ghost of miles

Ernest Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises And Other Writings 1918-1926

Interesting post by Loren Schoenberg to the Facebook Benny Goodman Appreciation Society page--Loren's given me permission to share it here: There are only two Goodman versions of what sounds very much like a Jimmy Mundy arrangement of MEAN TO ME, both coming from late 1936. You'll hear both of them here - the first (slower and more groovy) played at the Manhattan Room on 11/25/36, and the second (faster and smoother) originating on the 12/8/36 Camel Caravan broadcast. Hearing them this morning caught me by surprise. There was something in the air, something new in the swing they achieved. The band's beat has loosened up from where they were only a few months back, and there's a new unanimity between the arrangement and the soloists and the kind of swing that the great majority of white bands (and to a lesser degree, the black ones as well) rarely approached. Add to that the originality of the conception - this could be no other band than Goodman's - and you have the makings of a vital evolution of the big band era. Not Henderson, not Hines, neither Dorsey, Haymes, Calloway, nor Mills Blue Rhythm achieved this marriage of blend, technical polish, or swing (remember the musicologist's caveat - from the recordings we know). Only Ellington and Lunceford could be talked about in the same league, in their sui genesis idioms. Let's pause for moment just before Harry James joined the band in January, 1937. Yes, it's been correctly noted that his was the missing piece of the equation that set the Goodman band off into its unparalleled year of brilliance. But let's remember the components that made that explosion possible, without which James would have been unable to ignite the fuse. First and foremost there was Gene Krupa, who for this listener was reaching his zenith as an ensemble drummer. He was playing INSIDE the band, for the band most of the time, not on top of or in front of it. Indeed, it was the coming of James into the band that fed Krupa's exhibitionism (to be clear, a natural tendency for him that existed side by side with his sincere desire to be the best he could at all times), or so it seems to me. Throughout 1937 the band evolved into one of the greatest jazz ensembles of all time, before tipping over into a tendency to let flash and volume win out at times over taste. Krupa was correct in realizing that his desires as a musician couldn't be expressed playing in someone else's band. Hear him on the first Mean to Me, especially - it’s a textbook example of superior big band drumming, with its steady changes of texture and timbre. There are flowing hi-hats, press rolls, breaks, possibly some ride cymbal work, plus the usual clicks and clacks and fills. Throughout the second version, Krupa takes advantage of the brighter tempo to tighten things up, with clipped hi-hat accents behind BG, and fewer fills. Secondly, there was Ziggy Elman, who found his own voice after James' arrival by incorporating a large schmear of yiddishkeit into his already blaring style. Elman was also a superb lead trumpeter, who raised the volume level of the brass section way beyond what was the norm at the time. This I learned from Zeke Zarchy, who came into the band to play first trumpet shortly before Elman arrived. James was a more brilliant soloist and a nonpareil virtuoso, whose technical skills far eclipsed his section mates, but in terms of sheer mass, couldn't match Elman, so it fell to Chris Griffin to hold things together and somehow regulate his section-mates through his clear and determined efforts to strike a sonic blend. Also playing a role in the band's evolution towards brilliance was Vido Musso. He was the first member of the band to lack the basic professional and harmonic skills that had been the norm for both the ensemble and solo players in the band. The stories of Musso's learning to become a competent sight-reader are the stuff of legend (along with his Anglo-Italianate malapropisms - think of him as a jazz Sam Goldwyn), alongside his equally intuitive reaching for chord tones in his early solos, and you have something new, something inspiring for a band of players who knew chords and who read around corners like the back of their hands. What is so interesting to contemplate is what might have happened if James had not joined the band, for clearly they were already onto something extraordinary. Probably best to stop the hypotheticals there; we might as well ask what we'd be listening to now if Benny had been handed a shofar at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue!

Matthew, I went on a renewed Fitzgerald kick myself last year after reading The Basil and Josephine Stories, which are some of the most vivid fictional studies of the social economy of adolescent culture that I’ve ever encountered. Brad, would love to hear your thoughts on To Have And Have Not after you finish it. It’s always seemed to have a bit of a footnote status in Hemingway’s oeuvre as his purported entry in the annals of leftist 1930s literature and remembered primarily as the springboard for the much-more-famous movie, but I’ve always been curious to read it. Library of America is bringing out its first Hemingway volume this autumn, btw (and maybe we’ll see a second Fitzgerald volume as the mid-to-late 1920s works begin to fall into the public domain). On a trashier pop-culture note, just starting this book, which arrived in today’s mail:

Jackie in a sax-and-drums duet setting:

Yes, when he was an undergrad at Syracuse University he hosted a radio show called "Excursions on a Wobbly Rail," title nicked from Cecil Taylor, of course. Not aware of an Ornette collaboration, but Don Cherry played and recorded with him in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Yeah, sorry, I was already thinking that I had used too broad a brush-stroke... I actually think the majority of Americans have done a good job and get the significance of what’s going on, out of concern for others and concern for their own wellbeing. But the idiots, or the willfully/defiantly ignorant or deluded, are a loud and large minority (non-Frank Foster edition), and it takes only a few of them to put us right back to square one in each state. EDIT: the science is still apparently out on how warmer weather will affect transmission of the virus. This Washington Post article points towards a possible slowing of transmission rates, IF people observe social-distancing and other health protocols. Autumn and winter will be a whole ‘nother deal.

👍👍👍 Speaking of veterans, the U.S. death toll is not just past 100,000—it’s more than the combined number of U.S. deaths in the Korean and Vietnam wars. So three months of the virus > 11 years of war. And yet people all over the place were acting this weekend as if it was V-Covid Day. WTF?! More dead in three months than Korea and Vietnam combined, and more dying every single day. I’m not here to argue a return to complete shutdown—I’m here to argue that any reopening plans based on “encouraging” people to behave responsibly are bullshit. Thank God this particular generation of Americans didn’t have to fight WWII. They’re doing a great job of helping to kill off some of the remaining ones who did, though.

The latest in Night Lights’ ongoing series of jazz elegy programs is up for online listening. V. 6 focuses on recordings made in the 1970s and 80s by musicians such as Frank Strozier, Woody Shaw, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus in remembrance of Oliver Nelson, Jaco Pastorius, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and other artists: Turn Out The Stars Volume 6

Very sorry to hear that, John. I feel as if this illness is going to end up touching nearly all of us either directly or indirectly.

Yep, and I think I missed the boat on these.

The book, I assume? I think it's excellent on the Beatles in the 1970s (the main reason I got it). A little bit of the momentum goes out of it after Lennon's death, but it's still a very good survey of the Beatles primarily post-breakup.

Lockdown delays cost at least 36,000 lives, data show (NY Times)

No words... just names. The front page of tomorrow's New York Times:

Had a cassette dub of this once--from a cassette tape that the Indianapolis Public Library had, if my memory's to be trusted. (Not sure that it is.) It was actually one of the first Coltrane recordings that I ever heard, and it threw me... I wasn't sure that I liked it, but kept listening to it and got hooked. I share other posters' surprise that it hasn't been given an official release and wasn't included in the Half Note set.

Some accompanying music for my reread of Peter Doggett’s excellent You Never Give Me Your Money:

Thanks for the heads-up on that—I’ve listened to the first three discs and much of disc 4. Wonderful music, great sound... my only lament is that the notes seem a bit on the skimpy side. I’ve always enjoyed Doug’s writing, and he’s certainly the guy for the job (his Desmond biography is indispensable if you’re a fan). But maybe I’m just spoiled rotten by my recent revisitation of the Lester Young set and its accompanying deep-dive (as in Mariana Trench!) annotations by Loren Schoenberg. In any event, very happy to be making my way through this collection. Excepting the Savory set, this has to be one of the highest unreleased-to-previously-released ratios for a Mosaic collection in some time.

The U.S. is on pace to hit 100,000 coronavirus deaths by Monday. Happy Memorial Day.

Much-deserved would be a severe understatement.

Upping in honor of Mark's book having just been named "Best Book About Jazz" for the Jazz Journalists Association's 2020 awards: Made In Detroit: Jazz From The Motor City, Part 1 Made In Detroit: Jazz From The Motor City, Part 2

The Jazz West Coast listserv’s daily jazz birthday roundup reminds me that it’s that time of year again. Happy birthday with gratitude as always for all the work you’ve done over the years to document and help create the music, and for enabling us to hear it. Thanks for caring so much, and for doing everything with the highest degree of intelligence and integrity, and with the utmost respect for the artists. Appreciation, finally, for all of your astute comments and contributions to this forum over the years, grounded in deep personal experience and historical knowledge of the music. A life well lived and keep living it! Now can I get a 25% discount on all future Nessa orders?

Bought this as part of an online bargain blowout sale several years ago, but haven't gotten around to listening to it yet... will definitely check it out with this rec from you, Jim.

Today's classic-jazz show highlighted Woody Shaw's 1978 album Rosewood, plus music featuring saxophonists Sonny Fortune and Gregory Herbert in honor of their respective birthdays: Woody Shaw, Sonny Fortune, Gregory Herbert on "Just You And Me"

Jazz From Detroit has been named "Best Book of the Year About Jazz" in the 2020 Jazz Journalists Association awards.