fasstrack

Sorry to read about his health battle.

http://jazztimes.com/articles/103992-fred-hersch-wisdom-for-singers Here's another discussion between FH and Roseanna Vitro----on the dos and don'ts of pianist singer accompaniment and collaboration. No personal stuff here, it's all music. Well worth reading.

Bump. Just reread this and my original comments were unwarranted. It's a great interview and discussion of the cats. Fred doesn't come off as an egotist as much as a driven achiever. Sorry about what I said earlier, guess it was the way it hit me then.

He was my idol a million years ago in HS. Gotta check this out.

Sad but true.

Yes, nice read. Hope he can play again soon.

Does anyone know who the on-air replacements will be? I haven't been listening.

What happens now?

during a live broadcast. And Anthony Weiner immediately texted her................

The more I think about it, the more I would love to see/hear certain sets again (or ones I missed). Cases in point from recent years: Clifton Anderson brought a smoking group in w/a pianist totally new to me. Colleague James Chirillo playing with the trio of John Bunch just before the latter's death. Jay Leonhart doing The Bass Lesson. In short there's just a lot of good music in that archive. One thing unclear to me: Is the live video stream still free? It seems a subscription ($5/mo)was tried and failed.

http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/jazz-club-is-going-digital/2810 http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-smalls-jazz-club-musician-revenue-sharing-project The first time I was paid to perform at Smalls was in December, 1997, as part of a two-guitar group featuring Eddie Diehl. The place was packed both Friday and Saturday, with lines down the block. Bear in mind that Eddie, though, a great player, is at best a minor jazz celebrity and I'm not sure I've heard of myself. The club's cache had to have something to do with the business we were doing. We also got paid what was a decent wage for non-names on a weekend at a NYC jazz club. Fast-forward to the other side of a little thing we like to call 9-11. As someone said 'everybody (in the nightlife business) got creamed'. No more long lines just to get into a cool place. The club started struggling like everyone else to survive and eventually it got to be too much for owner Mitch Borden, who closed down for a while. Enter Spike Wilner, chief owner since 2007. He kept the place going with local talent as always and performers made less, to offset operating costs. But Smalls was, and there was a difference: Spike, a pianist, is an inveterate archivist. He felt it was important to document the music being made, and he has turned out to be visionary in other ways. Soon a huge archive, video and audio, was amassed. Now Spike is using this digitized archive to hang a revenue sharing plan for performers (See the article and the link to the fundraising campaign). With a Netflix-like model, patrons would pay for unlimited access into the video and audio archive into a fund that would come back to the performers. There would be additional benefits from the revenue stream such as a charity fund, the Harry Whitaker Foundation, that would help Smalls performers in emergency times. The bugs naturally need to be worked out, and at least one idea is perplexing to me (the idea of popular performers---i.e. the ones most requested could end up making the most money could cause some resentment), but for a club seating 60 with a world-wide reputation there has to be sources of income for the musicians other than those long-disappeared lines. I wish Spike the best and commend his out-of-the-box thinking. Perhaps this is the start of something. I will let him know I posted this in the hopes that he will speak for himself and expand.

I heard a concert with Paul Quinchette there around '72-'73. Don't remember much else about the place.

She used to come around the West End in the early 80s. I may even have played with her there. A great lady.

Yes, Art Taylor.

Joe Magnarelli.

Thank you all for your warm wishes! I was offline yesterday.

I almost missed this. I've worked with Richard and he is not only an exemplar of taste, listening, and swing but a gentleman all the way. To one of the best accompanists in the business and a great soloist IMO happy 85th, Richard.

One small correction to the last entry: It's The Bird of Red and Gold.

I'd prefer if they kept entire shows intact---it gives you a much better sense of the times. You can also view (entire) Johnny Carson shows at the library of the Museum of Television and Radio in NY and L.A. In NY it's now called the Paley Center for Media.

True. His technique was just about perfect with the pick.

Johnny Smith was a class act all the way, especially in his presentation of the guitar. A giant.

Tom Harrell: Mood Swings. Charles Mingus: Bellevue Hellview. Many more coming, I'm sure.

Looks lke they pulled through the recent funsraiser. Long way to go, though......

A fair amount of what Perry plays sounds to me like he's stuck inside a snippet of a solo on "Donna Lee" being played by, say, Argonne Thornton and can't find his way out. Way more to him than that. Listen more, please. Yes, this one below from Perry has something IMO: but every time I've heard him in a "blowing" context FWTW (rather than as here, stating and sounding out an intense but more or less pre-determined structure) he sounds fairly well trapped to me, chewing over very similar figures and never getting much of anywhere. And his comping? I do have a fair amount on Perry on CDs as a sideman. Another taste of Perry: Speaking of getting somewhere, listen to the melodic flow of Ted Brown's solo. I know that crowd well, Ari, Sacha, Zaid Nasser, Alex, Phil Stewart, and for ages---especially Ari and Sacha (William Ash used to be a chief cohort. He plays bass now and does mostly Latin gigs but still plays guitar). They believe in what they are doing (as opposed to being full of themselves). The way they play is the only way that makes sense to them, and they've played their asses off since the early teen years--spurred on by C. Sharpe, Tommy Turrentine, Leroy Williams, Chris Anderson, Barry Harris, Frank Hewitt. All of those elders were proud. The verbal wars? Who cares? Let it ride. I've argued-debated plently with those guys. I've also stood on bandstands often enough with Ari Roland supporting his bowed solos to know what someone in love with bringing an ideal fully out is. Sacha, the same. They live the jazz life, those guys. Heed their musical utterances and you won't go wrong.

A fair amount of what Perry plays sounds to me like he's stuck inside a snippet of a solo on "Donna Lee" being played by, say, Argonne Thornton and can't find his way out. Way more to him than that. Listen more, please.