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Spontooneous

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  1. BC-OBIT-KESSEL-NYT BARNEY KESSEL, 80, A GUITARIST WITH THE LEGENDS OF JAZZ By PETER KEEPNEWS c.2004 New York Times News Service Barney Kessel, a guitarist who was both a celebrated jazz soloist and a ubiquitous but anonymous studio musician, died on Thursday at his home in San Diego. He was 80. The cause was brain cancer, said his wife, Phyllis. Kessel had been inactive since a stroke in 1992, and he learned in 2001 that he had inoperable cancer. By the mid-1950s, Kessel was one of the most popular guitarists in jazz, a perennial winner of music magazine polls and a sideman whose resume included work with Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Art Tatum and countless others. But he still found it hard to pay his bills, so he began a second career in the studios, which came to dominate his professional life until he decided to return to jazz full time in the 1970s. He was born in Muskogee, Okla., on Oct. 17, 1923, and began his professional career there at 14 as the only white musician in an otherwise all-black dance band. Kessel initially modeled his style closely on that of the pioneering electric guitarist Charlie Christian, a fellow Oklahoman, and he continued to regard Christian as his main influence. But when he had the opportunity to play with Christian at a jam session, he told The New York Times in 1991, the experience inspired him to develop a style of his own. “I realized that I had been methodically lifting his ideas from records,” Kessel said. “What was I going to play? All I knew was his stuff. There were two guys playing like Charlie Christian. I knew I had to find myself.” With Christian’s encouragement, Kessel moved to Los Angeles in 1942 and was soon on the road with a band fronted by the comedian Chico Marx. Over the next few years, he worked with the big bands of Artie Shaw, Charlie Barnet and Benny Goodman, establishing a reputation as one of the most versatile and reliable guitarists on the West Coast. He soon began working regularly as a sideman for the record producer Norman Granz, and in 1944 he was one of the many musicians featured in “Jammin’ the Blues,” the acclaimed short jazz film produced by Granz and directed by the photographer Gjon Mili. (In a strange echo of his first job, Kessel was the only white musician in that film; all that was clearly visible of him were his hands, which were dyed black.) Kessel’s profile in the jazz world continued to grow in the 1950s. In 1952, he joined the pianist Oscar Peterson’s trio and toured with Granz’s all-star Jazz at the Philharmonic aggregation. The next year, he began his recording career as a leader with the first of a series of small-group albums for the Los Angeles-based Contemporary label. Within a few years, he had also become a fixture in Hollywood’s recording studios. In this parallel career, he could be heard on movie and television soundtracks and in television and radio commercials as well as on records by everyone from the Beach Boys to Liberace to Frank Sinatra. In 1973, he joined forces with his fellow jazz guitarists Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd to form the group Great Guitars. In 1983, at 59, he made his New York nightclub debut as a leader. In addition to his wife, Kessel is survived by two sons from a previous marriage: Dan, of Hemet, Calif., and David, of Pacific Grove, Calif. Also surviving are three stepchildren: Christian Wand, of Los Angeles; Colette Wand Wirtschafter, of Marysville, Calif.; and Cleo Dougherty, of Boonton, N.J.; and five grandchildren. NYT-05-07-04 2316EDT
  2. couldn't resist....
  3. FWIW, Prince attended the jam session at the Blue Room in Kansas City on Monday night. Several players from his band joined the jam, I'm told (by the bandleader on the date). Including, briefly, Maceo Parker. Darn it, I wasn't there.
  4. Er, Tom, the last sellouts at the Blue Room occurred last Friday and Saturday. Of course, it was local fave-rave Karrin Allyson. But there ain't too many others likely to sell it out.
  5. Went to Fiddler's wake on Sunday afternoon. I have NEVER had such a wonderful time in a funeral home! Local players turned it into a jam session, and a pretty good one at that. Violinists Matt Glaser (from Berklee) and John Blake flew in and played. Claude's wife put his fiddle in Glaser's hands, and Glaser brought tears of joy to her eyes by playing "You've Got to See Mama Every Night (Or You Can't See Mama At All)." This was the first song Fiddler learned on the instrument, and he loved to teach it to other fiddlers. That's where Glaser learned it. The funeral tomorrow will probably be a very different affair. (I won't be able to go.) But the wake was full of the same joy that Fiddler created all over the world. (P.S.: Conspicuous in his absence: Jay McShann.)
  6. Randy, she sounds like a person I wish I'd known. Peace to you and the whole family.
  7. I remember the thrill of discovering Mahler 1, 20-plus years ago. Favorite moment: In the last half of the third movement, where the "Frere Jacques" theme is crowded out by the winds and percussion playing like a klezmer band gone mad. Some crazy personal symbolism there, I guess.
  8. That McShann birthdate is way off. More like 1916. The date used to be visible in a document on display at the Blue Room, but now the display case is gone. The document also showed his real name, James Columbus McShann.
  9. I forgot about Luqman Hamza. Stupid me. Also the Scamps, who have been doing their thing since the '40s, or was it the '30s?
  10. The one who'll get the popular attention is likely Myra Taylor, the singer. And she probably deserves it. Works a crowd better than just about anybody. Last time I saw her, she got tired of waiting for the rhythm section to get plugged in, so she simply started a cappella -- and had the whole audience clapping along. Some others: Leon Brady, drummer, still leader of the KC Youth Jazz Bands. One of the few musicians whom the other musicians call "Mr." Pearl Thuston Brown, a neat piano player in sort of an Erroll Garner style. Retired. Milt Abel, a wonderful bassist and singer, retired. Ben Kynard, saxophonist, composer of "Red Top." Not playing anymore. But I saw him at the Blue Room just two weeks ago. Not to take anything away from 'Deen, Bobby, Everette, Arch or anybody else (even Marilyn Maye). No endorsement of the Elder Statesmen of Kansas City Jazz Inc. organization is implied here. Some folks wonder what the heck this organization really does.
  11. Chuck, I can't stand the suspense! Wha'happen? Hoy hoy!
  12. Earle Warren's gone. He died in June '94. (AMG gives the wrong year.)
  13. Yep, that's him on the Basie Chatterbox broadcast.
  14. Just got word that Fiddler passed away overnight at 96. He was a direct link to the early days of the Andy Kirk and Count Basie bands, playing fiddle (he never called it a violin) and guitar. Alzheimer's made the last few years tougher, but he stayed in touch with the world through music. He performed publicly in Kansas City as recently as December. His recording career extends from 1929 (with Andy Kirk) to about 2000. Check "Call for the Fiddler" on Steeplechase and "The Man from Muskogee" with Jay McShann on Sackville to hear him really sailing. Words fail me. Fiddler was an amazing individual and a deeply dedicated artist. One of a kind.
  15. Monk and Milt Jackson. Billy Higgins and everybody.
  16. Addendum to what Sundog said: I heard Rollins shut somebody down similiarly, about 1987, at the Folly Theater in Kansas City. The drum solo on "Don't Stop the Carnival" was in about its tenth minute and showed no signs of of stopping. The drummer, whom I won't name, was playing faster and faster. Rollins got disgusted, jumped out front and played the out chorus -- at the faster tempo.
  17. The latest Mingus "Tijuana Moods" reissue. But I didn't see the thread about it until just a couple of minutes ago. Hoped to find Duke Pearson's "Sweet Honey Bee," but the store didn't have it.
  18. My cell's an old one that doesn't have programmable rings. But if I had my druthers, it would ring with Ornette's "Lonely Woman." Or maybe Beethoven's "Grosse Fuge." I don't even turn the phone on but maybe once a week.
  19. First non-classical concert: Bob Seger and Eric Carmen, Memorial Hall, Kansas City, Kan., 1976. A friend won the tickets. I enjoyed it far more than I now care to admit. First jazz show: Dizzy Gillespie, Folly Theater, KC, Mo., 1982.
  20. C'mon, b3-er. Spill it. I've been wondering about that thing for months. Mine is in honor of the greatest restaurant in the world, Arthur Bryant's Barbeque in KC, where the french fries are still fried in the stuff. It's finger-lickin', angioplasty-causin' good.
  21. Strayhorn. Tadd Dameron.
  22. Stephane Grappelli had a fascinating pronunciation of his guitarist friend's name. It came out something like Dshon-GOO Rein-HARD. I was told that Illinois pronounces his last name "Jacket." Any confirmation of this?
  23. Can't say I knew the man well, but he introduced himself as Car-MELL.
  24. Glad ya like. There's more where that came from. Booker at his best is truly hypnotic. The presence of Byard, Davis and Dawson doesn't hurt a thing either. A query for the more knowledgeable members of the board: Did that Enja "Lament for Booker Ervin" LP ever make it to CD?
  25. There's already a copy of the CD on eBay.
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