Lazaro Vega

Grand Rapids. Ottawa Tavern, Pearl and Ottawa in the Waters Building, downtown Grand Rapids. CONCERT: The Phil Markowitz/Zach Brock Quartet April 26 @ 7:30pm - 10:30pm The Ottawa Tavern is pleased to host the Phil Markowitz/Zach Brock Quartet, a powerful new band based in New York City. Along with legendary pianist Phil Markowitz and modern jazz virtuoso violinist Zach Brock, this version of the group feature...s a Chicago-based rhythm section of Matt Ulery on bass and Jon Deitemyer on drums. Tonight's concert-style performance will include two sets, at 7:30pm and 9:30pm. Admission $20 per set. Tickets available at the door only. "Phil is one of the best musicians I have ever known...a skilled improviser, composer and arranger, and a great asset." -- David Liebman "Phil is one of the most sensitive, lyrical and inventive piano players of all time." -- Chet Baker �I called the great French violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and I said �So, who�s the new cat? Who�s got the stuff? And he said Zach Brock.� -- Stanley Clarke

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-herbie-hancock-20120425,0,896832.story

The library is digging up Ringolevio for me to read: apparently Ringolevio is a type of tag game played on the streets of New York. "Final Score" is staying with me: quick, terse, consice writing; effective noire metaphore and similie, and a plot that's actually more effective, emotionally and evocatively, than the movie "Heat," which this story is in the most general way similar to. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/emmett-grogan/final-score/#review

Anyone picked this up yet? Blue Lake Public Radio is offering this as a premium for contributing to the radio station during Jazz a la Carte, this Saturday morning, 7 to 10 a.m.

"I'm Checkin' Out, Goombye" is my fave from this.

Rick Lopez of Erie was cleaning house, sent out a note about "free" books. Who wouldn't? I did. This one, "Final Score," came with a bunch of others. Grogan wrote "Ringolevio," too, which I hadn't heard of or read but now feel I must. Are you hip to this author? Ever read "Final Score"?

Click the "schedule" for full listings of this weekend's grand opening events featuring the one and only Randy Marsh! http://www.thegilmorecollection.com/ot.php

Yes, that's the link I posted at the top of the thread. Heard that live today and kept waiting for the name Babby Dodds to come up. It didn't, but his spirit is all over that desktop concert.

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/17/146592560/the-jazz-drummer-who-makes-music-out-of-everything

Headhunters did it for me as a 13 year old, and listened to Chameleon again last night and still love Harvey Mason's beat and his manipulations of it. Herb's Rhodes solo on "Sly," too. Mike Clark, subsequently. Damn. Headhunters got to me more than Mahavishnu or Weather Report. It was an open door. Then came Maiden Voyage......

"It's just like a Lester Bowie solo," said Dave Flexingburgstein of Jism Magazine. He said it brightly. ROTFL Our hero.

Back to work tonight on Blue Lake Public Radio and looking forward to featuring the music of the great New Orleans clarinetist Johnny Dodds. Understanding the role in music of the early jazz greats is the most critical step in appreciating the entire genre. Dodds, who passed away before the "New Orleans Revival" was underway in the 1940's, helped define small band jazz of the 1920's, and did so next to the pioneering leaders in the music: King Oliver, Jelly Morton and Louis Armstrong. Not only that, recordings sessions under his own name capture on record many otherwise undocumented south side Chicago players from the 1920's. Johnny "Dots" in the first 20 minutes of each hour, 10 p.m. - 3 a.m. edt tonight via http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html Jelly ROLL Morton

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2012/03/5490332/trouble-jazz-ahead-weekend-jazz-gallery-henry-threadgill-talks-about

Pianist Simon Nabatov is quoted by Stuart Broomer in the notes to "Spinning Songs of Herbie Nichols" (Leo CD LR 632), "Knowing too well how little Nichols' music enjoyed the awareness and presence even in the narrow jazz circles, my main dilemma was this: Do I assume the role of 'educator,' keeper of the Urtext, and restrain my own thoughts and feelings about the material? Or do I allow myself to add a bit more, assuming the pre-existing knonwledge of the music, so that I could feel free to dispense with the straight academic approach and let my imagination run wild...Well, that evening I definitely decided for the latter." This recording fascinates me, and demands patience. Nichols' "Wildflowers" shows up on the new Vijay Iyer Trio recording "Accelerando" (ACT 9524-2), but it's Iyer's ability to manage and then excell within the polyrhythms of Henry Threadgill's composition "Little Pocket Sized Demons" that blows me away on this one. With Stephan Crump, bass, and Marcus Gilmore, drums. Wayne Escoffery's sound is just huge. Have tasted, uncritically, a bit of his new one "The Son Of One," and just opened The Ben Riley Quartet featuring Wayne Escoffery, "Grown Folks Music." Yes, Monk: Friday the 13th and Teo. Interested to hear Escoffery on Without a Song from that one. There's a new Kenny Wheeler big band on CamJazz: The Long Waiting. (CAM 5044). Liner notes by Evan Parker. Trumpeter Tim Hagan's "The Moon Is Waiting" is OUT! Have heard him often with big bands, and his big band writing, so here, for me at least, to catch him in a small group is something else. With Vic Juris and Rufus Reid. (Palmetto). Matt Brewer, the bassist, joins Damion Reid, the drummer, in support of alto saxophonist Steve Lehman on "Dialect Fluorescent," which includes the "originalist" Lehman playing Trane, Duke Pearson and Jackie McLean, as well as originals. The groove on Jeannine...I fixed my back!(Pi Recordings). David Ades, an alto player from Austrailia, with Tony Malaby, tenor, Mark Helias, bass, and Gerald Cleaver, drums, just in today (http://www.davidadesmusic.com)

"Home" opens with a never-before recorded Wayne Shorter composition, 'Utopia.' On this driving but light-toned version, the Roney Brothers blend together very well over the active rhythm section. Their solos, along with that of keyboardist Aruan Ortiz, over the tricky chord changes sound effortless." Scott Yanow. Later in the program they play Shorter's "Plaza Real." edit to change Homeo to Home and ticky to tricky

Up for C.T.'s B.D.

Tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson came to Grand Rapids in 1997 and played with Ken Vandermark the DKV Trio at The Underground Studio; he returned in 2002 appearing at The Wealthy Theater with the Roscoe Mitchell/Fred Anderson Quintet. Other than a 1966 concert with Joseph Jarman in Detroit, and possibly a hit in the late 1990's near Dearborn, those were the only appearances by the great Chicago tenor saxophonist in Michigan. Tonight on Jazz From Blue Lake we honor the memory of Fred Anderson by broadcasting recordings made live at his beloved Velvet Lounge in Chicago, with the Territory Orchestra at Millennium Park, and the captivating duo recordings with drummer Robert Barry and, earlier, drummer Steve McCall. 10 p.m. - 3 a.m. edt, same time zone as NY, tonight via http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html

I have that RCA single, The Band That Don Redman Built. Would like to pick up more from a complete point of view, though it seems after '29 they weren't recorded as the band that was playing in Detroit, and after 30 became a different animal all together.

They were a phenomenal black swing band in Detroit in the late 1920's that sounded like a group from the 1930's; and they had a special chemistry that made their ensemble playing amazingly tight, even while navigating the original forms and passages constructed by trumpeter/arranger John Nesbitt. Unfortunately, the were called McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and for some reason management wouldn't let them out of Detroit to build a national reputation. The band held forth at the Graystone Ballroom in Detroit after 1927, often taking the stage before and after the Jean Goldkette Orchestra in a rare simpatico of the races in the Klan poisoned environment of the Motor City in the 20's. Please join us after 10 p.m. tonight for one of the most critically under-rated bands of jazz, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, via http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html.

They're so very different -- one (Nonaah) primary a solo album, even a workshop recording, the other (Snurdy McGurdy and Her Dancin' Shoes) an ensemble recording melding together creative musicians from two sympathetic scenes. Both great. In fact both featuring the composition "Sing" if you get the double CD of Nonaah. Don't forget "Before There Was Sound." If you've never fully experienced "Sound," it would be cool to hear the earlier recording first, then wade in.

I don't know -- seemed an important structural element during that drone segment with the bass....

Circular breath-a-tion!

Detroit-bred jazz pianist Tommy Flanagan is our featured artist after 10 p.m. tonight on Jazz From Blue Lake. For the first 20 minutes of each hour we'll sample his recorded legacy, highlighted by music with Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, a special set with Sonny Rollins including the composition "Remembering Tommy," and some swing sides, too, with Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell and Budd Johnson. The rights of swing streaming live from http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html tonight!

Allen, Did you catch the program? We started with Life Goes to a Party and Texas Chatter from the 1938/early '39 recordings of James with the Basie bandsmen (Basie wanted to help him get going as a band leader and lent him his guys: great Hershal Evans there). There's a cheap-o CD on Laserlight Digital called Stompin' at the Savoy (15 771) from 1948 with "Ziggy" Elmer on it (who is probably your Carl), though Juan Tizol is also there and heard; Joe Mondgragon, bass and Don Lamond, drums. We played a big band version of Neal Hefti's Blue Beard Blues from that as well as King Porter (which is almost 7 minutes long). Harry's Tuxedo Junction from that era shows his familiarity with Dizzy, FWIW. There's this 1964 recording in stereo from The Holiday Ballroom in Chicago with Buddy that knocked me out last night. Played it late, after 2 a.m.

Dan Morgenstern said "You Made Me Love You" was the Harry James recording jazz fans never forgave him for making. Personally, I'm over it. After spending the early 1950's in semi-retirement with Bette Grable raising horses, James appeared in the film "The Benny Goodman Story" and the bug bit him: he was back with a Count Basie style big band that he kept swinging for the rest of his career, often with Buddy Rich on drums. Thanks to Dick Fletcher, brother of band leader Sammy Fletcher, for donating some great live Harry James recordings (off the radio in 1948, live from Chicago, 1964, live in Florida, 1970) to Blue Lake, which you'll hear tonight, 10 p.m. - 3 a.m. edt via http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html