Mark Stryker

OK, I've come to realize just how much pre-war Basie material there is that appears to have fallen through the cracks of what I have. This has led to some ruminating and some questions about how to fill in the gaps without too much duplication and questions about sound quality on various options.. Here's what I have: Decca: The complete Deccas on the 3-CD set on GRP -- not great sound, though not the worst considering the early '90s noise reduction. Columbia and related labels: The 4-CD box "America's #1 Band," plus the two-LP set "Super Chief," the Mosaic Lester Young/Basie box and the complete run of the "Lester Young Story" 2 LP sets on Columba that include Basie material. 1. First, can anyone vouch for the sound of the LPs on the Italian label called Queen? I saw a small handful of them today for not much money and a couple at least would fill in some holes c. 1940-42. 2. Any recommendations for getting the Deccas in better sound on CD or LP? 3. Any recommendations on the best way to fill out the Columbia material? Is the best approach is to pick up the Chronological Classics when I can find them (which I suppose would also fix my Decca issue) or is there another approach on CD or LP that I'm not aware of that might get me everything I have and want in better sound? ,"

Closing the circle on the set substitute rhythm changes that I always hear someone play with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra on "The Little Pixie." Major 7th chords descending by minor thirds in the first half of the A section starting on the tonic, Chromatically ascending ii-Vs in the bridge starting with III7. So in the usual rhythm changes key of B-flat First four bars of the A section: B-flat major 7 / G major 7 / E major 7 / C-sharp major 7. Bridge: A minor7 / D7 / B-flat minor 7 /E-flat 7 /B minor 7 / E7 / C minor 7/ F7. Doing research for my book, I learned that they first appear on record on "Cotton Tail" on a 1956 recording, "Kenny Clarke meets the Detroit Jazzmen," where Pepper Adams plays them starting after the bass solo. I've cued it in the clip below. (Kenny Burrell has a crack at them too after Pepper.) That kind of symmetrical movement in minor 3rds was some advanced shit for 1956, uncommon in jazz before Coltrane. The question is: Who came up with these changes? I had assumed it was Pepper, since he plays them on the record (and it was typically baritone saxophonist and Pepper-acolyte Gary Smulyan who played them with the Vanguard band.) However, Adams biographer Gary Carner told me that Detroit bassist Ken Kellett once told him that they originated with Yusef Lateef. Adams apparently told Kellett that he had gotten the changes from Lateef. Still, I’m a bit skeptical that the whole story isn’t a little more serpentine. I don't know of any recorded example of Lateef playing "Rhythm" changes with these chords. That's not an automatic disqualifier, but it would be odd if Lateef never used them himself. On the other hand, Lateef was studying at Wayne State in the middle '50s and could have been familiar with minor-third root movement from modern classical composers. I wonder what exactly Yusef told Pepper. Did he in fact present this chord progression as a literal substitute for "Rhythm" changes or did he merely indicate he was exploring major 7th chords moving by minor 3rds in some other context and then Pepper himself made the leap to apply them to songs like "Cottontail" that are based on "I Got Rhythm”?

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/12/953964352/equal-at-last-women-in-jazz-by-the-numbers

Howard Johnson for Miller Lite.

When the revolution comes, we'll all drive Volvos.

It's Wright and not Farrow -- the caption is incorrect in Before Motown. Coda: I also used this photo in Jazz From Detroit,

https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/brian-mccollum/2021/01/07/blue-bird-inn-detroit-music-jazz/4011158001/?fbclid=IwAR3LnQGemxzbuL1IpNtbKotqcJMLGi0E04sKMWPjdMHSrOI_IpnHaL3FaAo

Baseball is the greatest game. R,I,P Tommy Lasorda. "He can't get the fuckin' left handers out for Christ O'Fuckin' Mighty."

Long NYT Magazine profile of Tyshawn Sorey by Adam Shatz. I intentionally posted this here n the Artists forum rather than Jazz in Print or Classical because to have slotted it into one of the categories seemed a betrayal of Sorey's aesthetics. and the theme of the piece. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/magazine/tyshawn-sorey.html

God, I can’t wait for this year to be over. R.I.P. to a fine musician and by all accounts a lovely person.

"Passing Thru" is excellent. In a way, it's the best CTI record to come out on another label, and it's actually better than a lot of the CTI records that tried to thread the same substance/commercial needle. I thnk Jimmy Heath and George Butler are credited as co-producers. I remember hearing "Artherdoc Blues" on a.m. radio on the school bus in late 1978.

Nice! I wasn't aware of that. Thanks.

Forgive me this Detroit history digression. For folks who may not be aware of Dave Usher: As a young bebop fan in the '40s in Detroit, he met Dizzy here after a show at the Paradise Theatre and they grew to become good friends. He was Dizzy's business partner in Dee Gee Records (based in Detroit in the early '50s), and by the late '50s Dave was commuting back and forth to Chicago, where he worked for the Chess brothers producing jazz records for Argo. (That's why Barry Harris' debut LP is on Argo and why the blind Detroit pianist Bess Bonnier has a record on Argo; Dave also produced Ahmad Jamal's LPs at the time, including "But Not For Me.") When Dave's father got sick in 1959 or 1960, he returned to Detroit full time and took over the family's oil reclamation business. He eventually built that business into one of the world's leading hazardous waste clean-up companies. What really put them on the map -- and made Dave rich -- was that it was his company, Marine Pollution Control, that got the contract o clean-up the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. That where the money came from to finance recordings like these Dizzy CDs from South America. (They are as good as Larry says they are, by the way.) In later years, Dave and Annie Ross were close -- he was cited in her NYT obituary as a "companion" and one of her survivors. He's still kicking here in Detroit, though the last time I saw him (pre-pandemic), he health and memory were not what they used to be. Dave is a mensch among mensches. He used to take me out his little boat in the Detroit river, help me recover some Yiddish words from childhood and tell LOTS of great stories. I love the fact that he put Dizzy on the board of directors of his company, and Dizzy took the responsibility seriously, showing up for meetings, etc. Carry on ...

Keeping up with what the kids are into! A curio I wasn't aware of until Bill Kirchner sent it to me this afternoon. The Harry James Band playing Sly & the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music." 1970. The best part is Sonny Payne playing the shit out of a fast rock beat.

Thanks for the additional context. Done.

I loved the book and was asked to blurb it. This appears on the back cover and I stand by it: "Life in E Flat is a gift, a compelling and entertaining memoir by one of the leading alto saxophonists in jazz for 60 years. Woods is a charismatic storyteller--literate, funny, insightful, self-aware, with a keen eye and ear for details that reveal character and wise observations about the music business and the jazz life laced with sardonic wit." I would add here that whether one likes or dislikes Phil's playing at any particular period is irrelevant to the success of the book or the value a reader might get out of it. He knew everybody, was in all kinds of interesting places at the right time, has opinions about all of it, and isn't afraid to express them, even when they reflect poorly on himself.

Ooh -- good info! Thanks. I guess I'll stay the course.

Gang — What is the best sounding option for Bud’s Roost material? I have the Blue Note box from the mid ‘90s that includes the Roost stuff, but I’d like to sell it because I have all the BN material on LP or later CDs that trump the sound of the box. But that would leave me without the essential early Roost session. So, options?

Exactly, Nobody ever played like THAT except for Sonny, and not even Sonny did after 1964-68. That's the whole point.

Now THIS is the Organissimo-only content that I've come to expect! Sorry you're pissed, but please stay mad if it leads to posts like this when needed. Having never been in possession of the bootleg (hangs head in shame), this is an extremely helpful roadmap.

You rock, Jim! My email is mstryker63@gmail.com

Gang -- I'm trying to track down a story in Downbeat about Roy Brooks that appeared in the issue dated August 10, 1967 Any chance someone out there has it and could take phone pics of it and send them to me or post them? Many thanks

From Tom Lord Jazz Discography: Calvin Hughes (tp) James Buxton (tb) Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (as,vcl) Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Harry Porter (ts) Wynton Kelly (p) Franklin Skeete (b) Lee Abrams (d) Cincinnati, Ohio, August 30, 1949 K5781 I'm weak but willing King 4331, LP634, Gusto GD-5035-X, King CD634 [CD] K5782 Sittin' on it all the time (*) (unissued) K5783 Featherbed mama King 4442, LP634, KS1087, Gusto GD-5035-X, Rare Bid (G)BID8023, King CD634 [CD] K5784 No good woman blues King 4335, LP634, Gusto GD-5035-X, King CD634 [CD] Note: All titles, except (*), also on Zircon Bleu (F)BLEU503 [CD], JSP (E)JSP7760 [CD], Classics (F)5042 [CD].

And Wynton Kelly!

Yes. As I wrote elsewhere, anyone who has ever worked at — or been a regular at — a special bar, restaurant or especially a jazz club made of the Right Stuff will be moved by this. Bless the writer, Emily Olcott, and everyone in the jazz ecosystem.