Lazaro Vega

Duke Jordan discography page: http://www.jazzdisco.org/jordan/cat/a/

Roy Haynes on brushes stood in for the tap dancer on "I'm Late, I'm Late," and the result of him taking those breaks makes for a great Roy Haynes showcase.

Just to re-iterate without being an egotistical bastard, the nearly 1/2 hour long suite from this new Konitz recording will air tonight from about 9:30 p.m. et and stream live over www.bluelake.org . If you have the time it's a chance to check out this new music. We just opened the promo on Friday.

Cool. Just pulled out the Claude Thornhill recordings this week -- man there was a lot more than just "influence" going from that band to the Miles Nonet -- a lot of the same people played in both, especially Mulligan and Konitz. Thornhill's band didn't have the modern language down in all the solo roles, but the ensemble stuff was new music. Who played trumpet on the Chicago Jazz Festival version of Lee's nonet? Was it Harrell and John Eckert? Red Rodney made that band for the "Live at Lauren" Soul Note recording, which has a long version of Lenny's "April." The Steeplechase recording "Yes, Yes, Nonet" is the one, though, for a balance between the writing/arranging and good solos. According to the press release yes this is the New Nonet that will appear at the Chicago Jazz Festival.

Two new releases from Omni Tone. From the press release for New Nonet, "In their on-going collaboration, (nearly 100 ) tunes and melodic lines that Konitz created, jotted down and faxed to Talmor over a period of time...have taken on new lives as inspired realizatons by Talmor for the Lee Kontiz New Nonet." Continuing, "New Nonet kicks off with the 25 minute "ChromaticLee Suite," culled from eight diferent blues lines penned by Konitz. " Personnel: Lee Kontiz, alto saxophone; Ohad Talmor, tenor saxophone/musical director; Russ Johnson, trumpet; Jacob Garchik, trombone; Oscar Noriega or Denis Lee, bass clarinet; Dimos Goudaroulis, cello; Ben Monder, guitar; Bob Bowen, bass; Matt Wilson, drums. Blue Lake Public Radio will broadcast "ChromaticLee Suite" Sunday evening from 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. et, followed by Night Lights featuring Frank Hewitt. www.bluelake.org I have to bug. For information on Lee Konitz, Ohad Talmor with the Spring String Quartet from Austria. on the record "Inventions," www.omnitone.com.

That's an interesting idea, Allen, vis a vis Jordan and John Lewis. Read that Jordan is related to Teddy Wilson in terms of touch. And he was a prolific composer. Will spin an hour of music featuring Duke Jordan this Sunday evening from 7 to 8 p.m. et. His solo version of "Summertime," as well as Jordan's recordings with Bird ("Bird of Paradise, "Embraceable You"), a Bird tribute band including Jackie McLean and Johnny Griffin ("Yardbird Suite"), then Tina Brooks ("Up Tight's Creek"), and Kenny Burrell ("Scotch Blues"). Two pieces with Stan Getz, Jordan and Jimmy Rainey, "Stella" and "Thanks For the Memory." The Brown/Roach, Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra and Karrin Allyson/Nancy King versions of "Jordu" are in there, too. www.bluelake.org Have been listening to his brief but gem like solos with Gene Ammons (Jordan is on "Blues Up and Down" but there's no room to breath on that riot). And the aforementioned Art Farmer disc has a companion recording of just the trio where Philly Joe Jones and Jordan are incredible. An unaccompanied Philly Joe knocks out the theme to "Ladybird" on brushes, and there's a 9 minute "Night In Tunisia" if memory serves.

Will be featuring Jack DeJohnette recordings tonight on Blue Lake Public Radio from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. www.bluelake.org You're welcome to join the 6 to 10 on-line listeners we have every night!

Chuck, Whenever it's ready you're more than welcome. LV

We have some of the live performance with Fred Anderson recorded, yes, and if that is programmed it would be after midnight during the "Out On Blue Lake" segment. Jazz From Blue Lake runs from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. est.

Looking to celebrate Roscoe Mitchell's music tonight on Jazz From Blue Lake from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., with a special hour starting at midnight, "Out On Blue Lake." www.bluelake.org. His birthday is tomorrow. Time flies. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/rmitchell.htm

This one is on the shelves at Blue Lake: http://tinyurl.com/fblzc Played the solo version of "Too Late Now" last night on the program by request for New York and Ohio.

I've talked to Marshall Allen about it when he played live on Blue Lake with Henry Grimes -- all music. He said that was what they ate, drank, slept and lived. Music all the time. Which is one reason why the Arkestra could spontaneously create form as they did in "The Magic City," on in the continuous concerts they put on.

Of course musical basics are important, but the generation who challenged what those basics are, both in classical music and jazz, made inroads into new methods and practices which are far more valid musically, and more akin to the shattering truths of early jazz, then they're given credit for.

Or maybe the band was busy enough touring and recording that Ra didn't want to change his schedule around Gilmore.

Agreed: the anthropological aspects of Sun Ra's "Cosmo Dramas" trumped the sexual ones, if there were any. Saw Sun Ra many times and never thought, Oh look, the black Village People. This is at a time when Parliment and the Ohio Players were sexifying in all kinds of ways. Ra's music seemed a-sexual to me -- there was more going on that dealt with an Afro-Centric total music approach wrapped up in an escapist cosmology that, underneath the camp and kitsch, aimed at truth telling about the human condition. Ra was about as free a musician as I've ever encountered -- free to do anything. If he wanted to talk free love the idea he'd be stopped by propriety is whack.

Let me know when you're listening and I play it again, Fass -- we can use it like any other cd.

Since Blue Lake Public Radio began streaming in March of 2005 we've only had one access point to our web stream, a Windows Media Player. This week we added an MP3 stream, too, and if you tried us and had trouble, perhaps this new connection will alleviate the problems. For a full schedule, list of featured artists, the local concert calander (The Jazz Datebook) and a link to listen live please visit www.bluelake.org and click on Public Radio.

All non-jazzers are out of the loop. J. Smart is a non-jazzer. Therefore J. Smart is out of the loop. And this type of attitude is why today's jazz lost its audience. You can talk about re-issues and compeating with the past, and that's a factor, but this kind of "if you don't know, you're not welcome and in any case your opinions are ill informed and invalid on their face" is the most alienating, audience deflating, belittling point of view an artist or writer on the arts can take. What's worse is it sounds like the writer is defending a status quo that is false or at best imaginary: the only constant in jazz throughout its ENTIRE development is change. Blues and swing mutated in the 1960's, they didn't go away but became another part of themselves, and an element of the a music which was always comprised of various elements, i.e. a fusion of influences formed into a personal music. The process was always greater than the sum of it's parts. To point out two important parts of jazz as the only valid parts, and then not recognize them when they change, is to follow a map that will surely get everyone lost.

Boy, you know the state of cultural affairs is gone to zilch when Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor get the tabloid treatment. "The Magic City" is not mediocre, it's one of the great orchestral jazz works of the era.

Don't forget your tie!

I'm hearing that it was Ray with the Basie band, but that the sound was bad on the band, good on the vocals, so they re-did the band parts with the current outfit and meshed it with Ray's voice, as first heard with Basie. Convoluted, but still looking forward to it.

Anyone aware of this new release? Have word that it's coming on Fantasy, though my browser won't work at the Concord Music Group web site, sooooo.......

It's been a while since I read Szwed's book "Space is the Place," but didn't he talk about how Sun Ra's testicles didn't drop all the way through his body as they do in "normal" development and the malady, which was eventually corrected, imprinted heavily on his sexuality? From what I remember, though, Ra's response was to de-emphasize sex, esepcially in his music -- not that erotica ignored June Tyson, or that the Arkestra couldn't bump and grind, but Sun Ra's poems and lyrics meditate on love more than sex, don't they? I don't recall Szwed's take on homosexuality but it would seem strange that the male preference exerted itself in business (keeping Gilmore from recording outside the fold) and little in poetry or music. There must be more interesting things to wonder about out loud as relates to the mystery, Mr.Ra.

Wish I was there. Blue Lake Public Radio will feature Kenny Burrell's recordings this evening after 10 p.m. et.

Thanks for the link (interested in that UMO Orchestra Plays Muhal Richard Abrams in the 500 series). As I posted under "Steve Lacy Could Have Been 72 today" this duo album with Mal was recorded just before he made a US tour bringing his quintet to Grand Rapids for a concert I produced via The Urban Institute For Contemporary Arts. Never could afford to present the Lacy/Waldron duo. They were wonderful in Chicago.