Mark Stryker

Hey gang, Dropping in here to remind everyone that I'm posting regular journal entries relating to Detroit jazz history on the Musings page at the website for my book: All kinds of cool stuff. If the spirit moves, please have a look. Yes, this is a shameless attempt to drive traffic to the site. https://jazzfromdetroit.com/blog

News. https://news.allaboutjazz.com/nobusiness-records-begins-sam-rivers-archive-series-with-a-previously-unreleased-trio-recording-from-1971.php?fbclid=IwAR2fX4NfF3LxBd0NpYERsbTQFYxJ8M_yXQFNlfsh7VEowuFhMljsZfZztio#.XOLE8eQ8n-g.twitter

This happened 52 years ago today. The Nessa Juggernaut has been rolling on for a long time ... Old/Quartet : Art Ensemble : Lester Bowie (tp) Roscoe Mitchell (as,hrn,whistle,tamb) Malachi Favors Maghostut (b) Phillip Wilson (d) Chicago, IL, May 18, 1967 Old Nessa N-5, NCD-27/28 [CD], NCD-2500 [CD] Theme statements - - Slow theme - - Bell song - - Fast theme - - Chinese song - - Tatas matoes (rehearsal) - - Quartet No 1 (group improvisation) - - Note: Nessa NCD-27/28 [CD] titled "Old/Quartet Sessions"; a 2 CD set. Nessa NCD-2500 [CD] titled "The Art Ensemble 1967/68"; a 5 CD set; according to the CD box "Roscoe Mitchell billed his group as the ART ENSEMBLE for a concert .on Dec 3 1966. This name was used for performances until June 1969 when the quartet of Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman & Malachi Favors Maghostut was advertised as the ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO.

That photo of Wayne on the street was taken in April 1964, the same month he recorded "Night Dreamer" -- so I assume this was a shoot for the cover and then the design went in a different direction and it never got used. Amazing photo. Wayne in the wild.

Washington Post has a story; https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/to-think-it-has-come-to-this-kenny-burrells-journey-from-jazz-legend-to-gofundme-appeal/2019/05/15/c57fb07e-7701-11e9-b7ae-390de4259661_story.html?utm_term=.83dc6228df38 Pat Metheny is quoted in this story. (BTW -- I had noticed his name a few days ago on the GoFundMe site as a contributor -- a generous gift of $2,500.)

The two volumes of "The Uncollected Doris Day" with the trio are tremendous. https://www.amazon.com/Doris-Day-Page-Cavanaugh-Trio/dp/B001LK2QWS

Almost certainly that's Ronnie Matthews in the photo. Sonny and Max were on the same concert bill in Graz, Austria on November 12, 1966, and Matthews was the pianist with Max's band on the gig. Matthews wore glasses in those days -- see the cover of his "Doin' the Thang." That's Freddie Hubbard on the right holding the trumpet -- he was also in Max's band on the concert. (BTW, there is a bootleg of Sonny playing three tunes with Jymie Merrit and Max from that night. One of them is "Lover" at a super-fast tempo, though it sounds even swifter on some of the issues I've heard because the tape is running so fast that at times Sonny sounds like he's playing alto. Caveat emptor.) Coda: The pianist on the video is Coleridge Taylor Perkinson.

I'd be happy for anyone to take up the cause.

Real skills as a singer -- seriously underrated. From 1950, with Harry James on trumpet.

None of which I'm aware. I'd have to ask my friends Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert -- the guys who wrote "Before Motown" -- to know the current status of the the Uptown CD. My instinct tells me that it would appear to be a long-shot at this point in time -- but don't take that as gospel.

Hey gang -- lots of daily content going up in the Musings section of my website, www.jazzfromdetroit.com. So far there have been posts about Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones, Tommy Flanagan & Ella Fitzgerald, Oliver Jackson and Kenny Burrell, Hank Jones and Duke Ellington, and today's post about a recording made 63 years ago today in which Kenny Clarke corralled four young cats from Detroit -- Kenny Burrell, Pepper Adams, and Paul Chambers, Some great music embedded in the posts too, from a rare, never-reissued single c. 1954 featuring Burrell, to today's "Cottontail" with some super-sophisticated chord substitutions. https://jazzfromdetroit.com/blog/jazzmen-detroit?fbclid=IwAR2qRkT3Q5EJrs-7ujSy42BedDSCdxvJ8WNO_avvhuIqsErCCGvOli_ZrEY

Good Junior Cook here. One of the sides where you can start to hear the Junior-Joe Henderson connection -- not as much as on "The Tokyo Blues" 14 months later, but it's there.

The discount will remain in effect until publication date (July 8) at which point it will either be reduced or eliminated -- that's still being decided. So you can order anytime. I will say that from the author's perspective, the earlier you pre-order the better it is for me, because pre-orders help determine how large a print run of hardback books they'll do initially. If they see a large demand, that's good for me. But that doesn't mean you have to order immediately ... I appreciate your enthusiasm. Thanks.

Advertisements for Myself Lots of news today about Jazz from Detroit. First, the publication date is officially July 8 and it's now up for pre-order. And have we got a deal for you -- a 40% discount off of list price if you order at the University of Michigan Press website. That takes the price from $39.95 to $23.97. Just type in the promo code UMSTRYKER on the checkout page. Here's the listing page. https://www.press.umich.edu/4454129/jazz_from_detroit Second, as part of announcing the book, WBGO has an exclusive excerpt up at their website -- the chapter about Regina Carter. https://www.wbgo.org/ Third, the book has a website at https://jazzfromdetroit.com/ Please visit and have a look around. There's background on the book, including the Table of Contents; a bio of your author and friendly proprietor; press photos (and other cool photos to see); links where you can pre-order (plus the promo code for the 40% discount); and a section called "Musings" -- basically a blog, whose inaugural post celebrates Joe Henderson's birthday today with a brief taste of my chapter about Joe and some representative music. (The "Music" section itself on the site will be populated with Playlists and the like in the coming weeks and months.). There's also some generous advance endorsements from Pat Metheny, Sonny Rollins, and others. Onward.

Maybe jazz would be more than popular if we said “jazz” more like this:

New to me. Thanks

Fascinating stuff here, folks. A tape of Mike Brecker as a college sophomore (age 19) playing "Night in Tunisia" and parts of "A Love Supreme" with just bass and drums on a gig in Bloomington, Ind., in the fall of 1968. It's wild to hear him in a raw state, with a a ton of technique but before he had his machine-like precision over chord changes really together. At times a late-Trane spirit wanders in and almost takes over on "Tunisia" -- in some ways, I wish more of that openness and looseness would have remained in his playing. I think he literally practiced those elements out of his conception. Late in his career he tried to reintroduce some of them back into his playing, but it was not easy by then to break out of the box because certain fundamentals were too deeply embedded in his DNA,Iin terms of his pure sound, the core of Brecker's identity is certainly here in 1968,. "Night in Tunisia" starts at the 52:42 (timer counts backward). The trio plays part of a "Love Supreme" starting at 40:22. At the 11:55 mark is a rather infamous tape of the Randy Sandke Septet with Michael Brecker from the 1968 Notre Dame Jazz Festival. Also, did you know that one of Brecker's classmates in high school in suburban Pennsylvania was ,,, (checks notes) ... um, Benjamin Netanyahu? Seriously.

Just saw Billy a couple of weeks ago in Detroit with David Weiss' band The Cookers and he was sounding as strong as ever at 76.

Thanks for the tip.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-jewish-trumpeter-who-entertained-nazis-to-survive-the-holocaust

Thanks. Like many jazz folks, I only knew him from the live date with Cannonball and perhaps a couple of his later recordings,and I heard him live at the Detroit Jazz Festival maybe a decade ago. But I had never really check him out deeply and was unaware until relatively recently how far back his career actually stretched. Soulful cat.

By no means have I heard everything by Alexandria, but this might be the best single track by her that I know -- the most focused and swinging, the melody embellished in a way that elevates the expression rather than detracting from the narrative of the song. You can really hear the Sarah Vaughan influence in the second bridge. Great diction too. Having said all that that, the breath she takes at the end before the final "life" is a drag. Best moment for me is that final bridge and the ascending key change going into the last A section. Also, Wynton Kelly really knew what the fuck he was doing behind singers.

The Tom Lord Discography lists a lot of Ernie Andrews 78s (or maybe in some cases 45s) on a variety of labels including King, Sparks, London, Trend, Aladdin, Gem -- that appear not to have ever been reissued in any form. Anybody know if that's true? Secondarily, what are good sources on LP or CD for early Andrews sides and any special recommendations?

Because "changing your mind" has two different meanings. In one sense, it means to flip one's opinion from pro to con (or vice verse) but in an even more important sense it means to "enlarge your understanding." THAT is the whole point of, well, everything, including art. It's not about winning an argument; it's about elevating your consciousness. You elevate yours; I elevate mine; those folks over there elevate theirs and, well, pretty soon we might have a chance at fixing the messes all around us. Failing that, we might live more fulfilling lives. Nothing wrong with that. Besides, if you're going to mattresses over a particular musician -- even if you are fighting for him rather than against him -- then it's your duty to listen to the fucking music -- a truly representative sample, and that means sometime current. The only way these debates push the boulder forward is if everybody is arguing from the most informed point of view that they can. Also, for those of us staying on the sidelines, it makes for better and more instructive theater. Pass the popcorn, please ...

I just looked at Amazon to see what the cost is on "Warriors" and find that it's $10 for a CD, $20 for an LP but only $2.67 for an MP3 download -- just three long tracks at 89 cents each. Don't they usually charge more for longer tracks to keep some kind of parity on pricing?