Mark Stryker

Can anyone help identify the musicians on "Ray Charles Jazz Number II" (Tangerine 1516)? There's no listing of personnel on the LP but I believe it was reissued a few years ago as part of an expanded package of "Genius + Soul=Jazz." I'm especially interested in the soloists -- one of whom is Marcus Belgrave -- so if anyone has the reissue and can check the text and listings of liner notes I would be grateful. Thanks

Oh, yeah! Sinatra & Basie, 7/9/65, Forest Hills. Whole concert. Not great fidelity but FS's voice far more supple than at the Sands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNcn8BMiuZY

Condolences especially to those here who were personally close to Von. I first heard him live I think in the second half of 1985 at Nature's Table, a beloved restaurant/jazz club in Urbana. The old bebopper-alto player Guido Sinclair, who had been a friend of Von's on the southside, had been living in Champaign-Urbana for years at that point and it was through him that the late co-owner of the Table, Terry Masar, got Von to come down. I remember how geeked we all were because we had known about Von but only a couple of folks (not me) had ever heard him live. I had known about him from a Down Beat article I read earlier from late 1976 that John Litweiler had written. I had been given a subscription on my 14th birthday and that issue, with Woody Herman on the cover, was the 4th one I received and in those days I devoured every word of the magazine so I remembered the story. Incididentally, John's piece mentions an upcoming appearance on PBS's Soundstage -- does anyone remember that show or know if a tape is around anywhere? I also recall an interview with Von and Chico that I think Neil Tesser did for Down Beat though not sure if that's something that was written before or after this particular gig. I had just started doing a little freelance writing at that point and I wrote up a piece about Von's life, though I didn't interview him; I drew quotes from secondary sources including John's story (with credit I should add). I called up the features editor at the local Champaign News-Gazette and tried to pitch it. I mailed it to the paper and then followed up by going to meet the editor face to face. I had no idea what I was doing or how a newspaper worked or anything at that time. The editor turned me down, but I do remember he said the piece was "good" but far too long. I doubt it actually was any good but I have no doubt it was too long. The club had lined up essentially a local trio to play with him, including by close friend Mike Kocour, a fine pianist who had only recently graduated from U of I and was just started to make his way on the Chicago scene (and who left Northwestern some years ago to run the jazz program at Arizona State.) The first tune to the best of my recollection was "Like Someone in Love" or possibly "If I Should Lose You," which Von started with a cadenza up front and then worked his way through the melody out-of-time with just the piano. After the first or second phrase with the piano,which Mike framed in a particularly nice way, Von said sidways out of the right side of his mouth, "That's beautiful, baby." A wonderful moment. Broke up the whole room and just relaxed the entire band, which was nervous to be playing with him in the first place. But after two tunes, he started letting people sit in, beginning with Guido, and very quickly the whole night devolved into a jam session. That was disappointing because we had all come to hear him play and not the guys we all knew. Von was a little juiced too, and I recall him standing back near the register raising his glass at one point in a toast when someone tried to nudge him back to the bandstand. In the end he didn't play that much that night and I have no real memories of the music, except for that opening standard. However, a little while later he came back, this time with John Young, bassist John Webber, who was maybe 19 or 20 but looked 16, and a young drummer from Champaign named Larry Beers who could really play. I had a jobbing gig that night with this big band I played in, so I didn't get there until later on, and when I walked in the vibe in the club was amazing. You could tell something heavy was happening, because the place was jammed and you could hear a pin drop. They started the second set with a medium tempo blues and I will never forget the opening phrases of Von's solo: these relaxed riffs that just floated on air as Webber layed down a lethal swinging 4/4. I had never heard anybody swing that way on tenor; only in retrospect did I come to realize that Von at that moment was offering up a personalized homage to Lester Young. He just played masterfully that night, with that quirky but expressive sound and those curlicue lines that hit the ear with such freshness. You know, there's an incredible intensity when someone is playing with such originality, and that's the first night I really can remember in which that lesson was front and center for me. Von stayed on the stand the whole time and I don't recall any sitting in at all, though I suspect there had to be some later in the night. I often wondered if he came back to C-U partly because he knew he let the first night get away from him and that folks felt they didn't get their money's worth. I also remember the deep rapport with John Young, how great John's P.C.-like walking sounded and how proud I was that my friend Larry sounded every bit like he deserved to be on the stand. Later I heard Von in Chicago on a number of occasions, but the memory of that night at Nature's Table, especially that blues, remains indelible.

Curtis Fuller recently told me that Judy Garland would come hear the Jazz Messengers at Shelly's Manne-Hole and sat it once singing "Never Never Land." Apparently, she was a friend of Lee Morgan(!) Go figure.

Whether or not this is the way to market jazz is not the relevant question: More like: Is this the way to market Diana Krall?

Short answer: no. Folks who heard Elvin at the Blue Bird here in 52-53 say he basically already had his unique approach in embryo.

Hmm. Never noticed that before but then I haven't studied those records in depth and know the music only casually. But I'll ask Marcus Belgrave about this when I have the chance. Since you are on an Eddie Jefferson kick, are you hip to this video made in Chicago just a few days before he was killed here in Detroit? Poor reproduction here, but a fantastic young accompanying trio -- pianist John Campbell, bassist Kelly Sill, drummer Joel Spencer. (All good friends of mine.) Eddie is out there ... sometimes I really dig it when it's focused; sometimes I think it's ridiculous. But it's something else, and that's usually worth celebrating. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6781312547407999306

What do you mean by "and tuned" to resemble Charles' group?

Thanks all for the good wishes. Looking forward to a nice dinner tonight with my wife at Logan in Ann Arbor. Fantastic wine list, fabulous food. Not cheap but you can easily spend more elsewhere and get less. http://logan-restaurant.com/

How is that album? I saw a copy at a local store recently and wondered if I should pick it up. NP Dear John C. - Elvin Jones (Impulse!) stereo "van gelder" pressing. BUY IT!!!!!!! Some of Frank Strozier's greatest playing is on this album, especially "Stardust," which he delivers with incredible soul and sophistication (the arrangment, which is probably either by Harold Mabern or Frank, includes Coltrane-derived "Countdown" subsitutions and other harmonic felicities. "Invitation" burns too. Actually, all of the album is really strong. The rhythm section is splashy in a '70s McCoy Tynerish kind of way. I even like the Leon Thomas vocals too ("Little Sunflower" and "Nisha"). Samples on youtube. Search "Louis Hayes" and "Stardust" and that will lead to the rest of the album too.

Thanks much for this update and appreciate you keeping an eye out. Bad luck on the near miss. But I've talked with the folks at the Institute of Jazz Studies and I've got a reference librarian checking Nov and Dec for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmAUNUXI2uM Met him a couple times. Was always very nice and self-deprecating ...

Ooh, my bad. Thanks. I was viewing on a small screen/phone and didn't pick up the mirror shot. I stand corrected. Related: Can film actually even be "reversed" in the same way that negatives are from time to time in print?

Man, where is the rest of this?! Would love to know the context and how much Sonny ends up playing, etc. Coda: Part of the film is actually reversed -- around the 3 minute mark when you see the the long view of the band in the studio behind Sonny, the saxophonists have their left hand on the bottom rather than the top stack and the bass player is fretting with his right hand rather than left. When the angle changes and Sonny is inside the studio with them, the orientation is correct. Coda 2: When Sonny comes in to the studio and addresses the musicians and says "very nice," etc., he also says "very nice tune." I'm sure he's not aware that they've been playing a Wayne Shorter composition, "Speak No Evil."

Two more Thad Jones charts written for the Harry James Band. Sonny Payne is your drummer:

One poster on YouTube says this: Joe Riggs would be the alto soloist. The chart is "Sunday Mornin'" by Neil Hefti. You notice how much this whole band sounds like Buddy's band from a year later (which Harry James helped fund, I think)? Tell you what, Buddy Rich is somebody who is "not for all tastes at all times', but that MF could drive a big band like nobody else. Not better than anybody else (whatever that means), just he did what he did as perfectly as it could be done. And kudos to Harry James for keeping a decent band playing decent music over the years and not falling into The Nostalgia Trap anymore than absolutely necessary. Here's the same band playing a Thad Jones arrangement of "Tuxedo Junction". Sounds like it was easy money for Thad, all he really came up with was the 16 bar sax soli and shout chorus on the bridge, but it's a damn good 16 bar sax soli and shout chorus on the bridge, and besides - Harry James was cool enough to put the money in Thad's pocket and not some hack's. It's not like most people would have been able to tell the difference, ya' know? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLUAF0XA3d8 And once again - Red Kelley & Buddy keep it in the pocket. Didn't have to be that way! Here's another one. Nothing superbadasship, just...a lot better than it had to be. Self-respect! That Thad Jones chart on "Tuxedo Junction" comes from a very nice 1964 James album comprised entirely of Thad's arrangements of swing era anthems: "New Versions of Down Beat Favorites" (MGM). I just discovered the record. Very well-crafted charts, full of piquant details but certainly more conservative than Thad was about to write for himself or the charts that he wrote for Basie around that time that didn't get used but then formed the core of the initial book for the Thad and Mel band. Yet there are hints here and there with particular harmonic substitutions and other witty flashes. On "Flying Home" in the final 8 bars of shout there's some quintessential biting dissonance in the brass. On "In the Mood" of all things there's a bizarre 16-bar interlude in the middle where it's suddenly shifts into a wild double-time quasi-mambo over a pedal point with an animated, James trumpet solo. It's nuts -- a good nuts.

Mark, email the Darmstadt Jazz Institut and ask them for their Thad Jones bibliography. The article/issue will almost certainly be listed. Then, you can order a scan from them for a few Euros. The Jazz Institut is brilliantly run, and endlessly useful. Re: Bartok's values, from the *1942* essay Race Purity in Music: "Racial impurity … is definitely beneficial … A complete separation from foreign influences means stagnation: well assimilated foreign impulses offer processes of enrichment". Good old Bela. Thanks much for the tip -- appreciate it. Perhaps the Institute of Jazz Studies could run it down ... haven't called on them before for a research question.

Thanks, but the brief excerpt he quotes has been widely reprinted in many sources and Francis was almost certainly not drawing from a copy of the original letter -- Metronome is not listed in the Bibliography at the end of the notes on that New World release. The most extensive excerpt I've seen comes from Coss himself who offers a few choice quotes but with many ellipses in a 1963 Downbeat interview with Thad. Which brings up something I hadn't thought of: Is Coss still alive?

Are you sure he didn't have valves? His heart, yes. Focus, guys. Focus.

Um, yes. Correction appended. Was writing around midnight just before going to sleep, wearing glasses that don't correct well ... Thanks.

Looking for some help from anyone with a collection of old Metronome magazines. I'm trying to track down a complete copy of the famous letter that Charles Mingus wrote to Metronome editor Bill Coss about hearing Thad Jones.("Bartok with valves" and all that.) The letter ran in 1954, but I don't know the issue. Unfortunately, none of my local university or public libraries has Metronome either in bound copies or on microfilm. Anyone happen to have this? If not, my next step will be out of state libraries ... Thanks. On a related note, in the course of doing some research on Thad today at the Univ. of Michigan library, I read a 1968 interview in Down Beat in which Jones called Wayne Shorter "a coming star in the writing business" and mentioned that the band (Jones/Lews BB) was currently rehearsing Wayne's arrangement of his tune "Dolores." Thad: "He doesn't write easy, rhythmically or harmonically. You have to work it out with the band and with the section you play in, in order to really comprehend what he's doing. Once it hits you, it really knocks you out." Pretty tantalizing, huh? I wonder if that chart is laying around in Wayne's closet, and I really wonder what it sounded (sounds) like.

In an essay about jazz on TV in Dan Morgenstern's "Living with Jazz," he mentions a program called "A Contemporary Tribute" that ran in the wake of Robert Kennedy's death that was a jazz-based memoriam. It was apparently 2-1/2 hours long and featured performances by Joe Williams, MJQ (alone and with CBS Orchestra), ThadJones/Mel Lewis band, Horace Silver's quintet, Woody Herman band, Bill Evans with his trio but also solo and with studio orchestra, Johnny Hodges with Duke Ellington and bassist Jeff Castelman. Singers Felicia Sanders and Amanda Ambrose were also part of the show. The background, producers, etc. is recounted on page 650 of the book and Morgenstern ends the two paragraph summary by noting: "I do not know if a tape of this marvelous show survives." I found a reference to the show here with production specifics, which suggests it does exist in the Paley archive: http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=robert+kennedy&p=1&item=T:56401 Has anybody seen a copy of this? Do any of the veterans here remember actually seeing the show live?

Yes, festival opens Friday night, though there are often some school bands that get going in the 4-5 p.m. range. But the main deal is typically a double-bill with second act going on around 9. Possible in this case that Sonny might go on a little earlier ... haven't seen the specific times yet.

I own a lot of stuff on the label. Some things I go back to a lot; some I never do. Here are a few that I can recommend. Pianist and organissimo board member Michael Weiss recorded his debut LP for Criss Cross in the mid 80s and it still holds up: http://www.amazon.com/Presenting-Michael-Weiss/dp/B0000020LL/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1343164266&sr=1-3&keywords=michael+weiss From the same era, Mike LeDonne's "'Bout Time" is really outstanding (LeDonne, Tom Harrell, Gary Smulyan, Dennis Irwin, Kenny Washington)-- they strike a truly inspired groove. Walt Weiskopf, "A World Away" George Colligan, "Ultimatum" Gary Smulyan w/Strings Ralph Peterson, "The Art of War" Introducing Kenny Garrett Ok, now running out of time for specifics, but also like releases by Danny Grissett, David Kikoski, Jimmy Greene, Steve Wilson.

Beautiful version of "Round Midnight" by Steve Lacy -- anybody know the source/circumstances of this. French television I'd guess, but looks like a period film of some sorts. My kind of crowd -- nice hats. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0CsnRMokX0