Lazaro Vega

Here's a Sun-Times review from 11/2/07: NRG inspires energetic response with Russell tribute CONCERT REVIEW | Halloween reunion allows players to stretch out November 2, 2007 BY JOHN LITWEILER Today's jazz is awash in tributes -- earnest, sober, respectful. By contrast, the NRG Ensemble's Halloween-night tribute at the Hideout was screaming, booming, full of banshee wails, before a hollering crowd, many in Hal Russell masks. The beloved Russell led this Chicago-based band from 1978 to his death, 15 years ago. Most of his men grew up in NRG -- they were 30 years younger than he -- and by the end they were well known, with ECM albums and European tours. As befits Russell's spirit, this tribute was wild and joyous. This was an NRG reunion, and once again NRG's idiom was not only highly energetic it was highly musical. Chuck Burdelik was more than shocking on tenor and alto saxes. With a big, honking sound, he crafted shapely solos with arching lines and melodic curves, and he was often the eye of NRG's maelstrom. By contrast, there were Mars Williams' virtuoso, free-association bursts from extreme alto and tenor sax ranges. And Brian Sandstrom's guitar solos were quite original explorations of musical lines that develop out of dramatic fuzz, metal squawks, and other distortions. Of Russell's hundreds of songs, NRG's tribute explored seven fast ones, most with multiple themes. There was "Krupa," a comic crush of swing-band themes, with bassist Kent Kessler and a guest, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, snapping and biting at each other in a duet. "Calling All Mothers" had hilarious horns-and-strings chases. "Song Singing to You" had a dozen folk-song parodies, and NRG sang the first song Russell ever wrote as a boy: "Smells like fish, tastes like chicken/That's the Gilbert Stomp." Inevitably, there was "Hal the Weenie," climaxing in Steve Hunt's monumentally constructed drum solo and a comic duel of sax sounds. Williams' soprano sax and Hunt's vibes barely peeped an abstraction of a standard, "Moon of Manakoora," over low string moans. John Litweiler is a local jazz critic and author.

Which makes it even more of a good thing that Brownie and Gigi Gryce ignored Hamp's request not to make sessions outside of the band while on tour with him.

He talks about that in the book. The story about Braxton sitting in with Warne Marsh was told by Gary Foster. I thought it was Lee.

Yes, he does. There are places in the book where Hamilton brings up the fact that Lee simply doesn't play, anything, but let's the rhythm section stroll as Konitz just has nothing to add at the moment. Other times, too, Lee is self critical. One thing that comes out though is that isn't the end of the line, the final word, everything's over because I said this opinion. And he talks about how his take on things has evolved with more familiarity (Ornette). Even with Braxton, who he really can't stand, he leaves it open to playing free with him. They are a tough bunch, in the end. I love Art. Over the Rainbow from the comeback period is one of the great performances from his career. I just can't get this book out of my head, though. Lots of insight.

Jim, Page 150. Lee is talking about the influence on Coltrane. Hamilton says, "He changed Art Pepper in mid-career." Lee replies, "That was tragic, that influence, I think." He then talks about the Hollywood Sessions where they appear together saying of Pepper, "Art was not in top form. I was feelling good, but obviously there was trouble there." Then later, "I thought the comeback was a disapointment, from the expressionistic stuff I heard. I remember sitting in the Vanguard with Bob Mover -- a saxophonist who played with Chet Baker a lot -- and we just looked at each other in disbelief, at how ineffective Art was playing with Elvin Jones. " And then notes that Art didn't make a definitive change from his earlier to later music and that his harmonic ability was limited. Which reminded me of a comment you made regarding a re-union of Warne Marsh and Art Pepper which you saw live where Art was struggling to keep up.

It was interesting reading what Lee had to say about Art Pepper's comeback period because it was nearly identical to an observation Jsangry had on hearing Art at that time. "Kary's Trance." Mark Gardner writes that it is "Angel Eyes." In the new book, they say "Play, Fiddle, Play." Hoops. Should have used my ears when putting together a set around "Angel Eyes." Though Konitz is often tangential to the tune, he usually offers some clues. Swing and a miss.

November 1, 2007 The Jazz Datebook: Mondays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The What Not Inn features a jam session open to musicians and vocalists and featuring local, regional and international jazz musicians sitting in with the “house” band “Moment’s Notice” led by trumpeter Eddie Curtis. No cover charge. www.whatnotinn.com. The What Not Inn is located at M89 and the Blue Star Highway, 2405 68th Street, Fennville, MI. (269) 543-3341. Tuesday, November 6th from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 The Truth In Jazz Orchestra returns to The West Side Inn, 1635 Beidler St, Muskegon, MI. The 16 piece Muskegon based big band led by Dave Collee, often featuring Tim Froncek on drums, is on line at www.tijo.org . Wednesdays, 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., Rick Reuther sings at Notos Italian Restaurant, 6600 28th St. S.E., Grand Rapids. Rick Reuther plays with drummer Cherie Lynn and pianist Tom Hagen. See http://www.notosoldworld.com/ or www.rickreuthersings.com Wednesday, 7 to 11 p.m. trumpeter Eddie Curtis with Wally Michaels keyboards/bass keys and Jack Wilkins, drums, play jazz at Spectators, 6432 Blue Star Highway, Saugatuck, (269) 857 – 5001. Thursdays from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Baton Rouge, LA native Sweet Willie Singleton swings jazz standards at Gill’s Blue Crab Lounge in The B.O.B., 20 Monroe Ave. N.W., Grand Rapids. Thursdays from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. live local jazz is featured at Naya’s Restaurant, 1144 East Paris, East Grand Rapids, MI. (616) 719 – 4400. www.nayagr.com. Thursdays from 7 to 10 p.m. Restaurant Toulouse, 246 Culver Street, Saugatuck, features live jazz with the Chet Baker influenced trumpeter Eddie Curtis in duo with pianist Wally Michaels. (269) 857 – 1561. Fridays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. live music at the new address of The Grand Rapids Art Museum, 101 Monroe Center, Grand Rapids. See www.gramonline.org for more information, or call (616) 831 – 1000. Three Fridays a month trumpeter/vocalist/entertainer Sweet Willie Singleton plays jazz in Ada during the dinner hour (6 to 9 p.m.) at the Thornapple Daily Grill, 445 Ada Drive, Ada, MI. (616) 676-1233 www.thegilmorecollection.com/Thornapple/thornapple.html. Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. live jazz and blues at The Gull Landing, 438 South Hancock, Pentwater: November 2nd, Muskegon area guitarist Rick Hicks: Nov. 3rd, organist/jazz preacher Doc Woodward Trio; Nov. 9 & 10th, Mary Rademacher and the Rad Pack; Nov. 16 & 17th, Doc Woodward returns by popular request. (231) 869 -4215. Fridays, 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. trumpeter Eddie Curtis plays on the patio behind the Everyday People’s Café, 11 Center Street, Douglas; (269) 857 – 4240. Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. live local jazz, blues and other musical forms at The Grand Seafood and Oyster Bar, 24 Washington St., Grand Haven. Live local jazz or blues guitarists on Wednesday evenings from 8 to 11 p.m. (616) 844- 5055. Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pumpernickels, 202 Butler St., Saugatuck, guitarist Chip Kristi plays jazz for brunch. (269) 857-1196. Friday, November 2nd, Ann Arbor pianist and professor of music at the University of Michigan Steve Rusch improvises freely with his band Quartex at Schuler Books and Music, 2660 28th Street, Grand Rapids (616) 942-2561. The concert is free. See: www.music.umich.edu/faculty_staff/rush.stephen.lasso. Sunday, November 4th at 8 p.m. Japanese born percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and Swedish guitarist David Stackenas improvise free music at Mexicans Sans Frontiers, 120 South Division Av. #226, Grand Rapids. (616) 706-7963. Nakatani’s last appearance in Grand Rapids with the Billy Bang Sextet featuring Frank Lowe was recorded for broadcast on Blue Lake Public Radio and subsequently issued on the Justin Time Label of Montreal. Hope College’s recording engineer John Erskine will be at Hugo Caludin’s artist run loft on Sunday at 8 p.m. to capture the improvisations. Sunday, November 4th from 3 to 7 p.m. The West Shore Jazz Society presents early jazz style of The Chicago Salty Dogs at The Oakridge Country Club, 513 West Pontaluna Road, Muskegon. Contact Bill Blakeman at (231) 206-5683 or E-mail, wjblakeman@aol.com; for reservations, (231) 733-0071. Sunday, November 4th at 7 p.m. Faruq Z. Bey plays saxophone with the Northwoods Improvisers at the Central Michigan University Library Auditorium, Mount Pleasant. See www.northwoodsimprovisers.com. Sunday, November 4th at 4:30 p.m. the Jazz Institute of Chicago presents “Franz Jackson Celebrates 95!” at Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center, Dowagiac, MI. Known for his arrangements on “Yellow Fire” and “Southside” with the Earl Hines Grand Terrace Orchestra of the 1930’s, tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Franz Jackson is a living legend of Chicago jazz. An all star cast will support him including trumpeter Art Hoyle. A limited number of tickets are available for a private buffet reception with Franz Jackson at The Woodfire Italian Trattoria following the concert. Tickets for the concert are between $50 and $25; available through (269) 782-1115 or on-line at www.dogwoodfinearts.org. Friday November 9th at 8 p.m., Saturday Nov. 10th at 8 p.m. and Sunday November 11th at 3 p.m. vocalist Patti Austin appears with the Grand Rapids Symphony under Associate Conductor John Varineau in “A loving tribute to one of America’s greatest singers, Ella Fitzgerald.” Along with Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald popularized the Great American Song Book in the middle3 of the last century. Ella Fitzgerald’s interpretation of movie and show tunes (often written for Fred Astaire) by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin, as well as jazz composers Fats Waller and Duke Ellington, popularized jazz’s interpretive possibilities. Tickets are available from $18 to $56 through Ticket Master at (616) 456 – 3333. See www.pattiaustin.com or www.grsymphony.org. Friday, November 9th at 7:30 p.m. a CD release party for Michael Doyle and Evidence at Schuler Books and Music, 2660 28th Street S.E., Grand Rapids. The new Evidence Jazz Group CD “The Message” includes liner notes by Lazaro Vega. This performance is free. Information from 616 942 2561 or www.schulerbooks.com . Friday, November 9th at 7 p.m. The Jazz Ambassadors, the United States Army’s 19 piece touring jazz orchestra, appears at Northview High School Performing Arts Center, 4451 Hunsburger Ave. N.E., Grand Rapids (616) 363-4857 ext. 1727. The free concert will feature former Northview High School student Kevin Watt as trumpet soloist. Saturday, November 10th from 7 to 10 p.m. jazz vocalist Edye Evans Hyde joins blues band The Vincent Hayes Project to open a new season of “The Alley Door Club” at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, Muskegon. $5 at the door. Information from (231) 727-8001 or www.frauenthal.info. Tuesday, November 13th at 7:30 p.m. Chicago jazz vocalist Kurt Elling appears in the St. Cecilia Music Center’s revamped jazz season (see: http://stcecilia.portfoliocms.com/Brix?pageID=1) which includes a concert by saxophonist Joe Lovano on January 24th and special Mother’s Day events with pianists Cyrus Chestnut and Eric Reed. Call (616) 459 – 2224 for more information. Wednesdays November 14th and December 12th the Beltline Big Band plays for swing and couples dancing from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at The Peninsular Club, 120 Ottawa Avenue, Grand Rapids, (616) 459 – 3261. For information, www.beltlinebigband.com. Wednesday, November 14th at 8:15 p.m. The New York Voices (www.newyorkvoices.com) appear in concert for the Western Michigan University School of Music at The Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU, Kalamazoo. Tickets are $15 (students $5) from The Miller Auditorium Box Office, (800) 228-9858. Thursday, November 15th at 8:00 p.m. Fontana Chamber Arts presents the gifted young jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris whose recent major composition “African Tarentella, ‘Dances with Duke’” (For Duke Ellington) is heard at Howard Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. (269) 337-0440. Performed by Stefon Harris - vibes and marimba; Junah Chung, viola ; Louise Dubin, cello; Anne Drummond, flute; Mark Vinci, clarinet; Roland Barber, trombone; Marc Cary, piano; Earl Travis, bass; Terreon Gully, drums. Tickets are $30 and $22 for adults, $5 for students with ID. Phone The Miller Auditorium Ticket Office at (269) 382-7774. See: www.fontanachamberarts.org/?pid=194 . Thursday, November 15th at 7:30 p.m. The Hope College Jazz Ensemble presents James Miley’s composition “Bug,” followed by the ensemble “Bug,” inspired by jazz collective built around the music of 2004 IAJE/Gil Evans Fellowship recipient James Miley at the Knickerbocker Theater, Holland. “Bug” the band includes Miley at the piano, Peter Epstein from the University of Nevada, Reno on saxophones, guitarist Jeff Miley (Cuesta College), bassist Roger Shew (Fullerton College and Laguna Beach High School) and drummer Brian Hamada (Fresno-based freelance musician). Additional information may be obtained online at www.bugtet.com. The Knickerbocker Theatre is located in downtown Holland at 86 E. Eighth St. For information, (616) 395-7860 Sundays November 18th and December 16th from 7 to 10 p.m. the Rhythm Section Jazz Band directed by Paul Sherwood plays for big band swing dancing at Westwood at the Crossings, 5760 West River Drive (3 miles west of the East Beltline), Grand Rapids. See: www.gigmasters.com/BigBand/TheRhythmSectionJazz. Monday, November 19th Macnaughton Boulevard performs at the Kopper Top Guest House, 634 Stocking Avenue N.W., Grand Rapids as part of the West Michigan Jazz Society’s Jazz Gumbo Showcase. Information from (616) 458 – 0125 or www.wmichjazz.org. Monday, December 3rd at 7:30 p.m. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy plays their high energy swing and blues at the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center, 600 Forest Hills Avenue S.E., Grand Rapids. See www.fhfineartscenter.com or by phone (616) 493-8965. Thursday, December 13 the West Michigan Jazz Society Holiday Party at the Donnelly Center, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids. Information on the West Michigan Jazz Society’s Jazz from (616) 458 – 0125 or www.wmichjazz.org. Thursday, January 24th at 7:30 p.m. the Hot Club of San Francisco presents their multi-media, gypsy jazz inspired program “Silent Surrealism” at Dimnent Memorial Chapel, Hope College, Holland. The Hot Club is modeled after the legendary Parisian band of the 1930s, The Hot Club of France, co-led by violinist Stephane Grapelli and guitarist Django Reinhardt. During their performance in Holland, The Hot Club of San Francisco will accompany live 40 minutes of four silent films rediscovered and premiered at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (these are film scores original to The Hot Club of San Francisco). The "San Francisco Chronicle" called the group "one of the most cohesive and entertaining Gypsy swing bands in the United States.” Individual tickets for this concert or season subscriptions to Hope College’s Great Performances Series are available at the ticket office in the DeVos Fieldhouse, 222 Fairbanks Ave., between Ninth and 11th streets, Holland; or by calling (616) 395-7890. Information about the entire season is available from www.hope.edu/gps . Friday, February 29th 2008 at 7:30 p.m. jazz flutist Holly Hoffman accompanied by pianist Mike Wofford appear in the Hart Community Performing Arts Series, Hart Public Schools Auditorium, Hart Middle School, 308 West Johnson Street. Tickets are $8 and available through librarian@hart.lib.mi.us or 231.873.4476. March 1st, the Blue Coast Quartet returns to ‘Til Midnight in Holland. ‘Till Midnight is located at 171 East 24th Street, Holland: phone, (616) 392 – 6883 or www.tillmidnight.biz . Friday, March 14th at 7 p.m. vocalist Sunny Wilkinson and pianist Ron Newman play jazz in concert at Bethlehem Church Sanctuary as part of “Musical Arts for Justice in the Community” to raise money for social justice organizations throughout west Michigan, this year benefiting The Grand Rapids Coalition to End Homelessness. Bethlehem Church is located at 250 Commerce Avenue S.W., Grand Rapids. (616) 456-1741 or www.grmajic.org. Sunday, March 16th at 7:30 p.m. the Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary Tour comes to the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center, 600 Forest Hills Avenue S.E., Grand Rapids, with Terence Blanchard, trumpet; James Moody, saxophones; Benny Green, piano; Nnenna Freelon, voice; Derrick Hodge, bass; and Kendrick Scott, drums. See www.fhfineartscenter.com or by phone (616) 493-8965. Saturday, March 29th at 8 p.m. The Chicago Jazz Orchestra with trumpeter Jon Faddis (www.chijazz.com ) at the Fine Arts Center Auditorium, Calvin College, Grand Rapids. Available, too, dinner at the Prince Conference Center prior to the concert: www.calvin.edu for more information. Saturday, April 19, 2008, at 7:30 p.m. the “Harry James Orchestra” appears at Frauenthal Theater in Muskegon, a presentation of Muskegon Community Concerts. Tickets: Star Tickets Plus 1-800-585-3737 or Frauenthal Box Office: M-F 11am-6pm. The Harry James Orchestra is currently under the direction of James’ lead trumpet virtuoso Fred Radke, whose style of playing is so similar to James’ that listeners often cannot discern the difference. Radke’s credits include The Glenn Miller Orchestra, The Lennon Sisters, Connie Stevens, and The Pied Pipers.

I feel bad for being shy of their $50,000 in the funder, though.

http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news.php?viewStory=7271 Every week more than 36,000 Middle Tennesseans have their FM radio dial tuned to WMOT 89.5. The station, based on the MTSU campus, is one of only a few full-time jazz radio stations left in the region, said Keith Palmer, director of development at WMOT. “These types of stations are few and far between,” he said. Listeners constantly thank the station for keeping “smart music” on the radio, Palmer said. WMOT is a National Public Radio member station. “Our audience over the past five years has continued to grow,” Palmer said. “We would like them to grow faster.” WMOT is a modern, mainstream jazz station playing music from Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s and ’50s to Diana Krall and Kevin Mahogany from the present. The jazz station is a division of the MTSU College of Mass Communications and broadcasts its signal from the Learning Resource Center on campus. MTSU is also licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to operate the student-run station WMTS-FM 88.3. Listenership has increased as WMOT has expanded its coverage area in recent years to include most of Davidson and its surrounding counties. Recent equipment updates have given the broadcaster high definition capability, which if monies were available would allow WMOT to add a second station. Anyone around the world can listen to WMOT on the Web at www.wmot.org. WMOT’s annual fall on-air fundraising drive ended Oct. 18 short of its $50,000 goal. Bi-annual fundraising has become a necessity for the station to operate as federal grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are becoming harder to obtain. Money raised goes directly towards operational and programming costs. MTSU, as an entity of the state of Tennessee, pays WMOT’s eight full-time employees’ salaries and benefits and a modest operating budget, Palmer said. WMOT General Manager John Egly said funding is always in question. “MTSU has been a good partner,” he said. “We have always been able to meet our budget needs.” WMOT’s mission melds with that of the MTSU as a whole, which is to educate and seek community partnerships. “(The station) is such a great resource to educate and to provide the community with what is a truly unique American art form,” Palmer said. The Music Greg Lee, program director and host of The Morning Beat, listens to every CD that comes into the station, “We are just inundated with music now,” he said, “and there are only so many hours in a day — a year.” Lee estimates he receives about 50 CDs in the mail a week from local and national artists. “If you are a jazz fan, it is a good place to be,” he said of the station he has worked at since the early 1980s. WMOT’s catalog of music contains more than 6,000 songs. Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. programming is locally produced but broadcast on a live-tape delay meaning most shows are taped ahead of time. Throughout the day, WMOT features live local news, weather and traffic produced by its news department. The station also broadcasts news from the Associated Press. Overnight the syndicated jazz program "Jazz with Bob Parlocha" is broadcast. “He is very knowledgeable about this music,” Palmer said. Sunday's playlist is filled with a variety of local and NPR programming. Community Outreach and Education WMOT reaches out to the community by playing public service announcements for area nonprofits through out the day. The station’s Web site allows nonprofit organizations to self-post their events. The jazz station also partners with and promotes area jazz festivals such as the annual Main Street Jazz Festival on the Murfreesboro Public Square. WMOT first signed on April 9, 1969 from the MTSU Boutwell Dramatic Arts Building with 780 watts on a 100-foot tower primarily as a way to teach students about radio. “To this day we have paid student workers both on and off the air,” Palmer said. “They get really good experience.” At any given time, WMOT has 15 to 20 paid student workers. WMOT changed from a block programming station to an all jazz and news station in 1982. John L. High, the general manager at the time, did community research and discovered there was a void in jazz radio in Middle Tennessee. The station wanted to build an audience by going to one format. Jazz music is culturally diverse and WMOT offers national programming through the night and on Sundays, Palmer said. “That is the best part of this music is that it does cross a lot of lines, he said, adding that he became a fan of jazz music while working at the station as a student in the late 1980s. “That is why we like it.” WMOT Jazz listeners are more educated, travel more and have a higher income than the average radio listener. Listeners are more likely men than women, according to NPR Jazz audience profile 2006, and most listeners are over the age of 25. Some 50 percent have a college degree, 68 percent have a household income over $50,000 a year and 67 percent travel domestically. “Our listeners are extremely loyal,” Palmer said. “Our donors are extremely loyal. Many have been giving to the station for 10 years or more.” WMOT was nominated for the Gavin Report “Jazz Station of the Year” in 1988 and ’99. Details Magazine named WMOT “Middle Tennessee’s Best Radio Station” in 1991. Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com. On the Web: www.wmot.org

Well, I did read it, and the mistakes were more of a distraction. He sees Coltrane's great quartet as an ideal that was unbalanced by the presence of Eric Dolphy (and stood by that in our interview). Then, reading the Konitz book last night, came across this by Gunther Schuller (pg. 176): "John Coltrane is overcelebrated, Eric Dolphy is forgotten. I can't explain this really -- it's just idiotic."

Wow -- you heard Clifford in Paris in '53! What an important year that was for him. His transition from r&b to jazz, his first dates as a leader, recording "Minority" with Gigi Gryce while over there. What a great memory to have.

Jazz From Blue Lake Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Artist—Song Title – Album Title – Record Label 10 p.m. Eastern Time Bennie Green, Blow Your Horn; Blow Your Horn: Decca Count Basie, Sent For You Yesterday; Best of: Roulette. Joe Williams, Night Time Is the Right Time; World’s Greatest Music: Roulette. Count Basie, Everyday I Have the Blues; Count Basie Swings Joe Williams Sings: Verve. Joe Williams, Ain’t Got Nothin’ But The Blues; In Good Company: Verve. Alvin Queen, There’s Blues Everywhere; I Ain’t Looking At You: Enja. Tony Bennett, Anything Goes; Sings the Ultimate American Songbook: Legacy. Tony Bennett, Alright, O.K., You Win; Sings the Blues: Columbia. P.J. Perry/Campbell Ryga Quintet, Ah Leu Cha; Joined at the Hip: Cellar Live. Charlie Parker, Now’s the Time/Confirmation; Now’s the Time: Verve. 11 p.m. Joe Williams, Until I Met You; World’s Greatest Music: Roulette. Count Basie, The Comeback/Alright, Okay, You Win; Count Basie Swings Joe Williams Sings: Verve. Joe Williams/Basie/Lambert/Hendricks/Ross, Goin’ To Chicago; World’s Greatest Music: Roulette. Joe Williams, Goin’ To Chicago; Live in Vegas: Monad. Joe Williams, Kansas City Blues; Havin’ A Good Time: Hyena. Bill Easley, Mentor; Business Man’s Bounce: 18th and Vine. Jon Mayer, Blues By Five; So Many Stars: Reservoir. Gerald Wilson Orchestra, I Concentrate On You; Monterey Suite: Mack Avenue. Jackie Ryan, You the Night and the Music; You the Night and the Music: Open Art. Thad Jones, Something To Remember You By; RVG Series Sampler: Blue Note. 12 a.m. Capp-Pierce Juggernaut, Joe’s Blues; Live at the Century Plaza: Concord. Paul Quinichette, The Hook/Samie/Shad Roe; The Vice Pres: Emarcy. Benny Goodman, Wholly Cats/Rachel’s Dream; The Essential: Legacy. Bobo Moreno/Ernie Wilkins Almost Big Band, Lil’Darlin’; Out of This World: Sundance Music. Art Hodes, Sobbin’ Blues/That’s A Plenty; Friar’s Inn Revisited: Delmark. Maria Muldaur, Handy Man/New Orleans Hop Scop Blues; Naughty, Bawdy and Blue: Stony Plain. Sidney Bechet, Jungle Drums; Chant In the Night; Mosaic Select: Mosaic. King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, Dippermouth Blues; Complete 1923 Jazz Band Recordings: Off The Record. 1 a.m. Eddie Johnson, Indian Summer; Indian Summer: Nessa. Jodie Christian, Lester Left Town; Front Line: Delmark. Eddie Johnson, Eddie’s Boogie; Chess Anthologies: Chess. Joe Williams, You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To/Close Enough For Love; Then and Now: Sea Breeze. Joe Williams, April In Paris/In the Evenin’; The Overwhelming Joe Williams: Bluebird. Willie Williams Trio, Freedom Suite (Medley of Freedom Jazz Dance/Gingerbread Boy/CTA); Comet Ride: Miles High. 2 a.m. Antonio Sanchez, Solar; Migration: Cam Jazz. Melford/Dresser/Wilson, brainFire and bugLight; The Big Picture: Cryptogramophone. Rashied Ali Quintet, Thing For Joe; Judgement Day Vol. 2: Survival Records. The Rempis Percussion Quartet, A Night at the Ranch Part Two; Hunters and Gatherers: 482 Music. Lennie Tristano, Line Up; Requiem: Atlanic. Eric Rasmussen, FriendLee; School of Tristano: Steeplechase. Miroslav Vitous, Opera; Universal Syncopations II: ECM. Turtle Island Quartet, Naima; A Love Supreme: Telarc. Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457 WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

Jazz From Blue Lake Monday, October 15, 2007 Artist—Song Title – Album Title – Record Label 10 p.m. Eastern Time Bennie Green, Blow Your Horn; Blow Your Horn: Decca Freddie Cole, Love Walked In; To The Ends of The Earth: Fantasy. Freddie Cole, My Idea/Music, Maestro, Please; Music, Maestro, Please: High Note. Charlie Harrison, South Side of Chicago; Keeping My Composure: C3 Records. Ari Brown/Earma Thompson/John Brumbach, Madam Queen; Madam Queen: Sirens. John Scofield, Strangeness in the Night; This Meets That: Emarcy. Herbie Hanock, Nefertiti; River: The Joni Letters: Verve. Dave Brubeck, Autumn In Our Town; Indian Summer: Telarc. 11 p.m. Freddie Cole, Getting Some Fun Out of Life; Because of You: High Note. Freddie Cole, Nat Cole Medley; I’m Not My Brother, I’m Me: High Note. Freddie Cole, You Leave Me Breathless; Music, Maestro, Please: High Note. Evidence, The Message; The Message: Smitty Music. Deep Blue Organ Trio, Ceora; Folk Music: Origin. Rob Lockart, The Last of the Red Note Riders; Parallel Lives: Origin. Maria Schneider Orchestra, Aires De Lando; Sky Blue: Artist Share. Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457 WBLV FM 90.3 / WBLU FM 88.9 www.bluelake.org

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/books/re...amp;oref=slogin October 28, 2007 Music Issue Favorite Things By PANKAJ MISHRA COLTRANE The Story of a Sound. By Ben Ratliff. 250 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $24. I regret Coltrane’s death,” the English poet Philip Larkin wrote in 1967, “as I regret the death of any man, but I can’t conceal the fact that it leaves in jazz a vast, blessed silence.” In his last years, John Coltrane, who began his career with a Navy band, had moved through modal improvising to what the New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff, in this engaging study of the jazz saxophonist’s artistic influence, calls the “music of meditation and chant.” Coltrane would often discard the principle of harmony in order to produce a trancelike effect on his audience; his later compositions recall the scalar complexity of North Indian classical music more than anything in the Western tradition. But they didn’t impress Larkin, who reviewed jazz records from 1961 to 1971 for The Daily Telegraph and could barely tolerate even Coltrane’s most accessible late music, like the devotional suite “A Love Supreme.” Entranced in his youth by Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Fats Waller, Larkin believed jazz had lost its ability to give pleasure by going “modern” — a word that, for him, usually signaled extreme pretentiousness and boredom. Jazz performers, he asserted, had no business embracing (as Coltrane did) Indian, African and Latin music. Grumpily counter-countercultural as the 1960s progressed — he didn’t have much time for Bob Dylan either — Larkin became convinced that everything that had gone wrong with jazz reached its grim apotheosis with Coltrane, who offered “squeals, squeaks, Bronx cheers and throttled slate-pencil noises for serious consideration.” Collecting his jazz reviews in 1970, Larkin asserted that “it was with Coltrane that jazz started to be ugly on purpose.” One can only wonder what Larkin would have made of the African Orthodox Church of St. John Coltrane, established the next year in San Francisco. Coltrane’s last years (during which he pursued new musical styles with the intensity and purity of an ascetic) and his early death (in 1967, when he was only 40) ensured his canonization. Still, it’s surprising to learn that Coltrane, as Ratliff claims, “has been more widely imitated in jazz over the last 50 years than any other figure” and that his recordings, “particularly from 1961 to 1964,” sound “like the thing we know as modern jazz, just the way that Stravinsky sounds like the thing we know as modern classical music.” How did this happen? Afflicted with the modernist longing to make it new, Coltrane read widely, from Aristotle to Krishnamurti, and borrowed from ancient Indian ragas as well as Western atonal music. But he was reticent about analyzing his own work. His occasional attempts to explain it were tinged with the self-regard and sententiousness commonplace among many artists in the 1950s and ’60s who, like Coltrane, almost lost themselves to drugs and alcohol before finding religion. Ratliff patiently explicates Coltrane’s legend, writing in short, aphoristic bursts, often as elliptically as his subject played tenor saxophone, but never less than lucidly. Coltrane’s reputation, which traveled as far as Carlos Santana and Iggy Pop, turns out to be easier to explain than his intentions and motivations. He played both tenor and soprano saxophone with a highly individual big-toned sound; he was always likely to exert as much influence on later generations as Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young had on him. Then, too, his improvisational style, which often allowed him to endlessly play predetermined chord sequences, was a boon to less talented performers. As Ratliff points out, in one of his book’s many clearsighted moments, “lots of musicians” could adopt Coltrane’s modal playing, especially in a minor pentatonic scale, and “sound good.” Ratliff succeeds in rescuing Coltrane from adherents who disregard his strenuous work ethic (even his endless and apparently aimless solos were carefully rehearsed) but adopt the easiest bits of his legacy — the yowling and shrieking. And he’s gently skeptical about Coltrane’s ambition to turn jazz into a bridge to the divine. (It seems clear that program music, however sincerely motivated, can mean anything to the listener when Ratliff quotes the lead singer of the Byrds saying he was interested in “the angry barking” of Coltrane’s saxophone playing.) Ratliff is too young to fall for the strident 1960s interpretation that Coltrane’s more maniacal music reflected black rage and frustration. Instead, he suggests, intelligently and persuasively, that Coltrane had, among other attributes, a “mystic’s keen sensitivity for the sublime, which runs like a secret river under American culture.” “Coltrane,” Ratliff writes, “was acutely self-possessed in his identity as an artist, at a time when a lot of celebrated American art had become seen as a kind of sanctuary, an escape from military conspiracies, war and television.” Certainly Coltrane was serenely indifferent to the easier commercial and political temptations of the 1960s. It was after acquiring a mainstream audience with “My Favorite Things,” a big radio hit in 1961, that he expanded his experiments with modal music, which he then interrupted to record some beautifully melodic ballads. Anyone committed to confronting a white middle-class audience with the musical equivalent of Bobby Seale’s speeches wouldn’t have recorded “Lush Life” with Johnny Hartman or so wonderfully and definitively reconfigured “In a Sentimental Mood” with Duke Ellington. Tracing Coltrane’s tentative first steps, the early refuge in standards, the religious conversion, the casting around in other cultures and languages, the change of instruments and the final preference for pure incantation, Ratliff’s book seems to describe an odyssey that’s primarily spiritual rather than aesthetic or political. In this light, Coltrane’s last recordings, which make few concessions to a conventional audience, now appear to be a final push for inner freedom, a flight from the dwindling possibilities of jazz itself. Ratliff outlines only faintly the broader context of what seemed, by the mid-’60s, to be a private and eccentric journey. Jazz, a minority interest even during the heyday of swing, suffered in the postwar period from the rapid disappearance of its social setting, a diminishment only heightened by the flight of the young to rock music, a brash new rival that, paradoxically, also derived from American blues. Jazz’s turn to the avant-garde and the exoticisms of the 1960s now seems as inevitable as the rise of atonal classical music after the breakup of the stable societies of 19th-century Europe. Of course, jazz, which emerged from post-Reconstruction black America, wasn’t like any other art. Its primary promise — which attracted Larkin, among millions of others — was to entertain a paying audience, and its avant-garde could only flourish in the bourgeois security of what Ratliff calls “the jazz curriculum, the postwar black-studies curriculum and the punk-rock curriculum.” Coltrane, Ratliff writes, “was moving a little too fast for most of his audience.” It could also be said that Coltrane was trying to escape the impasse of antiquarianism in which so much of jazz finds itself today, or that he was working out, in his most inward quests, the melancholy logic of obsolescence. Pankaj Mishra is the author, most recently, of “Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond.” Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

My wife enjoyed hearing this through dinner last night. Fire place, kids playing, trombones doodle tonguing. Those duet sections, especially on "Just Friends" are something else. Rosolino with Zoot on "Hawthorne Nights" and his great Sackville recording, much expanded on CD, were also pulled out for a spin. Rosolino's "Round Midnight" from the Sackville record -- didn't think I'd hear playing on that level again from him, but here 'tis.

Yes. Listened to the 1953 "Lover Man" about five times last week, as well as Clare Fischer's arrangement of it, from Clare's self released "Jazz Corps" CD.

I thought this week was Willis Connover?

Lazaro: Did the "cult of the solo" begin with Lester Young? Well, something started with Lester Young, something quite important to an entire generation of musicians. "Cult of the solo" may be the wrong moniker. I don't see this as being colossally important--what's important is what was it about Lester Young that got under the skin of so many jazz musicians in the 1940s & 50s? I'm fairly sure it didn't stop at music. Pres was/is one of the important sounds/approaches in jazz who deeply influenced Dexter's early work, and early Trane. Yet when you're writing about jazz and mention the development of the solo out of the collective the figure to sight is Louis Armstrong. And the New Orleans pioneers of jazz are the musicians who made pushing one's individualism forward from the group, of changing one's inherited musical part in the group, a strong and important aspect of the music's evolution. That's the a.b.c. of it. To have such experimentation excized from early jazz and dismissed as the hippy myth of change for changes sake that swirled up around Coltrane misses the Fate Marable, so to speak. In conversation Ratliff agreed. Of course there were hippies who herded towards Trane, yet the music's evolution occured because of Buddy Bolden's individual approach that forced a change in the given: in ragtime, in written music, in acceptable sonorites, in standard rhythms. That seems more akin to an artistic truth than the neo-romantic utopian ecstacies that welled up in the 60's. The way Ben writes it, which I haven't read for a few weeks now, puts that idea in jazz in the 1960's, which he then pretty much dismisses as a generational blip, when in fact it was fully part of the earlier dynamic era that set this music in motion. That isn't trivia.

Wu Tang Clan's cool. Why not? I don't listen to much rap. Just don't follow it. Your rec on Naz was worthwhile in as much as he appeared on this Miles Davis re-mix project and sounded like he knew what he was doing, which is something that crossed the path as opposed to getting out a map and gone exploring. Right now Fred Anderson's appearance with the Territory Band has my attention, as well as two new records by Dave Rempis, Ben Webster's first recording in Europe (playing those Bird tunes with Stan Tracy), and William Parker's Little Huey playing tribute to Percy Heath. Being immersed in jazz and improvised music is why. If there were people close by in my life listening to this genre with enthusiasm and disernment I might be more up on it. As it is there's a radio station out of Muskegon, Michigan, that I hear and groove with sometimes, though they don't announce the music they're playing. Clem -- celebrity. You have to come to terms with celebrity, or at least marketable people. The writers, musicians, film-makers, bloggers who you hold in highest intellectual regard can have some light shown on their brilliance if you sneek a sip of that gawd awful meade to your intended target's kook aid. The Nation just did a little piece on how web sites dedicated to a more just criminal justice system, for instance, were linked, on their front page, to Paris Hilton. Paris's little tiff with the law drew a lot of attention to their cause and they jumped on that to draw more people into how deeply unjust the system is. It sucks, but this is us, U.S. And you had better fire up the computer tonight at 7 so you can hear your three hour request show. We finished up the funder with a $25,000 day Friday, and for the first time in a fall on-air funder topped $90,000. In this State, at this time, it speaks to a need we're filling.

"Would I question the judgment of someone who read it and started to talk to me about errata?" In my estimation the work Larry Ochs has done in developing the later period of John Coltrane's music, specifically "Ascension," is more germaine to the book's thesis of how John Coltrane's music has continued to be important these many years than Ratliff's inclusion and discussion of Iggy Pop. If you want to call that errata or fetishization of the trivial that's your red wagon. During our interview I mentioned several fundemental principles of jazz which I feel he misrepresented or that I had a different point of view on. When the transcription of the interview comes out you'll see. He, basically, agreed with the arguments I brought up. For instance, his assertions "there is very little form in jazz after Coltrane"; or that the view of jazz as an ever changing expression is a "hippie myth"; or that the "cult of the solo began with Lester Young." These are not errata. What was errata was calling Tab Smith a tenor player, or missing Joe Williams early records on Savoy with a band leader Ratliff said made few record of much impact. Those two things I didn't bring up for the reasons you mentioned, but these others are points holding up the book's proported intent. It isn't if I agree or disagree with what he's putting across in the book, but how well that is done. I don't care how many times Iggy Pop listened to John Coltrane he didn't, as far as I can tell from his masochistic stage presence, internalize the salvation radiating from the core of Coltrane's music, no doubt because other influences were far more important to Iggy's music. Same can't be said of Ochs.

There's, of course, the Bird and Diz set to recommend.

I have it as October 30, 1930, too. Been celebrating it on the 30th for years. Where's it listed as the 28th? New research?

Playing the featured artist for 20 minutes or so of each hour and then new records or other ideas that might not have anything to do with the featured artist for another 40 minutes of each hour is how we've rolled since 1983. The kind of across the board programming you're advocating actually puts more focus on the featured artist, in this case one you don't like. If you look at playlists from jazz radio programs from all over the country, see the Jazz Programmer's List, you're as likely to see new music by Wynton or Branford being played on local radio as you are Mark Elf. Despite the fact that Wynton is on XM, and television, and has so much of the national media attention as the corporate/institutional face of jazz, his music does not dominate radio playlists. The new record was up on playlists for about 2 weeks or a month, then gone. And the amount of airplay he gets when you get away from his partisans on air diminishes even more. It's true. So, where do the high school music students in Spring Lake, Forest Hills Northern or any of 30 or 40 other high school music programs with jazz turn to hear it? Because, to them, he's the guy. First, to radio. Then, if they don't get it, to the net, just like the rest of their friends who don't listen to radio at all. The only aspect of youth listening to radio today are music school kids. All of their friends are Ipoding it. So, Wynton is to them what Grover Washington was to me: a bridge figure. What you're doing is screaming, Grover's no Johnny Hodges! Actually, you're not. You're not dealing with an individual's right to express themselves in music, at all. You're only talking about economics and saying because one person has more economic reward than another that invalidates their individual right to have their music reach their fans. And you've expressed that as an unassailable fact. But what you're missing here is the very thing you say we lack: this is non-commercial radio. It is not about, on a daily basis, selling music. It is about ideas. Individual's ideas. And there are a lot of them. And the people listening to the station from the Manistee National Forest deserve to experience them. What you call obsufication was my attempt to show you how to deal with an artist's output, especially one you don't enjoy, from a musical point of view (a goal that I often fall short of, but none the less, a goal). Same with the Lee Konitz set. You threw out the Nonet, but you missed the point that the set wasn't just about Lee, it was about "Angel Eyes." Did the Nonet record "Angel Eyes" or "Kary's Trance"? I don't know. But I wanted to play the new Bobo Moreno CD, and the new Eric Rassmussen CD "School of Tristano" and put into airplay some of the ideas coming out of Lee's new book (published by The University of MICHIGAN Press) and, voila. Thing is, there's plenty of room in the pool. Everyone does radio differently. And this isn't "my" station. It is Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp's. They set the tone: educate. But I knew, yes I knew, how well I knew the meaning of posting a playlist with Wynton's music would bring about all this fuss, while many, many others attract maybe 13 hits. That's why you play him, so there's enough wake behind the boat for the ski pyramid to get up and wave their flags over the sparkling waters. That's why you pay attention to the multi-million dollar marketing activity that the record companies put out and tap into it: for momentum so a more obscure musician from the faculty at Grand Valley or Western Michigan will have a chance of being heard by a larger audience. So, Clem, listen Sunday night and you tell me what you think of the local musicians from West Michigan. I'd be interested to know what you think of Dave Spring's tune, "One for Lazaro," too. If you don't, then this thread is a failure, a busted valentine. We've been streaming for a couple of years. "Going national" is not the right term for streaming. What I do know from monitoring the traffic on the stream that if we play Benny Goodman or Duke or Basie we'll double our on-line audience. And when we did the Muhal show, we doubled the on-line audience. This Wynton program was listened to by the core. The economic discussion and justification was in response to your unclear writing, which is how we were crossed up. Attacking Chuck for being aphoristic is like telling Basie to play more like James P. And you missed the point. Discuss YOUR life. Justify YOUR economic rewards, etc. Stop with the Peggy Fleming routine.

16 minute "Well, You Needn't"! Looking forward to checking this out. Thanks Chuck. Will be putting it on the air immediately.

Cuong and Raney have both played live on the air here (Raney twice now) but I've never heard them together. Sounds like someone to be checking out!