemporary classical music occurring as a series of scored/improvised events, and moreover, the sound world has the quality of a chamber dirge). The hubkaphone IS silly: no more so than Threadgill's selling DeWars whiskey, though. Threadgill's strange wit narrative -- "Salute to the Enema Bandit" et. al. -- is abstracted in music on this Air date, whereas the trickster emerges graphically/linguistically soon after, as Jim has pointed out, which begins to play wit yo head. On Air Time it's still in the ears. This, to me, is the most "serious" of Air's recordings (and the first documentation of the band by an American company). If you're going to start somewhere, you might as well start smart (fucking 'crossover' is a mentally sick concept). Maybe McCall's sonorous weight in this music is what keeps Threadgill's clowns in the car. Chuck took me to the bar at the Blackstone Hotel, not the Jazz Showcase, but the bar along Michigan avenue, and McCall was there, holding court at a table of friends and family, just having flew back from his life in Europe. Chuck introduced us, and McCall was gracious as royalty. I had the good fortune of seeing McCall play a festival set in duet with Fred Anderson and it is without a doubt one of the highlights of listening to him play that he saw me in the crowd, looking under a cymbal, and played a few phrases looking right at me, smiled, and went back into his dialogue. His performance on Air Time, again, shows the world of free jazz drummers, Sonny Murray, Rashid Ali and those investigating the most radical changes in drums set concept since Kenny Clarke, are a vital and important part of the evolution of jazz. Not a forgotten, unheard tangent: don't buy that shit. I heard McCall's importance and I'm from VanderGrandRapidsMa, the land of Gerald Ford and John Calvin: if that can get to me, then you're very wrong about this music being unknown or unknowable. It's a matter of exposure, and the way things are going, well, they're locking up Tommy Chong now, that's how far they'll take it for you to forget all about the '60's and 70's. Because this is not sanitized, genetically engineered music it doesn't fit the sophistication of commerce. Yet it hails American know how, it responds to the creativity of it's forebears with the most flattering form of music appreciation: creative extension, not mere imitation. Hopkins is the extension of bass legacy that includes Israel Crosby, Wilbur Ware, Malachi...Chicago. How can we say, like Kerouac, OLD Chicago and mean the 1960's and 70's? Old is Nelson Algren old, it's King Oliver old, black migration old, Chi-Fire old. Old Air? Can it be... I remember sitting in a telecommunications class at Michigan State (300 students in one room) reading one of Kim Heron's articles about Air in one of the Detroit papers, when the professor condescendingly challenged the class to identify Bix Biederbecke, but then skipped on to his next point before I could call him on it, talk about the bridge to Stardust or something, or then challenge him to id the ragtime playing free jazz trio of the present. An early 1980's "it's all good moment" that went by way of egos in a survey class. The point is, Bix Lives. Air Lives. So suddenly.