Alon Marcus

Wonderful pictures, thank you!

Don't worry, I skipped the boring parts. :rsmile: :rsmile: :rsmile:

Can anybody please translate what Clem was trying to say?

Bentsy are you familiar with his Healing Force? What other recommendations you have for a Pullen newbie?

Here is a long and an informative thread about Woody. In the last couple of days I was listening to Double Take with Shaw, Hubbard, Mulgrew Miller and Garrett.

Where is Clem when you need him? :rsmile:

Lewis Carrol is proud of you guys!

You have a mistake. Wynton is not looking to find out what Woody plays. He is looking to see what he does wrong. B-)

Gunther Schuller - I like what he writes very much. I like his essay on early Duke that appeared in a compilation by Hentoff and McCarthy. The problem is that he is very academic and his essays sometimes hard to grasp by someone who doesn't have even the most basic abilities of reading music and music theory. But he does go to a higher level of detail than Williams and digs deeper. John Litwieller's book "The freedom principle" is also great but he looks at everything from a different point of view. His descriptions are sometimes very subjective. This book is another example of something that took me quite a long time to like. At first I just used it as a reference about jazz history. Only later it made me think and listen to some music. In fact both John Litwieller and Williams have parallel chapters on Coleman and Davis. I'll try to read both of 'em once again just for comparison. ...and thanks for your recommendations JSngry.

You are right. Many times I can't agree with him but it seems he is one of the few who really writes about music and not everything else that is somehow related.

O.K. I'll keep that in mind. I don't take anything by anyone (even you my friend ) as a final say. I don't want a world map - I already have it in endless books and websites. My point was that he picked a task for himself which he did very good, his explanations are short and clear and aestathically that's what important. Whom could you recommend that does a better job? Thanks.

In the last few months I am reading two books by Martin Williams. The first one called The jazz tradition. It took me some time to understand what a tresure it is. At first it seemed too general and phylosophical (it is!) but as soon as I read the chapter on Ellington and his analysis on Koko and Main Stem I felt there ought to be something special and more interesting insights in the book. There are! The second book I found called Where's the melody? and it's great too. Also a friend of our family supplied me with the Smithsonian collection of classic jazz. The 5 cd's are accompanied with a booklet also by Williams. This collection is probably intended for newbies but I think it's no less interesting for the rest too. I think he writes very good. His descriptions of musical pieces are always an eye opener. This kind of writing is what I miss the most in jazz literature. Short and clear descriptions of the music instead of long volumes filled with history, gossip and boring name dropping. So who is (was?) Martin Williams? What do you think of his books? What other stuff he wrote?

Yes that's what I was trying to say. Me too feels that the Hammond is a "natural" instrument (that's a better definition) while electric violins sound terrible to me. Thanks a lot for your answers about the pedal thing, made me really hungry for some Smith, Young, Goldinds etc. stuff.

I agree about the prejudice there is for non acoustic intruments. On the other hand for each electronic instrument that has an acoustic counterpart I prefer the acoustic. The B3 does not have an acoustic parralel IMO, it resembles the big church organs but I think it's not quite the same. b3-er a few questions: 1. Can you tell more about the pedal technique. As I understand you can play chords with your left hand, walking bass with pedals and horn lines with the right hand. Is this true or the left hand is used for walking lines? 2. Can you play a church organ? B-)

This is really not very important but I think this thread belongs more to "Miscellaneous Music" subforum or "Musicians" subforum. Not really related to "Artists".

I love the recordings of Miles with Monk. They are probably two of my most favorite musicians. The man I love - indeed a great track. Another previous discusion

Wynton Marsalis. When you turn the "W" upside down you get an "M".

Yes I know. Though I don't feel this way about Metheny. There are other artists that make me feel that way.

Cyrus Chestnut Mulgrew Miller Herbie Hancock Grant Green Mike Manieri

Riverside is easy: Thelonious Monk.

And consider L. Donaldson, B. Mitchell, G. Green, Turrentine Bros and J. Patton. A never ending thread... You really think so. Shorter, Hancock, Blakey and Horace recorded long strings of good albums. But the rest of the guys mentioned... Sometimes good records, sometimes mediocre (you can argue that even the mediocre BN is better than anything else). Sorry I can't agree that Donaldson and G.Green were as consistant in high quality as the others.

One of the best covers I've yet heard of this Ornette tune (or any Ornette tune, for that matter). It's a bit off topic but if you like this tune you should also listen to Geri Allen's version with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian on her album "Segments".

Q&A is quite a challenging album. It has some classics played in a neckbreaking tempo like Solar and All the things you are. If you can't enjoy these versions maybe you should try to look for other performances of the tunes. Metheny's playing is very assymetrical and free, often breaking the regular rhythm and crossing harmonies. It's really challenging to keep track of what he is doing there but it's always logical and rewarding. H&H is actually a very fast blues when you listen carefully to the changes during the improvisations. "Law years" is a Coleman classic. Metheny follows the concepts of Ornette's groups in the end of the fifties. The improvisation is based on the melody but not on specific chord changes. "Never too far away" and "Change of heart" are melodic and very enjoyable. Sure you don't have a problem with them. The same for the elegant version of "Old Folks".

80/81 is adventurous and has very good compositions. It's probably one of Metheny's best. Dewey Redman and Brecker both play important roles. They are great improvisers. Metheny sounds inspired. Wichita is more dreamy and calm. I know many like this kind of tranquill feel but I miss the fire in 80/81. Wichita is more like somekind of prog rock or new age or whatever. It's less jazzy.

jaki byard - blues for smoke (1960; candid) Great album - if Mingus hired this guy he sure had good taste in pianists BTW - did anyone got to hear the new Mehldau solo?