Spontooneous

Blue Note just sent out this press release: For Immediate Release: Friday, October 29, 2004 Gil Melle, the baritone saxophonist, composer, painter, and all around Renaissance man, died yesterday of a heart attack at his home in Malibu, California. He was 73 years old. Melle was born on the last day of 1931 in New York City and began painting and playing the saxophone at an early age. When only 19 years old, he was signed to Blue Note Records by label founder Alfred Lion, becoming the first white artist on the storied jazz label. He made several 10" records for Blue Note and Prestige Records throughout the early 1950s before recording his first full-length 12" LP for Blue Note, Patterns In Jazz, in 1956. Apart from his musical career, Melle maintained a career as a visual artist, and at times the two intersected. His art, beyond showing at various New York galleries, was also used in the cover design of records by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, as well as several of his own records. Melle moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s and his jazz recording became sparse as he focused on painting and composing for film and television. His fascination with science and technology led him in the direction of electronic music and he began collecting, and even building his own, electronic instruments, including some of the earliest synthesizers and drum machines. In 1967, he performed with the first all-electronic jazz ensemble, The Electronauts, at the 10th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival. His score for the sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain (1971), based on a novel by Michael Crichton, was perhaps the first electronic music score for film. Melle returned to Blue Note with his 1991 release Mindscapes, which included "The Blue Lion," a musical eulogy for his life-long friend and mentor Alfred Lion. "Gil was like a beloved son to Alfred," said Ruth Lion, Alfred's widow. "Gil Melle was a true Renaissance man, a multi-talented artist," said current Blue Note President Bruce Lundvall, "He was one of Alfred Lion's protégés and remained a great friend of the label right up until his passing." At the time of this writing, no information about memorial services was known.

Man, I missed this place! Like I miss being six years old. Nice and fast now.

OK, I'll try again. The album tries to be ECM-spacey but just sounds flat to me. It's like a substandard Eberhard Weber album with Bailey uncomfortably along for the ride -- as a follower, not as leader. (On LP, it even tried to look like an ECM. The CD cover is completely different.)

I just LOVE Benny Bailey, but this is my least favorite album of his, sad to say. Sounds like an ersatz ECM album. Benny doesn't seem too excited about the material. An interesting '70s relic, but just a relic for me. Maybe someday I'll like it better, but not today. Get "Grand Slam" on Storyville instead.

P.S. What quotes are the most overused? My nomination would be "Rockin' in Rhythm." It worked when Fats Navarro used it in his "Nostalgia" solo. But that was 55 years ago, and it hasn't worked since.

The other night, a piano player had me chuckling at his quotes from "Mean to Me," "Sunday" and "Love in Bloom." But the people around me weren't responding. Not much knowledge of pop tunes from those times, I guess. After the set, I mentioned to the piano player, who's a few years younger than I (I'm 45), that people didn't seem to be getting his quotes of tunes from the '20s and '30s. "Is that what those were?" he said. Turns out he doesn't know those tunes. He learned the phrases he quoted when they were quoted in other people's solos.

Sure, bad covers on bad records are fun... But let us not forget the most appalling cover ever placed around a damn fine record:

Coincidence: Yesterday, "Total Package" was the disc I pulled out of the great big stack of unplayed stuff. I was taken aback by the intensity of Ricky's playing. (And his intonation seemed to be better than I remembered from the Muse dates.) I'm thrilled with this disc.

Nothin' wacko about it. The man knew EXACTLY what he was doing. Hear his musical "Big River," based on "Huckleberry Finn." It has enough elegance, class and focus to be Richard Rodgers, but it's pure Miller.

"I'm a revisionist all right. I'll never let them forget it."

Another vote for those first two Ekaya discs. The Abdullah/Carlos Ward combination was magical, every time, all the time.

Dammit, I miss John Carter. One more vote for Perry Robinson here.

Me, I'm Sweet Skull Cruncha. Got that right, G.

I never meant to lie about my age, but three times since my recent 45th birthday I've caught myself telling people I'm 44. I'm in denial.

Say no to segregation.

Another fashion faux pas comes to us from Miroslav Vitous...

About 50 Classics for me. Want many more. Yes, I do carry a list of what I have.

OK, this inspires another question: How many times did Columbia commit live-album fraud, dubbing in applause between studio tracks? We know about this JJ album, Ellington at Newport '58, and for that matter the fake applause on Ellington's Jazz Party. Other examples? And what examples of this deception on other labels are out there?

Bu and the boys want in on that possum huntin' action...

(But they must not be as good as this "Paul McKee" guy, 'cause he gets TWO nights in October and they only get one.)

They're also coming to Kansas City. Blue Room, Oct. 16. Hint hint to all my KC friends.

Whatever happened to that thread where everybody was complaining about Ron McMaster's light bulbs?

Up, because I just heard this for the first time and I'm experiencing the same enthusiasm. Gotta go play it again.

So the paper printed something that pissed off the mayor, and he retaliated?

(Sooner or later I expect to hear somebody say 'asted.' And when they do, I will try to control my rage.)