Pete C

It's not as if Ornette has ever been a prolific collaborator with people in the jazz world outside of guys who played in his bands on and off--a few things here and there, like McLean & Metheny, but he was as likely to collaborate with the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Sultan Khan, Yoko Ono, or Joe Henry. And Ornette certainly has his reticent, mysterious & quirky side, as Jim suggests. I don't find it in the least bit surprising that he & Rivers never worked together. The same hypothetical could be posed for countless pairs who never happened to work together. I don't Jim's point about age. Rivers is about 7 years older than Ornette. So what? Ornette started recording before Rivers, and they were both in NY in the '60s & '70s. There are countless possible speculations as to why any particular hypothetical pairing never happened. Forget about the competing loft theory. First of all, I don't think Ornette really presented concerts on a regular basis like Rivbea, and when he did it was basically pre-Rivbea. I was an active audience member at the 70s lofts, and there was anything but a sense of competition. Warren Smith, who ran Studio W.I.S. often played with Sam at Rivbea; Rivers & Joe Lee Wilson played at each others' lofts. I think Dmitry is psychoanalyzing up a "problem" that never existed.

CAN I QUOTE YOU ON THAT?

One of my favorite Brazilian artists, Joao Bosco, will be at the Herbst Theatre on June 30. Bosco is one of the great MPB singer-songwriters of the generation that came up in the 70s and matured in the 80s. Elis Regina was a great champion of his songs early on.

I DO consider the 3 Blue Note dates with Moncur to be among the true treasures of recorded jazz, gems of complex & sophisticated, yet accessible, compositionally oriented small group jazz. I'm not familiar enough with Jackie's Steeplechase output to make any informed comment.

I don't think any of McLean's Prestige albums compare with the Blue Notes, and I think most can be ignored unless you're a completist. I like Jackie's playing on all of the Ammons jam session albums though, and those are so much fun.

Hey Jim, for some reason most of the more jazz-oriented Brazilian stuff from the 60's never really grabbed me; in fact, not too much of the Brazilian music I listen to is really jazz, though much of it does have jazz influences.

Don't confuse them with this group:

Where did you get the image. Surely there was other material there that would have given you to leads on a web search. Do you know about AMG (allmusic.com? I was unaware of those recordings, but Norris is great. One could look up bios of all the players on AMG. In the early 1960s, bassist Hal Gaylor founded a noteworthy but short-lived group that he called the Trio. With Gaylor on upright bass, Walter Norris on acoustic piano, and Billy Bean on electric guitar, the Trio favored a drumless format that recalled the Nat King Cole Trio of the 1940s. But anyone who listens to this bop-oriented 1961 session, which was produced by the ubiquitous Orrin Keepnews, will realize that the Trio never went out of its way to emulate Cole's group. While the Nat King Cole Trio is an influence, Norris is far from a Cole imitator — in 1961, the pianist was well aware of what everyone from Bill Evans to Lennie Tristano to Thelonious Monk had accomplished. Norris was only 29 when this album was recorded, and while The Trio isn't as adventurous as some of the albums that he recorded as a leader in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, it is a pleasing bop date. Gaylor (who switches to cello on his lively "Che-Low") enjoys a strong rapport with Norris and Bean on original material as well as performances of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "The End of a Love Affair" and "For Heaven's Sake." Regrettably, Gaylor and Bean both ended up leaving the music world; in fact, Gaylor gave up jazz to become a certified drug counselor. Norris, thankfully, never left jazz and was still recording when the 21st century arrived. And we can also be thankful that the Trio, although underexposed and short-lived, is documented on this enjoyable album. — Alex Henderson

Mountain in the Clouds and Infinite Search are the same album. They're both one great album!

I don't understand that statement.

Outside of Moondoc (who did play with Khan Jamal), I don't think you'd ever see any of those guys at Vision--though Cecil is certainly associated with some of those folks.

All right, I'll paste my Wednesday comments too. Equal Interest was actually the low point. I won't be back at Vision until Saturday. Tonight I'm catching Ron Horton (w/ Kimbrough, Malaby, Allison & Matt Wilson) @ Cornelia Street, and Friday I'm going to 55 bar for Dave Liebman/Ellery Eskelin quartet. Last night was a mixed bag as far as success went, but the Grimes, Crispell, Cyrille set alone was worth the price of admission. Cyrille is a no-brainer--I've never seen him give a less than noteworthy performance. Crispell was absolutely gripping, playing a combination of the more lyrical side she's been mining with Paul Motian in recent years, as well as the more intense side that had formed the basis of her earlier style. And Grimes was great--dextrous, forceful and confident; I'd been hearing mixed reports since his comeback, and this was a happy confirmation of the good reports. The first set, Rothenberg, Dresser & Yagi, was quite good, as they were when I had seen them a week earlier. The highlight was the excerpts from Dresser's "Outer Planets" suite, which requires a different tuning of koto & bass for each section. The real dud was Equal Interest. In general the music wasn't especially compelling, though Leroy Jenkins was in fine form. The real crime was that Jarman chose to sing his silly "peace, love & Buddha" lyrics on about three tunes. Besides the ludicrous lyrics, the guy can't carry a tune. It was pathetic. Several JC folks walked out, and I kept asking folks "shouldn't he know better?" Of course the portion of the Vision audience for whom none of thes folks can do any wrong ate it up. The Fred Van Hove/Johannes Bauer duo was not my thing. Bauer was basically all effects, no real "musical engagement" by my definition. Van Hove was OK, but nothing memorable, and after Crispell especially forgettable. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Philly, I'm pasting the comments I made on Jazz COrner about that show below. I think we're pretty much in agreement. I'm sorry I only caught the tail end of the Arkestra.: Unfortunately we only caught the last 10 minutes of the Sun Ra Arkestra, because what we did hear sounded great. I didn't mind missing Jarman's opening invocation. I can live without the chanting and jingling bells, even if it is a "beautiful, spiritual thing." I pretty much ignored Gus Solomons who is one of those pseudo-contortionist dancers, and the silly British (I think) beatnick poetess with him. I was very disappointed that Khan Jamal had a poet with him, as it was a nice lineup with Moondoc & Roy Campbell. But they basically played under the poet who hardly shut up. Typical Vision Festival agitprop poetry. First poem was about a "poor child of the suburban Negro Bourgeoisie, didn't know he was black, until he was caught driving while black." He gets his consciousness when he meets his brothers in prison who were also driving while black. Then she did the obligatory "I'm a woman" poem. Finally, a tribute to Odean Pope: "Odean, he's lean, he's clean, Odean, Odean..." When she wasn't finding every rhyme for Odean she was giving a prosaic litany of Pope's resume. And, of course, she recited everything in that "I'm a jazz musician too" rhythmic style. The highlight was an acid funk set by Ulmer, Tacuma & Weston. Very "Band of Gypsies." There was some tension after Tacuma blew out an amp and had a running subtext argument with the sound man.

Not someone I listen to much, but I would have loved to have seen "The Wildest!" show live.

He won't be there. I've rarely been to a tribute concert that was worth the trouble.

I believe Sony plans to release 1969 Juan Les Pins in the U.S. at some point. There is another set besides the one that was released in Japan as "1969 Miles." I agree that 1967 Antwerp is more intense than Paris, but both are amazing.

I found the following. It looks like this will be the last year of a jazz festival in Detroit: It was announced Dec. 18 that the 2004 Detroit festival, the 25th year for that event, will be its last at Hart Plaza on the city's downtown waterfront. The 2005 event will expand to include blues, rock, R&B and gospel music. It also will relocate to other sites around Detroit. "The expansion in Detroit was a move that was born out of necessity," Malfitano said. "That festival has struggled in funding, like a lot of major festivals in the country." Malfitano said the Detroit festival has lost about $1 million since 2000. http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/post...63634149361.xml

Yeah, that's a great one. It has a nice version of Quimbombo, which was a hit for Chappotin and is on the compilation I mentioned earlier.

I read somewhere that Detroit was going to be making it a music festival with jazz as only one component--I don't think the jazz festival has done well in recent years. Anyway, Chicago always had a more interesting lineup. I might aim for Chicago, which I've been trying to do every other year. Last time I got to see one of Mal Waldron's last performances (the duo with Oliver Lake).

But this may be the creme de la creme.

The Verve collection of Chico O'Farrill's 50s recordings, Cuban Blues, is a must. Also essential, from the 70s, is Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods, by Dizzy with Machito--it's all Chico's music. The Mario Bauza big band, which formed after Machito died, made some very good albums. One of the greatest jazz-oriented big bands in Cuba in the 40s & 50s was Orquesta Riverside. Its singer, Tito Gomez, was one of the best. Unfortunately, it might be tough tracking down CDs. There have been several collections of Tito Puente's great early 50s Tico recordings, but I don't know what's currently available. Puente, Machito & Tito Rodriguez were the kings of the Palladium. I have an excellent collection called Tito Rodriguez Hits. If you're into Afro-Cuban jazz, then other Cuban music that's not specifically jazz, but has a heavy horn orientation might appeal to you. The conjunto led by trumpeter Chappotin made some of the most infectious music. The essential collection on CD is Que Se Funan.

Morava is a delightful album. Viklicky plays beautifully, and the singer, Zuzana Lapcikova, has a really pretty voice.

Ed, I started a thread in the Festivals section of Jazz Corner. It doesn't look like too many takers this year.

I was just asking someone about that last night and he told me the sound quality was not very good. Live in Wilisau is a killer album, and the sound is very good. downtownmusicgallery.com lists it in stock at $17.

That would be timely.