Mark Stryker

Hey, question for board members who have been on the scene for a while: What were the set times at the Village Vanguard in the old days -- 1960s-early 70s?.Were three sets, starting at 10, midnight and 2 the standard or was it something else? Thanks

Thanks. I've got some info on that. The friend was Bill Sorin, the guy who eventually founded IPO Records, and there was in fact a session, though it was earlier than '69 and Turney was not involved. I've talked to Bill and I've got more details; but I'm still sorting through it all and chasing some angles, so I don't want to say much more at this point, other than that for various reasons there was, unfortunately, nothing usable with Hawk that came out of the session.

One more Roland Hanna related question for folks: Are there any live recordings floating around of Roland with Coleman Hawkins, besides the appearance on the Art Ford Jazz Party television show that you can find on YouTube. It's clear there are no commercial recordings of them together, but are there bootlegs?

First edition of James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son." Fine condition with dust jacket. Got it at a great antiquarian bookstore I visit every year in Hallowell, Maine.

Thanks much for this info. Appreciate it. What exactly was "The Navy Swings"? I gather these were used for recruitment, but how?

Tripped over this today while trying to nail down exactly how much time Roland Hanna spent working with Sarah Vaughan: "Soft and Sassy," a CD that appears to have come out in the early 90s and features material apparently recorded in Los Angeles in 1961.Roland Hanna, Richard Davis, Percy Brice. http://www.jazzmessengers.com/en/40535/sarah-vaughan/soft-and-sassy-1961 Anybody know any specifics about this -- an unreleased session made for Roulette, the label Sarah was recording for at the time? The only other recorded document I can find with Roland and Sarah is her 1982 LP on Pablo, "Crazy and Mixed Up." Anything else out there that I don't know about? Any other hard evidence about how much time he spent in her trio back in the early '60s?

Not at amazon.de yet, unfortunately. And that half-price offer via Superbooksdeals is no longer on amazon.de either. (BTW, @Dan Gould, did they confirm your order?) But as a paperback copy from amazon.com would have been almost the same price (including shipping from the US) as a hardcover copy bought here, I pre-ordered the book anyway and will be keeping my fingers crossed they will get it in stock before long. Thanks. I met Porter maybe five or six years ago when he came to the Detroit Jazz Festival to give a presentation. I ended up sharing a table with him and his wife at a media brunch and found him really genuine and open. I grilled him about Gene Ammons (one of my heroes), who he knew really well, and the kinds of things he told me were rooted in the invaluable perspective you describe from the book -- things like Jug had a different repertoire and approach depending on whether he was playing on the "north" or "south" sides of town, which meant the largely white, more formal clubs (north) and largely black, neighborhood joints (south). I came away thinking the only way to really understanding the totality of that music was to have heard in live as a part of those social scenes. I mean, you can transcribe it, analyze it, copy it, assimilate it, but musicology only takes you so far. Of course, if you can't transcribe it, analyze it, etc, then sociology will only take you so far too. Two sides of a coin.

I'll be getting this (of course). Quick question: Is there any discussion about Detroit specifically?

"Explosive" is fantastic -- a highlight of Milt's discography from any era. Worth pointing out that both John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton worked together with MIlt when they were part of Monty Alexander's trio c. 1977. There's a Pablo record "Soul Fusion" which I haven't heard yet. In the next couple months I'll be digging into all of Milt's discography to try and separate the good from the great. Bags was so consistent that pretty much everything rises to a certain level of quality, but I am looking particularly for the most inspired stuff. Anybody got any well-considered nominations? (And let me co-sign upfront on "Sunflower.")

I like Allison Miller. I like how she plays, and I like how she thinks. http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD56/PoD56Miller.html

Actress Florence Henderson has died at 82. I wonder how many folks who grew up with the Brady Bunch knew that she started her career on Broadway, and I wonder how many who knew of her pre-Carol Brady career knew that she could also sing like this, With Bobby Troup, Bucky Pizzarelli and Milt Hinton.

http://wyso.org/post/open-space-creativity-cecil-taylor-antioch#stream/0 Friom my old friend in Dayton, Dave Barber.

After years of looking, I broke down and bought Frank's last Mercury LP "In Person" (1962) via eBay. Listening now for the first time. Fantastic fucking LP. What a singer and musician ... Question: The record was recorded at the Hungry I in San Francisco. There's a piano-bass-drums rhythm section here, but no personnel is listed on the jacket and some Internet/discography searching leads no clues. Anybody know who they are or a guess as to who they might be? I wondered if the pianist could be Don Asher, the house pianist at the club in that era, but I don't recall any mention of this in Asher's memoir "Notes From a Battered Grand." So, any guesses?

Actually, I think it's quite clear who Chick Corea really is and what he thinks music should be -- it should be a HUGE motherfucking cafeteria and as a chef he's TOTALLY committed to making mac 'n' cheese on Monday, though by Tuesday he'll likely to be more in the mood for beef cheek ravioli with fresh squab livers and black truffles. Of course, whether, you want to eat either dish, or think he makes really shitty mac 'n' cheese, or find it annoying that he wants to run a restaurant with such a huge and to your taste inconsistent menu -- or believe that the inconsistency is in fact caused by the size of the menu -- are separate questions.

The first two are non-negotiable. The others are a little more arbitrary based on my feelings today. The Ellington and Powell sides are each two-LP sets, but they qualify because those were organic packages during the peak of the LP era and were the records through which I assimilated this music. Besides, I said so. 1. Sonny Rollins, "A Night at the Village Vanguard" (Blue Note) 2. Miles Davis, "Milestones" (Columbia) 3. McCoy Tyner, "The Real McCoy" (Blue Note) 4. Duke Ellington, "Indispensable Duke Ellington Vol 5-6" (French RCA) 5. "The Genius of Bud Powell" (Verve)

Bob Hurst is definitely playing afterhours tonight at Bert's Warehouse, though I've seen the start time listed as early at 10:45 and as late as midnight. Keep in mind, this would be after the earlier regular sets at Bert's Marketplace.

I'm hearing that Bert's might be having something special on Friday -- bassist Bob Hurst leading a band starting at 10:45, though it would actually be at Bert's Warehouse, which is next door to Bert's Marketplace. I'm emailing Bob to try to get more info, and will post what I learn. Stand by.

Dmitry -- just saw your question. Baker's website lists the Detroit All-Star Organ Quartet on that Friday -- I'm currently checking to find out who exactly is in that band, but that indeed maybe your best bet on that night, because I think it might be a strong group, including a killer guitarist, Perry Hughes. I post here to let you know when I hear something. Scott Gwinell is good pianist-composer-teacher, who does a little of everything, including leading is own big band -- but this will be a small group gig. Not sure who is in the band, but I could find out. The Dirty Dog is over in Grosse Pointe Farms. It's a high-end restaurant in a swanky suburb. Food is good but not cheap; there is a bar where you can nurse drinks. Totally different kind of experience than Baker's, which is a neighborhood joint in the city. The Dirty Dog is owned by Gretchen Valade, who owns Mack Avenue Records and is also the primary patron supporting the Detroit Jazz Festival Bert's is another longtime neighborhood joint -- old school Detroit hang,, soul food, etc. Friday's steady band is still probably led by good trumpeter named John Douglas. The other club I would typically suggest checking out is Cliff Bell's -- jazz basically six/seven nights a week, but they appear close on Friday for a private party. When you say record stores, I assume you mean LPs, yes? We have a TON of stores. Will you have a car? Dearborn Music on Michigan Ave. in Dearborn is worth the drive -- best all-around store, including very large selection of used LPs and used CDs, large selection of new CDs, including imports. In the downtown Detroit area, there are two smaller used LP stores you should try to get to as well: Peoples' Records on Gratiot (very near Bert's) and Hello Records on Trumbell. Other stores in the metro area -- Encore Records (one of the great stores on the country but in Ann Arbor so a 50 min drive from downtown Detroit), Street Corner Records in Greenfield in Oak Park, UHF Music in Royal Oak; Found Sound in Ferndale.

Folks might find this review interesting of a Detroit Symphony program yesterday that paired Milhaud's "Creation of the World," Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and Copland's Piano Concerto, with a contemporary work by Christopher Rouse and Respighi's "Pines of Rome." http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/10/07/dso-gershwin-copland-milhaud/91735430/

That's a program I would pay to hear. Yuja Wang is terrific; will be interesting to hear how she plays Bartok; and while I'm not generally a Requiem kind of guy, the Brahms is lovely -- plays down the fire-and-brimstone damnation angle. Like a dog worrying a bone, the musicologist Richard Taruskin has spent a lot of time tracing the Russian source material in Stravinsky's music -- an interesting subject as the composer cultivated a cosmopolitan reputation, downplaying his "Russianness," covering his tracks as it were. Taruskin's 1996 book on the subject is "Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions," but there is an earlier journal article of his that focuses just on the "Rite." https://www.scribd.com/doc/209466394/Russian-Folk-Melodies-in-the-Rite-of-Spring

Perhaps, but as it relates to Yusef, at the time he made his first recordings for Savoy -- his first recordings as a leader -- he had literally zero evidence he that he had any demand at all in the marketplace.

The greatest of them all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac1kiS487tU

He also created the CTI studio sound -- and he recorded for Verve and A&M too.

Ben Sidran's essential 1985 "Sidran on Record" radio interview with the late Rudy Van Gelder. "What we were doing was important at the time. We knew we were making good records.The music was important. It was important to the producers that I worked for at the time. It was important to me, and I felt that it was more important than the poitics of the day or anything else that that was going on. What we were doing would really have a lasting significance. I really had that impression at the time." http://bensidran.com/conversation/talking-jazz-rudy-van-gelder