Mark Stryker

I wrote up a brief remembrance on Facebook that I thought I'd share here: IU Swing Machine So saddened to hear of David Baker's passing today at age 84 in Bloomington, Indiana, where he had been on faculty at Indiana University since 1966. David, of course, was a giant of jazz education, one of a handful of guys who literally invented the field. He also played the hell out of the trombone as a young man, had impeccable credentials (George Russell, the Naptown ties to Freddie, Wes, Slide), was a versatile composer across many idioms and a tireless advocate for the music, from classrooms to the halls of political power in Washington. In 2003 he was resident composer of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in metro Detroit and some of his "classical" scores were a surprising revelation -- strong, fresh, with or without overt jazz references. Like all jazz kids who grow up in Bloomington, I saw David as part God and part hip uncle. I still clearly remember those times he worked with our high school band, and I remember Dave Liebman telling me in 1981 how much he had learned from David and that he was the kind of guy you should hang around as much as possible because he had a mind like a steel trap and was able to share so much information in such a clear way. David was, in fact, the first musician I ever interviewed. I was 15 and in an advanced English class where we pursued projects and got paired with mentors in the community. I was interested in music criticism and jazz so the teacher hooked me up with Michael Bourne at WFIU. Part of the project was writing an article about David and I lugged a bulky tape recorder over to his office and we spoke for about 45 minutes. I asked him at one point about where he stood back in the day relative to the avant-garde of the '60s and, aping something I had read on the back of album, I framed the question in terms of two camps, for and against ,and nothing in between. David (gently) corrected me in his answer, pointing out how lots of musicians drew from everything. He talked about how traditional and progressive elements sat side-by-side in the music of Russell, Coltrane and others and how many young players like himself didn't feel a need to choose one over the other. The lesson I took away, even at 15, was that history is far more complex than the reductive way it's often written. Another time, David's small group was the guest at a festival -- can't remember if was at Bloomington North or South -- and they did one piece that was basically dada theater. The cats were making funny noises on their instruments, the drummer was sitting on the ground literally rolling a snare drum back and forth and David was speaking into his cello: "You in there, Bubba?!" I remember thinking: Are you really allowed to do that? Some of the adults in the room thought it was awful. I remember thinking it was hilarious and was surprised that some people didn't get the joke: Another lesson. As I got older, my ideas about jazz education grew more nuanced and I began see not only the benefits to David's approach but also some of the downside, though that is not meant in any way to denigrate his legacy. This was a major American musician and educator. Period. And never underestimate the battles he had to fight as an African-American musician in the '60s and early 70s to bring jazz into the academy. We live in a different, better world, folks, and David is one of the guys who made it so. When I was in graduate school in journalism at IU in 1987, I took his upper level bebop history class so I could have the experience of being in class with him. It was half lecture and half playing -- a holistic approach that I really admired. He was funny, smart, perspicacious, generous. He'd talk about, say, Tadd Dameron in the first hour and then we'd play Dameron's music in the second. I learned a lot, and like so many, I have a gaggle of his method books on my shelves. I wasn't close with David, but I spoke to him frequently through the years for this and that. We shared a unique bond in that he and his wife live in the first house that my parents had built in Bloomington and the house I lived in the first few months of my life. A friend was house-sitting for him once when I was in grad school and one day I went with her to water the plants, etc. I went down in the basement where he had all his records and scores and the like, and I loved that the vibe was so connected to my own aesthetic. The world is a little less hip today with David gone. What a life he led and what a legacy to have touched so many thousands of students and cleared the forest through which so many walk today.

Don't forget this version: Tony Bennett, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Elvin Jones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izdTsAeoLtQ

Sorry for the delayed response guys -- I got sidetracked with my day job. Niko -- thanks for doing the legwork. I hadn't seen the Sun Ra page until you pointed it out, and I too noticed the contradiction with the other page. So glad to know the collective wisdom is that Yusef was not on the date. Jim -- I had not heard that Doggett side before so thanks for that. Interesting stuff. "Yusef's Mood" came first (4/1957) compared to Doggett (1958), but I'd guess that the defining riff (bars 4-12) was not actually "composed" by anyone but was rather something that was in the air within the R&B milieu. I mean, somebody literally was the first to play it somewhere but fuck if you can figured out who that was and where -- kinda like "The Theme," the rhythm changes break tune that Miles is often credited with writing but which he surely didn't.

I like the score for "Bullit" -- of its era, the jazz-rock-Mod vibe, and of a piece with, say Don Ellis' "French Connection" score And "Gillespiana" written for Dizzy... Also, the Detroit Symphony will be playing his de facto violin concerto,"Tangos Concertantes," next season. I don't know anything about it but am looking forward to hearing it.

Thanks for the help, guys -- appreciate it.

OK, really wading further into the weeds. Anybody know a source for the sides that Eugene Wright & His Dukes of Swing/Dozier Boys made in late 1948 in Chicago for the Aristocrat label. Titles include "Big Time Baby," "Music Goes Round and Round," "Pork N Beans" and "Dawn Mist." The first two are up on youtube but the second two ("Pork"/"Dawn") are nowhere that I can find. Were any or all of these issued on CD or LP? These are the sides that feature early Sun Ra on piano (and he probably wrote the charts), but I'm digging around because they almost certainly contain Yusef Lateef's first recorded solos -- and these stomping blues tell you a lot. Direct precursors of "Yusef's Mood," which would remain a constant in his repertoire for decades. Anyway, if anyone has copies of "Pork N Beans" and "Dawn Mist" I'd love to barter.

Can anyone enlighten me about how exactly the Ernie Fields band sounded in the mid 1940s or point me to representative recordings? Brother Yusef worked him through the Midwest in those years,and I'm interested in understanding the character and style of the group..

"When you're swinging, swing some more!"

In the top 10 percent of those Tony has ever made. Maybe better. incredible how much voice he has left, and the wisdom ... and Bill and the trio are beautiful. No gimmicks. Just pure. Makes you realize that for all Tony's appreciation of jazz he really hasn't recorded a lot with a trio quite like this -- I mean, Ralph Sharon is fine and dandy, but ... Not to mention hiw great Peter Washington plays (and KWash, though his presence is more muted than the others.) It's all on YouTube to sample. My fave track. A tempo for grown ups.

Mine too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJEPSTpalAk

Per Larry's reminder -- yes, George Walker, though on the younger side -- but still composing at 93! -- belongs loosely in the group. Walker, for context, is just four years younger than Bernstein. And I note in the listings posted by David that the Fort Worth Symphony seems to have a couple of Piston works scheduled for a year from now -- which I assume is within striking distance of Jim.

Context: Piston was among a large generation of American symphonists who came of age in the 1920s-40s, including Copland, Roger Sessions, Roy Harris, Virgil Thompson, David Diamond, Howard Hanson, Paul Creston, Samuel Barber, William Schuman, early Elliott Carter. You could throw William Grant Still and William Levi Dawson in there too, and early Bernstein sometimes gets attached as well. Many of them spent time studying in France with Nadia Boulanger (practically a rite of passage for a while among would-be American classical composers), where they were steeped in fundamentals of harmony, counterpoint, disciplined analysis and the like. Specifics vary with the composer but, generally, they wrote in tonal idioms (though with harmonic spice) and with a certain clarity and allegiance to traditional forms. Neo-classicism, neo-romanticism and populism (in the best sense) are all associated with them in varying degrees depending on who we're talking about. Generally, their orientation was more French than German, and for many Stravinsky cast a long shadow. There's a lot of syncopation in Piston, and there are hints of jazz, but I tend to think of it at the intersection of American vernacular syncopation and Stravinsky mixed meter shit. As has been alluded to above, Piston was important teacher, at Harvard for decades, and his books on harmony, counterpoint and orchestration were widely influential. A lot of these composers were swept aside in the post-war rush to serialism, and there have been periodic attempts through recordings and concert programs to revive interest, which in some ways has worked. As a group (and leaving aside the evergreens by Barber and Copland that have always been in the repertoire), their music today is probably better known than at any time since before 1950. Gerald Schwartz, Leonard Slatkin and Neeme Jarvi are among the conductors who have championed their work. For what it's worth, today is the birthday of Roy Harris, whose Symphony No. 3 was for quite a while at midcentury considered the "Great American Symphony." Now, not so much. But it's a great piece.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. We used the anniversary and new reissue as a peg for running this long piece. It's adapted from a chapter from my forthcoming book about jazz musicians from Detroit. (The book version will go deeper into Thad's discography as a trumpeter and with the big band, the Detroit period and more.) We were also able to include a streaming track, "Big Dipper," from the Resonance CDs. http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/2016/02/07/thad-jones-mel-lewis-jazz/79845538/

I can recall attending only three "arena" rock concerts in my life -- and two of them were by Earth, Wind & Fire in the early '80s in Indianapolis and Urbana. (The other was a Paul Simon concert in South Bend in the early '90s.) But EW&F was a special band, with a beautiful balance of groove and soul, poetry and fire. Good God, did those ballads soar. RIP Coda: I see the Ramsey Lewis references, but y'all know that this was Maurice White too, right? Playing drums with Sonny Stitt & Bunky Green (plus guitarist Bryce Roberson and organist Odell Brown.) Chicago, 4/15/66 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWNTyc4JmpQ&app=desktop

Also Gene Taylor and Joe Chambers (!)

Leaving aside value judgments about Iyer's music, who is worthy of coverage in the New Yorker and whether this particular piece is good nor not: I don't see anything objectively wrong with the statement that Iyer has been the most lauded piano player in jazz in recent years and Greenlee's quote is defensible by a number of objective standards. In 2015, the Down Beat Critic's Poll named Iyer the Jazz Artist of the Year and his trio as Jazz Group of the Year. In 2012 Iyer won five categories in the DB Critic's Poll, including Jazz Artist of the Year and top Jazz Album. In 2014 he was the DB critic's pianist of the year. He won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 and a Doris Duke Fellowship the year before. His records are perennials in the annual NPR Jazz Critic's Poll, typically appearing in the top 10, sometimes at No. 1. Not sure of the specifics of his showing in Jazz Journalist Association Awards. I'd be hard pressed to think of anyone in jazz who has gotten more media attention across the board, from the New York Times and NPR on down, than Iyer has in the last five years. Sonny Rollins was profiled in the New Yorker in 2005 by Stanley Crouch. If you're a subscriber, you can read it here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/05/09/the-colossus-2

First, Kamasi Washington in the New York Times Magazine. Now Vijay Iyer in the New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/01/time-is-a-ghost Attention is good.

To be clear, Peter, the shift toward Rollins is less the specific issue for me -- there's no bigger Sonny Rollins fan that me and I really love the best of Grossman's later playing -- than the overall evidence that he stopped growing as an artist and the ragged jam-session quality of so much of later work (the best of the Red and Dreyfus records excepted). He had a beat on a really original voice that he gave up on really early -- he turned 29 in 1980. But what if, absent the drugs and personal issues, he had been able to take on the Rollins the influence without mortgaging a more ambitious search for a grander synthesis of all his influences? Of course, his music, his choice, his life.

I haven't read yet, but folks here will be interested I'm sure. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/magazine/kamasi-washingtons-giant-step.html?smid=tw-share

I've been thinking about Grossman, who turned 65 on Monday. I wrote out a few thoughts here for those who might be interested: https://www.facebook.com/mark.stryker.35/posts/573329876165185?comment_id=573518312813008&notif_t=like

Thanks for the context folks -- lotta music I don't know but have added to an ever-growing list. Jesus, it's really true that the more you learn, the more you realize what you don't know. Meantime, I'm on board with Emily, at lest in the short run. Also tickled to see Karriem Riggins riding shotgun on drums. (Detroit!) Some resume: Mentored by Marcus Belgrave, Ray Brown, Mulgrew, Dilla, Common, Diana Krall, Cedar, Bags, Madlib, Young Roy, BetCar, and you should hear the trio D3 with Geri Allen & Bob Hurst

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/08/462325734/esperanza-spalding-is-letting-emily-be-emily Discuss

An update on the situation from the Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/arts/music/columbias-wkcr-goes-silent-online.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0

My two favorite Turrentine solos: The blues with Shirley, Earl May, Grassella Oliphant. Keeps burning hotter and hotter, and the rhythm section keeps shifting into higher gears. Goddam! A real tenor player's tune. That SOUND and the phrasing -- the breath, the bite, the vibrato, the caress, the sass, the I'm-in-control-of-every-little-nuance-of-expression-and-nothing-I-play-is-without-total-intent and complete patience -- all mixed with the hippest bebop and the blues. Always the blues. And in the end, everything is about telling the story

I created a Barry Harris Top 10 Playlist that I posted on Twitter and Facebook. For those interested, here is the Facebook post: ----- Earlier today Ethan Iverson requested that I provide a Barry Harris Top 10 list on Twitter in honor of the maestro's 86th birthday. I thought I'd collect the individual tweets here. I've left everything as is, without filling out the commentary beyond the original tweets (though I have removed the ‪#‎BarryHarris‬ hash tags.) I will note that some of my favorite tracks are not included because they aren't available on YouTube, and I wanted to be able to link to everything on the list. Also, I intentionally limited myself to only one track per recording, and I set aside two spots for sideman appearances. Hard to choose just 10. Nos. 1-5 and 7 are stone-cold locks, but the others might rotate day-to-day with other tracks. So without further ado. 1. “Donna Lee” from “Vicissitudes” (1972). Duvier/Williams. Killer tempo, remarkable flow. Look out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e992mqzy4YI … 2. “Del Sasser” w/Cannonball, Newport, '60. Cannonball sounds great, but Barry wipes everybody out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISkzLXXbOUw … 3. "Stay Right With It" ('62). Cranshaw/Jarvis. Med-tempo blues. Nobody swings at this tempo like Barry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXmaCeH9gU4 … 4. "The Bird of Red & Gold" ('79). Barry sings! His words/music. Romantic melody/harmony. I have tears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASeEd273SGc … 5. "My Heart Stood Still" from "Preminado" ('61). Benjamin/Elvin. Crap piano but fuck it. Jaunty swagger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIy-_AweI0Y … 6. "I'll Remember April" from Yusef's "Into Something" ('61). Barry steals the show -- HE trades w/Elvin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK994XfBdM4 … 7. "Lolita" from "At the Jazz Workshop" ('60) Jones/Hayes. Whole LP kills. Dig piano break/fluidity/SWING. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1FIfShAa0Y … 8. "Like Someone in Love" ('76). Jones/Williams. Bud arrangement. Very relaxed. Triplets rule the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXazSjyj0-0 … 9. "Ray's Idea" from Stitt's "Constellation" ('72). 1 great piano chorus + comping swings like a m.f. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdWDZy2Z_mQ … 10. "I'll Keep Loving You" from "Live at Maybeck" ('90), Bud's anthem played solo w/delirious lyricism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WByJP7IzADk …