Mark Stryker

Hey gang, Does anyone know whether Gerald Wilson's great arrangement of "Perdido" that appears on Duke's "The Great Paris Concert" from 1963 was recorded previously by Ellington? What a roaring chart ... (though the beboppish two-tenor intro that Jimmy Hamilton and Paul Gonsalves play was conceived if memory serves by Clark Terry and Hamilton.

In addition to my Lateef obituary for the Detroit Free Press that Michael Weiss linked to last night in post #34 (and which I'll repost below for convenience), here are some others I've seen posted today. Don Heckman's piece in the LA Times is excellent. http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-yusef-lateef-20131225,0,7549278.story#axzz2oPXoozGp Peter Keepnews iin the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/arts/music/yusef-lateef-innovative-jazz-saxophonist-and-flutist-dies-at-93.html?_r=0&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1387919951-ODBquGyKdOb9uaTU+LP0Fw Howard Mandel's more personal reflections: http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2013/12/unforgettable-sounds-and-best-videos-of-yusef-lateef.html Finally, here's my piece in case you missed it and want a look. http://www.freep.com/article/20131223/NEWS08/312230128/yusef-lateef-dies-obituary-jazz There is confusion over his original name. Older sources have his original name as Williams Evans, which was the formal name he was using before converting to Islam (and he was known on early recordings as Bill Evans). However, more recent sources, list his original name as William Emanuel Huddleston -- except that in the very first sentence of his 2006 autobiography he spells his middle name with two m's as in Emmanuel. His website has it spelled Emanuel. I chose to go with the autobiography on the theory that there was a great chance that the website, which has other errors in the bio, was more likely incorrect than literally the first sentence of his autobiography which he would have proofed himself and which would have gone through his collaborator, additional copy editing at the like. But this is one that I don't think you'd solve without seeing the birth certificate. In the autobiography, "The Gentle Giant," written with Herb Boyd, Yusef says his father changed the family name to Evans after arriving in Detroit for reasons that he never knew. The book, by the way, is very disappointing. Yusef apparently was not interested in telling stories and painting scenes, so there's little sense of atmosphere or character in what is a very flat narrative. I spoke with him a number of times, but interviewed him only once at length and while I got a little good stuff I recall it being a bit of a struggle to draw him out.

Thanks Michael for linking. We have posted an updated version. A very difficult deadline as the news came very late and I didn't have much time for polishing.

Epic ballad medleys appeared in several of Sinatra's annual TV specials. Quite theatrical, end-of-love-affair stuff. Typically he'd use one song as a linking device (previously "Just One of Those Things" and "It Was a Very Good Year") opening with say, 8 bars, then returning to that song in between each new tune in the medley. This particular one was structured a little different, opening with a taste of "Glad to Be Unhappy" but never returning to it. Instead the coda circles back to "Here's That Rainy Day," the first full song of the medley. Note: he dons a trench but there's no cigarette. The arranger of "Rainy Day" was Gordon Jenkins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iwwfFexeSg He does have a cigarette for this version (1959) with Red Norvo small band. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UESWN--L43Q The 1966 medley: Wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l8RDKUigj4 Finally, the 1965 progenitor. Wow again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5AW4noPhbQ

I also find myself returning often to the Red Garland Quintet records with Trane and Donald Byrd -- great front line with Byrd right on the cusp of his absolute peak as a trumpet player.

Well, I wasn't counting the Miles dates -- just Trane as a leader. "Relaxin'" is a desert island disc for me, etc.

King Ubu reminds me that I spaced out "Settin' the Pace" -- a great one two. Add it to my two and call them the three best

More or less agree with Jim, but if you're looking for the absolute cream, the quartet dates "Soultrane" and "Traneing In" are it, especially the former.

That would be Bernie who discovered women: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnLqLHWDg5E

My 2 cents: Seeing RIP in the headline even with (rumor) alongside is disconcerting and easily reads as if his life or death remains unknown, when, in fact it has been confirmed that he's alive. If the thread is to remain, the head should be adjusted to simply "Horace Silver" or "Horace Silver Is Alive" or something ...

Thanks Jim, for hipping me to something I didn't know.

Here's another tune from the same program with good views of the band. I assume that's Buddy Collette in the saxophone section. Nice. Unusual to see an integrated band on TV in those days. Anybody know who the bass player is? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5HFVo7KmaA

I don't know. I work on a production desk and anyone over 50 should know that's a picture of Chick Corea. The man was pretty widely recognized in pop culture back in the day. Maybe all the old codgers have been bought out and sent on their way. You get what you pay for in a work force. Ah, but you prove my point: If you believe that anyone over 50 should have known then the fact that younger workers did not recognize him would indeed be a sign that jazz has slipped every farther from common currency. Your second point is perhaps more complicated than you suggest: While I agree to a point -- my own newsroom has lost countless veterans with institutional knowledge and broader general cultural knowledge than those who replaced them -- using 50 as the cut off point doesn't necessarily mean you're left with an inferior staff that as you imply is being paid significantly less. All of the folks who might have caught that error could be roughly 40 to 50 years old which means they could have anywhere from 18 to nearly 30 years under their belt. I would also note that general knowledge of popular culture cuts both ways. At 50, I am far less capable of understanding all kinds of pop cultural references (and thus picking up certain mistakes) than my younger colleagues. Of course, I bring other areas of expertise to the table that they don't, including the fact that I know what Corea and Jarrett look like. (As a side note, I was shocked recently, when the 40-year-old hipster who sits near me had no idea who Albert Brooks was. How could that be?) All which is an argument for diversity across all demographics -- age, gender, race, background, experience -- the more the collective knows, the more likely it is that somebody might know what Chick and Keith look like.

Actually, it's fairly easy to explain how this happened. The original photo, which came from Getty Images, came with the wrong caption attached. So the original mistake was not made at the Times. The picture editor or page designer who grabbed the image from the wire or archive had no reason assume if was wrong -- unless he/she actually knew what Chick or Keith looked like. It is certainly not surprising that this person and the perhaps two other editors involved in the production of that page, neither knew the difference. (Chinen never saw the page; as a contract writer, he may not even have a cubicle at the paper.) It would be nice to think that every person working in the culture department at the Times would know what Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett (or other contemporary jazz musicians not named Marsalis) actually look like. But don't kid yourself. If the fact that nobody caught this mistake proves anything it's that jazz has become so removed from common culture that it's probably unreasonable to expect that somebody would know the difference. I mean, it would be nice, and one reason why you want smart, well-read people on your copy desk with varied experiences and expertise is so that somebody might catch something like this. If you want to skewer the Times over any number of sins, feel free, but I'd give them a pass on this one. Larry Kart will back me up on this: It's amazing stuff like this doesn't happen more often.

Yes, Riddle chart, recorded a year prior on "Songs for Swingin' Lovers!" Good deduction on Herfurt, though I did a Google image search and the photos show a guy with hair, though it's probably a rug. Same guy?

Sneaking up on the Sinatra centennial in 1915. He would have beenn 98 today. Here's a peerless reading of "We'll Be Together Again" from television in '57. Sweets Edison is obviously the (unseen) trumpeter and Bill Miller the pianist, but anybody know who the the alto player is -- a studio cat with a Johnny Hodges in him ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw_5qZB7P-M …

Quick aside: Pretty sure there's a tape of that performance. A remarkable number of concerts at the museum in the 1970s and 80s were taped for archival purposes -- I saw a list last spring that was stunning and I recall seeing the Hall-Carter duo there. An incredible list of performers, from bebop to free jazz, with a major emphasis on the cats from Detroit in various combinations. I believe they are in the process of transfering many of the reel-to-reel tapes to digital but don't know where they are in the process. As you might imagine, I'm interesting in having a listen to more than a few ...

NPR's A Blog Supreme‏ is reporting via Twitter that Jim Hall has died, according to his daughter Devra Hall Levy, who sent a notice to a jazz scholars list. I don't have independent confirmation but the source seems credible enough to post.

Here are President Obama's remarks about the honorees in the formal award ceremony. Some funny moments in the presentation to Herbie, which starts at about the 4:40 mark (but watch from beginning because the remarks about Martina Arroyo are nice too.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/kennedy-center-honors-gala-had-rapport-repartee-and-an-unusual-mix-of-collaborators/2013/12/09/ddd12e68-5ec6-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_print.html A Washington Post recap of the event from Saturday. Apparently Bill O'Reilly (really) did the presentation for Herbie Hancock. As far as the music was concerned, Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter played duets on "Walkin'" and "Watermelon Man" according to the report. The program will air on TV on Dec. 29. Coda: While Herbie and Wayne have played a lot in duet format, have Chick and Wayne done any duet playing outside of what may have happend in context of Miles' band. Moreover, have Chick and Wayne played/recorded together much (or at all) since Miles? Nothing coming to mind immediately but there must be something somewhere.

When I was an undergrad at the University of Illinois in the early '80s I took a graduate level jazz history seminar with Larry that all these years later remains one of the most profoundly influential classes in my education. Larry's classical music research was all centered on medieval music, mostly French as I recall. At one point I remember looking at a journal article or two that he had written in that field but don't recall anything specific and certainly at that point had no experience that would have allowed me to understand the context of that work, meaning or quality. But given his jazz work, I have no doubt that his other work is important. He's a terrific scholar.

Footnote to the Nancy Wilson discussion: This George Colligan interview with Buster Williams offers a bit of insight into the money situation in the mid 60s. http://jazztruth.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-buster-williams-interview.html

Jacques Derrida interviews Ornette Coleman. What could go wrong? Actually, some of this is surprisingly lucid. Some of it not so much. But always fascinating. http://jazzstudiesonline.org/resource/other’s-language-jacques-derrida-interviews-ornette-coleman Once you're at the site, click on the PDF link on the upper right side of page. Coda: Ahh, I now see this has been posted prevdiously. Note to Moderators: Feel free to delete this thread in deference to prior discussion. Sorry for the confusion ...

Sorry, but this doesn't ring true, and, respectfully, I wonder if you've confused Hentoff for lobbing a grenade when the odds are he was on the receiving end of it (more on that in a sec). First, Morgenstern: I have two Brown LPs for which he wrote the notes, "Three Giants" (the 1963 reissue of "Sonny Rollins Plus 4") and "The Quintet, Vol 1" (a 2 LP set of the Brown-Roach recordings). Morgenstern is highly flattering of Brown in both notes, painting him as both a musical and personal angel. There is not even a brief suggestion of a caveat carved out for relying too much on his technique. In "The Quintet" notes, in fact, he writes, "His technique, like that of all great jazz players, was inseparable from his music." Morgenstern is also one of the universally liked men in the business, so it's hard for me to imagine a context in which someone would take a shot at him like that in a set of liner notes. As for Hentoff, who is no doubt not lacking in the chutzpah department, I can't recall another example where he took a fellow jazz writer to task by name over a musical opinion, although I do know that he wrote that George W. Bush had a tin ear for civil liberties. Now, in the back of my mind, I do have a similar memory of Ira Gitler accusing Hentoff of having a “tin ear” about something in liner notes somewhere – at least I think it was Gitler doing the accusing and Hentoff being accused and liner notes being the forum. But I can’t be sure and to do the requisite research would be needle-in-a-haystack stuff.

Coda: According to his son, Gerald Wilson has never owned 7 homes. At one point there was a second house that remained in the family that he used as a rental, but that appears to be sold now.