Mark Stryker

I'm sorry, but this can't be true. That is, I don't believe he owns seven homes. It makes no sense. I've spent a lot of time researching his life and career and speaking with him and there has never been a hint of anything like this or that level of wealth. However, he has said to me that he considers a lot of cities "home," including Los Angeles where he's been based since landing there with Lunceford in 1940; Detroit, where he came of age as musician, attending high school at Cass Tech; Chicago, where he was stationed during the navy; etc. In what context did he say he has seven homes across the planet? FWIW, he made a comfortable living as an arranger-composer for hire and had his hand in lots of musical activities but that doesn't get you to Brubeck or Quincy money. context schmontext, the man said to me face to face after the set at Yoshi's in oakland quote I own 7 homes, so was he lying or confused, or am I lying or confused?????????, did u ask, did he tell u how many homes he owned at the time you spoke with him? When did he tell u these things. He and my Dad were band mates in diz's band. My mom, sis and I visited him in LA when I was a boy. You have a lot of nerve saying you know what a man doesn't have I apologize for offending you. I should not have written, "This cannot be true," when if fact it could be. However, I am questioning whether he does (or has) owned 7 homes simultaneously because this is inconsistent with my own research and knowledge, and in searching for a plausible explanation I was speculating on a conversation that I was not privy too. Obviously, I cannot dispute what he told you. I'm presently trying to track down the actual facts on this matter.

The Detroit perspective from my colleague, Drew Sharp http://www.freep.com/article/20131121/COL08/311210054/drew-sharp-prince-fielder-ian-kinsler-detroit-tigers-texas-rangers-mike-ilitch

Kevin Eubanks made ridiculous amounts of money as the leader of the Tonight Show Band -- multiple millions per year and would it not surprise me if it reached perhaps $5 million annually, though I'm just guessing on the latter. Pretty sure Branford was in the $2 million range for the years he was leading the band -- he walked away from that ...

Wynton's base compensation at Jazz at Lincoln Center was $1.4 million in fiscal year 2011 according to the institution's tax forms. That's on a budget of roughly $34 million.

I'm sorry, but this can't be true. That is, I don't believe he owns seven homes. It makes no sense. I've spent a lot of time researching his life and career and speaking with him and there has never been a hint of anything like this or that level of wealth. However, he has said to me that he considers a lot of cities "home," including Los Angeles where he's been based since landing there with Lunceford in 1940; Detroit, where he came of age as musician, attending high school at Cass Tech; Chicago, where he was stationed during the navy; etc. In what context did he say he has seven homes across the planet? FWIW, he made a comfortable living as an arranger-composer for hire and had his hand in lots of musical activities but that doesn't get you to Brubeck or Quincy money.

More details here. On the one hand, bio-pics almost always suck, so the idea of a more impressionistic film is promising. On the other hand the period they are choosing to frame the movie will invite the worst kind of excesses. It all comes down to the script and, secondarily, the direction. Cheadle co-wrote and is directing (and staring). If it's no good, it will be clear where the blame lies. Here's hoping for the best ... http://www.slashfilm.com/don-cheadle-to-star-and-direct-kill-the-trumpet-player-a-miles-davis-biopic/

Excellent deduction, Mr. Holmes (Mike) Thanks

Thanks. So, no day/month listing in Lord. Damn. With I knew more to help construct a time line ...

Anyone have a discography, recording or reference that gives the specific date in 1945 that Gerald Wilson recorded his arrangement of "Groovin' High"? (First big band chart on the tune, recorded not that long after Dizzy's first small group recording...) It would be helpful to know who the trumpet and tenor soloists are, though I think the trumpeter is Hobart Dotson.

Or else it suggests a kind of savvy about how the media works, and that when you say X, you get "good coverage". These "controversies" about who likes what and why is a consensual game played by press and, more and more frequently, musicians alike, with the only goal being to gain profile which will then, hopefully, result in more product being moved, be it rock, paper, or schizzers. Matthew Shipp has his press rap down to a science, and it appears that Glasper's is developing likewise, get a theme or two, variate it as needed, and always throw in a little stray fresh info for freshness. Anybody think that Marc Meyers is gonna put a Robert Glasper piece in the WSJ where the focus is on what kind of clothes he prefers, what movies he's been checking out, anything but the "upstart rebel hip-(h)(b)opster bucking the jazz establishment" angle? What would that look like, the world in which that even becomes an option? Some day, but not to day. Cogs, that's all this is, cogs. The cogs of business. WSJ needs a cog (although why is still beyond me), Mark Myers needs a cog, Robert Glasper needs a cog, so together they all got their cogs. Win-win, especially if some suckers read it and think it matters, that cogs do more than coggify. FWI I still dig "Searchin" a BIG bunch of lots, although Boyz II Men was after my prime®(est) time. No biggie. I agree with much of what Jim says here and will note that as a self-aware journalist I dance with my own cogness, trying to always find a way to get at some Truth depsite the system & machinery, opt out when the stench of b.s. gets too strong and never ever play the fool.

I posted a few thoughts in Facebook discussion -- reposting slightly edited version here: I've been thinking about Glasper lately too given all the attention. I've heard the records and I've heard him live, where there is more improvisation. I like the music, and, generally speaking, think that the idea of jazz wrapping itself around today's popular music is a fine thing to do if that’s what you want to do. I'm for better quality popular music period, and Glasper’s sophisticated brand of jazzy R&B qualifies – I feel the same way about Esperanza Spalding. I’m skeptical that this music becomes a “gateway drug” to “real jazz,” but I also think that doesn't matter much in the end. If it wins a few converts along the way, fine, and if not, at least folks are hearing better music than they do in the rest of the commercial world. But I’m troubled by the way he positions himself within interviews as a rebel, his historical myopia and the way certain writers and media buy into the notion of the “savior.” He insists that his biggest obstacle has been the jazz establishment, but what he really means is that Wynton Marsalis doesn’t like him; this isn't the same thing, and good God, get over it already. If you’re recording for Blue Note, giving interviews to the Wall Street Journal, having the major jazz press fawn all over you and polishing a Grammy Award on your mantle, you’ve won the marketplace sweepstakes and either the jazz establishment (whatever that is these days) wasn’t much of an obstacle or you need to rethink your definition. Playing the aggrieved victim viz. the establishment suggests a kind of insecurity about straying from his jazz background. Second, what’s new about the music is basically the way he integrates his Herbie Hancock-influenced pianism within the spectrum of today’s hip-hop influenced R&B. But conceptually this is simply fusion redux. There's nothing wrong with that. It’s a valid direction, and he deserves points for doing it as well as he does. But it’s basically Head Hunters updated in today’s vernacular. Maybe that should count as innovation in the post-modern age, but whether you think the music is fresh or boring, let’s not pretend it’s anything more than it is. I hope Glasper helps build a broader audience for jazz – I won’t hold my breath – but to suggest that he’s found THE answer, as if there is AN answer is silly. In the meantime, I’m glad he’s doing what he’s doing. For what it’s worth, when I saw him live last year in Detroit, I was intrigued by the demographic of an audience – probably 90% African-American, almost entirely under 35 or so and split evenly between men and women – that was digging music that was almost entirely instrumental. The grooves were strong, but I was disappointed that Glasper didn’t stretch out more. It wasn’t that solos were always short but that the trajectory of the music didn’t really move forward as much as jog in place. I felt like even in the context of the idiom in which he’s working he could have pushed harder and the audience would have gone along for the ride.

That's a complaint I hear about her writing -- that it works vertically but not horizontally, that is the chords are all voiced individually without concern for melodic voice leading within the inner parts. So, unlike say with Ellington, where every part is its own rewarding and sometimes independent melody, her inner parts lack melodic content; they just fill out the chord. This can be slippery analysis, depending on how much counterpoint you get going within the inner parts or how you use individual voices within the context of a harmonized sections. Thad's inner parts are more melodically oriented in some cases but in other cases they also just filling out the harmony. I understand the criticism but ultimately it doesn't bother me really because the other formal elements are so distinctive and there's a strong narrative flow in the charts -- "Quadrille Anyone," "Long Yellow Road," "Since Perry/Yet Another Tear," Transcience," "Strive for Jive," "Minamata," "Elegy." For me it's a unique, stimulating voice, a personalized take on the tradition with her Japanese heritage coming into play on certain works. My opinion, obviously. So, did Wess ever write full big band arrangements for other ensembles? Actually, we're pretty much saying the opposite here, no? -- you, that her music works vertically but not horizontally; me, that it works horizontally (kind of) but not vertically. If this can be resolved (and I may in fact just be dead wrong in what I thought I heard, both in listening to the band and in what I heard from my musician friend -- and I can't find right now the only Toshiko album I have and thus can't check), it's that I believe that she thinks horizontally up to a point but, as you say, "without concern for melodic voice leading within the inner parts." To me, this then can result in passages where the vertical relationships when much or all of the ensemble is involved don't really "speak," aren't particularly meaningful or even coherent. Don't know whether Wess wrote much for big bands post Basie, but he certainly wrote for medium-sized ensembles (e.g. a nonet), and what I've heard of that music was handsome. Oops. I turned around the terms by confusing and conflating a couple of issues into some slippery vocabularly. You're right. Sorry about that. Yes, the music works better in terms of the melodic trajectory of its lead lines (horizontally) rather than the harmonic coherance of how she voices throughout the ensemble (vertically). Getting into the substance we are on the same page: The inner parts don't really work that well, contributing to your perception that the music overall is not speaking clearly and my perception that they're just filling in the chords without creating individual melodies.Having said that, however, I fall back on my previous conclusion: Whatever issues there may be vertically, the other strengths of the writing carry me through. Coda: To be clear: Thad's music is vertically unimpeachable, even when inner parts are simply filling out the chords.

That's a complaint I hear about her writing -- that it works vertically but not horizontally, that is the chords are all voiced individually without concern for melodic voice leading within the inner parts. So, unlike say with Ellington, where every part is its own rewarding and sometimes independent melody, her inner parts lack melodic content; they just fill out the chord. This can be slippery analysis, depending on how much counterpoint you get going within the inner parts or how you use individual voices within the context of a harmonized sections. Thad's inner parts are more melodically oriented in some cases but in other cases they also just filling out the harmony. I understand the criticism but ultimately it doesn't bother me really because the other formal elements are so distinctive and there's a strong narrative flow in the charts -- "Quadrille Anyone," "Long Yellow Road," "Since Perry/Yet Another Tear," Transcience," "Strive for Jive," "Minamata," "Elegy." For me it's a unique, stimulating voice, a personalized take on the tradition with her Japanese heritage coming into play on certain works. My opinion, obviously. So, did Wess ever write full big band arrangements for other ensembles?

Larry -- small world story. When Toshiko's band was playing at Rick's in 1985 I came up from Champaign to interview Brian Lynch who was going to be playing down in Urbana shortly thereafter. I was with Brian when somebody called Brian's room to literally read him your Tribune review over the phone, which said nice things about him. (FWIW, I was trying to freelance a piece for the paper in Champaign, having just graduated from U of I, but I don't think it ever ran.)

Pitchers and catchers report in about 110 days. Just sayin' ...

One way to think about the sweep of Frank Wess' life in music is to consider the big bands that he worked with: Billy Eckstine in the '40s, Count Basie in the '50s/60s; Jazz Composer's Orchesra in '68; Clark Terry in the '60s/70s, Jaco Pastrorius' Word of Mouth in the early '80s, Toshiko Akiyoshi in the mid '80s/early 90s. Wow.

Remarkable man & musician. True master of craft, art & life. Cats like Frank, whew, these men are heroes. Special condolences to board member Michael Weiss who worked with Frank a lot (and with whom I last saw Frank play a few years ago.)

Corrected. Why didn't somebody say something about this earlier ... Sorry. I just thought that "Surpreme" was beyond Supreme, what with it having one more letter, and figured, hey, Mark knows what's up, so like, hey, right? Mark does know what's up, but sometimes he's a sloppy speller. You cats gotta keep me honest.

The Chicagoan Robert Shy played drums with Kirk in that era, though (1) I'm not sure he was still working with Kirk in 74/75 and (2) I have no idea if that's what Shy looked like in those days -- the only times I saw him live was in the mid 80s. Paging Larry or Chuck ...

Corrected. Why didn't somebody say something about this earlier ... Sorry.

I took a look at my Monk set to see if I could determine a date of purchase and discovered my number was 5540/7500 so my initial post suggesting I got it as early as late 83 must be wrong. With a number that high it was certainly no earlier than probably the latter half of 1984 or perhaps '85. Question: of those with the Monk set, which came out in July 1983, who's got the lowest number? Promos don't count.

First for me was the Monk set in either late 1983 or 1984, and then the Port of Harlem and Tina Brooks.

http://www.popmatters.com/review/176027-beyond-a-love-supreme-john-coltrane-and-the-legacy-of-an-album/ Haven't read the book so can't completely confirm Layman's judgment rendered in this pan, but I will say it rings true and accurate to the breed of book under discussion and Layman does a nice job of articulating the issue. "It’s a cool idea to examine what it means for this improvisational art form to be based so utterly on obsessing over recordings that become 'commoditized' and fetishized and other big words. Alas, Whyton’s academic style makes his book not just a chore to read but, frankly, loaded with many buckets full of bullshit. That said, let me lay out the basics here, as Whyton has some intriguing ideas that might be usefully discussed in the language of normal, non-tenured human beings who are interested in jazz rather than just looking smart at some symposium somewhere."

Dave Liebman posted a short but very admiring note about Jackson on Facebook. A footnote I found interesting: When Miles was coming back after his layoff in the early 80s and was asking Liebman about musicians (it was Liebman who recommended his student, Bill Evans) Liebman also suggested to Miles that he look into Jackson, Jamaaladeen Tacuma and James Blood Ulmer. Obviously, Miles went in another direction but interesting to think about the road not taken. As Liebman put it, "I thought they could really put Miles into a different place."

Well, in a fire, the first McCoy record I'm grabbing is "The Real McCoy" -- don't get no better than that -- and conceptually his world view absolutely grew in rewarding directions. Just saying the Impulse trios represent a singular aesthetic and long-lasting influence.