Lazaro Vega

OrgaNASTimo

This book moves between narrative and music examples -- long sections of musical transcriptions and accompanying text. Loren Schoenberg and Bob Belden are both much better at that sort of writing than what's found here, which is not to discount the information which comes of it. Just very glad I've learned to read music somewhat in the last year because it will be essential to getting the most out of this book. Very glad, too, the transcriptions are in trumpet key. The Birdland All Stars are listed as performing on June 30, 1950 with Miles and Fats; J.J. Johnson; Brew Moore; Tadd Dameron and Walter Bishop Jr.; Curly (Russell?); Art Blakey, Roy Haynes plus Chubby Newsome singing on two tunes. Fats is only on four tracks. Bishop and Haynes on Conception, Eronel and the last 52nd Street Theme only. The authors point to Navarro's lack of wind and how hard that makes it for him to construct solos of any continuity. They say, "Many have commented Navarro plays poorly here (on Conception), not knowing the changes, but there is not much musical evidence for this. What is really hampering him is his physical condition and the unusual construction of 14 bars and a pedal point, a structure which he does not seem familiar with. Davis makes it difficult for him, by extending his solo 4 bars into his opening chorus. Navarro does manage to catch up and ends the first chorus of his solo correctly. In the next chorus things get messed up again. There are approximately 35 bars in the first A part, but after some yelling and help from the pianist, he comes back on the track. The third chorus works out fine. Miles Davis enters again after the piano solo and in his last solo it is he who messed up the form, his chorus lasting 64 bars. In the coda there is a saxophone, which sounds remarkably like Charlie Parker joined by Navarro. This has made some commentators believer that Parker was present. We think that it is Brew Moore playing a Parker-like phrase in his high register."

Nice profile on Clayton. The Gwinell orchestra has a penchant towards the music of Thad Jones, though on "Brush Fire" he can tend toward the ECM sound (that piece featuring Carl CaFagna and Shannon Wade).

Past amber graves of Wayne....

Oh, man: "Spiralview"! Wish I could be there this year. Fred's 80th birthday. What a milestone. Will be in Traverse for a wedding (snore). Probably going out tonight to hear pianist John Proulx at his CD release party for "Baker's Dozen," a tribute to Chet Baker, and may drop in on Organissimo at Founder's afterwards.

Not bad for a "local" band! Great organ solo, Jim. Paul was delighted with his "new old trombone," a model J.J. Johnson played in the 1960's. That "mop-mop" figure is so old now -- cool how Randy finds something new to do with it in his solo. Great job, guys. Is this a remix sound-wise? We'll tell our listeners about this, maybe link it from our site, too. Lazaro

She did an incredible version of Bird's "Ah Leu Cha" in the spirit of Ornette Coleman during our "Live From Blue Lake" broadcast. Didn't mention the "Eyes in the Back of Your Head" pieces as they were improvisations and not, so much, interpretation of an Ornette composition. Allen talked about working in Ornette's quartet on the Sound Museum:Three Women/Hidden Man recordings; about approaching a pre-exisisting band concept and finding her way into it. A good example of it working was on a version of "Mob Job" from one of those records. I think it was the shorter version of the two....

http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4636

He said Barry Gordy spent about a year just going to the jazz clubs in Detroit and one day asked them if they could show up at this studio at such and such a time. They were like, yeah, right. But they showed up at the studio: Hitsville USA. Lightsey eventually left because they were only paid for the take that was used -- not for rehearsals, not for any "tries" before arriving at a master take. Talked a lot about James Jamerson (?) as Gregg is a bassist and was driving the conversation, and because those early bass lines were so melodic and beautiful. One of the great things about those Chet Baker sessions on Prestige with Lightsey were the previously un-recorded Tadd Dameron tunes on them. Maybe only a couple, but good to have. Baker re-united with Lightsey later on Timeless records, singing and playing on a pair of numbers. The album's called "Everything Happens to Me."

Thanks for the long look into Lester Young -- your larger points were very much appreciated, and the work of transcribing all that, too. As mentioned last Saturday morning we strung together an hour's worth of Lady Be Goods based on your blog, which is why I was trying to find all the stuff..... There is, by the way, a minute and 14 second fragment of Lady Be Good by Bird on the Stash CD: but it is the Wichita transcription which his so famous. That, in the end, is the one we played on the radio as it is insightful into Bird's early "wrestling" with the music of Young and Coleman Hawkins.

On This Whole “Death Of Jazz” Thing . . . . Everybody’s making a lot of noise about this whole death of jazz thing. How are we mourning something that’s been gone a long time ago and highly questionable if it ever really existed? The question to me is not if jazz is dead or will die, but rather, if it ever was alive. OK- let’s say jazz is alive. Then it has most certainly been on life support for quite sometime. Personally, I think somebody should to sneak in the room and euthanize it. Maybe if jazz dies, cats will start playing the blues again. You don’t have to play blues if you play jazz. Shyt, you don’t even have to swing. So I say, let it die. The Original Dixieland Jass Band made the first jazz record. Paul Whiteman was the King Of Jazz. Louis Armstrong played the blues. Miles Davis played the blues. If it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for me. You can play anything and call it jazz, but you can only do one thing when you’re playing the blues. You can get a jazz Master’s degree in countless schools across the globe. There’s only one way to master the blues. You can teach somebody how to play jazz. You can’t teach anybody how to play the blues; you can only give it to them. The premier jazz venue in the world rests on prime realty in Manhattan. I think it’s safe to say that jazz has officially crossed over. Ever notice that no one ever speaks of the blues dying. Why? As long as there’s life, there will be blues. - Nicholas Payton http://nicholaspayton.com/

A woman from the small town I live in is a former resident of Paris. Her brothers are both big jazz fans. While in Paris she came to be close friends with the Detroit-born jazz pianist Kirk Lightsey. He came to our area at the end of August with his family for a little r&r on Lake Michigan. There was a dinner party set up and then the hostess began flailing around trying to find a piano for Kirk to play on. I arranged for the 20 of us to go to my daughter's Montessori school where Kirk could sit at their 1917-era Steinway. Here's a link to photos and some video with sound of the concert set up by the woman who hosted him: http://web.me.com/kimcoston2/Site/Kirks_Concert.html At the dinner party we talked for a couple of hours. An enthusiastic jazz bassist from our area, Gregg Morrison, started Kirk talking about Motown: Lightsey was in the Motown house band for the first year of the label's life. He was also educated by one of Blue Lake's regular teachers for many years, Harry Begian, who ran the band programs at Cass Tech in Detriot. Lots of memories of how he got started prompted by my wife who's taking piano lessons. When he heard I'm studying trumpet we talked a lot about his music with Woody Shaw in the 1980's (playing 4ths to distinguish his sound from Freddie Hubbard's) , including their horrifying tour of India (if I ever write anything from this it will be called "Strange as a piano in India"). The man is a delight -- very happy, very on -- ready. He played for nearly an hour. It was August 21st, Wayne Shorter's 76th Birthday which means a lot given Kirk is one of Wayne's friends and a consumate interpreter of Shorter's compositions. The program was: "Goodbye Mr. Evans" (by Phil Woods) "In Your Own Sweet Way" with Benny Golson's "From Dream to Dream" interpolated in it. "Pee Wee" by Tony Williams in a medley with Lightsey's own "Heavan Dance" dedicated to his mother. Infant Eyes (Shorter). A highlight of the evening. Fee Fi Fo Fum (Shorter) with "Work Song" on the bridge. A Child is Born (Jones) played once "normal" and then once without a turnback giving it tremendous suspense, before interpolating "Brahms Lullabye" as a sign-off. http://web.me.com/kimcoston2/Site/Kirks_Concert.html __________________

I'm looking at my LP of "Early Bird" and the only "Lady Be Good" is the Wichita transcription. There was an additional LBG on the CD?

Loren Schoenberg writes in the Charlie Christian "Genius of Electric guitar" box from Columbia that Young and Goodman "only made a few sessions together -- a Teddy Wilson date with Billie Holiday, a jam session at Goodman's Carnegie Hall Concert, and a WNEW broadcast with Roy Eldridge and Teddy Wilson..." I think there were some studio sides with Young on tenor in the Goodman big band, too.

I'm in Alyn Shipton's Jimmy McHugh bio right now. The Fats book, on first glance, appears comprehensive: many transcribed solos; discography and annotation out the door.

Picked up my copy yesterday.

Amen to that bro aloc. Saturday morning around 9 a.m. hour we're going to broadcast an Iverson inspired hour of variations on "Lady Be Good."

Ah, criminie! I have the Spotlight lp version of that at home. Was looking all over the Stash "Early Bird" and was at a loss. Thanks for clearing that up.

Great on-line audience last night, thank you. The Bird show is going to be intense -- from '42 to '45 will take up the first hour and a half (at least) of the program. Tonight after 10 edt.

I was, curious, too, about where he found the Basie/Goodman/Young version of Lady Be Good (which is different from the Spirituals to Swing jam?) as well as Bird with McShann at a dance in '46? playing Lady Be Good, and the Basie version from the Famous Door (not included in the America's #1 Band set from Columbia, which has a big chunk of stuff from the Famous Door).

Kirk Lightsey came to Spring Lake, Michigan, on Wayne Shorter's birthday, to visit with friends who threw him a dinner party. The hosts were flailing around trying to find a neighbors piano for him to play an informal bit on. I stepped in and had the whole dinner party come over to my daughter's Montessori school where they have a 1914 (?) era Steinway which Kirk worked out on for an hour. Will write more about this incredible evening when I have some time to sit and write.

Yeah, that's good. Konitz and Marsh playing "Pound Cake" as a head came out on a Storyville LP, though I don't know if that version was from the Jazz Showcase.....

Pres tonight on Jazz From Blue Lake, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Bird on Friday. LV

From Greg Murphy: MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR JAZZ DRUMMER RASHIED ALI WILL BE HELD SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 5TH - 11am AT RIVERSIDE CHURCH 490 Riverside Drive New York City 212-870-6700 http://www.theriversidechurchny.org/ http://rashiedali.org

-Transformations- : Vernice "Bunky" Green (as) Al Dailey (p) Billy Butler, Carl Lynch (g) Wilbur Bascomb (b) Jimmy Johnson (d) Al Chalk (perc) Jeff Bova (ARP STRING ENSEMBLE AND ARP 2600) + guest: Clark Terry (tp-Interlude figure of "Feelings") New York, November 1976