Mark Stryker

Gobsmacked to discover Yusef Lateef in a place I never would have expected and which never turned up during my book research. Maybe some of you already knew about Lateef's appearance with Dakota Staton on "Dakota at Storyville," but it was news to me. Let me start at the beginning: About a decade ago, an exceptional local record store in metro Detroit closed. During the closeout sale, I bought some 150 LPs at rock-bottom prices -- in some cases less than $1 a side. A lot of them were by vocalists -- Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, Dakota Staton, Bobby Short, Peggy Lee, Gloria Lynne, Lurlean Hunter, Sammy Davis Jr., Eydie Gorme, Tony Bennett, Della Reese, Joe Williams, and others. A friend suggested I open a supper club when he heard about my haul. I've tried to listen to all of them by now, but occasionally I discover that one has slipped by me. I realized last night that I never checked out "Dakota at Storyville" (Capitol), recorded live at the Boston club on April 29, 1961. The cover identifies her accompaniment only as the Norman Simmons Quartet with no further details. Most of you know that Simmons was a pianist who worked with a lot of singers over the years. I started listening to the opening track, "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby," and the tenor sax obbligatos behind the vocal caught my ear immediately. Even before a rollicking saxophone solo erased any doubt, it was already pretty clear that it was Lateef -- there's no mistaking that sound! He also plays flute on some tracks and even pulls out the oboe on "Music, Maestro, Please." I did a little Internet searching and while there are sources here and there that do identify Lateef, the bassist and drummer remain a mystery. Discographies shed no light either. I would love to know who the other cats are and especially how Yusef ended up on the record. I did notice, however, when looking closely at the back of the LP, that the hazy black-and-white drawing of Staton at work includes a saxophonist, and it's crystal clear that it's Lateef's profile --which suggests the drawing was done on site at the club. I can't find an artist credit, but it might be buried in the drawing somewhere. Here's a taste of the music.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/world/canada/oscar-peterson-montreal-little-burgundy.html

This is awful stuff. I missed the Wall Street Journal stories from 2014 in which Rusch was first accused of sexually abusing middle school students when he taught at a private school in Brooklyn in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Rusch confessed to some of the charges in one of the stories. He’s now being sued. If I understand correctly, the suit is only now possible because of a new law in New York that allows for a “look-back” in child sex abuse cases that does away with previous statute-of-limitations restrictions. (Coda: I reviewed records for Cadence early in my career in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.) https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2020/07/30/three-women-accuse-ex-private-school-teacher-of-sexual-abuse-suit/amp/

Andrew Gilbert is reporting on Twitter: “Universal Music announced last night that ‘Palo Alto,’ the album documenting the 1968 Paly High performance by Thelonious Monk's quartet, has been postponed, with no new release date...I'll post more when I get details.” Confirms what others have noted in real time on this thread, though this suggests some sort of official announcement was made — tho I could be reading that incorrectly and the “announcement” was simply what folks noticed on Amazon.

Thanks. That’s what I thought. FWIW, I think they used the best all-around takes for the masters, but most of the solos on the alternates — especially my Joe —are inspired. There’s a take of “If” — can’t recall which one — where I think I actually prefer Joe’s solo to the master take. Those motherfuckers were insanely consistent.

I don’t have that one, just the others. They were sent to me a while ago — I think before the legit Japanese CD came out — but I don’t recall exactly. Just trying to get a handle on when and how many times they have been released legitimately.

Gang --- The four alternate takes from Larry Young's "Unity" -- two of "If" and one each of "Moontrane" and "Beyond All Limits" --seem to have only come out legitimately as part of a Japanese CD issue of the record. Is that true? Asking for a friend. Thanks

Exactly. This is the only jazz version I know that gets at the real grit of prostitution. The verse helps set it up, but that's not all. Her swinging phrasing, the sensual way she straddles the tempo, and the way she italicizes certain words with a sly smirk or snarl, gets under the skin of the song. Yet also note the brassy, exuberant shakes she adds to the words "old" and "new" in the second bridge -- like maybe there's a part of walking the streets she kinda digs. Or maybe she's just pretending to enjoy it. After all, that's the gig.

Yes --tho not the most swinging band,but it hardly matters.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/story/2020-07-14/and-all-that-jazz-bram-dijkstras-invaluable-record-collection-to-be-donated-to-sdsu

Whoa! The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has launched a remarkable archive of creative black music dating back some 40 years, including audio (and in some cases video) of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, Julius Eastman, Betty Carter, Wadada Leo Smith, and Amiri Baraka. https://walkerart.org/collections/publications/jazz/creative-black-music-at-the-walker-selections-from-the-archives

When Chick Corea's Five Peace Band including John McLaughlin played in Ann Arbor in 2009, Chick mentioned from the stage of Hill Auditorium that he and McLaughlin had been reminiscing about playing on that same stage with Miles in 1970. A nice moment.

Well, there is this film of Wes playing the tune overseas with four saxophones.Maybe this is what you were hearing?

It's a snippet of Wes Montgomery's "West Coast Blues"

"It’s not about your music—it’s about what makes your music your music. You’ve got to have a feeling like that. You have to have a reason for your music. Have something besides the technical. Make it for something. Make it for kindness, make it for peace, whatever it is. You know what I mean?" https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/sonny-rollins-on-the-pandemic-protests-and-music

Listened to this last night. Al Harewood plays a rimshot on beat 4 in every bar of this performance with just three exception — all in the same spot in the tune: the bar going into the bridge on the opening melody chorus and then in that same bar during both trumpet choruses. Otherwise, he ticks off 4 in every bar for nine minutes and 19 seconds. It’s almost a piece of performance art. And, man, does it swing.

Rara Avis A 50-minute snapshot of casual straight ahead-jazz in New York in 1976 at Boomer's (340 Bleeker in the Village). Kenny Barron, Bob Berg, Al Foster and a bass player I don't immediately recognize. Anyone know who it is? And does anyone have any ideas who filmed this and why? As always, Barron is unruffled and consistent, and Foster in particular is playing his ass off. My best guesses for the bass player are Bob Cunningham or a young Charles Fambrough, but as I said, I don't recognize him.

The one time I was at Herbie's house, I was disappointed to find that he keeps the Cobra offsite in a private garage for protection. However, I did get to see his everyday car in the garage -- a red Ferrari. Also, this is my favorite Herbie/Cobra story. This excerpt is from an LA Weekly story a number of years ago: -- I bought the car, for $6,000. Then I got hired by Miles, maybe a month later, and I’m gonna go on the road. But I had one more gig, at the Village Gate in New York, as a sideman for Clark Terry. … When we were playing the last set, I looked out the corner of my eye, and who do I see? Miles! Miles had come down. We finish the set, we come down and Miles says, [gravelly voice] “I’ll give you a lift home.” He knew I was living nearby. I said, “Aww, man, that would be fantastic, but I just bought a new car.” He said, “It’s not a Maserati.” I said, “No, no it’s not.” We get downstairs and my car is near the exit. He says, “Cute.” We both get to the stoplight at Sixth Avenue. It’s like 2, 3 o’clock in the morning. I knew what was going to happen: As soon as the light turns green, we’d floored it, right! So we drove several blocks before the next red light. I got to the light shortly before Miles, and I smoked Marlboros in those days. I grabbed one, lit it, rolled down the window as Miles drives up. He looked over at me and he says, “What the fuck is that?” I said, “It’s an AC Cobra.” He said, “Get rid of it.” I said, “Why?” And he said, “It’s dangerous.” And then he started driving [off]. And I’m thinking, “I beat Miles!”

That's a concert hall not a club. Those copper tubs with the glare are timpani.

I was just thinking of this point a couple days ago, though not in relation to Braxton. I was listening (again) to Earl Hines' brilliant Quintessential Earl Hines (1970) and realized that he was just 67 when he recorded it. That seemed ancient at the time. By comparison, Chick turns 79 next week, and Herbie turned 80 in April.

I don’t suppose anyone here relates to this.

I don't suppose anyone here has any interest in hearing what apparently is a previously unknown phone interview with Charlie Parker that aired on the radio in 1954. Nah, didn't think so ... but here it is anyway.

Nailed it.

New from the New Yorker culture desk. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/anthony-daviss-revolutionary-opera-x

Thanks. This all makes sense to me.