mjzee

RIP. He seemed to be instrumental in the Charlie Parker Records label; maybe there was an Aubrey Mayhew connection. Truly an amazing life, and he played some sweet guitar. San-Diego Union Tribune San Diego Reader

I saw The Jazz Messengers once. I wish I could remember the date. It was at The Village Gate in Manhattan. It was the band sometime after Wynton left; was Valery Ponomarev in it? I went because I heard that George Benson would be sitting in, as indeed he did. I had never been to the Gate before; it had cement walls almost like a cellar, and the acoustics were terrible for jazz. Blakey was wearing big-ass hearing aids, but was fun to watch.

The "when" I can't tell you. I discovered it after I got the Mosaic Select. When I rip the CDs to iTunes, I like to have them by the original albums, including the covers. A search for Comin' On revealed that, for some reason, they removed the photo.

I think they're two different shots from the same photo shoot. There had to be some deliberate reason to switch to the second shot (I like the first shot better). Could it be that, when it came time to create the CD cover, they couldn't locate the original negative for the first shot? They did some weird things sometimes. I'm still puzzled by the cover of Dizzy Reece's Comin' On. The original cover had a photo, then it didn't:

So sorry to hear this. I love the interview he did with Ben Sidran for Talking Jazz. LH&R... one of the greats. RIP.

RIP. Always enjoyed his playing.

1) How does he think Brooklyn, where he grew up, influenced him? 2) Ask him to speak a little about his cousin, Wynton Kelly.

It's just an investment, a place to park some money (OK, a lot of money). Sure to appreciate in value. Similarly, Manhattan is getting overrun with global money. Tons of new housing skyscrapers; even if fully bought, I'll bet most of the living spaces are not occupied most of the year.

I'm glad you revived this topic, because now I have a question. I recently listened to Ben Sidran's "Talking Jazz" interview with Blythe, and he brought up the cooperative group The Leaders (Blythe, Lester Bowie, Chico Freeman, Kirk Lightsey, Cecil McBee, Don Moye). They evidently had one album on Blackhawk and two on Soul Note. Any thoughts on these?

I'm not a musician and never studied music, so I can't explain it technically, but to me it's self-evident. His was a concept that simply didn't exist before: the way he plays with rhythm, with dissonances, with the way things are "supposed" to resolve vs. the surprising ways they can resolve, the way his comping "opened up" behind the soloist almost as a commentary, allowing more rhythmic space for both the soloist and the rest of the band, the way his playing could make a familiar tune sound strange and unfamiliar, all within the confines of that tune. As for who he influenced, pretty much everyone at Minton's revered him, and the ones that followed? Horace Silver, Sonny Clark, Herbie Nichols, even down to "straighter" pianists like Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan...he allowed them to not play so "straight."

Down Beat’s Don Heckman?

There's an amusing article in today's WSJ about cassette tapes. It's protected behind a paywall, but try searching for the following bad pun: "A Global Shortage of Magnetic Tape Leaves Cassette Fans Reeling."

Thanks for posting that.

Agreed that the Shakedown Street 10/25/79 boogies like hell. New Haven has hosted some great Dead shows. Besides RT 1-1, I have the following:

You must mean some other show, Chewy - they didn't play Shakedown in Binghamton in '79. See: https://archive.org/details/gd1979-05-09.nak700.glassberg.motb.85421.sbeok.flac16

Dave's Picks 2018 subscription now available on dead.net. Dave's Picks 25 will be Binghamton, NY 11/6/77.

And it's perfect for a Christmas gift.

Still listed on Amazon UK, but it says "temporarily out of stock": https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Columbia-Studio-Live-Recordings/dp/B075G46S8K/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1509680313&sr=8-8&keywords=weather+report+box+set

Just found an unopened LP copy of Matterhorn via Dusty Groove. No mention of Cobham anywhere. A typical excerpt from the liner notes: "In the first set of fours, the other drummer is followed by Bellson." Even though, under Personnel, the only drummer listed is Bellson. Maybe it was a contractual thing. Another weird thing: Bellson wrote the liner notes, yet he refers to himself in the third person. According to the LP, it was recorded at Heider Filmways, Hollywood. Live in the studio?

Happy, happy birthday to the great saxophonist, composer and arranger!

The OP asked that we stick to jazz.

"Useful" in that other musicians use the innovations that the genius invented/created/discovered. I think Jimmy Smith was a genius, and so many other organists emerged using/developing/playing off of Smith's work. Think of the explosion of organists in the late '50's-early '60's. They didn't evolve from Wild Bill Davis or Milt Buckner, but they did from JOS. Perhaps another aspect of genius is that the innovations are so rich that many different paths lead from it. I read somewhere that so many saxophonists evolved from Bird, but each took a different aspect of his work: some his speed, some his tone, some his rhythmic attack, some his complexity.

The Fresh Sound is near the price I paid (currently $99.01 on Amazon), but only has the master takes, and was not created from the master discs/tapes...they might have even dubbed it from the LP set I bought.

Thanks for the tip! I nabbed it. $111.59 - wow!

I think a genius is someone who plays what sounds like a new solution to a problem, a fresh, new approach, that is instantly recognizable as "the next step forward." It is truly bound up in the person - it is not "inevitable," and perhaps would not exist if that person had not come along. Thelonious Monk is a good example - he put forward a new approach that others could use in their own playing. Coltrane, too, in the way he led the power approach to playing. Some caveats: Genius is not eternal. It erupts, maintains for a few years, then declines. Genius has to be useful and enjoyable. Many people are labeled geniuses who are just annoying. On the classical side, Harry Partch comes to mind. On a parallel note, mental illness should not be confused with genius. Some jazz musicians/composers/arrangers who I would consider geniuses: Lester Young, Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Jimmy Smith.