fasstrack

One of the better American poets of his time and beyond. And he was smart enough to own all his songs when a lot of guys were getting ripped off........ I'd be proud to have written 'People Get Ready'. Also I love 'Woman's Got Soul'. Gets me right here.................. ' Speaking of which, on a related tip: I heard Dion singing "Abraham, Martin, and John' this morning on the radio. I didn't even realize he was that good. That's a heavy tune. I remember Moms Mabley, of all people, covering it. Back to Mayfield: A lot of people don't realize what a good guitarist he was. Him and Bobby Womack (known now mostly for writing 'Breezin') are two of the best rhythm players in that style. Jimi Hendrix owes a lot to Curtis if you check out his rhythm playing and R&B influence.

Charles is still around NY. I played with him and Rodney Kendrick not too long ago. He's known for bari, and most of the well-known recordings are bari, but he prefers and considers himself a tenor player, that's what I always knew him to play---and he's excellent, great ideas. Good writer, too. I think the recording he did w/Steve Lacy of Monk's music is nice and I especially like Frank Strozier's 'Long Night'. Everybody played their ass off on that: Frank, Chris Anderson, Pat Patrick, Charles. (Charles played tenor, Pat bari---unless I'm confused, entirely possible---if not probable). But Charles is still doin' it---and I'm sure is still recording. Probably you have to hunt a bit, but 'seek and ye....'

Does anyone remember the original name of the sort of pulp book that preceded the final Mad incarnation? It was in some Web history of Mad (maybe it was commentary on the cover collection on the Web) and I've forgotten now.....

If it were National Lampoon they would've had Starchie pimping them..... I remember a few years back subscribing to Mad for a bit, hoping aginst hope they had something, anything left. 'Yes, I was wrong---again I was wrong', as Mr. Strayhorn might say. Anyway, they had some kind of computer-based thingie they were selling----relentlessly---that had a lot of the old classics, and some kind of interactive game. I didn't bite, as it seemed lame and desperate. Yeah, Super-Duperman was great too, though I hardly remember it. I do remember Bill Elder getting his mom in a strip. "Billllll", she kept crying----like he he was friggin' Heathcliff. And his rendering of himself as a kid----priceless. Anyone remember "A Mad Look at Dating"? East Side Story"? (One of the funniest ever, with Krustchev the head Shark, clad in a leather motorcycle jacket and his bald pate. Shaking down the 'neutral' Holland ambassador......).

Anyone remember Mad Magazine's parody of Archie? Bill Elder was the illustrator. Reggie (Wedgie, actually) would shake down kids in the cafeteria----just turn the MFs upside down for lunch money. He was a cottage industry and probably led to Colombine. Can't remember what his Jugness was into. Anyone? Dive right in. Naturally, Starchie's two girlfriends, Biddy and Salonica---had (you guessed it) serious acne. But the funniest part for me was Starchie's alky gypsy father. They lived in a f-ed up fakaktah tenement with debris strewn over a funky courtyard. Starchie's mother had a gold earring and crystal ball, I think. But Starchie's dad, some other kind of sharpie hustler, got pissed and said something like: "Why do you make noise and problem in my teenage house?" Gold, Jerry. GOLD.......................

I think it was the latter. No Leslie and Rudy mentioned an internal speaker. May these guys will pass through one day and you'll check it out. The guy's name is Alex Smith, I think. The weird thing is: the back of the instrument was totally blank and bereft of info. Nada. Just ugly blond wood sitting there, looking stupid. Wait a minute: Sitting there and looking stupid? Maybe I shoudda bought it. Nyuk, nyuk.........

Good. Then give me one. And include free shipping And I promise the 1st tune played on it will be Bridge Over Troubled Water. Dedicated to you The 2nd song: The Best Things in Life are Free.....................

Man, that is one bitchin' avatar!. Is that Harold Sakata (Odd Job)? Has to be......

Then he would have been Bud Shank... In initials, anyway Ah, I should go practice...................Maybe I can be a musician when I grow up

Ha ha! Haven't we all......I was just talking to a guy who always says this. I can only respond: FOR ME TO POOP ON! Like, get over yourself, MF. Let THEM tell YOU shit like that................. Dawg.....................

I can't say that I have mixed feelings about Art Pepper (I think he was one of the greatest alto players of all time.) but I used to feel the same way that you do about his music. I very much preferred his earlier work and didn't like it when his work started to reflect a Coltrane-like influence. In fact, I used to own the Complete Village Vanguard Sessions box years ago when I found it for around $95.00. My ear wasn't ready for his sound at that time and I ended up selling the set after owning it less than a month just to get my money back. Flash forward several years and my ear had changed enough to where I came to really appreciate and enjoy his playing from the later part of his career. Now I've come full circle and I'm re-buying the box set (at an astoundingly better price) to complete the Pepper box trio of the Galaxy Recordings, the Hollywood All-star Sessions and the Village Vanguard Sessions. (Wow! 30 discs between the 3 sets which will put me at a total of 51 Pepper discs.) I don't see the evolution or change in his sound as a bad or lesser thing compared to his earlier work, it's just different. I don’t think he ever went off the deep end musically or that he needed to get back on track. He was just moving on a different track. Both periods of his career are enjoyable but it doesn't have to be at the expense of the other. I don’t agree with nor do I think it’s fair to say that he didn’t reach his potential. I might agree if he had a very uneven career musically where his talent would shine here and there on occasion but his body of work was routinely very good to excellent. I don’t think that we could necessarily conclude that his music would have been exponentially better had he not been on drugs or had an easier life. Those things just as likely could have been some of the very things that fueled his excellence. Granted, some of his stage patter in the VV set tends to make him look like a bit of an ass and some of it can be a bit hard to listen to but it’s honest and real and it lends itself to a warts-and-all portrait of the man. I can see how it would turn many people off but I appreciate the fuller picture and for me, it doesn’t detract from the music at all. Oddly enough, it almost kind of enhances it knowing he could be such a strong player despite his bad habits. (Maybe it's just me.) It looks like I came away with a different impression than yours regarding Pepper’s biography, “Straight Life”. It’s been a long time since I read it but “self-justifying” and “self-deluding” weren’t adjectives that came to my mind. He was a junkie and his biography was brutally honest and certainly didn’t pull any punches even when it reflected very badly on Art himself which was quite often. That might even give more credence to Art's self-perception. You don’t seem to agree with Art’s assertion that he was a genius on the alto sax. It’s certainly a bold statement but was it just unsupported braggadocio or was it a statement of confidence? Who, during Art’s career, was a better alto player? What alto player, during Art’s career, had equally consistent excellence shown in their body of work? And now in hindsight, how does Art’s body of work compare with those who are now considered to be the all-time great alto players in the history of jazz? I would consider his body of work to stand up equally, if not better than the generally recognized all-time alto greats. His assertion that he was a genius or a giant might easily lead one to conclude that he had a monumental ego but I think it would be much closer to being a statement of recognition than one of being self-justifying or self-delusional. All of this, of course, is just my opinion. I really like Art Pepper as well. Can you tell? Peace. Thanks. Just a short response: May as well be ourselves, we're stuck with us. Musicians like myself and, I believe every musician, are---or ought to be in the 'human potential business'. To me this means to 'bring out' the tune, the audience, the players. If you dig deep enough you will hit the cherished artistic paydirt that really can uplift. It's not merely self-expression. Self-absorbed players (and people) are a terrific bore to me. But the main thing is that b/c of this belief in human potential I think people sort of can smell what's happening, if you're going through a phase, mastering an influence, etc. They may be impressed and drawn into the journey if the intensity is there, but I believe they are most touched when one is honest and just puts out what's there, the individual experience that draws on the universal. That is our real work. I think Art Pepper had a tremendous talent and the ability and desire to communicate but sometimes allowed his immediate circumstances to musically supercede these things. What was exciting about him was the brutal honesty. But I think he got caught up in various personal things and perhaps wasn't seeing things---hearing things---as they were on the stand. And he still managed to be a great player. Imagine if he cleared that other impeding BS out of the way.... It's really interesting that, in Straight Life he said of Stan Getz that he was 'a technician, but he plays cold. I hear him as he is and he's rarely moved me'. They both had the same habits and selfishness and to me Getz reached me much more and much more deeply. Go figure. It's also funny that in an interview Stan once said "Think Bird was a giant? Imagine if he took the time to get his art together..." (in DownBeat,---a fucking rag for years to me, in the 70s sometime, anyway). Here he is saying about the great Charlie Parker what I presumptuously say about Pepper. I guess I'm just disappointed when someone that talented fucks up, in this case in an orgy of self-absorption, and takes himself (and those around him---who care and get sucked in, my real point, I guess) on trips like he seemed to. It just makes me sad. We need our artists to be in tune to make the world better and people want to be better. I was very moved by Straight Life, BTW. The story about Stymie singing Gloomy Sunday is poetry. I loved his love for his father. But he really was self-justifying throughout. It's just that dope fiend mentality. I've been around enough junkies to know they are great bullshitters and rationalizers. Whatever. I hate to admit it, and I know how contradictory it sounds, but jazz was better and more soulful back in the day when cats used. It was in spite of, though, not because of. It had more to do, I think, with a sharing of lore and resources that, to me, only (mostly) the older cats still with us are about. Does this resonate at all? Only my thoughts.............

I was there every night of the engagement (3?). The final night I shared a table with Joseph Jarman. This wonderful gig was recorded and I explored the possibility of a record but Randy was unhappy with the piano. One set was broadcast on NPR. I was there on Saturday and Sunday. I taped the NPR broadcast onto a cassette tape, which I still have. I thought that the broadcast made the sound seem thinner than it was in person. I was taking Richard Davis' jazz history class at the University of Wisconsin at the time. He mentioned it to the students several times, and urged us all to try to go to it. I rode along from Madison with his student assistant to the Saturday performance. Since his student assistant was there, Richard took us backstage between sets. This opened my eyes to the fact that going backstage is not really that exciting a thing to do. Don Moye was quite rightly not that receptive to having some fawning young people bothering him. I remember that Richard Davis asked us backstage if we had any requests for the next set, and I said that I would like to hear "Little Niles". He said that they were planning to play it (and they did). On Sunday afternoon, back in Madison at our dumpy student apartment, I described how great the music had been to a friend of mine. By the time I was finished with my description, we were walking to the car to drive to Chicago again. Richard Davis saw me walk into the club for the second day in a row, and he looked thunderstruck with surprise. That is when I first got to know him, more than as a student sitting in a large lecture hall. I remember that Don Moye played with uncommon intensity during Sunday's performance. I don't think I have ever witnessed a performance by him after that, which rose to that level of energy. Amen. That's what it's about.....

I have mixed feelings about Art Pepper. I liked, even loved his earlier stuff. I'm almost tempted to say I liked his self-justifying, self-deluding----but often profoundly moving auto-bio more. I think he sort of went off the deep end musically after he got obsessed with Trane and never fully got back on track, though he still played really well. You could hear pain, torment, anger. It was honest and real. Maybe some of it was great, but there was a lightness, such an easy swing on his first things that just, to me, blow this stuff away. I've heard some of this live stuff, and he's so cacked out making the announcements it's a miracle he could play at all. It's disturbing to hear: playing, patter, everything. It's hard to hear someone that talented flush it down the toilet and abuse themself like this. To be honest, I think he never reached his phenomenal potential, perhaps b/c of the drugs and the hard road he trod. Even earlier on it seemed like he never finished his ideas, like a musical tease. He's a strange one. Great talent, swung his ass off, great sound, also a MF tenor and clarinet player. Just a natural that should've hit them over the fences---------but reading his book to hear him tell it he was a giant or something. Sorry: no cigar there, except for his monumental ego. Just my opinion, and I really like Art Pepper. I don't want to start a war here, please.

I don't know the album, but I love Randy's concept and work. Little Niles and his other tunes are very deep. My old bandmate Benny Powell and a nice, different alto player, T.K. Blue, have been in his band forever. I saw Randy with these guys a few years back with these guys and African-themed dancers. It was celebratory. Randy remains a viable force in music at around 80. He also spawned a few people who are talents in themselves, like one of my oldest NY friends, Rodney Kendrick. Rodney reveres him and presented him in concert once. It's really miraculous that people like Randy, Barry Harris, Hank Jones, Benny, Benny Golson, Phil Woods, Moody, Dr. Billy--------on and on-------are not only still with us but playing with wisdom, artistry, and mastery that is awe-inspiring. The young players are paying attention. I hope the rest of this knuckleheaded, culture-daft society will too................

I don't want to make too big a deal out of this but it's nice when a story has a happy ending. I think I have a right to even crow a bit----just a bit: I went to the Salvation Army thriftshop in the Boogie Down Bronx, where I (yay!) fromerly lived. I was on the hunt for furniture, tchotchkas, knickknacks----whatever. I saw me an old upright staring me in the face. I was gonna start looking for a piano since I got the OK from my new landlord to have little gatherings---my own gigs and presenting other cats I believe in. The piano, though like the wacky town librarian, Miss Inga Page, was without a few hammers and the sustain pedal MIA, was on sale for $139. You know I grabbed that sucker (actually the price was 25% off---$103....and I'm still chuckling over the fact that it'll cost more----$150---to move the sucker :rsmile: ). OK (if you're still awake...): so I notice, a few blessed feet from said piano, a full-assed Hammond organ with bench (alas, no Leslie). Price $169 or some such. I couldn't use it myself, but I checked for a model # on the back (none found, but it turned out to be an A3---which I didn't even know existed! Who even knows how old it is or the history---the frickin' mind boggles...). I went into overdrive telling everyone I could think of who might be interested. Finally I got a call from my friend Rudy Petschauer---the first guy I called, since he's a veteran organ trio player: his buddy, a good player I'm sure, shot on down there and scooped it up. I love it when that happens. THE END

Told ya...... Commercial recording (though it remains to be seen how available it is) and a gem. Phil Schaap at his best deserves high praise indeed---no one else, to my knowledge, plays and enthuses over such records. He is a hell of a historian and I didn't know of Challis before Phil playing him. Still, if he would only (are you listening, God?) leave out 9/10s of the verbiage he wouldn't be............................Phil Schaap at his worst. Bird Flight gets harder to listen to with each passing day b/c I've heard the stories 20 times at least, and (not Phil's fault, naturally) the ranks of on-the-sceners are thinning, ergo almost no one left to interview. Worse still, his relentless plugging on air of his classes at JALC is both unconscionable (sp?) and unlistenable IMO. He has, to his credit, gotten a lot out on-mike of some great people, all archived. Phil is a great guy, massive ego notwithstanding, and has done a gang of good for this music. We should all thank him for this. But I still say (beg, cajole...) eat first, Phil....then you'll talk. Take theory and get a piano to put it in use. It'll help everything. Learn melodies on the horn, changes on piano then arpeggiate on the horn----so you 'know what you're talking about'. And, in the words of Lester Young: "Don't never give up"..................................

Actually it is a cornet. I thought it was a cornet. It was closer in sound, but he said he was practicing trumpet when I called. Lazaro, SETTLE THIS, MF (Probably it's a coronet) It's good to be the king..........

Yo Laz: WKCR also has a Beiderback tribute today. Phil Schaap played a 5-guitar (Bucky Pizzarelli, Alan Hanlon, Art Ryerson, Barry Galbraith on bass guitar, and I think Tony Mottola---I'm forgetting one guy) arrangement by Bill Challis of Bix's 5 compositions (the ones that publicy surfaced, that is). The guys did an amazing job and I had to call Phil off-mike b/c i though he said it was all Bucky, over-dubbed. When I hear my instrument played with such expertise, in tune (the hardest thing for one guitarist, let alone 5!) in time---not to mention swinging beautifully----, and with such beautful tone it reminds me exactly how high the players of that generation raised the bar. (Almost as high as some of the rockers lowered it-----uh oh, dem's fightin' words....). There's nothing like a guitar played beautifully. Challis' setting of Bix's pieces was also exemplary. Every time I hear his writing I want to hear more. The other thing that keeps resonating when I hear jazz from the '20s to early '40s especially is the use of thorough-composition as a constant in the vocabulary. It reached its zenith with Ellington, Redman, Andy Gibson, Nat Leslie (he wrote a masterpiece for Fletcher, Radio Rhythm, and no one seems to know anything more about him. Phil once faked an answer). It's practically a lost art today, when themes are too often almost afterthoughts, as if to be gotten out of the way quickly so the soloist can begin boring, er, thrilling us The arranger/composer really ruled in those days, and when guys like Bix, Pops, Hawk played a brief solo it had to mean something---less time to lose. Having said that, every time I hear the yearly birthday tributes, especially to Bix, there were also some terrible songs with terrible lyrics then, as now, and it's a tribute to both arranger and player that they lifted those mediocrities up into classic art. Hey, everyone: Lazaro is probably too modest to mention this publicly, but we are friends and he's been practicing trumpet---and getting a very nice sound. I heard it with my own ears.

For a second I thought you had moles---on your shoulder or something---trained to talk and everything. I'm deeply, deeply disappointed Excellent player, Lucky Thompson. Outta Byas, sort of. He and Benny Golson always sounded a bit similar to me. I remember Ed Beach or somebody interviewed him in the early 70s on the old WRVR in NY. He was already a nomad and sounded like he wanted no part of the US. I dug that trio recording w/Pettiford & Skeeter. A fine moment for all. Plus he played next to Bird and didn't embarrass himself as many did. That ain't hay....

Update: I moved into a one-bedroom in North Yonkers. Having a housewarming/rent party next Sunday. Should be some good players coming (at least I hope so). Anyone in NY or Westchester interested can PM me or: fasstrack@yahoo.com

I couldn't listen b/c there are no speakers in the public space I use for Internet. I guess no one thinks of these things. Laz: if there's a transcription tell me where to look(or shoot me an email). Would love to read his thoughts. '53 Miles musically was close to his peak, IMO (one of several, but my own preference).

Lyndon Johnson: Flawed Giant Robert Dallek. Vol. 2: 1961-73 So far very terse and informative and reads very well.

I'm not a tenor player (guitar player)and can't tell you about reeds. There's an interview with Stan on Mel Martin's website. Stan does talk about reeds and his embouchure, etc. Too tired for links. Google it. I think his sound changed for sure in the earliest 70s. If you know the record with Eddy Louiss (Dynasty?) he's already much harder. By the 80s he wqas screaming, just about. A more 'musclular' sound---but still very soft at the core. I don't think he ever got over Pres----but he went through changes in his life. Like any great artist (by definition honest in musical expression and communication thereof) it 'came out in the wash. So there you have the opinion---and only the opinion a professional player and big Getz fan----but go to Martin and hear it from the man himself.

Hear hear, Jim. But let's clarify: You do mean a blog, not a forum, correct? For, gentle reader, 'here's my story, sad but true': I wasted time on both Branford Marsalis' and for a shorter time Phil Woods' forums. I am a musician and should've known better. For the record, Phil has been a friend to me and continues to be. Bran has always been cool with me even when I took the craziness on his site (not to mention myself) waaay too seriously. I came away with some friends from Bran's. Remember I said I wasted time. My thing, my trip. I don't have the time to waste anymore and don't. I spend every spare minute trying to get gigs or practice or compose. Everyone has a right to their opinion, but my experience has been that on these forums---especially the ones centered around a single personality-0--things can get rather nasty. There's a lot of ass-kissing and even more trolling. You can do as you please, but my advice would be to either read a blog if interested (as opposed to a forum) or, better yet, find some friends to hear your heroes with when they come to town. Or support local guys like Jim and the crew. Also I'd be leery of even a blog. It's only opinion and should be taken with a huge grain of salt. Get to know the music and as you do your ears will improve and then your taste. Trust me on this one. (For the record I tried my own blog briefly on my myspace page, but simply haven't the time or interest to keep it up. I hope someone saw it and got something out of it. If interested: www.myspace.com/joelfass and click on blogs---or something ) If you don't have the time, better yet Having said all this, this forum is the best by far I've seen. People don't take themselves too seriously, the guys are local good players and too busy cranking out a living for ass-kissing even if there were any. I haven't encountered trolls here, and if there are any they are nowhere near as insane as the ones I had the misforune to meet on both Bran and Phils joints. I like it here, but still only come here for amusement after a long day.