Mark Stryker

I know he was very busy in the studios, which is why Gary Peacock, Richard Davis, Albert Stinson, etc. appeared with the Quintet on various tours. And although Carter is a great musician and has written some great tunes, I've never gotten the sense that he has a "vision" - a music that is distinctly his "own." Disagree. Carter's piccolo bass group in the '70s pursued a distinct sound ideal and his more recent trios with guitar and piano go for a kind of immaculately tailored refinement of the mainstream. I'm leaving aside value judgments on quality/profundity of the results and simply addressing the notion of vision as a bandleader. It is true that Carter's own bands have been about things that are very different than his most innovative and influential work he did with Miles and others.

Thanks for sharing. This was so great I tweeted it: http://twitter.com/#!/Mark_Stryker

Maiden Voyage, if you want to allow for George Coleman instead of Wayne. Has Herbie (or George) ever addressed how or why Coleman ended up on "Maiden Voyage"? Not that he doesn't sound great, especially on the title track, where his melodies and use of 4ths digs into the meat of the tune: (transcription here: http://stevekhan.com/coleman1.htm). But in so many ways it seems more logical for Wayne or Joe Henderson to have been on this record given the date of May 1965 and the nature of the material. Maybe it was a timing/schedule issue. Maybe Herbie really wanted George and thought he would be perfect for the material or context. I wouldn't necessarily argue with the results, but I do sometimes wonder what one of those other guys might have sounded like here. Just wondering.

Some of Wayne's recordings come close but his penchant for using other drummers rather than Tony Williams creates the biggest disconnect. But not for Elvin Jones, "Speak No Evil" is the Miles group with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. "Adam's Apple" has Herbie but also Reggie Workman and Joe Chambers. "The Collector" aka "Etcetera" has Herbie with Chambers and Cecil McBee. Williams' "Spring" comes at it from another angle, with Wayne and Herbie but also Peacock and Sam Rivers. For what it's worth, I just realized that "Spring" was recorded only 11 days later than the Shorter bootleg with Hancock, Peacock and Williams

Gary Carner, an expert in all things relating to Pepper Adams, as well as the creator of http://pepperadams.com/ and the saxophonist's in-progress biographer, is now posting rare live recordings. First up is an Adams original, "Joy Road," with a Detroit rhythm section, taken from a 1982 radio broadcast of what was then known as the Montreux-Detroit Kool Jazz Festival. http://pepperadams.com/SolosOfMonth/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/nyregion/sold-as-lobster-salad-but-a-key-ingredient-was-missing.html?_r=1 Amused and appalled by this but also confused as to how nobody in New York could call Zabar's on this for 15 years.

Levine has indeed sometimes been criticized for, as Dwight Garner put it in the Times the other day, leaning too hard on his blue-collar bona fides. But I do think it's important to remember, as Garner also pointed out, that Levine has lived in Spain, translated the work of Pablo Neruda and César Vallejo and edited a volume of Keats’s poems. He has also specifically repudiated the descriptions of himself as a barstool Whitman. Garner quotes him saying: “I’m so weary of that anti-intellectual stance: I’m just standing here suckin’ on a beer writin’ these lines until the pool room opens. I love intelligent poetry — Stevens, Ammons, Tom Sleigh, Robert Morgan.” While Levine's plainspoken language is intended to reach a far wider audience than the work of more opaque academic poets, he's not specifically writing for the butcher or the line worker -- he's channeling his own experience into his art and putting it out there for everyone. That's a different thing. Levine's working-class voice and stance is not an act -- it is part of the deepest core of an identity that was forged through his family background, childhood and his crucial young adulthood. As with many artists, especially writers, early identity becomes the source of the work for the rest of their careers and there's no statute of limitations on such influences. Now, yes, of course hypocrisy can be an issue in some cases -- rich artists posing as jus' folks when they've been eating caviar served by butlers and haven't worried about paying the heating bill for decades. But Levine is by no means in that class. He's a poet who has made a modest living teaching, and he was well into middle-age or later when the awards came his way. He was 63 when he won the National Book Award and 67 when he won the Pulitzer.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110811/ENT05/108110516/New-poet-laureate-brings-memories-Detroit-factories-life-his-writing?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p Born and raised in Detroit, Philip Levine, America's newly appointed Poet Laureate, told me some nice stories about the impact of jazz and jazz musicians on his artistic life. There was only room for a taste of that part of the conversation in our Free Press story today, but I hope to revisit the topic with him later.

1999 Corton Grancey (Grand Cru), from Latour. Still tight at first but after decanting bloomed beautifully in the nose and mouth with lots of red fruit and balance of finesse and power. Very pretty.

All: Thanks for the good wishes. Looking forward to a classy bottle tonight. I think Burgundy is in my future ...

There but for the grace of God ...

There's been some past discussion on the board about the Detroit cooperative Tribe, so this should be of interest to folks: a Detroit Free Press story from today about saxophonist Wendell Harrison, one of the Tribe founders still on the scene. http://www.freep.com/article/20110728/ENT04/107280333/Detroit-jazz-legend-Wendell-Harrison-releases-first-new-CD-7-years?odyssey=nav|head

Here's another fave: During Joe Henderson's solo on "Straight Ahead" from Kenny Dorham's "Una Mas," there's a point where Herbie Hancock strolls and somebody, presumably KD, starts to clap on two and four. At the top of the chorus, someone (again, presumably KDs) says, "C'mon, Joe, c'mon." Joe's solo on this tune, by the way, really is incredible -- fully mature, original sound and remarkable rhythmic flexibility and looseness. Wasn't this his first appearance on record to hit stores? What a debut!

On "I've Never Been In Love Before" form "Sonny Rollins +3" (Milestone), Sonny blows up a hurricane and you can hear shouts of encouragement from somebody though it's not clear exactly who it is. Sonny takes two solos here and I think this happens during the second one. Don't have the record with me to check.

got it -- sonny stitt on an inspired night ...

I've been around the scene a long time but I'm not sure I really know what "cattin'" means in this context. Elucidate please ...

I like Dizzy laughing behind Bird on "Warming Up a Riff," the slower, incomplete take of "Ko-Ko," when Bird plays a super-hip rhyme during the last A section of his second chorus. Going from memory, Art Blakey telling Lee Morgan to "Play yo' instrument" and "Get mad" during the cadenza on "A Night in Tunesia." And Blakey laughs and yells a lot all the way through "Free For All" -- one of the most fiery records ever -- especially, as I recall, the title track and behind Freddie Hubbard on "Pensativa."

http://smigly.tv/video/smigly-kind-of-black-and-blue/

Some new stuff from 1967 Newport: Booker Ervin with Chick Corea, Reggie Johnson, Lenny McBrowne: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/booker-ervin-quartet/concerts/newport-jazz-festival-july-02-1967.html?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=110708 Max Roach with Charles Tolliver, Odean Pope, Jymmie Merritt: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/max-roach-quintet/concerts/newport-jazz-festival-july-02-1967.html?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=110708

Per the latest edition of Dave Liebman's newsletter published Saturday: "Lee had a brain aneurysm in Melbourne, Australia a few weeks ago. I spoke with him and it appears that full recovery will happen. He was in excellent spirits. Another warrior!!" http://liebintervals.blogspot.com/

http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/clarence-clemons-by-branford-marsalis.html Nice appreciation by Branford Marsalis, written as a guest post at Do The Math.

The billing on "Something New" (Interplay Records) from 1979 is the Sam Jones 12 Piece Band. Harrell is not in the group, but I've always assumed the book and sound of this band was essentially the same as when Harrell had co-billing. Is that right, or was there a substantial difference between the groups? Re: Jones on record. Jones steals the show on Blue Mitchell's "Blue's Moods," partly because for some reason the bass is recorded really, really clear on that record. and you can hear every nuance of his sound, time and note-choice.

Would love to see those photos. As for the art work to "There Will Never Be Another You", never dug it for it represents what Sonny looked like in the early and mid '70s, a decade after the MOMA concert which took place in June '65. Again, the music is fabulous and as for Sonny's wandering on the stage off mike, that occurs primarily during the 2nd half of the concert (side 2 on the LP). I never knew that the cover photo on "On Impulse" was taken at the MOMA concert; I wonder if somebody's original plan might have been for the first Impulse album to be a live record from the concert but then plans shifted, perhaps becasue it was realized that too much was off-mike for a commercial LP (and just to be clear for those who have never heard it, the sound in no way impedes the enjoyment/appreciation of Sonny's genius). I also notice on my LP that Rudy Van Gelder is listed as the recording engineer. If that's true, then going back to a point in my original post, it's unlikely that Sonny literally didn't know tapes were rolling -- Rudy was there with equipment and never said "hi"? Coda 1: Tommy Flanagan also sounds exceptionally good to me, especially on "Three Little Words," where Sonny's pace and inspiration really push him. Coda 2: Among the slew of Sonny's great moments, I really love the sudden key change during his solo on the title tune -- on the fly, indeed! -- and the expansive fours with the drummers on that tune and how Sonny often phrases into or through their bars to finish his ideas. Plus the way he just keeps going and going as the tune evolves, even including a calypso bit near the end of his cadenza and the long final note (circular breathing). Well, it's not quite the final note as the tune starts up again as a "walk off" coda. Coda 3: The liners on the LP include a reprint of a Down Beat review of the concert published in the Aug. 12, 1965 issue. The review says the concert started with "Will You Still Be Mine?" -- "the faint sounds of a tenor saxophone playing "Will You Still Be Mine?" could be heard in the distance ... enthralled listeners turned toward the sound and saw Rollins in a green jacket and blue beret emerge from behind a tree in full musical flight." So, anybody ever heard a recording of that part of the concert which isn't included on the LP? Plus, the record opens in the middle of "Green Dolphin Street." Does an unedited bootleg exist of the whole concert?

Shame about Sonny's attitude towards the live album because it's really prime live Newk from the mid '60s and a great rhythm section that includes Tommy Flanagan and two drummers, Billy Higgins and Mickey Roker. I've made a CD-R from my LP copy that I frequently listen to when driving. Sonny's attitude about the record is tied closely to his strong feelings of being exploited by Impulse (ABC Paramount). "There Will Never Be Another You" was not released unitl 1978, a decade after his contract ran out. He is quoted in Eric Nisenson's "Open Sky" as saying, "For one thing, I was not paid to do that record. And also it should never have been released, just because I am off mike so much. It was just another example of their gouging more money out of the public by selling them an inferior product." Sonny has often spoken about how he felt strong-armed by the ABC lawyers during his tenure with the label and in an interview I did with Sonny last year in which we talked specifically about the reasons for his disillusionment that led to his second sabbatical, he said he felt bamboozled into signing away the rights to his score for "Alfie." (Sonny was representing himself at the time.) Having said all that, his playing on the "There Will Never Be Another You" concert is incredible. Nisenson writes that Sonny did not know he was being recorded at the Museum of Modern Art, though he doesn't quote Rollins specifically on that point and I have often wondered if this is literally true -- Sonny had no idea there were recording engineers on site? (Perhaps he knew they were there doing something but his understanding was never that they were recording for the market? Just speculating. It is true that he strolled around as he played.) Nisenson uses the fact Sonny ostensibly didn't know he was being taped as another example of the contrast between the uninhibited live Rollins versus the self-conscious Rollins in the studio. There's no doubt this syndrome is part and parcel of Sonny's aesthetic and that the disconnect people began noticing in the '60s turned into a chasm in the 70s and beyond. I just wonder if that's the whole story with this particular concert.

Right on! Imagine him playing Wayne's "Infant Eyes" while we're at it.