Mark Stryker

Wait, there are actually two guys named Jerry McKenzie who played drums with Stan Kenton in back-to-back tenures: Jerry McKenzie from 1957-59 and Jerry (Lestock) McKenzie from 1959-61, plus another brief tenure in '72? Seriously?

Many variations of this truism. My favorite has always been ascribed (probably apocryphally) to Zoot Sims at a recording session. Somebody is supposed to have asked Zoot how he could play so drunk. He replied, "I practice that way."

Well aware of this: In writing my forthcoming book on jazz musicians from Detroit, I was in and out of Lord a lot and I was surprised at how much stuff was missing.

I don't think there's any Garner on Mainstream. I just checked the Tom Lord discography and there are no Garner/Mainstream listings of either original or reissued sides. Lord does miss stuff on occasion, so it's certainly still possible.

New Erroll Garner stuff coming next month. I riffed a little bit on his prolific but often overlooked compositions in this piece for WBGO.org http://wbgo.org/post/considering-erroll-garner-composer-exclusive-premiere-nightconcert#stream/0

Seeing reliable social media posts from Renee Rosnes, Nate Chinen and Ethan Iverson that Lorraine Gordon has passed away at age 95. An amazing life.

Coda: Anyone who has done any historical research knows that musicians -- while being among the most valuable sources for lots of information (or the most valuable for some information) -- are unreliable on all kinds of topics like names and dates, chronology and motivations and others. They are also often blinded by their own aesthetic prejudices. In this they are no different from any other artists in any other field, and none of this should be taken as an excuse not give the musicians primacy in the telling of their own stories. (In fact, the blind spots can be self-revealing.) It is to say, however, that the responsibility of historians, journalists and critics is due diligence, fact checking, weighing of sources and transparency. I agree that the Shatz's piece was more interesting and insightful than lots of jazz scholarship, and I don't mean to suggest that the presence of this one particular issue invalidates the rest of the piece. But it does make me more skeptical about a lot of other things in the story -- from the "broken wrist" anecdote to the "burgler-turned-into-lover" story, since neither is really sourced and details as presented are sketchy,.

I get worked up because facts matter, and too much of what is received wisdom about jazz history is nothing more than mythology. It skews the history.

I enjoyed the piece, especially for the personal details and insights into Cecil's personality, but the bit about Miles nearly hiring Cecil but going with Herbie instead is unmitigated bullshit. When I read that, I sent Shatz a message on Twitter asking what his source was for that information and he wrote back: "William Parker." Now, the only way Parker would have known that is if Cecil had told him, and we know Cecil was not always a reliable narrator. It all has the ring of mythology on the part of Cecil and his defenders. I'm a fan too, but truth and history matters, especially around figures like Cecil who have spent their lives, and indeed cultivated, a scrim of mystery and ambiguity. Keep in mind that no one else has ever reported or said this, it contradicts spirit and substance of everything Miles and CT have ever said and the music they've made, and it makes absolutely no sense in terms of Miles aesthetic and repertoire in 1963 and what he wanted/expected from his rhythm section and piano in particular. I mean the whole idea is totally ludicrous. (The story, by the way, says the hiring nearly happened in '64, but of course Herbie joined in '63.) I have generally liked Shatz's work, but it is unconscionable for a journalist or critic to take the word of a single biased source on a matter that is clearly contentious and counter-intuitive and easily checked and then drop casually into an in-depth piece as if it obviously was true with no hint of the larger contex -- especially in an august forum like the the NYRB. Shatz's editor is at fault too, but in a case like this, it's unlikely the editor would know more about the subject than the writer, so it's primarily the Shatz's responsiblity. When I pointed some of this out, Shatz replied, " I hear you. I raised my eyebrow too. We will never know." Again: bullshit. That's akin to a politician making a clearly counterfactual statement based on a "source" and then when objections are raised saying "We'll never know the truth in these muddy waters." I don't mean to obsess over one detail in a 3,500 word essay, but this is representative of a real problem in jazz writing that is still with us, even as standards of scholarship have risen in the last 25 years

"I don't care if you like it or not. I like it."

Nicely put.

Thanks all ...

Thanks, guys. If anybody else has more specific info and can chime, please do.

Gang -- has anybody heard this compilation and can evaluate the sound quality/transfers? Is the label legit? There apparently seems to be no other way at the moment to get the first Thad and Mel LP (Presenting ...") other than this. I'm trying to trying to build a short list of recommend recordings by the band. https://www.amazon.com/Thad-Jones-Mel-Lewis-Presenting/dp/B0096Q54X2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525798025&sr=8-1&keywords=thad+jones+mel+lewis

I came aboard the Detroit Free Press as the classical music and jazz writer and an arts reporter, with the understanding that the classical music and related reported was the major focus. I did as much jazz as I could. About 10 years into my tenure in 2006, after the visual arts writer left and was not replaced, the job of covering the major museums and related news was added to my beat. At that point I was REALLY stretched, but was able to hang on because we still has enough other staff to offer certain kinds of relief. After additional cutbacks, however, and with the onset of two HUGE ongoing arts news stories that were my responsibility -- the Detroit Symphony strike in 2010-11 and the plight of the Detroit Institute of Arts within the Detroit bankruptcy in 2013-15 -- I felt as if the job became pretty much untenable. At least, I reached a burned out plateau that made taking a voluntary buyout a little more than a year ago the right option for me.I felt as if I aged 14 journalism years in the last seven that I was at the paper.

John von Rhein is retiring as classical music critic at the Chicago Tribune after 41 years on the beat. To put that in perspective: His tenure at the Tribune lasted almost double mine at the Detroit Free Press. He notes that Howard Reich, long the paper's jazz critic -- he succeeded Larry Kart -- will be taking over classical duties. It appears Howard will cover both classical music and jazz at the paper, which means that there will be a net loss of one more arts writer/critic in the world of daily journalism. No matter whether you like or dislike John or Howard, the continued contraction of the field is bad for everyone. John announces his plans at the end of this column. http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/vonrhein/ct-ent-classical-summer-festivals-0502-story.html

Thanks for this clip, Totally new to me. Interesting topic. Some shit to think about -- and to feel.

This is excellent -- easily the best thing I've heard from Buddy's post-1968 bands. Thanks for posting..

Plagiarize! Let no one else's work evade your eyes Remember why the good Lord made your eyes So don't shade your eyes But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize (spoken) Only be sure always call it please "research"

The great satirist Tom Lehrer was born 90 years ago today on April 9, 1928. I listened a few months ago to his brilliant 1965 LP "That Was the Year That Was" and was struck by how relevant many of the songs remain in the age of Trump. This one could have been dedicated to Scott Pruitt and Michigan state officials responsible for the Flint crisis. The performance here is from Norway in 1967 -- three years before the the EPA was founded.

Word. Coda: It's always been interesting to me the way Buddy (particularly through the influence of Roach) modernized his cymbal beat and left-hand accents during the '50s and '60s without losing the swing era roots of is beat. Later he played his own version of rock and funk. Has any drummer in jazz traveled as far -- from "Hawaiian War Chant" to Zawinul's "Birdland"?

Thanks for posting. Yes, fascinating record, and a lot better than most folks would probably think.

I have no doubt that Connors was the issue. However, I really want to hear what Jackie sounds like playing over "In Case You Haven't Heard."

There was a great quote on one of his recordings -- I think it was one of the Bruckner symphonies -- in which Celibidache is talking about the ineptness of other conductors (everyone but him, natch) in this particular repertoire and and he calls them all "camel jockeys," Having said that, he was not as profound in all things as he thought he was. But his outrageous attitudes and opinions were exactly what allowed him to be as profound as he was in the things in which he actually was. Complicated man and musician. Gotta go composer by composer, piece by piece with him. Sometimes sometimes movement by movement, One of a kind.

I knew some about Pat Martino's journey and brain surgery, etc., but this story goes deep on the neuroscience. Wow. http://nautil.us/issue/58/self/brain-damage-saved-his-music-rp