Lazaro Vega

"Prime Time restricted Ornette's melodic flow and restricted his rhythmic alterations. " Disco did that to people.

In a 1992 interview Ornette told me he favored the electric band because it gave him an orchestral range without having 60 instruments. Skies of America was a contemporaneous project as I recall. Yes, Prime Time as part of a continuuing whole, as well as an attempt to bring his ideas to situations they might not normally occur in. Heard Prime Time at The Power Center in Ann Arbor and at the Chicago Jazz Festival -- they were ear splitting, and, musically, what's mentioned above was harder to discern: The trouble with the volume was the multi-layered, multi-linear aspect sort of smashed together on one dynamic level. The interactivity of the current band is easier for me to hear. It's cool to hear "Sleep Talk" from the Prime Time era done on Sound Grammer. Ornette's melodies (themes) are adaptable to just about any setting.

http://bambooewart.net/images/aacm_series

During that era Prime Time was the only way to hear Ornette live -- some people compare this music to disco. It seems to me he's working with similiar musical ideas he'd always expressed though with electric tone colors and volumes with what was then called a "free funk" underpinning. Of all the musicians from his bands in that era, Ronald Shannon Jackson's drumming has stayed with me the longest. In any case, is Prime Time an abberation, or part of a continious whole?

What!!!!! No, didn't get those! Please try again: radio@bluelake.org

http://www.billyhartmusic.com/The%20Day%20...rgan%20Died.mp3 The Day Lee Morgan Died

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHTdc36627k Don't know if that has shown up here previously.

He sounds great on the new Luis Perdomo recording "Awareness" on Ravi Coltrane's label -- that was a pleasent shock, really, because he's throwing in with some of the younger players. Best to Henry and love to you, too, Margaret. LV

And Roscoe?

http://www.jalc.org/concerts/details.asp?EventID=952 Personally, I hope this sells out before Christmas.

Blue Lake Public Radio will feature this concert recording in its entirety (with the blessings of ECM) this Sunday evening from 7 to 10 p.m. edt over www.bluelake.org

Brownie, thanks for the link. Those photos are incredible.

Did you see the corrections to the article? Correction Appended DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - Article on archive of sound recordings and photographs made by American photojournalist W Eugene Smith for his jazz-loft project, dating from 1957 to about 1965, in which he obsessively documented a Manhattan loft full of jazz musicians on Sixth Avenue near 28th Street; archive is housed at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies Correction: March 21, 2005, Monday An article in The Arts on March 10 about recordings of jazz jam sessions at a New York loft made by the photographer W. Eugene Smith in the late 1950's and the 1960's misstated the number of people who have heard the tapes since their rediscovery. In addition to the participating musicians and a biographer of Thelonious Monk, they have been heard by consultants on a project to preserve and catalog them and by two jazz researchers. (Fragments of the tapes have also been played at lectures.) The reporter was not the first person other than the musicians and the Monk biographer to hear them. The article also quoted incorrectly from the jazz pianist Paul Bley, who played in some sessions. He said that the loft would open every night about 11 -- not that it was open every night until about 11.

Is Alan Grant still alive?

Multiphonics....

Thanks for that insight, Larry. He quoted "When the Saints Go Marching In" on "Turnaround" during a performance in Ann Arbor.....

Branford said during that period his solos never came to the point, that while playing with Sting he had to learn how to say what he had to say in a much shorter space, to get to the point. I think that's evident in this video.

Ghost, yes, from that album "The Improvisor." Went with the duo with Jason Moran because of Sangry's suggestion elsewhere in these parts....If I Should Lose You is from that album, too....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Italian Creative Jazz Musicians to Tour Midwest Acclaimed Italian creative jazz musicians Daniele Cavallanti and Tiziano Tononi will be embarking on a tour of the midwestern United States from October 18th – 31st. Tenor saxophonist Cavallanti and percussionist Tononi are longstanding members of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, a super-group of Italy’s finest improvisers. They also lead several projects of their own and play together as the duo Udu Calls. They have performed and recorded with several major innovators of creative jazz music including: Cecil Taylor, Dewey Redman, Andrew Cyrille, Roswell Rudd, William Parker, Muhal Richard Abrams, Walter Wierbos, Willem Breuker, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins and many others. For this tour they will be teaming with the up-and-coming Chicago trio Ways & Means to form the quintet Chicago Udu Calls. The three members of Ways & Means are Dan Godston on trumpet, Jayve Montgomery on reeds and percussion, and Joel Wanek on upright bass. Although they are an ocean apart, these five musicians share a common affinity for American jazz, traditional African and Asian music, and European free improvisation. Together their music will embrace and employ instrumentation, melodies and rhythms from around the world as it creates its own identity. Each performance is sure to be a different journey than the next. Here are the main stops of their tour: Thursday, October 19 @ 10:00 pm Elastic Arts 2830 N. Milwaukee Ave., 2nd floor Chicago, IL www.elasticarts.org Saturday, October 21 @ 8:00 pm Mother Fools 1101 Williamson St. Madison, WI www.motherfools.com Sunday, October 22 @ 1:00 pm Madison Center for Creative & Cultural Arts 306 W Dayton St. Madison, WI www.mccca.net Sunday, October 22 @ 8:00 pm Circle-A Café 932 E Chambers St Milwaukee, WI www.myspace.com/circleacafe Thursday, October 26 @ 9:00 pm Velvet Lounge 67 E. Cermak Road Chicago, IL www.velvetlounge.net Friday, October 27 @ 9:00 pm Milo Elektric 617 E. 3rd Ave. Columbus, OH www.iceboxshows.com Saturday, October 28 @ 8:00 pm Parish Hall 6205 Detroit Ave. Cleveland, OH www.millerweitzelgallery.com Monday, October 30 @ 8:00 pm Kerrytown Concert House 415 N. 4th Ave. Ann Arbor, MI www.kerrytownconcerthouse.com For more information please contact Joel Wanek at saltherring@fastmail.fm or 773/782.3538

Here's a press release that came over the transom...cut and paste...our Von Freeman celebration is under way between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. edt from www.bluelake.org Of course his recordings on Nessa are key to Von's career. By the way, the Ping label recording and the cuts with an Andrew Hill Quintet, according to Chris Sheridan, with Hill on organ, Von on tenor, Pat Patrick on baritone saxophone, Malachi Favors, bass and Wilbur Campbell on drums...are they available anywhere? Many happy returns to the explorer from pan tonia, Von Freeman! LV HAPPY BIRTHDAY VONSKI! October 03, 2006, 10:02 AM posted by Mike Friedman Today, October 3, 2006, is the 84th birthday of Chicago tenor titan Earl LaVon Freeman, better known as Von or Vonski. Congratulations Von! There will be some serious celebrating tonight at the New Apartment Lounge so if you're in Chicago, try and make it down. We will certainly be there. As many of you probably know, Premonition Records, which shares the music store site, musicstem.com, with Greenleaf Music has released four Von Freeman recordings since 2001. Here's the short bio on Von according to Premonition: Chicago's most influential jazz elder Von Freeman has been playing his saxophone since the 1930s. He's worked with the best -- Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Gene Ammons, Sun Ra -- and has fashioned an individual style that is instantly recognizable, especially if you're from Chicago. Think Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Bird if they had heard and absorbed the avante garde of the 1960s, especially as it was practiced by Chicago's AACM. Oh yeah. Throw in a little electric blues. Vonski worked with guitarist Jimmy Reed for four years and the great pianist Sunnyland Slim for over 13 years. Once again, Happy Birthday Von Freeman ! ... 84 YEARS YOUNG... "THERE'S GONNA BE A PAR-TEE TONIGHT" Send back your Birthday Wishes... and I'll make them into a personalized Music Directors from around the World card. - Kate. KATE SMITH PROMOTIONS of Chicago 1413 Dobson Suite 100 Chicago IL 60202 814.482.0010 katesmith999@yahoo.com www.katesmithpromotions.com

Stefon Harris taps faith roots for jazz Sunday, October 01, 2006 By William R. Wood An agnostic jazz musician who is the son of a Pentecostal preacher will play an original musical work dedicated to a Kalamazoo Unitarian-Universalist church. Stefon Harris, a composer, marimbist and vibraphonist, will make a statement about his views on faith when he presents ``Portraits of the Promised'' on Thursday at Chenery Auditorium. Through ``Portraits,'' Harris makes an ``analogy about organized religion and how there are many paths to enlightenment,'' he said. The jazz suite will offer tonal impressions about discovering faith, following it, being deceived and swallowed by it, and living with it among the contrasting faiths of others, Harris said by phone recently from his home in Sayreville, N.J. Harris, 34, who is black and grew up in Pentecostalism, became an agnostic as an adult. He said he discovered that his current views about faith are not so different from the views of members of People's Church in Kalamazoo. ``I met with the minister and members of the church about what Unitarianism is and the history of the church,'' Harris said. ``It is broad and open-minded, and that's the way I am, and I felt a kinship. The way I perceive it, it's a group of people who come together and discuss the core issues of unity, the meaning of love and respect. Those things were always at the forefront of our discussions. ``It is ironic that I've done something for a church and don't get into organized religion,'' he said. Through a request from People's Church and a grant from the Gilmore Foundation, Kalamazoo's Fontana Chamber Arts commissioned Harris to compose and perform his jazz suite to communicate the church's history and commemorate its 150th anniversary. Harris first performed ``Portraits of the Promised'' on May 21 at the church for church members. Thursday will mark the first time the piece is performed for the public. People's Church members received more than the 20 minutes of music they originally hoped to get. Harris' piece, which took eight months to compose, is about an hour long. Harris is to perform it at Chenery with his band Blackout and several other studio musicians from New York. People's was doubly lucky that Harris was well-oiled to create a suite. His new CD, ``African Tarantella, Dances with Duke'' (Blue Note, 2006, $17.98), to be released nationally on Tuesday, contains another Harris suite, ``The Gardner Meditations,'' and re-orchestrations of two Ellington suites. Also, one of Harris' previous suites, ``Grand Unification Theory,'' received a Best Jazz Album Grammy nomination in 2003. ``You start to hear complete stories (in your head as a musician), and the best way to express them is in the suite format,'' said Harris, a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. Although he doesn't share his family's views about faith, he doesn't regret growing up in the Pentecostal church and attending three-hour services on Sundays ``and 12 hours on New Year's Eve,'' he joked. Church life gave him exposure to the history of musical expression in black culture. ``The core elements of jazz are very similar to what you are exposed to in the black church,'' Harris said. ``When you testify, you tell a story. Same thing when you play something.'' But more important, the church life gave him deep exposure to the culture around the church music -- black culture. It was common to see public emotional expression during services. Such expression is normal in African-American life, Harris said. ``If you feel something in a black church, it is expected that you call out, `Amen!''' Harris said. ``Oftentimes in teaching jazz, that element is not talked about, and people just play chords and scales. You don't need to be an African-American (to play with feeling), but you do need to have something to say.'' Tapping that core feeling is the trick, Harris said, adding, ``Everyone is unique and beautiful, everyone has something to share.'' http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/k...050.xml&coll=7

Sidran's radio series was cool. I actually enjoy him more as a journalist than a singer. That's pretty funny in this day and age to say a musician went on an avant band to make bread. That Threadgill Sextet record on About Time with Olu does well by him, "When Was That?" once known as "Fanfare and Celebration,"is a desert island "cut" for me. And Olu had much to add to the David Murray Octet's recording "Ming," which is otherwise dominated by the Chicagoans. Live he was wonderful, especially because he could put "the horn in the bucket," i.e. play with plunger mute, bucket mute, straight mute, pixie mute ("shrimp shandwich, shrimp bar-b-que, creole shrimp....") and open horn with a cornet warmth. His solo records from Atlantic were a huge disappointment after that. Thanks for the recommendations, especailly the Rollini. Need to find it. Noticed Bill Dobbins also has his act together as contributing writer to the Grove Dictionary of Jazz, which is a problematic work, but not for what he puts in it.

Thank you for posting this.

Sorry to say I've only read about Nas and not heard his music. Played Olu Dara the other night, though, as part of The David Murray Octet while presenting a radio feature on drummer Steve McCall. And saw Olu leading his own band back in the 1980's at the Michigan Union in Ann Arbor (he "warmed up" for Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society). Olu Dara sang about okra and had a giant plastic mixing bowl he used as a clownish mute as he sang/played, "Put the horn in the bucket." From the sounds of it Nas is an honest musician. Someday... Nate, sorry to mis-represent -- there was a link the Clemshell posted in the Scoop Yanow thread where you mentioned E.C. as a contributer to AMG, and it was I and I alone who wrote his insight was helpful, while Hodes, Stewart and Freeman strike me as timeless. Yes, there is much political posturing in music writing today. Musicians say such things as, "I like football, but a football player knows and understands the game better than I ever will." Yes, musicians do know music on an entirely heavier level, yet what Muhal has to say is an important way of understanding how fundementally different artistic human expression is from sports. It's a gift to humanity. The "only musicians know" faction seeks to limit artistic understanding, while many of the musician/writers listed here so far seem to me to treat writing as an extension of their music, i.e. another means of communication. Sure, Eddie Condon had his own agenda, clearly, yet he was entertaining as hell about it. And Ghost, yes, musician's autobiographies can be helpful, or absolutely confusing...Beneath the Underdog, Music is My Mistress, and Miles Davis's "auto-bio" (Art Blakey played on "Walkin'" according to that book)...the Pepper book is one of the great ones, though.....

Jim, Roscoe and George Lewis are also well represented in the article. Yes, it's too bad we live in an era when two giants of jazz tradition -- Ornette Coleman and Muhal Richard Abrams -- are nine years between recording projects. It may be true that is the way they wanted it, but then again.... There is no great body of work from he who weilds an electric rake, Clemocracy...I've just read a few things here and there which were insightful and helpful.