mjzee

Very sad. RIP, Freddie. Two quotes from Freddie come to mind. The first was from the documentary "Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz," where Freddie talked about how cool Alfred Lion was, that Art Blakey invited him back to his house "when we wouldn't invite me!" The other was Freddie describing playing in Blakey's band: "Art had a heavy foot, and he kept it planted in your ass. You had to play."

Forty-five years ago, long before the improvisations of John Coltrane and his pianist McCoy Tyner were memorized by several generations of music students, it was tough for writers to come up with the right words to describe Mr. Tyner's playing style: distinctly post-bebop, but no less obviously steeped in the entire history of jazz piano. By now we can simply agree to call it McCoy Tyner Style. Mr. Tyner's version of "Greensleeves" on his new album, "Guitars," is dark and mysterious, full of deep power grooves that seem to go all the way back to Africa. Yet the song also harks back, as it must, to its English roots. And when you realize that Mr. Tyner frequently played "Greensleeves" with Coltrane, you recognize it as a journey into Mr. Tyner's past as well. More here (for subscribers only?): WSJ

I'm looking forward to the Leo Parker. I owned it many years ago as part of the LT series. Great, high-energy music. Good liner notes too as I recall, with Dex being asked about his memories of his former bandmate.

I met Scott Thunes once, and told him I really liked the interplay between him and Chad Wackerman on Valley Girl. He told me that the drum part had already been recorded, and Frank brought him in to add his bass to the track.

This has some nice tracks on it, particularly the Dexter and the Arthur Blythe: God Rest Ye Merry Jazzmen Columbia also released a promo 45 with an alternate take of the Dexter track, with a cool picture sleeve of Dex in a Santa hat. I have the single, but it's marred by surface noise (bad pressing).

Davy Graham was a big influence on Paul Simon during his London hiatus.

From The Stamford Advocate: For a musician who has been dead for 20 years, Jaco Pastorius still elicits serious reverence from bass players and fusion fans. Not widely known outside those circles, Pastorius helped revolutionize the bass guitar in the 1970s -- as a member of Weather Report and by leading his own bands -- only to become a victim of excess in the years leading up to his death in 1987. His legacy still looms large. Last month, a group of top-call musicians including drummer Kenwood Denard and trumpeter Randy Brecker played a weekend's worth of gigs featuring Pastorius' music at Iridium jazz club in Times Square. In attendance was the bassist's widow, Ingrid; the evening also showcased the music of Pastorius' sons. One of the two bassists in the tribute band was Joe Sinaguglia, a 21-year-old Stamford musician making his New York City debut. It was not only a trial by fire, but an appropriate professional introduction for the musician. For the full article... The Bassist

As a listener, I'm in agreement that alternate takes are usually unnecessary, often distracting and disappointing. Bird excluded, of course. The one broad exception I'd make is for artists who don't have a large recorded legacy. In those cases, it can be surprising and pleasurable to hear their voice again. But only if it shows them vibrant, not sick and ragged.

I'm listening now to Sapporo, November 18, 1976, Part 1. Simply beautiful, stunning improvised music.

Air - Live Air Trio Hurricane - Suite of Winds George Lewis - Shadowgraph Julius Hemphill - Flat-Out Jump Suite Greg Osby - 9 Levels Miles From India The Fireman - Electric Arguments Ingrid Michaelson - Be OK Jimmy Bruno - Solo Art Pepper - Arthur's Blues Kenny Burrell - Collaboration (w/Lamont Johnson)

Some of my favorites are on this list: Hank Mobley - Dippin' (RVG Edition) Lee Morgan - Tom Cat (RVG Edition) Lou Blackburn - Complete Imperial Sessions (Connoisseur Series) Elmo Hope - Trio And Quintet (Connoisseur Series) Jackie McLean - Vertigo (Connoisseur Series) (especially the Kenny Dorham date) Chet Baker & Art Pepper - Picture Of Heath (aka Playboys) Lee Morgan - Charisma Lee Morgan - Standards Charlie Parker - The Washington Concerts John Patton - Let 'Em Roll Get 'em while you can. Though I suspect they will all be available as downloads. Perhaps Blue Note America will adopt the Blue Note Japan business model: small batches of titles, available as limited editions.

I remember the Suzanne McCorkle being nice. Are these Sun Ra's really not available on any other label? I hope they rerelease the Pony Poindexter, hopefully in better sound.

Here are the first few pages from one of his booklets:

I wonder when that distribution agreement ends.

Talk about jealous... ECMs available at eMusic Europe

I still have the "folios" - 2 handbound books of poems - inside my LP of "Moondog 2" (Columbia). He used to sell them on 6th Ave & 54th St, in front of the old ABC building (sometimes 55th St - the MGM building - and sometimes 52nd St - the CBS building - these places had ledges in front where he could sit. Strangely, he never sat on the west side of 6th Ave - the Burlington building, etc.). He sold them out of a big leather sack he kept by his feet. It wasn't like he aggressively hawked them; he just sat there and would chat with anyone. I was a teenaged kid who worked as a messenger a few blocks away during summers, so was able to get out of the office a lot. He was a really nice guy; certainly had a lot of patience with me! And he looked and dressed exactly like the cover of Moondog 2 - the leather cape, the spear - but I don't think he wore the leather cap (the one with the horns) often in the hot summer. What else do I remember? He always had a cigar butt clamped between his teeth, and would periodically discharge his spit into one of those metal tubes cigars used to come in. As you know, he was blind, so this was an easy way to be neat; he'd lift the tube to his lips. We used to talk philosophy. I remember once he said to me, "the more laws men pass, the more criminals there are."

These are amazing.

He let me reprint some of his poetry in my high-school literary magazine!

Yeah, yeah, Bev, rub it in.

It looks like my original copy. It's possible that Blue Note had extra packaging (booklet, tray cards), and that's why they chose this title to issue. I found it significant that Amazon listed the label as Blue Note. That says to me that they're standing behind the quality of the product.

He really made the mood of "Hejira." I think he was a real innovator on bass, and had a very personal sound. Ellington would have hired him in a different day.

On the back wall is the artwork that became the cover of Alice Cooper's "Pretties For You."

There was some discussion about this on the old BNBB. Someone from "The Rudy Van Gelder Project" posted that Fantasy, on many CD reissues, simply listed RVG as the engineer and studio without checking; he got them to see the error of their ways, and they afterwards ceased doing so. The postings then went on to mention the sad piano used on many Alderson recordings. I wonder what happened to "The RVG Project," meant to list every recording done by RVG.

With eMusic, the problem is with the documentation: cover, personnel, liner notes. I think this should be included as one pdf file. Then the listener has the option of printing it out or viewing on the screen.

Wow!