mjzee

Make that 14, from the WSJ: Oscar Peterson: A Jazz 'Behemoth' Moves On By NAT HENTOFF December 27, 2007; Page D7 Only when it was absolutely necessary, Oscar Peterson wrote, would he go on stage before a concert to check out the piano, because doing so "might lead to preconditioned ideas, and they can in turn interfere with the creative process so essential to a creative jazz concert." For Peterson, who died on Sunday at age 82, his full mastery of the instrument enabled him to keep striving for what to him was his ultimate reason for being. In his equally masterful autobiography, "A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson" (Continuum, 2002), he said of the "dare-devil enterprise [the jazz experience]" in which he engaged for so many years that it "requires you to collect all your senses, emotions, physical strength and mental power, and focus them totally on the performance. . . every time you play. . . . Uniquely exciting, once it's bitten you, you never get rid of it. Nor do you want to; for you come to believe that if you get it all right, you will be capable of virtually anything. That is what drives me, and I know it always will do so." He wrote that after a stroke in 1993 that, at first, limited the use of his left hand. But "the will to perfection," as he called it, kept driving him, and as a result he regained much of his customary skill, and with it the satisfaction of continuing to surprise himself. Born in 1925, Peterson was mandated by his father to practice piano at a very early age; but it was hearing Nat "King" Cole that fired his enthusiasm, and he won a talent contest at the age 14. By the 1940s, Peterson was already a presence on the radio in his native Canada and in Montreal clubs. But his audience began to greatly expand when jazz impresario Norman Granz heard him and brought him to New York's Carnegie Hall in 1949 for one of Granz's "Jazz at the Philharmonic" concerts, where the competition was so intense that many careers of the participants were enhanced. Granz became Peterson's manager and close friend as they toured Europe and other continents. Also a producer of records on his Verve and Pablo labels, Granz extensively featured Peterson, not only as leader of his own trios but also as an accompanist for a wide range of other jazz masters whom Granz recorded. Among them were Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Ben Webster, Billie Holliday, Duke Ellington and Roy Eldridge. As classic jazz players used to say of extraordinary peers, Peterson had "big ears." In all the varying contexts of these Granz recordings, he remained himself while also being completely consonant with the diverse stylists on those sessions. A fascinating section in his autobiography describes what each soloist required of Peterson as an accompanist. For instance, Eldridge "would slide over to me and quietly ask, 'Can I get my strollers, please?' By this he meant that he intended to start simply with a mute aided by Roy Brown's bass in the lower register. "He trusted the remaining members of the rhythm section not only to sit out and allow the excitement to build between him and Ray, but more importantly, to anticipate exactly where to re-enter and move him up a few notches emotionally." Moreover, as a writer from the inside of the music, Peterson's profiles of other longtime associates prove him to be a master practitioner of jazz history and criticism. As he wrote: "To have played for these and other behemoths of the music world certainly served to educate me in areas in which that type of education just isn't available [and] served to deepen my true realization of the immensity of the music we know as jazz." Because of the scores of albums Peterson recorded, it's difficult for me to select any as the best. So, subjectively, two that make me rise and shout are, "The Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival" (1956) and "Night Train" (1962). (Both are on the Verve label). Another autobiography that matches Peterson's in moving the reader into the life force of jazz is Sidney Bechet's "Treat It Gentle" (Da Capo Press, 2002). He writes of growing up in New Orleans: "That music, it was like waking up in the morning and eating. . . it was natural to the way you lived and the way you died." And for Peterson, the pleasures of being inside that music recalled, he wrote, "the joyful exclamation [guiarist] Barney Kessel produced after [the] first evening in my trio. He came over to me after the last set, shook his head, and said with that Oklahoma accent, 'Oscar, that was better than sex!'" Wherever he went around the world, Peterson's effect on audiences demonstrated the truth of Art Blakey's invitation to extreme pleasure: "You don't have to be a musician to understand jazz. All you have to do is be able to feel."

Old recordings of jazz greats discovered By JOHN MILLER, Associated Press Writer With cocktail glasses clinking in the background, jazz singer Billie Holiday stood near a piano amid partygoers inside an apartment overlooking New York City's Hudson River. She began singing "Good Morning Heartache." It was Nov. 18, 1956. Tony Scott joined her on clarinet as the voices of others gathered at 340 Riverside Drive, including "Tonight Show" founder Steve Allen, receded into a respectful hush. This virtually unknown bootleg — and about 100 cubic feet of additional reel-to-reel audio tapes, newspaper clippings, films and boxes of a writer's working files — are part of historical material accumulated by musician, producer and critic Leonard Feather in his half-century association with jazz royalty like Holiday. He donated it to the University of Idaho's International Jazz Collection following his death at age 80 in 1994. While copyright laws have stymied efforts to make the recordings available to a broader commercial audience, the Moscow, Idaho, school plans to make at least a sampling of Holiday's party performance and other Feather materials available to those attending this February's Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival. "It's like doing an Ouija board and hearing voices from the other side," said Michael Tarabulski, an archivist at the International Jazz Collection. How did Feather get Holiday and Scott, a celebrated bebop player who died in March, on tape? It was Feather playing the piano. The uptown Manhattan apartment belonged to him. Included in the collection are about 50 of Feather's "Blindfold Tests," where he interviewed greats like Benny Goodman with their eyes covered, an effort to promote fair critiques of new strains of jazz based on how they sounded, not who was playing them. Feather, a native of England whose updated "Encyclopedia of Jazz" remains an important biographical reference, helped popularize the swing era. Before his death 13 years ago, he often joined his friend Hampton, a percussionist and vibes player, at the University of Idaho's annual jazz festival. It was this association that convinced him to donate his collection to the university, whose archive also houses historical material from Hampton, trombonist Al Grey as well as vocalists Joe Williams and Ella Fitzgerald and trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Doc Cheatham and Conte Candoli. The university has had Feather's recordings since 2003, but their contents weren't known until the school finally sent them away to Philadelphia last year to be converted into digital files, a form that could be more easily accessed by historians. "I asked them to give me a call if they found some pretty fantastic stuff," said Tarabulski, who said the phone call he then got exceeded his expectations. By 1956, the 42-year-old Holiday's voice was near its best, even if her liver would fail within three years. On Nov. 10, 1956, she performed at Carnegie Hall. Eight days later, she was in Feather's living room, where she sang at least eight songs, including "Bless the Child," "Lady Sings the Blues," and "You Go to My Head." In addition to clarinetist Scott and Allen, nightclub pianist Bobby Short was on hand, as was jazz singer Helen Merrill, who performed with Holiday. But while some of the material would be a seminal part of any jazz aficionados' personal collection, Tarabulski said copyright laws may prevent that from happening soon. "Our problem is in making it accessible," Tarabulski said, of the recordings Feather made of conversations and sessions with artists. "He didn't obtain their permission, he was just using it to write his articles. We're loathe to put it out on the airwaves, because people could copy it. And yet, what a shame."

Perhaps Michael Cuscuna could release the two RCA albums as a Mosaic Single.

Another elder statesman has passed. And you have to admire his guts for touring after his stroke. RIP, Oscar.

I want to explore a little bit the notion that Bud's playing "declined" in the last decade of his life. Everyone says it's the result of the shock therapy, yada yada yada, and I understand that Bud in the late '40's was amazing. But yesterday, I was going through All Music Guide, and here's what they say about Bud's later recordings: 1964: Ups and Downs: "The great bop innovator had declined greatly since his prime days but actually plays better than one might expect." 1964: Salt Peanuts: "The recording quality is a little erratic on this set but Powell often sounds quite inspired." 1964: The Invisible Cage: "Accompanied ably by bassist Michel Gaudry and drummer Art Taylor, the innovative pianist (even with a few missteps) is mostly in excellent form, particularly on "Like Someone in Love," "Blues for Bouffemont" and his calypso "Una Noche con Francis."" 1963: Bud Powell in Paris: "this was one of Powell's best late-period recordings; he is in near-prime form throughout." 1962: Round About Midnight at the Blue Note: "The innovative pianist is in excellent form." 1962: Bouncing With Bud: "This Delmark recording is an excellent set by the great pianist Bud Powell." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 5: "On a whole, this series is as essential as the Blue Notes but has its strong moments and is worth picking up by lovers of bop piano." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 4: "Powell generally sounds in pretty good form for the period." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 3: "makes up for its low quantity (just 34½ minutes) with some high quality." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 2: "The entire series is worth picking up by listeners who enjoy bop-based piano; Powell is generally in fine form." 1962: At The Golden Circle, Vol. 1: "Five CDs have been released from two of his nights at the club and they find him playing in generally good form." 1961: A Tribute To Cannonball: "Both Byas (who had hardly recorded since 1955) and the erratic Powell are heard in superior form." 1961: Live at the Blue Note Cafe, Paris 1961: "the Bud Powell sessions are uniformly fine, with the excellent Live at the Blue Note Cafe, Paris 1961 a particular standout." 1960: The Essen Jazz Festival Concert: "Pianist Bud Powell is heard in top form throughout this CD." 1959: Bud In Paris: "the passion in the playing generally comes through and Powell's fans will want to search for this one." 1958: Time Waits: "Powell is in surprisingly fine form throughout the enjoyable session." 1957: Bud Plays Bird: "Actually it is a mystery how such excellent music could be unknown and go unreleased for so long." 1957: Bud!: "feature Powell in surprisingly inspired form." 1957: Swingin' With Bud: "Powell is in generally good form on this trio session." 1956: Strictly Powell: "Powell actually plays better on Strictly Powell than on his Verve dates of the period." The above is every Bud recording between 1956 and 1964 that All Music reviewed. The Verves, for whatever reason, don't have reviews, just track listings. We know that many artists' performing styles deepen and change as they get older, but the rap on Bud was that his quality declined. I don't see it from the above. The tone of most of these reviews is "Yeah, he's bad in other places, but not here." So where, exactly, are the bad performances?

Without having the details, it's possible that the problem doesn't come from you at all. Someone whom you once sent an email to might have had their computer compromised, and the spammer/virus writer put your email address as the "from:". When I've asked about anti-virus software at the Apple stores, they've actively discouraged me from buying any.

Has anyone heard this? Just noticed it on the Vintage Vanguard site:

I had a very enjoyable double-LP on Omnisound, solo piano by John Coates, Jr. named "In The Open Space." Very melodic and thoughtful. I know he's been around for awhile, and is said to have influenced the young Keith Jarrett. I see that he's had some subsequent releases on Pacific Street Records (www.pacificstrecords.com), but I haven't heard any of them. Any thoughts on this artist?

Does anyone have this, or has heard this, and has comments/opinions? Mozart Edition: Complete Works

I second this. He's a very notable, enjoyable player - as I was listening in the car, I had to grab the cover - "who is this tenor player?!?"

Got mine today. The packaging is nice, nostalgic and silly - it's the original covers, including liner notes, shrunk down to CD size; i.e., the liner notes are largely unreadable. But they're fun to see.

I'll miss him. His liner notes for 32Jazz were quirky and real. The pricing was excellent and he made the reissue category come alive.

256k bitrates for Amazon, vs 128k for iTunes (tho iTunes plus are 256k). Also, Amazon can be a lot cheaper - check out the prices for ECM downloads.

The Bad Plus - Prog Rosemary Clooney Sings Ira Gershwin Abbey Lincoln - It's Magic Russell Malone - Live at the Jazz Standard Vol. 2 Moondog - A New Sound of An Old Instrument Bob Marley vs. Lee "Scratch" Perry - The Best of the Upsetter Years 1970-1971 Marti Jones - My Tidy Doily Dream Dar Williams - The Beauty of the Rain

For those of you not keeping up with the tabloids: Desperate Plea by Amy's Mother

Does anyone have info on this album on LRC (recording date, musicians, and whether it's any good): Gerry Mulligan - LRC

"What It Is" is now available at Costco for $37.99: What It Is I'm thinking of getting that and the Mozart box.

Regarding customer service: I had some problems recently with Apple iTunes downloads, and their customer service was exceptionally fast, solicitous, and helpful. While their bitrates aren't as good, I thought this was a great way of doing business.

Good deal; I've just ordered it. I already have the "Classic Quartet" box set, but that doesn't include the Village Vanguard or Duke Ellington albums.

The photos are in a magazine called "Movies Rock," which is a special supplement to a number of Conde Nast magazines this month, including GQ. The basic idea is the confluence of music and movies. Besides the Miles shots, there are a number of very readable articles. I liked the piece on Elmer Bernstein by Nick Tosches, the one on the movie "Tommy" by James Wolcott, and an excellent long biography of Jimmy Van Heusen by James Kaplan. The magazine is worth searching out.

Interestingly, NO Gambit titles are currently available on eMusic - it looks like they've all been pulled. Coupled with Adam's post, I wonder whether legal action has been initiated against them.

Shelly Manne - The West Coast Sound Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights Mary Lou Williams - Solo Recital - Montreux Wadada Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton - Saturn... Sonny Rollins - Horn Culture Milt Jackson - Big Bags Barry Harris - Magnificent! Red Garland - Bright and Breezy Red Garland - Rojo I wanted to download Charlie Parker - Complete Live in Sweden, but don't see it anymore.

Wow. Caught wind of this issue late yesterday, and just spent the last hour plowing through this thread. Not sure I'm a lurker; most of the time, just don't have much to contribute. I'm much more reading and learning; compiling a long list of Zoot Sims albums to download, for example. When I have something to say, I contribute. But then, I'm still not comfortable with a lot of the Internet. Not sure who'll read these posts, what they'll make of them, and just the idea of having these words appear through a Google search through probably the end of time...yuk. But I do log on here virtually every day, just to read what's going on. I avoid the non-music discussions - learned that from the old BNBB. Still don't feel entirely comfortable with some posters because of what I read there. Ah well, live and learn, as Gordon says to Thomas. This board does mean a lot to me. I was moved by what Jim wrote. I hadn't given much thought to what it takes to run this board; my bad. A $50 check is in the mail. But Jim, if you can, you should also take heart by what you've achieved here. This board is a great place to read - the mix of styles, opinions and content is priceless. You took what was great about the BNBB and made it better, by some mysterious alchemy - you knew best when to leave alone, and when to direct, and when to enhance. You're the producer, literally this board's Alfred Lion. Hopefully, the past tenses in the last paragraph will change to present tenses, and the board will continue. But if it doesn't, I've really appreciated it. Oh yeah: coffee1000 at gmail.com. I can't get any more spam there than what I currently get. Michael

Little Big Town - A Place To Land Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars - Sunday Jazz A La Lighthouse Volume 1 Jackie McLean - Lights Out Art Farmer - Early Art Roberta Gambarini - Easy To Love Pat Martino - East! Lennie Tristano - Continuity Emily Remler - Together w/Larry Coryell Art Pepper - The Way It Was Wes Montgomery on Riverside, discs 7-12 Zoot Sims on Pablo w/Art Pepper

R.I.P. Another one gone.