Mark Stryker

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

Agreed. But it gets get wearisome after a while.

More notable for Sonny playing some of the purest bebop of his post-1972 career, but Laws sounds good too. Have always preferred Laws with others rather than his own dates. He's excellent on McCoy's "Together," recorded in 1978 — an all-star date that gels quite nicely. This is Laws' tune.

Great record -- I think it's the all-around best late-period Pepper and in a one-record, one-artist challenge it might be my pick, especially if I could include this track from the same session. Tremendous alto solo here.

Of the records that I know without Stanley Turrentine, I'm fond of "Shirley Scott Plays Horace Silver," 11/6/61, with Henry Grimes and Candy Finch. Great moment here at 2:45, after a couple seconds of silence. You think it's going to be a bass solo. But ...

I was saddened to hear of Wilson's passing. I heard a a number of his orchestral works here -- former Detroit Symphony music director Neeme Jarvi championed Wilson's music and, more recently, Leonard Slatkin conducted Wilson's "Lumina" eight or nine years ago. I also interviewed Wilson at length for a long-gone online repository of American music -- I can't remember now who organized it, maybe New Music Box or the American Music Center or the League of American Orchestras. But the idea was to create a reference site for orchestras looking to program new music. There were two components to each entry: a long interview with the composer and then an in-depth analysis of a major work. I wrote the piece(s) on Wilson and "Lumina." Somewhere I may still have the score. (I would like to find out whatever happened to that interview and analysis -- I haven't thought about it in a while; I hope I have a hard copy somewhere in my files.) Wilson was a deep man and composer. He knew an incredible amount of music and spoke with a distinctive, modernist voice. Not every piece was the same, and he could just as easily draw upon Stravinsky as Lutoslawski as African-American spirituals or post-war jazz -- yet everything came out organic, never pastiche. Rhythm, timbre and color were central and there was something improvisatory about his gestures, even when every element was fairly strictly controlled. He was an "ear" composer not a "system" composer, but he knew whatever system you wanted to lay on him. He was also a fine teacher by all accounts, and I know he and James Newton became close. He'll be missed.

Agree. He played it, even endorsed it, and I think I've seen references that some horns had his named engraved on it, perhaps as if it was a "Charlie Parker model." But that's not the same thing as it was designed for him. I'm by no means a saxophone historian,, but I've been around the instrument and players talking horns for most of my life and I've never heard folks say that King designed the Super 20 expressly for Bird. Doesn't mean they didn't,, but I want proof.

Re: Belgrave, Walrath and "Changes" I've researched this for my chapter about Belgrave in my upcoming book. Without going into too much detail here, I can tell you that Jack joined the band shortly before the "Changes" sessions and Mingus, as he often did with new members, put him through some bullying/ hazing rituals that had to do with whether Marcus or Jack would play a contemporaneous gig at the Five Spot and who would do what on the "Changes" recording sessions. One result was that Jack played more solos on the session, but Mingus cut them in the editing.

Thanks for the initial thoughts guys. A friend not on this board tells me that the United Artists twofer is indeed true mono. Good to know.