Mark Stryker

Generally, I like Walt's playing and writing, though sometimes he comes across to me as a more contemporary Eric Alexander, which is to say a lick player with tons of vocabulary who sounds like, well, a lick player with tons of vocabulary. But there's a creative spark to his best stuff. His composing/arranging elevates him beyond many similar players. In particular, try these two on Criss Cross: "World Away" (Goldings/Bernstein/Stewart) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KORQAG/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk1 and "Siren" with a nonet http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KORQAG/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk1 Also worth noting: I bought his book "Around the Horn" some 10 years ago when I was re-investigating my alto for a minute and found it a tremendously valuable book of scales/arpeggio studies that takes you through all the modes of the major, melodic minor and harmonic minor scales. Really expanded my ears and knowledge, and If I ever get back to the horn, I know I'll return to that book.

So, I was working at the Detroit Opera House last night reviewing Michigan Opera Theatre's season-opening production. Since I don't have a smart phone (don't ask), I ran across the street at intermission to a restaurant to check the score at the bar and learned that it was 2-0 going into the third. Feeling grand, I went back to the opera. After the show we jumped back to the bar and they flashed the line score and, well, fuck. 9-4. Oh, well, at least I didn't suffer. Bottom line: better team won. I'll be rooting for the Rangers in the Series. For anyone who is interested, here's a Detroit perspective from Mike Rosenberg from my paper -- a very funny and insightful sports columnist. The sports guys work on truly brutal deadlines. I don't know how Mike does it. http://www.freep.com/article/20111016/COL22/110160661/Michael-Rosenberg-Tigers-season-may-over-not-pride?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports

Re: Art Pepper I certainly understand the the point Larry makes above but would add that the very best of the late-period work re-imagines a similar equilibrium in more contemporary terms and, if anything, sounds more perilous than before, gaining an added charge (at least for me) because the stakes seem so damn high. For my taste, my favorite Art is the greatest late stuff -- especially "Today" from 1978 with Cowell, McBee, Haynes. But I sure as hell don't want to live without "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" from "Meets the Rhythm Section" and the rest of the best '55-'60 stuff. Luckily I don't have to. I wish post-71 Pepper was more consistent than it is and I recognize the issues. But if the gun is at my head, I'm grabbing "Today" first.

I think Cruz was looking at Verlander and giving him some serious attitude. I would not be surprisef if the next time Verlander faces him -- and that's probably going to be next year since after throwing 133 pitches today it's highly unlikely that he would throw at all in a game seven -- Verlander will undoubtedly put one under his chin. He might just plonk him. I'm not generally a believer in the retaliation game for real or perceived sins, including the whole you-disrespected-me-by-showing-me-up thing. (C'mon, guys, grow up.) But Verlander is old school and he's got a streak of Bob Gibson competitive nastiness in him. I'm just saying don't be surprised ...

Hear ya. You're saying Wilson's attitude in effect helped the Tigers bats come alive. True dat. But Tigers batters were making better swings tonight period in the abstract, even without the help, though they'll take as much help as the Rangers are willing to give. More, please. Seriously, Cruz is a beast. He and Martinez should just go mano a mano for the pennant -- those guys play with incredible guts and determination.

Hmm, see what you're trying to say but 'Bullshit' way overstates the case. There is a real difference between bats that have "come alive" and those that remain "dead." That difference is this: When the bats are alive the hitters take advantage of a pitcher's mistakes; when the bats are dead, they don't take advantage. The Tigers took advantage of mistakes today in a way they haven't previously in the series. In a corollary, the more alive the bats are, the more they can tee off on even a pitcher's quality pitches. Verlander's 133rd pitch was a 100 mph fastball and not really in a supersweet hitting zone -- yes, the guy is a freak of nature -- but Cruz pounded the shit out of it over the left field wall. That's a very alive bat -- and a guy who is really, really, seeing the ball well. It must look like a basketball at this point to him.

Professor Irwin Corey.

... less'n of course y'all are rooting for the other team ... but I take your point. Ouch! Well, at least the Lions are 5-0! http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/libvf100.shtml Footnote: No. 19 clearly comes from the pre-Steroid era in baseball.

Free associative digression: Never underestimate the value of a good hat.

... less'n of course y'all are rooting for the other team ... but I take your point.

Stepping gingerly back into the discussion and leaving aside implications and definition of the word "hero," a quick flip through various editions of the Encyclopedia of Jazz yields a number musicians who call Stitt one of their favorites. Among them: Frank Foster (Stitt, Byas) Coltrane (Dexter, Rollins, Stitt, Getz) Joe Henderson (Bird, Tatum, Stitt, Powell, Bartok, Hindemith, Stravinsky -- Coltrane, Rollins, Ornette mentioned in entry too) Doesn't really prove anything, other than these cats dug Sonny Stitt. Interesting to mull why that might be and what, if anything, they actually took from Stitt.

http://www.freep.com/article/20111008/SPORTS02/111008018/Tigers-hitter-Delmon-Young-miss-Texas-series?odyssey=nav|head This is not good news for the Tigers ...

Nice story, John. Thanks.

Disagree. From the mid '50s to early '70s, Stitt at his most inspired, relaxed and presumably sober ("Personal Appearance." "Constellation," etc.) spoke a purely distilled and charged bebop melodic-harmonic language with as much excitement,verve, joie de vivre and authority as anyone. If you want to say this is simply lick playing at a high craft level, well, ok, but there are important distinctions to be made: When Stitt is really on it transcends, reaching a rarified level of sheer elation with enough surprises that it never fails to elevate the spirit (at least my spirit.) I'd put Stitt's very best work in a class with, say, Dexter or Moody's bebop-and-roses blowing sessions -- though there's no question that Dexter and Moody are in the end greater artists, though, come to think of it, they are also more or less lick players too. Also, when Stitt made those sides with Bud in 49/50 there were few -- any? -- other saxophonists beyond Bird as fluent in the idiom at that point.

The Detroit pianist Bess Bonnier, a contemporary of Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris and Roland Hanna, has died: http://www.freep.com/article/20111007/ENT04/111007051/Detroit-pianist-Bess-Bonnier-passes-away-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p We also just lost Brad Felt, a euphonium/tuba virtuoso who was in his 50s (cancer). This one was a real shock since many of us did not know he was ill. The diagnosis was apparently just in late August. Brad toured some years back with Howard Johnson's Gravity.

I heard a stat on the radio this morning -- not sure if it's true but the claim was that the Yankees lost their last nine 1-run games in a row. Nine in a row (!)

Well, I'm not going to rehash all the Stitt pros and cons, except to note that Jim and Larry's points are relevant and that the angels will weep for any soul that is constitutionally incapable of responding positively to the elation, exuberance, chin-first strut and the soulful and sweeping bebop authority of Stitt at his most inventive, which would certainly include, among other records, "Constellation," "Tune Up," "Personal Appearance," a nice chunk of Roost recordings, the early quartets with Bud Powell, the "Previously Unreleased Recordings" LP on Verve pictured above that's an Ellington program. You gotta dig it to dig it, dig? Coda: Favorite Stitt solo on record: "Ray's Idea" from "Constellation" Discographical question: The personnel is not listed on the Verve LP "Previously Unreleased Recordings" is not on the LP. An online discography says Lou Levy, Paul Chambers, Stan Levey. 6/20/60. Sounds right. Any contradictory evidence?

Wished for a different outcome last night but one reason why baseball is so great is how thin the lines are from different outcomes. If that ball in the first gets over his head, it's at least a 3-run lead and its highly possible that Burnett never makes it out of the inning. Plus, assuming the Yankeees go on to lose, Granderson, rather than being hailed the hero, becomes a co-goat along with Burnett, because he'll be blamed for misjudging the ball and coming in, before backtracking and (just) missing the chatch. Granderson was everybody's favorite player when he was in Detroit so odd feeling today for many here -- we hate the Yankees but nobody hates Granderson this morning. On to NY. Coda: Has anybody checked to see if the Rays are really actually still dead this morning? Those guys are like Vampires. You need to drive a stake through the heart.

Was it just me, or did anybody else watching Tigers-Yankees hear the Yankee Stadium organist play a taste of "Giant Steps" during the 7th inning stretch, right before the woman sang "God Bless America"? I was at a bar so it was hard to hear the TV but I swear that's what I heard...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHFCGTqIr1g&feature=related Apologies if this has been posted before but it was new to me. Not sure what the occasion is. Miles appears at the 4:20 mark; later he and John shoot baskets(!). I think the guy with the beard and the white hat early on is Henry Geldzahler, curator of 20th Century art at the Met. Warhol with a Polaroid. Is the woman in red Betty Mabry? Would be odd wouldn't it, if the 1971 date is correct, since she and Miles divorced rather bitterly in '69. This whole film is rather mind-blowing anyway.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/arts/music/miles-davis-reissue-live-in-europe-1967.html?pagewanted=all?src=tp Nate Chinen review ...

The late Terry Pollard (like McLeod) was also from Detroit and was a remarkable pianist. Here she is with Gibbs on both piano and vibes:

http://www.earshot.org/Publication/profiles/profile_11_09_Julian_Priester.html Nice profile of trombonist Julian Priester pegged to his retirement from Cornish College in Seattle. (The writer, by the way, is an old friend of mine from the University of Illinois. Steve Griggs -- he's a fine saxophonist and composer: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/stevegriggs)

Happy 81st birthday today to Sonny Rollins, greatest chord-change improviser ever: http://goo.gl/Rnzqo http://goo.gl/lUIdc

I saw Wayne around this time at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago with the same bass player and drummer but I think a different keyboard player -- don't recall who it was. Frankly, nobody made an impression on me except for Wayne, who I thought sounded extraordinary. It was the first time I had ever seen him -- never saw Weather Report or VSOP live -- and what I remember was that he seemed to play almost all the time, rarely resting, taking really long solos that kept building and building. Very architectural playing and the effect was heightened by the fact that it grew so organically out of his meticulous, multisectioned compositions. My recollection is that the rest of band mostly created a carpet for him, and the other solos came off as interludes at best, but Wayne was playing his own symphonies. Completely different aesthetic than the current quartet -- the band was no where near as profound a group as today but just from the specific standpoint of hearing Wayne really play and stretch out, I prefer what I heard from him as a soloist back in the '80s. To me he sounded like he was really enjoying and taking advantage of the freedom of being outside the scripted confines of Weather Report.