ghost of miles

From an early-1990s (I think) Reflex interview--Coleman quoted in the booklet to the BEAUTY IS A RARE THING box:

Just came across this--Ornette's BFT response to George Russell's "Livingston, I Presume" with Art Farmer on trumpet (this also comes from Feather's 1960 Encyclopedia of Jazz):

Thanks, I'll seek it out. Ridiculous that I don't have that book anyway. Been meaning to get it for years, but somehow it's eluded me.

Here are some excerpts from an early review of SOMETHING ELSE by Art Farmer--from the July 1959 Jazz Review (not up yet at Jazz Studies Online, but it soon should be...I copied this out of a bound volume at the IU School of Music library): I wish I had the whole article (much of it a critique of OC's playing), but I was out of coins for copying and had to just jot down several passages. Farmer makes a somewhat similar comment in a blindfold test response to OC's "Endless," reprinted in Leonard Feather's 1960 Encyclopedia of Jazz: I'm not quoting these with approval--just interested in how a hardbop player like Farmer was reacting to OC in 1959.

So maybe my "perhaps early Ornette was more accessible even in its own time than we've been led to think" supposition isn't quite as farfetched as I thought it might be? For a long time now people have been commenting on how "accessible" Ornette's early music now seems (from the vantage point of 2009, 1999, 1989, what have you)--but was it readily accepted in more quarters circa 1959 than history might lead us to believe? (I know that some did--John Lewis for one, along with folks I'd tend to put more in the category of "train-jumpers" like Leonard Bernstein.) Was OC's early music more of a critical controversy than a fan controversy? Or at least even more likely to provoke artists and critics than musically-untrained or lesser-trained listeners? (Granted, there were plenty of musically-untrained critics as well...) Because you're absolutely right about OC's melody, and how it hooks nearly anybody who's got half an ear and mind open to it. (And who also, perhaps, doesn't have professional or artistic/journalistic consequences riding on the outcome.) I'm just throwing these out as questions/speculations--not having had the privilege of being alive in the year of 1959. Thanks for the very illuminating response, Jim. (And for articulating things that I can only clumsily intuit in a limited way.)

NY Times article on same: Michigan losing four daily newspapers

I've never been all that familiar with John Tynan, the Downbeat associate editor who infamously labeled the Coltrane-Dolphy group "anti-jazz" back in 1961, leading to the "Coltrane and Dolphy Answer the Critics" article. In doing some research for an upcoming Night Lights show, though, I've learned that Tynan was actually an early advocate for Ornette Coleman! (His piece "Ornette: the First Beginning" is reprinted in DOWNBEAT: 60 YEARS OF JAZZ.) While Tynan's writing is not anywhere near the level of, say, Larry Kart, he still comes across in the Ornette piece as an open-minded, sympathetic listener excited by what he's hearing (the early Ornette tunes and recordings). So why did he round on Coltrane and Dolphy so furiously? Granted, perhaps Coltrane was pursuing a more sonically aggressive path...and perhaps early Ornette was more accessible even in its own time than we've been led to think. (Though I think that's probably quite a stretch on my part, given the numerous articles I keep coming across...) Still struck me as a bit odd, though, and I'd love to hear from any who were around when said history was happening.

"Should We Start Another Stupid Question Thread?"

Here's a short (five-minute) piece that I did for WFIU's "Artworks" program on David...includes some remarks from David Baker. Fullblown Night Lights show coming in April: Remembering jazz saxophonist David Young

There's a new biography of O'Connor out (by Brad Gooch)--also new bios of John Cheever and Donald Barthelme. Wouldn't mind reading any or all of them, though it's unlikely I'll get to them anytime soon.

We're rebroadcasting "Nellie Lutcher's Real Gone Rhythm" this weekend, but it's already archived for online listening.

I'll probably re-read a lot of the Holmes before the movie comes out this Christmas. Right now: Eddie Determeyer's Jimmie Lunceford bio, RHYTHM IS OUR BUSINESS.

One that's gotten me before: Jesus and Mary Chain "Something I Can't Have" ...one of their best latter-day recordings, right up there with their PSYCHOCANDY-era work.

Will do. Yeah, I just picked up #32 myself (the Sly Stone/Jamal); Landlocked hasn't gotten #33 (Philly soul to which Marcello refers) in yet, or else they're sold out.

Just heard from my record-store-owner friend that the next issue of WaxPoetics will be all-jazz, with Coltrane on the cover. Should be well worth checking out.

Something I've thought about, given how long many members on this board have known one another: Death in online communities

David Torresen posted this over at Songbirds: Julie London on What's My Line 1959 ...talking hipster-speak, no less!

That one is on my radar. Today: Raphael Saadiq, THE WAY I FEEL, as well as Art Tatum VOLUME 3 on Decca (a used $3.75 copy that was in excellent shape!).

I'm probably going to pick it up at Ye Olde Local Record store--I think my LTB would dig it as well.

Raphael Saadiq Brings Back the Love Song Audio should be up by 7 p.m. EST

I just got the new Artie Shaw Hep (the 2-CD set of 1945 Spotlight broadcasts) and noted several solos from tenor saxophonist Herbie Steward, whom I know mostly from his Four Brothers stint with Herman. Any recommendations from Organissimo posters for other sides featuring Steward?

DB article states, "Producer Michael Cuscuna said that he unearthed the tapes last year..." but that's pretty much it. My first inclination was to be surprised if BN was doing much on-location concert recording in Europe circa 1969, but more knowledgeable sources here might be able to offer different speculation or insights... Mobley's THE FLIP was recorded in Paris by Jacques Yves Barral in July of 1969 and produced by Francis Wolff--so maybe this is a BN-commissioned recording?

According to the new issue of Downbeat, Blue Note's got a 1969 concert date of Freddie's on the way this spring. Band includes Roland Hanna on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums.

Donny Hathaway, "Flying Easy." But I 'fess up to making a connection between this query and a recent e-mail of yours...

Oh, god...another icon fucked with? Well, not like there haven't been dozens of films, tv series, etc. Young Sherlock Holmes sticks out as a particularly non-canonical one. But reading this again, Jude Law makes sense as Holmes, but Watson??? It gets even better...Holmes will be played by Robert Downey, Jr.! I'm actually looking forward to seeing what he does with the role... Me too. And I actually think a lot of the TV/cinematic portrayals of Watson have been rather off the mark.