Mark Stryker

I must have two dozen vocal records with arrangements by Don Costa and all of the charts just kind of lay there. They don’t sound bad — just professional and rather dull. I hear facile echoes of lots of other writers, but nothing distinctive. Does anyone know of any work by Costa that sounds truly inspired and individual? Maybe the best i know is “Sinatra & Strings” — but that would’ve been a better record with Gordon Jenkins.

If I had to pick just one Elvin record as a leader to live with for the rest of my life, it would be "Merry-Go-Round" -- it's got a little bit of everything and nothing sounds compromised; it's all on a high level. FWIW, my two favorite Elvin records as a leader are "Merry-Go-Round" and "Elvin Jones is on the Mountain." No. 3 is a tie between "Puttin it Together" and "Earth Jones" -- but several of the other Blue Notes are right in there and I might slide one of them in on another day.

Not silly at all. Very different books in terms of period covered, style and content. "Before Motown" covers 1900 to 1960 and the focus is the development of jazz in Detroit with emphasis on who played with whom, the progression of clubs, names, dates etc My book chronicles Detroit's pivotal role in shaping the wider course of modern and contemporary jazz from the 1940s until the present day. The core of the book is comprised of more than two dozen in-depth profiles of key Detroit-bred musicians -- among them Gerald Wilson, Yusef, Burrell, Byrd, Fuller, Barry Harris, Hank, Thad, Elvin, JoeHen, Ron Carter, Charles McPherson, Belgrave, Geri Allen, Kenny Garrett, Gerald Cleaver, Karriem Riggins etc -- but it also includes thematic chapters that connect the dots between musicians, eras, Detroit's rise and fall as an industrial power and self-determination efforts like Tribe and Strata. The book identifies traits that define a Detroit approach the music and shows how the city became a jazz juggernaut at mid-century and then how it sustained its influence as a jazz power, even as the city lost economic power and population.

Thanks for everybody's interest. Yes, I'm doing a presentation on "Jazz from Detroit" at Newport on Friday, Aug. 2. In the original ad/graphic the billing was Mark Stryker: "Jazz from Detroit," so you could tell that it probably wasn't a musical act. But in this new Jazz Times/Downbeat ad, it just gives my name along with everyone else so it looks like I'm on the bill as a musician. Amusing -- definitely one for the scrapbook. The book will be up for pre-order soon. I'll keep everyone posted when the details come into focus. Stand by.

I know, but it's all on the 45.

The Interlude that happens at the 2:35 mark is actually an orchestration of Barry Harris' pre-intro intro on this recording of "Round Midnight."

Man, that's a helluva great performance -- she really did get better and better with age. RIP to both John and Rosemary, and thanks for posting.

"... plus unusually strong female drives."

Good question. I'm sure some people thought that, but I never overheard anyone saying it.

In Urbana in the 1980s when I was in school, there was jukebox at this restaurant hang/out called Treno's that included a few jazz singles that we played to death. One was the radio;jukebox edit of Groove Holme's "Misty." One night was must have played it 10 times in row, and finally the manager came out and yelled: "Enought!" and pulled the plug on the juke box. The other song we played all the time was Horace Silver's "Song for My Father," which was in two parts, and to save quarters we usually just played Part 2 so we could get Joe Henderson's solo. Good times. I second Jim's endorsement of how hot these singles sound. I've bought a few in recent years for giggles -- just a few bucks or less a pop and I've given some away to record junkie friends. Very plentiful in the used stores here. I love how on the some of the Blue Notes, there's RVG or Van Gelder etched into the dead wax -- just like on the big boys. When I was a kid in the '70s, I had a 45 single of Herbie's "Chameleon." I'm sure that was on a zillion jukeboxes in that era. Coda: I have an Arthur Blythe 45 rpm single on Columbia -- "Miss Nancy/Illusions." Can't recall without looking, but I think they're full tracks as on the album, not edited.

Just bouncing off Allen's initial comments about certain free-oriented players lacking certain kinds of musical development when they dip into other styles. I hear variations of this a lot today -- contemporary players that live in the world of even 8th note music so when they try to play in the tradition it sounds like they're "playing at swing" rather than actually swinging. Or players that get around their instruments really well and have a lot of harmony under their command but lack melodic or rhythmic depth. There's a lot of superficial eclecticism out there -- playing at "funk," playing at "free," playing at swing, playing at post-modern several steps removed from the source. etc.

Leaving aside the substance of the discussion, it's not true that no one has ever heard of Miller or this band. She's gotten a lot of critical attention in recent years and, beyond that, the music also opens a window into broader questions of contemporary jazz. So, yeah , it's fertile ground for discussion -- whether or not one likes or dislikes the aesthetic or execution.

This makes me indescribably happy. From New York Post sportswriter Mike Puma's Twitter feed today: "Hall of Fame baseball writer Roger Angell is getting around pretty well at age 98 here at the ballpark in Sarasota. He just mentioned that he saw Babe Ruth play in 1930."

Thanks for posting, Jim.

Do you know who wrote the Hank Mobley obituary? I can find a reference to the magazine in which it appeared -- Nov. 1986 with Eric Clapton on the cover -- but that's all the info I can dig up in a quick search. I'll look for that next time I'm at the music library in Ann Arbor.

STRONGLY recommend this 1994 book that collects a dozen pieces on jazz from the magazine: "The Jazz Musician" (15 Years of Interviews; The Best of the Magazine). edited by Mark Rowland and Tony Scherman. https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Musician-Tony-Scherman/dp/0312095007 Here are the subjects with the writers in parenthesis: Wayne Shorter (David Breskin) Ornette Coleman (Quincy Troupe) Lester Bowie (Rafi Zabor & Phillipa Jordan) Charlie Haden (Rafi Zabor) Herbie Hancock & Wynton Marsalis (Rafi Zabor and Vic Garbarini) Chet Baker (Jerome Reece) Miles Davis (Mark Roland) John Coltrane (Peter Watrous) Jaco Pastorious (Joni Mitchell) Sonny Rollins (Chip Stern) Tony Williams (Tony Scherman) Dizzy Gillespie (Chip Stern) The writers are Rafi Zabor, Chip Stern, David Breskin, Peter Watrous, Mark Rowland,

10 -- Basie, Blakey, Farmer, Gillespie, Golson, Griffin, Hank Jones, McPartland, Rollins, Silver

A great one, yes.

"If you cut out all the drum solos, I'm not sure you'd get an LP's worth of music from the 4 volumes combined." Do the math. About 7 percent of Volume 2 is taken up by drum solos. If you cut out all the drum solos from Volume 2, you'd have a 40-minute LP -- that's before considering any of the other records. I only brought up the Enja recording because it came from the same batch of music, but, yes, to the extent it reflects directly on the Honey Dew LPs and the amount of drum solos, then it is, of course, irrelevant.

Even as hyperbole, this is terribly misleading as it relates to the individual records. On Volume 2, there are four tracks totaling 44 minutes. Elvin plays exactly one drum solo that lasts 3:30. On the Enja LP, there are four tracks totaling 42 minutes. Elvin plays two solos -- one lasts 4 minutes and one lasts 90 seconds, plus another 30 seconds of Elvin's portion of a single minute of trading choruses on the blues with Coleman. Certainly, Volume 1 has different propotions. Out of 37 total minutes, Elvin plays a 21-minute solo on "A Night in Tunisia." (out of 29 minutes total for the track), and on the remaining 7-minute blues, he plays a 90 second solo, plus a little trading. I don't have enough info on Volumes 3 and 4 to pass on any details. Some may find these records boring -- your mileage may vary and all that -- but to repeat what I said earlier, my view is that everyone plays great on the stuff I've heard and Coleman in particular is at his most adventurous. I'd recommend Vol. 2 to anyone for a great window into what Elvin was playing on a nightly basis in 1968 and how much freer George was sounding just four years after "My Funny Valentine" and "Four and More.".

I have Vol. 2 of the Honey Dew and the single volume that came out on Enja. Like 'em both, Every one sounds great. All from the same stand at the Vanguard in March 1968. I think the Enja release was legit. What I can't remember is if the material is duplicated -- that is, if some of the Honey Dew selections overlap with the Enja release. Elvin Jones Live At The Village Vanguard : Hannibal Marvin Peterson (tp-1) George Coleman (ts) Wilbur Little (b) Elvin Jones (d) Live "Village Vanguard", New York, March 20, 1968 Introduction Enja (G)2036-2 [CD], (Jap)ENJ1016 [CD] By George Enja (G)2036, 2036-2 [CD], (Jap)ENJ1016 [CD] Laura - - - Mister Jones (1) - - - You don't know what love is - - - , Musica Jazz/Enja (It)TIDE9134-2 [CD] Talk (by Elvin Jones) Enja (G)2036-2 [CD], (Jap)ENJ1016 [CD] Note: Musica Jazz/Enja (It)TIDE9134-2 [CD] titled "Elvin Jones". All titles from Enja (G)2036 also on Enja (Jap)SHJ-6061, SFX-10708. Elvin Jones Sky Scrapers Vol 1 : George Coleman (ts) Wilbur Little (b) Elvin Jones (d) Live "Village Vanguard", New York, March 1968 ? A night in Tunisia Honeydew HD6602 Blues inside out Elvin Jones Sky Scrapers Vol 2 : same pers Live "Village Vanguard", New York, March 1968 ? Whew Honeydew HD6603 Blues inside out - You don't know what love is - , Stateside (Jap)ISJ-80122 Body and soul - Elvin Jones Sky Scrapers Vol 3 : same pers Live "Village Vanguard", New York, March 1968 ? Yesterdays Honeydew HD6604 A night in Tunisia - , Stateside (Jap)ISJ-80122 Body and soul - Elvin Jones Sky Scrapers Vol 4 : Hannibal Marvin Peterson (tp) added Live "Village Vanguard", New York, March 1968 ? Mister Jones Honeydew HD6605 Raunchy Rita

I'll go further: In a one-artist, one-solo challenge, I'd take "Ray's Idea" from "Constellation." Two chorus, and 16 bars after the piano. The best of everything he had is all there is distilled form.

a) FWIW, in a one-artist, one-record challenge I'd take Constellation. b) I have a ton of Stitt records but could easily reduce them to these four and be content that I have what I need: 1. Prestige recordings with Bud Powell 2. Personal Appearance 3, With the New Yorkers 4, Constellation. c) Pound for pound, the Stitt box on Mosaic of the Roost recordings is quite rewarding -- the mid '50s material is consistently strong.

Thanks for the tip. Chuck is a smart, interesting guy. I was struck by this quote: "That's how the music sounds when you have an opportunity to play a defined repertoire for months until the performances become ultra-confident and refined. When you think you might be bored, that's when you dig deep into discovering refreshing ideas." I was around Chuck for several days in Urbana around 1985 and I learned a lot just being in his presence and hearing him talk about this and that. He and John Garvey, who led the U of I band, had grown close and Chuck was writing a lot of material for John's band when I was in it .

Multiple reports say that journalist Ira Gitler has died at age 90.