fasstrack

It wasn't in the message body and I didn't look at the header. I actually can make it that night. No promises, but shoot me a PM reminder if you would.

'The prettiest girl I ever saw..... Was drinking Hoffman's through a straw.....' If you're old enough to have seen Bird live you probably remember that one.

Night, Allen? Or don't you know yet?

Alright. Thanks, and I just dusted off my dunce cap. Come to think of it there was no dust on it. (only emoticon with a cap. I'm sure more will follow from youse wags)

Joel Fass solo guitar Smalls 181 W.10th NY, NY http://www.smallsjazzclub.com Monday, May 2nd Early show: 7:30-9:15 For people in the NY area, especially you early birds: I'm playing the early two sets fine tuning material for a solo guitar CD I want to record called Calling all Romantics. I've been playing solo guitar for over 30 years and it's time to document it. I'm using this gig to read the crowd and fine-tune the material. The theme is Romanticism---a wide berth, admittedly. Like all the gigs I lead I will stretch out and dig into what I have artistically, but the tunes are the star. I'd especially like to see my friends to inspire me to play well and give spiritual support for the project. If you can't make it there will be a live stream at the website listed up top. All gigs are also archived there. Click on artists, the guitar icon, my name See you at Smalls

One small correction. Phil doesn't turn 80 till November.

First of all, who cares if it's 'cool' or not? To thine own self, etc. and also Only Trust your Heart. At the end of the day, that's the only thing that matters In the middle of the night, too

Sorry to use your post to park my megaphone....and thanks First of all, who cares if it's 'cool' or not? To thine own self, etc. and also Only Trust your Heart. Speaking as a musician who's played for (read: accompanied) both instrumentalists and singers since the early 1980s or earlier, plus is also a soloist and composer (glad we got my crass plug out of the way )I can say: When a musician gets to play for, or even listens to a really good singer, there's to me few more satisfying or learning experiences. I think we're all jealous of singers, performing musicians. I even tried singing for a while to get it out of my system, but decided I like people too much to continue One learns not only what you'd expect: phrasing; spacing; sound quality; dynamics----but also a sense of direct communication every instrumental soloist doesn't have. As an accompanist you have to play in keys horn players don't, pick up a tempo in many subtle ways, deal with personalities from old-school to diva to please-support-me-I'm-insecure. It's a great school. Also everyone is trying to 'sing' on their instrument and talks about their 'voice'----I'll stop there. One of the highlights of my life as a sideman was a 1994 month-long gig with a singer pianist popular in the '40s named Hadda Brooks. Her ballads took your breath away. She used to do, for example, The Thrill is Gone, away from the piano, rubato, with me strumming and the late Morris Edwards bowing on bass. It gave me major goosebumps every time: the huskiness and emotion in her voice. It was just a special moment. Since I've worked with other singers and listened to many more the challenge for me as a leader has become to put a song over as a guitarist, bringing out the song without the advantage of singing the lyric. That has become my work and I will continue to model on singers just as players. My two biggest influences on ballads now are Chris Anderson and Nancy Lamott---both masters of romanticism and spacing, among many other things. As far as singers being liked by audiences: a lot of jazz audiences aren't as knowledgeable as they pretend. There's one place I work in NY that has a Godsend location and people wander in off the street. I've had singers I've invited to sit in on solo gigs there, for variety and to get the glare off me for a while. This one singer friend is good and has a following. She neither hurt nor helped my connecting with the people that night, not a particularly great one for me either. The bottom line for me is I play for, listen to, and hire singers because I like it. I'm a song and dance man without the dance. It's something I always will do whatever the current vox popular or various idiot wags say.

Maybe my so-called mind is playing tricks on me but I remember it was a concert hall b/c the reason Hampton went on 2nd (maybe it was 3rd, after Louis and Jacquet) was that the bus was late. And Jacquet took advantage of this and just upset the place with Flying Home. Louis and his band had to stay to see how it turned out, this battle between Hamp and Jacquet. I remember now what the book told: that Hampton, who went on 2nd, got up and nothing he did got much of a reaction. He turned to Monk in desperation and asked him to 'jump in the river', a metaphor, as I said for jumping from the balcony. Hampton finally broke through and Louis told his guys "OK. Now we can leave" Now I can't remember where I read this. Jimmy Heath's autobiog? Help me out, somebody....

You are right. There's a story in a recent autobiog---I've read so many I can't remember which now. It's about how Lionel Hampton, Illinois Jacquet, and Louis Armstrong's bands all tried to outdo each other in this theater. Hamp told Monk "Gates, I'll give you an extra ten if you 'jump in the river'" (jump from the balcony to the audience while playing). It's kind of hard to do this with a string bass

I'm turnin' you in, buddy. And they're coming for me next.........

I think some of the pieces that work best and were his most popular---like The Clown or Scenes from the City---have narration so they really do function as a kind of aural cinema. I don't know if they're so strong that they'd work as well as stand-alone instrumentals. Also the bluesier and gospel type pieces like Better Get it in Your Soul, Nostalgia in Times Square, Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, Porkpie Hat, etc. have the strongest melodies and the earthiest feeling, and are the most direct so they get played most. He doesn't have that many memorable melodies IMO---and, let's face it, if you can't whistle it you may not want to hear it again." Respectfully speaking - I can't understand how anybody would conclude that Mingus didn't write many memorable melodies. Besides the pieces mentioned here we have Duke Ellington's Sound of Love, Orange Was the Color, Meditations, Haitian Fight Song, Eh's Flat Ah's Flat Too, Fables of Faubus, Moanin', Jelly Roll, Diane... That's an impressive body of work, to say the least, and in a wide range of idioms (he wasn't a one-trick pony). More generally to this topic, I think ejp's comment (#5) on this thread nails it, along with valerie (#2) and jsngry (#14). It's not just being overlooked - even if the desire is there, the resources frequently are not. These aren't the kinds of tunes that a bunch of guys can just get together and blow on. You need lots of ability and imagination from the players as well as lots of rehearsal and chemistry - something that isn't all that common, because we're usually listening to one-offs and pick-up groups. As ejp says, with Ellington you don't hear many recordings of the more intricate, "orchestral" works - A Tone Parallel to Harlem, Tourist Point of View, etc. And as far as Monk - there are endless performances of Straight No Chaser, Round Midnight and Blue Monk but far fewer of Gallop's Gallop or Brilliant Corners. Guy I agree with a lot of what you are saying, and if Mingus wasn't a Tin Pan Alley type composer, so what? He was Mingus and unique. I don't happen to think he was really a melodist, at least not in a narrow sense. I brought this up, naturally reflective of my own biases, to address the question posed: why is Mingus not played that much---comparitive to the other people mentioned. The things I said are what I think, but if Mingus took the scenic route a lot in his writing, great. It fit his personality and worked for him. There's more than one way to skin a cat or write a composition and that's what makes life interesting. The pieces you mentioned I can't conjure up just now, and I don't have the recordings. I'll listen again. I know Moanin' and Jelly Roll Soul show what a great bluesman Mingus was. In fact he had so many diverse things going on I think he had to write the way he did---sprawling and on big canvases. It's almost like an AABA form wasn't sufficient for all he wanted to say. So he wasn't an aphorist or a 'short story writer'. Hemingway was great but so was Melville. And you can take your pick---or enjoy both for what they are.

I was listening the the birthday broadcast today on WKCR and asking myself why it wasn't killing me when it used to. I was thinking that Mingus was perhaps overrated as a composer and wondering why. Maybe it's the length of the pieces---the big canvas---and that often the complexity seems for its own sake. Theatricality is fine also and obviously so is humor. Mingus is very good at both, but a bit sprawling to take in. When I finally caught up with Roland Kirk a few years ago, I mean listening seriously, I thought some of his recordings were cinematic---like mini-movies. He really knew how to make the most of recording techniques to get a wide-ranging vision in a few minutes. Mingus is wide ranging but doesn't seem to have or choose to have the self-editing skills. He sort of lets it hang out, and that's courageous but can be tough to take in at one time. That could be one reason he's not played, musicians can be as lazy and slaves to habit as anyone else and maybe that wall of difficulty and epic length keep some from making the effort. Just as a criticism I also find, frankly, that he makes a lot out of comparatively little, recycling a lot of the same type lines in many pieces. I think Monk, by comparison, had much wider scope and also perhaps more accessibility (which I believe your question addressed in part). Also a lot of the humor came from the players, like Jaki Byard, Eric Dolphy, and Mingus himself. I think some of the pieces that work best and were his most popular---like The Clown or Scenes from the City---have narration so they really do function as a kind of aural cinema. I don't know if they're so strong that they'd work as well as stand-alone instrumentals. Also the bluesier and gospel type pieces like Better Get it in Your Soul, Nostalgia in Times Square, Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, Porkpie Hat, etc. have the strongest melodies and the earthiest feeling, and are the most direct so they get played most. He doesn't have that many memorable melodies IMO---and, let's face it, if you can't whistle it you may not want to hear it again. What did knock me out today was his bass soloing. Weird, but I found it more compositional, terser, and more humorous than his compositions. Also his arrangements (settings is a better word---he really wasn't an arranger) of Ellington and standards, especially Memories of You, are some of the finest in jazz. He was definitely a major talent. But for me I prefer Monk of the really original composers of that period. He was just as humorous or complex when he wanted to be---but he said it with less. Herbie Nichols is also quirky and interesting.

Your loss is my gain, sorry to say. Just grabbed it, and thanks for the tip, poster of this info .

AlSut was the baby of Al Sutton---one of Chris's best friends and one especially who looked after him. You might try contacting him, he's in the Manhattan phone book and very accessible and nice---especially if anyone is interested in Chris's music. He's also an actor and might be a SAG member. PS: Let me know if you have any luck and if so could you pass the info along? I'd like to contact him myself.

If it weren't for some of those '60s Wes Montgomery dates produced by Creed Taylor I might be......a person who actually earns a living today But seriously, ladies and germs, a lot of the musical content on those CTI sessions gives both producer and artist reason to hold heads high. Pure Desmond, Chet Baker: She Was Too Good To Me and others, Milt Jackson, Sunflower---so many more---all healthy selling (for jazz anyway)and wonderful music. I've also read Ron Carter in interviews sing the praises of both CTI and the many dates he did for them. And the above attempt at a joke covers a basic truth for me and many jazzers of my generation: the door was opened wide for us by those dates arrtanged by Don Sebesky, Claus Ogerman, et. al for Messrs Montgomery and confreres just as we were tiring of rock. We went through it and discovered 'deeper' treasures once inside. How can one not be grateful? Arranger and producer knew their jobs and did them to perfection----even if it wasn't Gil Evans with Miles or Riddle with Sinatra. CTI had a sound. Regarding taking credit wrongly, I wasn't there. But one sickening and self-serving remark by Mr. Taylor has stuck in my craw since 1995: There was a special Guitar Player Magazine Wes Montgomery issue. In an interview Creed Taylor averred that Wes's brothers weren't as good as the guys he was putting him with on dates, and that it worked out OK b/c Wes recorded with guys on his level but went out on the road with his brothers, making everyone happy. What tripe! Anyone with ears that have the requisite holes can hear both the brotherly love and joy and quality of music made by the Montgomery Brothers. As a person lucky to both meet and play with Buddy a few times---well I hope he never read that ham-handed crap. I wrote a letter to the magazine, so incensed was I then----which of course never saw the light of day. Time someone called him on that and glad I got it off my chest---and my more positive comments about Creed Taylor's production, CTI, and A&M (it was A&M Montgomery recorded on, was it not?) stand.

Ha, ha. That takes me back. I'm finishing my first book about something totally different and in it I tell a story about in my teens (in the Bronze Age, or back when Moses played himself in The Ten Commandments) somehow diffusing a tense racial situation at a dance at Canarsie H.S. by getting up and playing my ca. 1968 George Harrison Telecaster---complete with maple neck and bulbous solder work (fortunately on the back). I bought that guitar around 1970 for $110 from old friend Bobby Lenti, and held onto it through the '80s----when a dealer at We Buy Guitars on 48th st. said "I want it" Meaning, of course, 'name your price (within reason)' Being the ever-astute businessman I was and am I let it go for $460, asking $500 and blinking before he could get a sentence out probably. He had to get $800-900 for that guitar, minimum. Oh well, my profit was still more than 3x what I paid. And I've never been attached to guitars...... Well, then, mine must be worth about 10 grand at this point! Go ahead, rub it in, why don't you.....

Ha, ha. That takes me back. I'm finishing my first book about something totally different and in it I tell a story about in my teens (in the Bronze Age, or back when Moses played himself in The Ten Commandments) somehow diffusing a tense racial situation at a dance at Canarsie H.S. by getting up and playing my ca. 1968 George Harrison Telecaster---complete with maple neck and bulbous solder work (fortunately on the back). I bought that guitar around 1970 for $110 from old friend Bobby Lenti, and held onto it through the '80s----when a dealer at We Buy Guitars on 48th st. said "I want it" Meaning, of course, 'name your price (within reason)' Being the ever-astute businessman I was and am I let it go for $460, asking $500 and blinking before he could get a sentence out probably. He had to get $800-900 for that guitar, minimum. Oh well, my profit was still more than 3x what I paid. And I've never been attached to guitars......

I was just talking to Eddie Diehl about Triglia. Those two crazy MFs called me once many years ago in the wee hours---waking up my dad to boot---to tell me they were digging a recording Eddie, me, and Jared Bernstein (yes, the economist, then a bass player) had made. Also a guy named Dave Elson told me some funny stories about Triglia---how he came in the open door to his house and there was a session going on. He didn't want to make the younger guys nervous so he laid down on the couch---where Elson found him 'sawing wood' many hours later. Allen, you might remember Triglia from Gregory's if you hung there. I heard him there in the '70s, around the time you were hanging with Haig and me with Chuck Wayne. I'm pretty sure he was playing with Wayne. He was real interesting to hear, struggling a bit at first because it definitely seemed he had laid off a while and was trying to get his chops back. I remember his ideas were really interesting, mixing in 4ths and stuff with the regular bebop fare.

"...narrowing the capabilities of the piano." Huh? Bebop/bop requires the ability to improvise on the fly as well as provide accompaniment for those who are doing so. By its very nature this sort of playing demands full and complete control of the keyboard. Mentally, but not physically. Even in comparison with playing Cherokee at breakneck speed in B major, an average Beethoven sonata places far more demands on both hands (especially the left). Are we really going to try and claim that comping behind yourself with the left hand maximizes the capability of the instrument as much as a Bach 3-part invention? Uh uh. It takes a lot of physical stamina---on any instrument---to keep up those tempos, execute, etc. It's a discipline and this is why there are relatively few dedicated bebop pianists. There are hardly any chances to play that music in the purest sense. The term 'bebop' itself is bastardized and now means just 'mainstream' to a lot of people---or nothing at all. But it---the true, undiluted thing---is as technically exacting---physically---as music gets. I'm not even touching the mental part. We'll be out of here next Thursday.... Agree 100%!! How many true bebop piano players are playing these days? REAL bebop not guys who everyone call bebop pianists when they come out of more of a McCoy influence than anything else. BTW I LOVE McCoy (early) and he could really play the stuff his way like on those early Freddie records like Goin Up and Open Sesame. Aside from Barry Harris I can only think of a few (in NY): Tardo Hammer. If anyone gets the chance to hear him, run. He's a badass. Also Sascha Perry is very fine and Rodney Kendrick when he does that is also very good (meaning he has other influences but leans a lot to Barry--a teacher and mentor---and Bud). Fair disclosure: these guys are all my friends so maybe my objectivity is somewhat compromised. Listen and judge for yourselves.(I hope I'm wrong, BTW, and there are many more). What about Hod O'Brien? Yes, Hod. Thank you. He lives in Virginia now, so he slipped my mind. I knew him in NY and we played in Marshall Brown's Wednesday 'workshop'. I also used to hear him regularly with Joe Puma at Gregory's here in NY A bebopper to his socks. He can swing, too.

And so your dumb narrator (the duller cousin to Randy Newman's 'unreliable' narrator') finally gets off his patoot (after a Keystone Kop caper or two whereien Chirillo and I both lost the original)to deliver said artifact and go down (as a supernumerary) in history.......Right now. After breakfast. And lots. of. coffee. (why. am. I. writing. like. william. shatner. talks.?) It's off to Harlem, then.........

I've known Peter since my first trip to the Hague in 2001. Played a few times in grimy joints there and hung in his apartment, watching mad jazz videos. He's the real thing, can stomp! I thought him easily the most swinging Dutch pianist. (Czech-born Juraj Stanik is also good, but more of a Romantic). I don't know who's behind these...well, gimmicks. Probably the record label. The first time I heard Peter (pronounced Pater Bates) do this it didn't wash. I thought, let Chopin be Chopin, fer Chrissakes. No 'blowing' neccesary----the cadenzas and much of his content were probably improvised to begin with. Well, the changes on Prelude #4 are really pretty, I can see why people would pounce. I myself think the melody and a good presentation at that mournful tempo are enough. (And that's why they pay me the big money.... ) I haven't heard the entire thing, and though Peter can definitely play and has a world of talent these kinds of recordings are as suspect to me as Beatlejazz----they do neither form a favor. I'll listen again though out of respect for Peter. Other 'fusions' do work and make sense for me---like Stan Getz/Eddie Sauter's Focus, a different animal as the 'classical' component was backgrounds strong enough to stand alone but with a large hole written right in for Getz to fill. Also in the 70s Ben Aronov made a recording---Shadow Box---where the band played on changes of a Debussy theme. Shearing's Bach borrowings and an Impressionistic take on Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle were also very believable---but he was working in reverse from the approach Beets and others are attempting. Any remember Nat Cole's Rachmaminoff C# Minor Prelude? A whole different animal, just a conceit for some great blowing. So this has always been done. Just make sure each offering passes the smell test. Anyway I'm glad Peter is becoming better known here. He's excellent, a real natural----and way into jazz. Lives and breathes it, and has two brothers as working musicians. The fact that Joe Cohn is on this is a definite plus. Though his amazing fire, inventiveness, and ears don't quite come through for me on recording as they do live. Don't even get me started, just get that beast a bridle. I missed those two together here in NY and was sorry---not to hear them, I know that would be a bitch---but they're both so wacky the giggles I would've gotten observing those two together would be priceless, like two saxophones cancelling each other out per the overtone series. A lot of intense, insane energy.

Hey, David. Joel Fass here. Nice to see you here. Wow, the 70s were a little 'looser', eh? I just heard the piano solo on Ugetsu with amusement. I remember being a kid of maybe 22---right around this concert's time---meeting Cedric Lawson outside Gerald's in Queens hanging out with Donald Blackman and my friend Bill Niccari who brought me to a gig he was on with the late Weldon Irvine. Lawson was a funny, rotund guy and he kept repeating 'I'm not gonna tolerate incompetence anymore'. Irvine himself was a trip. Wow these guys are pretty loose in the ensembles! Wonder what Art was really thinking behind that boilerplate show-biz speech. Probably nothing he'd care to say publicly. Bizzare tenor solo, BTW---rest the dead. (I met Carter and he was a sweet cat). I always kind of liked Dara when I heard him, though admittedly I never went far to do so. But he can be somewhat straight-ahead when he wants to. Good sound. He sure likes playing behind the beat. That whole cut of Blues March is sure out to lunch, though. The leader was surely not pleased I guess you'd have to say these guys were caught up in, and a product of, some---ahem---interesting times. And leave it at that.

"...narrowing the capabilities of the piano." Huh? Bebop/bop requires the ability to improvise on the fly as well as provide accompaniment for those who are doing so. By its very nature this sort of playing demands full and complete control of the keyboard. Mentally, but not physically. Even in comparison with playing Cherokee at breakneck speed in B major, an average Beethoven sonata places far more demands on both hands (especially the left). Are we really going to try and claim that comping behind yourself with the left hand maximizes the capability of the instrument as much as a Bach 3-part invention? Uh uh. It takes a lot of physical stamina---on any instrument---to keep up those tempos, execute, etc. It's a discipline and this is why there are relatively few dedicated bebop pianists. There are hardly any chances to play that music in the purest sense. The term 'bebop' itself is bastardized and now means just 'mainstream' to a lot of people---or nothing at all. But it---the true, undiluted thing---is as technically exacting---physically---as music gets. I'm not even touching the mental part. We'll be out of here next Thursday.... Agree 100%!! How many true bebop piano players are playing these days? REAL bebop not guys who everyone call bebop pianists when they come out of more of a McCoy influence than anything else. BTW I LOVE McCoy (early) and he could really play the stuff his way like on those early Freddie records like Goin Up and Open Sesame. Aside from Barry Harris I can only think of a few (in NY): Tardo Hammer. If anyone gets the chance to hear him, run. He's a badass. Also Sascha Perry is very fine and Rodney Kendrick when he does that is also very good (meaning he has other influences but leans a lot to Barry--a teacher and mentor---and Bud). Fair disclosure: these guys are all my friends so maybe my objectivity is somewhat compromised. Listen and judge for yourselves.(I hope I'm wrong, BTW, and there are many more).

"...narrowing the capabilities of the piano." Huh? Bebop/bop requires the ability to improvise on the fly as well as provide accompaniment for those who are doing so. By its very nature this sort of playing demands full and complete control of the keyboard. Mentally, but not physically. Even in comparison with playing Cherokee at breakneck speed in B major, an average Beethoven sonata places far more demands on both hands (especially the left). Are we really going to try and claim that comping behind yourself with the left hand maximizes the capability of the instrument as much as a Bach 3-part invention? Uh uh. It takes a lot of physical stamina---on any instrument---to keep up those tempos, execute, etc. It's a discipline and this is why there are relatively few dedicated bebop pianists. There are hardly any chances to play that music in the purest sense. The term 'bebop' itself is bastardized and now means just 'mainstream' to a lot of people---or nothing at all. But it---the true, undiluted thing---is as technically exacting---physically---as music gets. I'm not even touching the mental part. We'll be out of here next Thursday....