Hardbopjazz

The tragedy and majesty of Hank Mobley is a subject that is tailor-made for Frugal Apathy to tackle. The meaning and mission of Frugal Apathy is to bring attention to the prevalent apathy that is choking the joy and growth of art and music out of our world culture. Concerning this all pervasive apathy, Frugal Apathy feels he has a right to comment quite strongly on it, for unlike most jazz writers, Frugal Apathy is a professional (not an amateur) working musician and this subject directly affects his means of providing a livelihood in his chosen profession. To be quite frank about it, very few really value the experience of great art and music anymore. For without the few hearty souls who do, great art and music would be wiped off the face of the earth. For the great majority of people, art and music holds no value unless it makes money. Witness Congress' recent move to cut funding completely for the National Endowment For The Arts (if they had their way). Or the budget cutting all over the country of music and art from the schools. Art and music is seen as expendable because it's about enriching the inner self as well as our culture, not about making money. Cultural activities are deemed valueless. Thus music and art has become a thing that is primarily concerned with the fact that it must be bought and sold, without which it simply can not exist. Success (and thus value) in music is judged by how many recordings are sold. And the absurd part of this is that even if 25,000 people bought your record you are still judged not as valuable as another who sold 1,000,000 records. You are deemed "marginal". The Buddhists have a phrase that they call "honzon" which means 'object of worship'. Your honzon governs everything in your life and is your motivating force because it is what you value most in life. In American culture, our 'honzon' is money. We worship money. Pure and simple. It is what we value more than any other thing. It is what brings us the greatest joy, and we have taught the whole world to embrace our culture of greed and lust for money and the power it seems to bring. The tragedy of Hank Mobley is how grossly he was undervalued during his lifetime. Only after his death has his proper importance begun to be assessed. I will here go on record to take a comment Jackie McLean made about Hank Mobley one step further: McLean said that Hank Mobley "was one of the most lyrical tenor saxophonists in jazz history." I would say that Hank Mobley was THE most lyrical tenor saxophonist that jazz has yet to produce. You cannot argue that it was Lester Young, for Mobley extended and built on Young's foundation. Mobley came out of Charlie Parker, but also Lester Young whom he knew and learned from. I love the story Horace Silver told about the time his band which included Mobley played a double bill in Cleveland with Lester Young. They had a small dressing room where Young had his horn lying on a small table. Mobley came into the room looking for somewhere to lay his horn down. After seeing there was no place for it, he headed out the room. But he was stopped by Young who said, "Lady Hank, come on and lay your peoples next to mine." Now, if that's not prophetic and symbolic of a story, I don't know one better! It was like Young passing the torch to Mobley, by telling him it was okay to lay Mobley's horn next his! Like Mobley had the blessing of the great Lester Young. I feel that Mobley was a jazz innovator equal in stature to Miles or Coltrane in terms of his influence. He was certainly the first mature new tenor stylist in the new hard bop style by 1953-54. Certainly his tenor voice had crystallized and fully formed before Coltrane or Rollins at this point. In my opinion, Mobley was the fulfillment of Charlie Parker on the tenor sax, much in the way Pepper Adams (who as Mobley was equally undervalued) was for the baritone sax. One has to simply listen to the tens of thousands of saxophonists playing in his wake. Yes, you may hear Coltrane in these guys, but you need a grasp and mastery of bop to play like Coltrane and the only way to do it is through playing a little bit of Hank Mobley. He is the personification of the hard bop tenor saxophone style. The man was an innovator, period. All this talk of him being "the middle-weight champion of the tenor sax" did a true dis-service to Mobley and made the average listener perceive him as somewhere in the middle of the pack, but not as important as Coltrane, Rollins or Getz. Yet, somehow I bet every jazz lover has more than one Hank Mobley recording in their collection. You can't help but love how the man played. Hank Mobley always sounded fresh in the genre until his last days and truly never made a bad recording. When I lived in NYC from 1980-88, I can remember one well renowned young saxophonist upon listening to me play put me down, saying: "Oh he's hung up on Bird and Hank Mobley!" I was actually proud of that comment. And I was acutely aware that his motivation was because when he swung it didn't flow right and didn't sound authentic. And he's supposed to be one of the great new players. I remember discussing this with the great Charles McPherson, my mentor. His comment was, "How are you as a saxophonist going to be playing anything greater than what Charlie Parker played? They say that because they can't play it! These guys want to master bop but can't and don't want to take the time it takes to master it the way that you did." I'm also reminded of a comment somebody made to Phil Woods, putting down bop and Charlie Parker. Woods handed him his alto and said, "Here! Lemme hear YOU play some Charlie Parker!" The problem with all of this, the belittling of Hank Mobley and other bop masters as old-fashioned and irrelevant I believe, is the mis-assessment of the true importance of bop. It is not old fashioned nor is a genre that is finished, been exhausted and has nothing new to say anymore as many (younger types) claim. Perhaps if Charlie Parker had lived into the 1960s would this point be clearer. I have often said, bop is a genre of jazz where you use structure to liberate improvisation. You play with complete freedom, endlessly within it's structure. That's why we make so much ado about bop. Where else can you play the same tunes over and over and find new things to play and new ways to play it? That is, if you are truly creative and have mastered the form. That is what is so attractive about bop. Using it's structure you can improvise on a high technical level every time you play it. Ask Phil Woods, George Coleman or Charles McPherson, who are one of the few masters still left among us. Better yet, go and hear them live while you can and you'll see what I'm talking about. The underlying problem about the mis-assessment and misunderstanding of the innovation of bop is appreciating the element of swing. This is a generational issue. Jazz artists born after the seventies perceive swing as old fashioned because it isn't the underlying rhythm of their generation. The pervasive musical rhythm after 1970 is the backbeat rhythm and the many complex variations of it. As it should be, there would be a further evolution of jazz rhythms beyond swing. (I myself am a proponent of odd-metered rhythm in my compositions.) To illustrate this, think of the incidental music one hears in elevators or on TV commercials. In the 60s, you heard tunes, jingles etc. predominately using a swing rhythm; where as after the 1970s you began hear less of it and more rock and backbeat rhythms. This put the jazz artists born after 1970 at a disadvantage to be able to hear swing easily, because in jazz you primarily learn through osmosis. You could only then get it through going back and getting it from the records or older artists. In otherwords you had to work real hard at it and for a generation that wants things quick, fast in a hurry, it became easier and easier to discard the swing and bop. By 1980, with the advent of Reaganomics, the "me over we/hurray for me later for you" philosophy, fueled by the 'honzon' of money, jazz musicians began to make huge amounts of money for discarding swing and playing the backbeat. So now younger musicians began not to even try to master the swing rhythm through it's last evolution, bop. Why? It was more attractive now to play an easier, less demanding music that more people liked that could make you a lot money, then to play a superior music that was harder to master that less people liked and you would probably starve playing. It was a no brainer. And so swing and bop became irrelevant. But to the real jazz players something was not quite right with this decision. I believe because every time they heard somebody like Hank Mobley it sounded really good to them and reminded them what true excellence sounds like. Even Grover Washington originally was a straight-ahead jazz player who was more or less forced away from that path. To justify all of this, guys began to put down cats who continued to swing and play straight ahead. In the case of Hank Mobley, he became consistently underrated, undervalued and his contributions as an original and innovative saxophone stylist and composer became discarded, ignored and judged as unimportant. And this by the very people who recorded him and championed his career, Alfred Lion and Blue Note records. I really don't believe it was done intentionally. But again, the 'honzon' or object of worship of money affected even Lion and Blue Note records. For after the commercial success of Lee Morgan's "Sidewinder", every Blue Note artist was required to include one similar commercial track on their recordings. To add to the confusion due to the advent of the avant-garde in the early sixties, many Blue Note artists' straight ahead recordings were shelved in favor or more modern or avant-garde material, because it was believed to sell more with the public. After all, John Coltrane, the leader of the avant-garde jazz movement had the greatest jazz hit of all time with "My Favorite Things", -a Billboard chart topper. Many of Mobley's greatest works such as "A Slice Of The Top" and "Straight No Filter" were shelved. Had they came out at the time, it not only would have benefited Mobley's career, because every working artist needs a current recording on the market; -it very well could have saved his life. Most of the successful artists are the ones who are extroverts and know how to champion their own causes. Mobley was an introvert and a quiet, personal man who retired to his car during his breaks when he was playing. He rarely pushed his own envelope. That more than any other reason is why he isn't properly more acknowledged. Mobley knew his own worth and was acutely aware of the injustices done to him. Nobody could have explained his plight better than he: "I feel like Charlie Parker" he says, "It's hard for me to think of what could be and what should have been. I lived with Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk; I walked with them up and down the street. I did not know what it meant when I listened to them cry, -until it happened to me . . ." Indeed! We love you Hank and your music will live forever. It certainly will pass the 500 Years/Googles Test.*

Why don't you check out the album on allmusic.com. You could listen to 30 seconds of each track and maybe you will know which one you heard. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&a...10:jxfuxq9jldte

Why ruin a great '60's moment in time? But I most likely would go see this if it remained true to the original movie. Yellow Submarine First, director Robert Zemeckis took the "The Polar Express" to the North Pole. Now he's making plans to visit Pepperland in The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine." According to Variety, the filmmaker and Walt Disney Pictures are currently negotiating to produce a remake of the 1968 psychedelic animated movie with songs by The Beatles. Zemeckis will reportedly make the movie with the 3D digital performance capture technology he pioneered in "Polar Express," "Beowulf" and the upcoming version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." The deal will hinge upon securing the rights to songs from The Beatles' catalog for inclusion in the movie and also a potential stage version. That might be easier than it would have been in the past, since the group's remaining members have recently allowed their songs to be used in projects like Cirque du Soleil's "Love" and next month's videogame "The Beatles: Rock Band." There's no word as to whether or not Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will have a hand in the remake, but the band was barely involved in making the original. The Beatles only agreed to the movie to fulfill their movie contract, though they enjoyed the finished product so much they agreed to appear in a cameo at the end. Zemeckis reportedly hopes to have his new "Yellow Submarine" set sail just in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. story

Are we going on where the session was recorded or where the artists or band resides?

Bob Crane Richard Dawson Werner Klemperer

Wow 100. Get musician. To bad he ended his life by drinking himself to death. I read a while back he's credited with giving so many jazz musician's their nicknames. Those that come to mine, Billie Holiday- Lady Day. Horace Silver, which just eluded me.

Wow Jimmy Smith with Fred Astaire, Paul Lynde and others. I guess JOS was very much in demand still in the mid 60s. Has anyone seen this show? DATE: October 2, 1965 Saturday 9:30 PM ABC - TV series, One in this series of lavish, vaudeville-inspired weekly variety programs. Guest host Fred Astaire presides over this program and opens the program. Program highlights include the following: the acrobatic Suns Family; comedian Paul Lynde and actress Carmen Phillips in a skit about attempted suicide; The We Five singing "You Were on My Mind"; Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn dancing the black swan pas de deux from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake"; comedian Jackie Mason with political satire; and Astaire dancing to jazz organist Jimmy Smith's "The Cat." Also includes Andre Tahon's Puppets. Includes commercials.

But I thought at least one of his predecessors, Steve Allen, had lots of jazz guests. Do you mean his two followers? yeah, they are too much into rock and not into exploring anything else. My slip. Branford Marsalis tried featuring players leading up to and coming back from commercials, but Leno's manager killed that. Is that the same as Museum of Television and Radio in NY? B/c they have a hell of an archive of jazz. You have to know how to search, though. Yes that's the place. Jazz on TV almost every week up to the mid 70s. Sad that this is no longer the norm.

Same here.

Alice Cooper Cooper Anderson Hans Christian Andersen

The B side would be something for BFT.

I know we discussed this in the past. Recently I've been going to the "Paley Center for Media" in NYC and watching some old jazz TV programs. Johnny Carson seemed to always have jazz guests. Too bad his two predecessors haven't followed his his path. I wonder how much of the jazz guests were Carson's own requests, or were the Tonight Show's producers jazz fans as well? The museum doesn't have every show because I do recall some shows with artists that I haven't come across in the archives.

Maxwell Silver Hammer MC Hammer MC Chris

One thought on Mr. Jones. I caught a set at Dizzy's in NYC in the fall of 2008. He was standing talking to the crowd. When he sat down at the piano he placed the MIC on the top of the piano. It started to roll off, but before the MIC hit the floor Hank grabbed it with his hand, like a falcon or a hawk grabbing its prey. I don't even have reflexes that fast and I exactly have his age. God bless him. He could probably pick it at second or shortstop.

prince and the pauper Robin Hood Boys in the Hood.

It's like that date you've waited for all week and she doesn't show up. It was good to believe for a while that this existed.

It is 40 years ago August 15th that the first Woodstock took place. Was anyone here at the first Woodstock? 40 years later, Woodstock still fascinates By MICHAEL HILL (AP) – 3 days ago BETHEL, N.Y. — Forty years after Richie Havens sang and strummed for a sea of people at Woodstock, he still gets asked about it and he still gets requests to sing "Freedom." He's not surprised. "Everything in my life, and so many others', is attached to that train," Havens said. The young hippies who watched the sun come up with The Who in 1969 are now eligible for early bird specials. Many of the bands are broken up or missing members who died. But Woodstock remains one of those events — like the moon landing earlier that summer — that continues to define the 1960s in the popular imagination. Consider the bumper crop of Woodstock nostalgia marking the 40th anniversary. There's a new director's cut DVD of the concert movie, a remastered concert CD, director Ang Lee's rock 'n' roll comedy "Taking Woodstock" and a memoir by promoter Michael Lang. There are also performances scheduled by Woodstock veterans at the old site, now home to a '60s museum and an outdoor concert pavilion. The Woodstock legend stems from big names such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin playing at a show where everything went wrong but turned out right. The town of Woodstock didn't want the concert and promoters were bounced from another site at the 11th hour. Lang settled on a hay field in Bethel owned by a kindly dairy farmer named Max Yasgur. The concert did come off Aug. 15-18, 1969, but barely. Fences were torn down, tickets became useless. More than 400,000 people converged on this rural corner 80 miles northwest of New York City, freezing traffic for miles. Then the rains doused everything. It should have been a disaster. But Americans tuning in to the evening news that weekend saw smiling, dancing, muddy kids. By the time the concert movie came out months later, Woodstock was a symbol of the happy, hippie side of the '60s spirit. It still is. Baby boomers are the "Woodstock Generation" — not the "Monterey Generation" or the "Altamont Generation." Bethel's onsite museum has logged more than 70,000 visitors since last summer, a fair number of them college students born well after Woodstock. A roadside monument there regularly logs visitors from around the planet. "It's almost a pilgrimage," said Wade Lawrence, director of the Museum at Bethel Woods. "It's like going to a high school reunion, or it's like visiting a grave site of a loved one." From Lollapalooza to All Points West, there have been plenty of big festivals focused on youth culture. The continent-hopping Live Aid shows of 1985 did that and more, enlisting top names such as U2 and Madonna to fight hunger in Africa. None have the cultural cachet of Woodstock. Who would ever ask a Generation X-er: "Were you really at Live Aid?" People who went to Woodstock say the crowd set it apart as much as the music. The trippy anarchy of Woodstock has become legend: lots of nudity, casual sex, dirty (and muddy) dancing, open drug use. The stage announcer famously warned people to steer clear of the brown acid. Many who were there recall Woodstock as an oasis of good vibes during a time of unrest over the Vietnam War. Ilene Marder, then an 18-year-old who hitched from the Bronx, saw people feeding one another and respecting one another. She knew she found her tribe. "The music was nice, but it was being with so many people who looked like us, who looked like me," said Marder, who later moved to Woodstock some 50 miles away. "I remember telling myself 'Don't forget this! Don't forget they way you feel right now!'" Former Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten remembers hearing buzz that something special was up at the nearby hotel where the band was staying. The scale of the event sunk in when the band choppered in over the mass of people. While artists like Joe Cocker and Santana boosted their careers at Woodstock, the Dead were notoriously flat. Jerry Garcia, the band's late guitarist, told interviewers that his guitar was being hit with bouncing blue balls of electricity — the kind that comes from bad wiring, not strong psychedelics. Constanten said he wasn't as bothered as his band mates. "Actually, I had a wonderful time. The guitarists were not. Because of electrical problems, they were getting shocks from their strings and all," he said. "Aversion therapy like that, no one needs." Constanten contends the music and spirit of Woodstock was not a revelation to the people there. But it was to the millions who saw the movie and listened to the album. As they say now, Woodstock went viral. "This juggernaut of a music scene burst in their awareness," he said. "It didn't feel different to us. It was their response." Woodstock has been resurrected a couple of times since then, at least in name. Promoters staged a 25th-anniversary concert near Woodstock in 1994 that was a musical success. But a 30th-anniversary performance at a former Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y., ended in disaster after crowds lit bonfires and looted on the last night. The unrelenting heat and $4 bottles of water taxed any vestiges of Woodstock spirit. Yasgur's old farm, meanwhile, has gone establishment in recent years. Local cable TV billionaire Alan Gerry quietly snapped up the land in the 1990s and started a not-for-profit foundation to run a museum and concert space. The gently sloping hill that provided a natural amphitheater in 1969 is nicely tended and fenced in. Concerts are regularly scheduled over the hill from the original stage at a modern, 4,800-seat amphitheater. Constanten and Havens are among the 1969 performers returning to the site on the 40th anniversary weekend. Havens will play a solo show that Friday, a day before a larger show featuring other Woodstock veterans such as Levon Helm, formerly of The Band, Ten Years After and Canned Heat. Though long separated from the Dead, Constanten said he'll play the band's songs that weekend. No electric shocks are expected under the multimillion-dollar pavilion, and probably no generation-defining magic either. "Then is then," Constanten said, "and now is now." Woodstock story

How do you prove you were the original person that bought the lottery ticket? A British man who found a winning lottery ticket on a supermarket floor and cashed it in has been ordered to pay back half the money plus interest to the original buyer

Damn! I don't what else to say but damn! RIP Rashied.

He was marvelous. RIP Mr. Paul.

Thanks, I placed an order and it's good to know they are reliable.

I read this and flipped. WASHINGTON — Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching over the $700 billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing out the nation's financial sector, it's still difficult to answer some of the most basic questions about where the money went. Despite a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general, those charged with minding the store say they don't have all the weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has been so lacking that it's essentially worthless. "TARP has become a program in which taxpayers are not being told what most of the TARP recipients are doing with their money, have still not been told how much their substantial investments are worth, and will not be told the full details of how their money is being invested," a special inspector general over the program reported last month. The "very credibility" of the program is at stake, it said. Full story

Are they sure it was cocaine and not Oxiclean? They both look the same.

I came across an import I want and can only locate it on this site. Has anyone ever bought from these guys?

Bob Murphy Bill Bob Thornton Angelina Jolie