Lazaro Vega

Just a surprising note that after having read The Nation review, and not the book, that the Crouch/Murray “camp” is not countered by other critics of the time...Art Lang, Howard Mandall, Kevin Whitehead, John Corbett....are those guys in there? That seems a glaring omission as there was some counter voices, in terms of ideas and insight, to the louder critical tract.

I'd listen to that if I weren't going to see the Reptet in Grand Rapids. Incredible.

Begin forwarded message: Hi all - Thought you might be able to help pass the word along about uncollected royalties held by soundexchange. A brief glance over the massive list shows that Al Hibbler, Benny Carter, Eliane Elias, Jimmy Giuffre, Joanne Brackeen, Joe Lovano, Lee Morgan, Lennie Tristano, and Ornette Coleman all have money being held in their names. It's free to apply to be a member and details are here: http://www.soundexchange.com/members/become_member.html Musicians on the list have until Dec 15 to collect their money. All the best, Jean Cook Future of Music Coalition www.futureofmusic.org ------------------------ SoundExchange, the organization charged with administering royalties from digital transmissions, has released a list of artists and labels for whom they have unpaid royalties. The link below takes you to a list containing the names of all reported sound recording copyright owners who stand to lose those royalties collected from between February 1, 1996 and March 31, 2000, if they do not register with SoundExchange by December 15, 2006. If you are or know any musicians and/or copyright holders, please pass the news along. Unpaid Artist List: http://63.236.111.137/jsp/artist_unpaid_intro.jsp Unpaid Label List: http://63.236.111.137/jsp/label_unpaid_intro.jsp

Looking forward to this Friday at Schuler Books.

I've heard that "Chronology" is an "I Got Rhythm" variant at heart, and though harmony wasn't the anchor, it was still present and available in O.C.'s music. Charlie Haden spoke to the method the quartet used when performing in that Ken Burns "Jazz." Basically he said they had an agreed upon starting point, but then had to listen to where Ornette was going to go during the blowing sections. It could have been through some changes, or not -- and it's that lack of primacy, not absence, which made it different.

A couple of more reviews from Michigan Improv. First one from Marc Andren and then from Harvie McKnight. Hi all....I went last night as well with 15 in-the-know jazz fans who are venue owners,jazz press, musicians and superfans and ALL of us had a less than stellar experience at Hill Aud. Alice started off with the title track of her latest cd "Translinear Light" which was well played and probably the strongest song on the cd. However, everyone expected a much stronger effort after being gone for over 22 years...the rust showed a bit. While I loved her use of the 70's Wurlitzer organ, many in the group hated it...to them it sounded dated, but I think that was kind of the point! Most thought the evening was way too long...over 2.5 hours without an opening group. 1/2 hour for intermission, under a 1/2 hour for nice JC film clips, then students of the JC foundation had to play. Alice played piano very nicely throughout...she is capable, but age has taken the fire out from the early days with JC. Charlie Haden played very well for those who could hear...most had trouble with the sound level and interferred with our intense listening. He did a wonderful duet with Alice on a very strong tune. Roy Haynes, at 81, played like a man half his age and was the most energetic player of the evening as he really let loose on a few solo spots...we all voted 2 thumbs up. Ravi...well Ravi is a wonderful technical player who seemed to play soprano better. That is also the problem in that he totally lacked ANY emotion whatsoever. He tecjnically played everything very well, but nothing of the invisible "WOW". Ravi's cds as a leader also reflect this. Nobody expects him to by like his dad, but we do expect him to be his own man with his own sense....he sounded like any other regular or local sax players who are a dime a dozen. Overall, most rated the show average to good...everyone played technically well, but the entire show lacked emotion in playing. Yes the show had a Eastern Meditation flavor, but that is not the same as emotion or fire-in-the-belly playing...a few in the group even left after intermission as they were downright bored. The buzz and the hype was there in full force, both pre and post show, but it just didn't live up to it all. Alice has not played,toured,written for cds/performances in decades...she has concentrated on her personal spirituality path. Their was no "greatness" that came from her and she did not "lead" the proceedings to higher levels expected of the hype. I think if she had been a continous musician over the years, the 80th Birthday celebration would have gone off better. Also, we think that Ravi should have not been in the group, but a top performer more atuned to JC's way of playing like Sonny Fortune or Pharoah Sanders would have more of the emotional fire that JC always played with. C+/B- Thanks Harvey for starting and sharing. I will add that because of the "hype", many more friends came out and had dinner/enjoyed the show...so it was a fun night overall! Marc >From: "Harvey McKnight" <McKnighH@gvsu.edu> >Reply-To: mich-improv@yahoogroups.com >To: <mich-improv@yahoogroups.com> >Subject: [mich-improv] ALICE COLTRANE IN ANN ARBOR >Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:11:03 -0400 > >What an auspicious occasion, the autumnal equinox, and doubly >auspicious because it marks the date when John Coltrane reincarnated to >earth. Hill Auditorium was heavy with spirit last evening as Alice and >Ravi Coltrane, along with Charlie Haden and Roy Haynes celebrated the >life of jazz great John Coltrane. Wearing a flowing orange sari, the >chosen color of devotees of Swami Satchananda, Alice poured out her >joy, grief and transcendence throughout the evening. Her first >composition, ____________, revealed her multitudinous journey as >student, musician, wife, mother, widow, and spiritual seeker with all of these accompanying emotions. > >Roy Haynes, 81 years young, marveled the audience with his drums. With >such energy and feeling, Haynes dazzled and delighted. As I listened >to this master of percussion, I kept thinking that yes, he played with >Coltrane and assisted in the birth of all this freedom in jazz. >Charlie Haden on bass ________________. (your words here) > >Ravi Coltrane, 41, courageously transmitted his message throughout the >evening with soprano and tenor saxes. The love that flowed between >mother and son was beautiful to witness. Looking at Ravi, I couldn't >help but think that his father was about this age when he died of >cancer. What a legacy to maintain. However, both Ravi and Alice have >independently taken their gifts of music in their own directions. > >Alice glowed in Hill Auditorium while sharing her music--vibrant >celestial, ethereal music from her Wurlitzer and Steinway. Apparently >in her 70s, she defied time and space and took us with her in flight. >We soared via her compositions, so personal and transcending. What a gift Trane was to this >planet. And what a gift it is for us that Alice and Ravi continue to >share his music and spirit with us. There was definitely a healing for >all who experienced last evening. The autumnal equinox is thought by >the ancients to be a time when the Earth is made anew and fertile by >the force of the Sun, directly overhead. Coltrane's spirit, felt >directly overhead throughout the evening, still beckons, strongly.

....more careful listening required..... Or a better description of the long tones and their development in "Quartet No. 1" and how well that worked. Can see why you kept parts of it. I guess from this listening Saturday the clearest thing to emerge was how well the set documents the band's process as it evolves to an incredible level.

Thanks. WEUM is so literate. The announcer I heard maintained the level of character the station has always been known for. He imparted much knowledge, information, some opinion but did it with character. Main floor Row N. Missed Linda.

Bump for more elaborate review....

One the way down I’d heard all of a Louis Armstrong Jubilee broadcast with his orchestra, Rochester, special guest Jack Benny, M.C. Ernie Bubbles Whitman, some good tunes for Armstrong, and a feature for Joe Garland, is it?, tenor; as well as the companion concert on the cd by Red Allen with J.C. Higginbotham, alto Don Stovall, Bigard....had just switched to the first Coltrane live at the Village Vanguard when the storm hit. Unrelenting heavy rain gusting winds all the way from this side of Grand Rapids to Lansing. Washers high speed and just white to silver to gray searching for red. There were tornado warnings in Kent County my wife says on the celli as outside somewhere are farms. Zero visibility for stretches first in single lane construction then amid football traffic. I voted to myself to not turn around three times as that danger was past, why turn around and drive into it again because it had to be better on down the road.The luck of the Irish screwed Michigan State but it kept my ass behind some Ted Nugent white Rancher and followed his taillights, a freak angel amid the weather fury of John Coltrane’s 80th birthday. After Lansing cruise control again and, after Brighton, a switch from the Vanguard set to WEMU, and they took me right to the ramp on Thayer across from Hill Auditorium with an incredible 80t Birthday tribute. Spontaneously literate radio. Came in on what might have been “Equinox.” Listened to “Mr. Sims” before leaving. Alice Coltrane’s Translinear Light Quartet began the concert with a number -- I wrote nothing down -- which recalled the meditative tempo and three bass drum beats that Coltrane blew so much over. Haynes just pulsed the concert to life with his foot pedal and ever elaborating poly rhythms. Haden was not heard well in the first set -- there was no punch to his sound, and the large vibrational low end was in Haynes bass drum and Mrs. Coltrane’s left hand on her Wurlitzer organ, which also brought out the Eastern aspect in sound and, under her hands, an improvisational concept exploring incrementally different intervals, widening and contracting them in insistent flutters but driven by an energy which reminded me of John Coltrane’s. Her ability to leap registers with both hands playing harmonic counterpoint against each other sounded like an elaboration on Coltrane’s band. There was a lovely piano/bass duet with Haden in the first set, though, and then Haden was well featured. His deliberate, simple variation on three notes gave the concert Ornette’s improvisational approach, a nice layer to the evening as a reminder of Ornette’s influence on Trane. Haden and Haynes hooked up, though, as Haden creates his own drones without a bow and Roy dances with it. She leaves little by the way of breathing points, especially on Wurlitzer. Roy elbowed his way in and took it up during “Impressions,” bringing pithy, fast tom-tom and cymbal riffs which grew in intensity and length as the number built. Brought the house down. It wasn’t while with Ravi -- could anything top John Coltrane and Roy Haynes at Newport 1963? -- but as Alice continued to lengthen her modal verging on free method solo Haynes led the band to an early high point in the concert. The show had its moments. Alice Coltrane’s one trip to the synthesizer was a star gaze, and a relief from the sameness in dynamic range of the Wurlitzer. The first number featured piano, and she played piano during the encore, taking the bass vamp from “A Love Supreme” to heart with her left hand. Her piano solos were beautiful, ornate terms of exploration, gentle in spirit. Ravi’s brightest moment was during “Leo.” After Ravi’s familiarity with Coltrane’s later approach, and Alice's long exploration, Haden zeroed in on that opening interval, the mere hint of a “head,” throughout his solo on “Leo” and it was mind blowing. The film after intermission was a well written, tastefully done tribute, and it filled in Alice Coltrane’s years off the recording/touring scene (teaching and developing institution) and her activity since returning to playing in 1998. The film was comic, too, in it strung together clips of Hollywood film actors talking about John Coltrane via dialogue in popular movies. Big love in the house last night for Alice Coltrane, who is from nearby Detroit. Having Coltrane's family in one spot for his 80th birthday -- history is ongoing. Ideas alive and evolving. Of course nothing will top Coltrane's own band with Alice. Hearing Roy Haynes with her was interesting as he's very different than Rashied Ali, or even DeJohnette. Haden and Haynes held the show together, kept rhythmic textures changing enough in intensity and dynamic variety that Alice’s deep explorations of time extending into time like a Raga took more shape than a monochromatic line. Together everyone gave the now version of the sounds Coltrane’s band with Alice inspired, and included the surviving drummer from John’s own great quartet, and a fulcrum member of a quartet which deeply inspired Coltrane. No wonder people were standing and cheering for five minutes before the band played a note -- there's still something going on out there. The writer and WEMU producer George Klein was sitting in the same aisle. He’s another great one. George, and all of WEMU, is concerned with drawing more young people to jazz. It was good to talk to him. His daughter is an editor at Metro Times in Detroit. Klein helped me with instructions out of there. Before hitting US 23 off Washtenaw my wife was on the phone giving me the play by play on the Michigan State disaster. The rest of the way home, with one stop for gas in Okemos -- the football fans were spinning angry tires on the wet pavement there -- it was The Art Ensemble 1967/68 (Nessa) discs one and most of disc 2. Love “Theme Statements.” Was enlightened by the first take of “Tatas Matas” as it is so tentative compared to the “master.” Could listen to “Old” forever. Though Bowie’s long solo on “Quartet No. 1” is an incredible thing to hear, as is Philip Wilson’s drumming as he follows some melodic events with the suggestion of an energy music ride cymbal only to trail off in diminuendo and slow down to silence, the over all performance eventually lost me with the long, long rests and elaborate events that came out of them. Thought the use of silence on “Quartet No. 2” was more “composed,” or more under control, and that the richer textures of the second piece more engaging. “Trio (Oh, Suzannah)” was back to Trane, in the sense of elaborate variation of a simple theme using, for 1967, a new improvisational approach to duration and intensity. Though Roscoe’s intro is anything but rubato tension building in the same way as Trane’s quartet, and his overlay of irony in a post modern genre crossing is in another emotional dimension than “My Favorite Things.” Two o’clock and good to be home having sandwich and a beer, looking at ESNP hype the comeback on Michigan State as Notre Dame’s season saving emotional shot in the arm after being pasted by U of M the week before. John Coltrane’s 80th Birthday, September 23, 2006. What a jolt.

Up for the weekend!

Wow Valerie...Mingus says on this recording his Monterey set was all of 20 minutes, so this is music they had planned to play there but ran out of time. The first piece, Meditations on Intergration, would have filled their spot on the festival. This release has a comfortable, rehearsal-like quality to it. A few false starts, some off mic banter with the crowd, and the crowd's laughter in response, but when it comes together, incredible music. You're fortunate to have heard Mingus in his home state.

Is there another thread here about this release?

The double CD re-issued domestically on Sunnyside. Hobart Dotson, trumpet Lonnie Hillyer, trumpet Jimmy Owens, flugelhorn/trumpet Charles McPerson, alto saxophone Julius Watkins, French horn Howard Johnson, tuba Mingus, bass/piano Dannie Richmond, drums

Patricia sings a charming version of "Summer Samba" with its cute little melody...Her "postmodern" songbook takes in melodic material from pop, things which sound like kitch (sp) in a jazz context. In terms of her songs, yes, her music often moves in its own narrative way, a la "Lush Life".

We're back up, but barely. The antennae was clobbered by lightening, made a hole, which filled up with water and took out hundreds of feet, at least, of the transmission cable. So we have a replacement antennae running at only 10,000 watts from 400 feet off the ground. Still working on that digital link to 88.9. We are web casting again. Sorry about the leg, Chuck; she is a beast.

That his campaign denied WZZM an interview because it didn't completely toe his party line is some ugly shit, man. It's too bad the story about China won't jump to a discussion of labor and out sourcing because unless he's completely reversed his opinion on the matter, DeVos is anti-labor. How does one purport to be pro jobs but anti labor in Michigan? Someone in the media needs to ask him. The investment in the medical industry the DeVos family made in Grand Rapids is incredible yet how does that translate to the state? Unless he's just saying bag it to the auto industry.... In any case, our antennae blew up. Must have been hit by lightening before, and then it filled up with water, and fizz. We'll hopefully be up with 5,000 watt replacement antennae tomorrow Also a new digital link between the station and WBLU FM 88.9 in Grand Rapids is going into place as we work the bugs out so in the future if WBLV FM 90.3 goes down, WBLU will stay up.

Johnny Frigo on bass before 1940?

That's the University Musical Society. Glad they have a jazz division -- Ornette, Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck have all had big concerts there in the last two years. (They're primarily a classical organization. UMS is putting on a big Shostakovich weekend in October).

Nice work if you can get it

I want to see Roy Haynes. Chuck, did Roy play the Chicago Jazz Festival?

Oh Lord, too true. That's hilarious and mortifying simultaneously. There was a period when the afterglows at Blue Lake became a continuation of the festival, jam sessions. That's all I've got.

Ah -- it sounded so different. Truth be told I was looking at the display from the Holland Nature Center, their birds of prey -- a red tailed hawk and a barred (?) owl -- while preventing my daughters from offering up their fingers as part of the demonstration. Louise checked out a lampray they had in a bag on the table -- lots of Great Lakes info, including a stuffed version of this gigantic asian carp that's coming up the Mississippi toward Lake Michigan. Ellie eventually ran away and got lost in the crowd enough times what we hauled out the bright blue nylon leash with her name on it. By the time we were in the wine tasting, gourmet salmon cook-off tent it was John Montgomery, tenor (still lovin' Mike Brecker), with Jim Cooper, vibes; Dave Hey, piano/bass keys; and Mike VanLente, drums. VanLente let Ellie up behind his drums, put sticks in her hands and indulged her. That was too much. As he's scooping her up towards the stand he says more than asks, "You're insured aren't you?" Froncek said you guys called him about it at one o'clock and when he asked when's the hit you said one thirty and that sun of bitch made it from Muskegon, set up and played on time. Now there's a musician who wants it everyday. He's comin' ready. Randy can build dynamic climaxes in the music, and plays funk and street rhythms across a style as eclectic as DeJohnette. This summer Tim went through something of a Tony Williams phase. That came out in his playing on three or four concerts he played at Blue Lake this summer, but towards the end of the season he was spending more time in the pocket. Between the two of them, with their individual strengths and personalities, West Michigan's jazz scene has legs. Like Edwin Moses. Tim's doing a thing at Aquinas College early October. It's in The Jazz Datebook on the Blue Lake web site. Chuck, you might have Ann check it out: there were artists booths with paintings, ceramics, some photography, jewelery. No "craft" shit. Jim, who runs the Salmon Festival?

That was different. Tim sitting in with Organissimo at the last minute under a big tent on a beautiful day in Grand Haven. I heard the band as my daughters and I were walking by and thought, Hey, Organissimo. But then I saw Tim behind the drums and thought, Oh, must be another band...but from where? Jim and Joe were just shadow outlines and unrecognizable. And because they played mostly familiar tunes, not the Organissimo book, I was completely fooled. "Helluva band, who are they?" Good job guys.

Saturday, September 23rd at 8 p.m. Alice Coltrane will give a rare public performance with her quartet Translinear Light in a celebration of John Coltrane’s 80th Birthday at Hill Auditorium, 825 N. Univerisity Avenue, Ann Arbor. Pianist Alice Coltrane, widow of the famous saxophonist John Coltrane, will be joined by their son Ravi on saxophones, plus bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Roy Haynes. Additionally, the quartet will participate in a free public interview conducted by WDET host Liz Copland on Friday, September 22 at 3 p.m. in the Rackham Amphitheatre, 915 East Washington Street, Ann Arbor. Tickets for Saturday’s opening concert of the University Musical Society’s 2006/2007 season are $10 to $50 and available from (734) 764-2538 or online at www.ums.org.