Lazaro Vega

I don't know, that Monk always made people learn his music by ear no matter how long it took is insightful. The way he sings drum rhythms to Paul Motian and turns his life around, or tells Billy Higgins what not to play...I would bet that if you wanted to find out about the bridge to Off Minor in some way other than learning it by ear, "there's a footnote for that." He alludes to so many different sources of information for more specific investigation. Has anyone looked at the Butch Warren interview on MSNBC that he alludes to? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24864395

This is mentioned in the Kelly Book, and in the footnote doubts its authenticity. Published after Steve Lacy passed away, and since he put out almost everything he ever wrote this was kind a golden kernel (so why didn't it come out when he was alive, reasons Kelly, who doesn't come right out and say it's a fake, but is skeptical). Lacy did mention many of these things in interviews over the years, however. Found the segment in Kelly's book on Lacy with Monk at the Jazz Gallery the most comprehensive bit on that history that I've come across. Recall talking to Lacy about it a bit, too. He mentioned the Jazz Gallery, the repertoire -- didn't realize, though, that Rouse and Lacy began their blending sounds at that point. They sounded great in that one-off "That's The Way I Feel Now" recording that Hal Wilner put together.

Thanks for the inspiration, David. Played "Old Devil Moon," "Ghost of a Chance," "That Old Devil Called Love," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," as well as Philly Joe's "Blues for Dracula" and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross's "Halloween Spooks" this morning. Hard to program a "spooky" show from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Ended with a new record by drummer Pete Siers featuring a "toccata and fugue" organ approach to "Melody for Melonae." My kids are practically chewing on the computer asking for an emoticon. Scary:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuar/.ar...of.Jimmy.McHugh

Right on both. Wink for Sinatra; and, of course, Nat Cole's version of Too Young.... And thanks Ghost!

The BBC's Alyn Shipton spoke with Lazaro Vega on October 5th about his new biography of songwriter Jimmy McHugh, "I Feel a Song Coming On." That week Shipton flew to New York for a concert of McHugh's music at Merkin Recital Hall by singer/pianist Michael Feinstein, then a book signing at the Manhattan Barnes and Noble (which featured music by pianist/vocalist John Proulx, who's originally from Grand Rapids and a former Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp camper). Please join Blue Lake Public Radio this Sunday evening from 7 to 10 p.m. for the interview with Shipton as well as McHugh's music played by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Johnny Hodges, and Earl Hines and others; or sung by Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Rushing, Aretha Franklin, Armstrong, Waller, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Chet Baker and others. www.bluelake.org From The National Ledger: A LOVELY WAY TO SPEND AN EVENING: The descendants of Jimmy McHugh are planning to turn out Wednesday night (10/7) for Michael Feinstein's Carnegie Hall tribute to the American songwriting great, creator of such immortal tunes as "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street." The event also coincides with the launch of "I Feel a Song Coming On," Alyn Shipton's new biography of McHugh, and there'll be a very elaborate book signing at the Barnes & Noble store at Lincoln Center on the Friday (10/9) reports McHugh's grandson, noted photographer Jim McHugh. While the tunesmith certainly is worthy of such fanfare, the McHugh family deserves lots of credit for keeping his name and work in the spotlight. As Jim sees it, publicizing his grandfather now has a lot of similarities to the late McHugh's own efforts toward "song plugging" back in the day. "When coast-to-coast radio came in and NBC broadcast across the United States, it was just as revolutionary in his time as the Internet is now. For the first time, you could do something in New York and people in California could hear it. The difference now is that the individual can be quite effective," he says. "Now we do Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and all that. We're using YouTube and in New York, we're going to be doing a podcast. And it's not something that ends, either. You have to keep rolling forward. The family has been very aggressive in grasping new technologies." According to Jim, his grandfather's estate -- the family -- "holds one of the largest archives of standard music ephemera in the world. My grandfather kept everything. Every note of correspondence, memos, extensive interviews." Around 10 years ago, "Because I'm a photographer, and was very aware of the digital revolution, we started photographing and scanning everything, so we don't have to go into those fragile old paper files, and Alyn Shipton was able to do his work at home in England."

Digging the Nessa re-issue of "Spirit Catcher" a lot, wow, the sound; as well as the new double CD "Spritual Dimensions" from Cuneiform with the Golden Quintet (Vijay Iyer; John Lindberg; and both Pheeroan Aklaff and Don Moye) plus a group called "Organic," which takes off the on the electric Miles side of the high Wadada.

Yes, Vincent is on trombone and is featured, I think, the soloists aren't listed, in the Kenton-like suite "Requiem." Also from Michigan State's music program is Jason Marshall who wrote "Ms. Garvey, Ms. Garvey," a groovy shuffle.

Allen, no doubt about Bud Powell: he was the quintessential bebop pianist, and the most appreciated. Monk had to wait for that 5 spot gig to break through on that level. Yet the point here is that Bud was a protege of Monk's early on (and one of Monk's champions, recording some of Monk's compositions before Monk did). I wasn't necessarily looking for a eureka moment per se but just sort of aching along with Monk and Nellie as they go through these pains of being under-employed, broke-ass and scuffling, the whole while knowing Monk was an important force in the musical community. There are certainly temperament and personality issues going on, but when he's getting left out of the discussion musically, sheyot. And, yes, Dizzy and Milt Hinton were up on the roof of the Cotton Club working on new ideas during intermission from Cab's band, though Cab didn't always appreciate what they tried to bring down from the roof. As to Monk at Minton's...was just listening to a Don Byas CD called "Midnight at Minton's" where Monk plays "Indiana" in his own way, though far off mic. And the Dizzy Big Band Cd with Monk to listen for his accompaniments.

Keep in mind, too, I haven't quoted him at length. It seems to me that Monk was, as Trane would say later of Monk's gift, the Architect of the underlying changes in the music that the virtuoso stylists were innovating with or on. That seems to be what people were turning to him for in the Minton's days. Then, with the publicity surrounding Bird and Diz and Monk feeling shorted, saying he's going to go in a different direction, and coming up with Introspection as Kelly lays it out, is pretty interesting and has me going back to whatever Minton's recordings I can get my hands on to see how, if at all in a major way, Monk's playing changed from then to his Blue Note contract.

In the chapter "The Birth of Bebop." The advance proof that I have of the book lists page 337 for "Up until this point, there had been plenty of hints at how the front-line soloists would tackle the new jazz, not least in the recordings of Gillespie and Parker with their respective big bands that were made before the [recording] ban." He's talking about the Hines and Ecksintine bands, of course, in terms of the soloists, and McShann, and Calloway, Hite and Millinder in terms of "conventional" rhythm section. Shipton writes, "In my view, the main change to emerge from the after-hours clubs like Minton's and Monroe's Uptwon House is that they provided the opportunity for rhythm sections to work out how to accompany bebop." Then there's mention of Tadd Dameron with Harlan Leonard, McGhee with Kirk, Kenny Clarke with Teddy Hill. Later he says again, "Much as been written about the significance of the jam session in jazz, and in particular to the development of bebop." Then, "I remain skeptical about the degree to which the jamming at Minton's and Monroe's genuinely moved jazz forward, beyond consolidating the changes to the role of the rhythm section. Much more of the development that would subsequently become part of the universal vocabulary of jazz took place, it sems to me, in the regular wokring lineups of bands on 52nd street, beginning with Dizzy Gillespie's Quintet, which played at the Onyx from" October '43 to March '44. Shipton spends a good amount of time on this. Kelly's book, it seems to me, doesn't separate the pianist from the band, and that Monk's informal tuition (which was acknowledged by Bird and Diz in print or interviews) played a major role in how they would develop ideas out in the world. Like I said, too, Kelly frequently sites Shipton's "Groovin' High," which I feel compelled to get now.

Too bad there was a sort of internecine war between Gillespie (Feather) and Monk as to who did the most conceptually to foster the music's stylistic evolution. Noticing in Shipton's "New History of Jazz" the idea, in his opinion, that more happened to foment change with working bands on the road than in jam sessions, which cuts Monk out of the genesis "debate." This book, to me, however, puts the "scene" as neighborhood into a realistic perspective, and Monk's centrality to that neighborhood's musical community and evolution into a more important relief than can be sloughed off with the "homemade" put down. That scene with Billy Taylor being pulled out of the club and taken to the piano session in the apartment speaks to the enduring relevance of passing it on, no matter how informally-- because in the end it was all traveling to the bandstand, whether you got paid for it or not.

Part of the celebration of the New England Conservatory of Music jazz studies program?

You bet: Don Byas to follow as jazz continues to 3 a.m.

Please join Blue Lake Public Radio this Thursday evening at 10 p.m. for guitarist Brad Shepik's response to the climate crisis: The Human Activity Suite. With Shepik on guitars; Ralph Alessi, trumpet; Gary Versace, piano and accordion; Drew Gress, bass; and Tom Rainey, drums (making his third appearance live from the Blue Lake studios). A band of leaders coming together to perform Shepik's "worldly" compositions. www.bluelake.org/radio

So has anyone heard this piece "Meet Dr. Christian" that Mary Lou Williams and Monk both copped from? (Walkin' and Swingin' and Rhythm-a-ning). Sounds like he has access to something completely unavailable (page 74).

I thought Pres had syphilis....

Well, there are the Miles Davis biographies by Jack Chambers and Ian Carr, as well as his Autobiography with Quincy Troupe. The writers of "Infatuation," the new Fats Navarro biography, take Troupe to task on some sort of summery ideas that appeared in previous sources that show up in the Miles autobiography; and then we see Troupe's tape log quoted directly in the new Monk bio, sort of side-stepping the credibility issue. Important information to be aquainted with none the less.

The author here does a great job of expanding the community Monk came out of, especially the chapters on his early musical life and the world of Minton's. Been reading all the footnotes along the way, too, and see a need to pick up Alyn Shipton's Dizzy book. That Monk is central to bebop, and not a side story of an independant composer/pianist/bandleader who happned to be juxtaposed in time with them is an elightening perspective.

Rush was on the radio with that band twice so I should know what a yugnaut is -- it's like a cross between the root of "Yogi" (or at least a word deriving from mysticism) and "astronaut." Last night Brad Shepik and the Human Activity Ensemble drove across the state and did a recording session at Blue Lake -- what a freakin' band: all leaders. Ralph Allessi, trumpet; Gary Versace piano and accordian; Drew Gress, bass; and for the third time live from our studios the brilliant Tom Rainey (sp) on drums. They're playing tonight in Ann Arbor and then will do two concerts on Sunday in Chicago, a matinee and an evening concert. This suite is a response to climate change and most of the movements are dedicated to the various continents. Would highly recommend hearing this music if it doesn't conflict with Roscoe's stuff. The band split last night hoping to go hear that "new" version of the Clusone Trio. Here's a link to the Shepik recording: http://www.songlines.com/ And this from the travelers: The concert with Roscoe is this afternoon at 4.

That scene after the first Octet performance, I think it was, where they mess up bad? The low camera angle as Monk in his coat walks away from the camera into a room, and there's a styrofoam coffee cup on a low table and Monk just wacks it, hard, out of complete and total anger as he goes buy. That, too me, was the most humanizing moment in the film. When I saw that this whole "he's crazy and lives in his own world of music like a little baby" media contrived persona was demolished with that cup.

They really go on in the book about Navarro playing "Lady Be Good" with Hampton, a recording which sounds like it is pretty hard to come by. But they use it as a sort of high water mark of his playing in the big bands, and on those changes.

Been trying to piece together what is out there beyond the Milestone two-fer of the Dameron broadcasts caught by Boris Rose. In the Navarro biography they point to the Jazz View CD's as a source, though I've had no luck finding them through the usual outlets. Any ideas?

I'm seeing, too, there are a couple of other Navarro books with transcriptions which were previously available -- they choose not to repeat the transcriptions from the previous books in this volume, which is kind of a drag. Last night I read the passage where Fats hits the ultra high Bb. Ee-gad, man. I'm not sure if I quite follow what they mean by "talking gestures," at least not from the transcriptions. Will have to dig those out. And really want to acquire the full Band for Bonds broadcast now and get "Fats Flats."

Obama gets the Nobel and Marcus gets a Kresge on the same day.