Leeway

BEBOP LOOSE AND LIVE - J.R. Monterose (ts, ss), Hugh Brodie (ts), Larry Ham (p), Pat O'Leary (b), Tom Melito (d). Recorded live 1981 in Potsdam, NY. The interview reproduced on the back cover is almost worth the price of admission in itself.

Willis "Gator" Jackson "Gato" Barbieri Barber of Seville

I already posted about the book some time ago on this thread, but happy to throw in a couple more comments. First of all, it does seem more of a collection of scraps, bits, and pieces from sources of varying reliability. A patchwork in other words. I found it interesting that Crouch uses a Horatio Alger hero template, with Charlie as "boy hero." He employs many of the conventions of the "boy hero makes good." Maybe that's where the novelistic aspect coms from, but in a biography one is skeptical of interior monologues and conversations that are not documented adequately. One aspect I found odd is that Crouch seems very interested in the salacious details of nightlife in KC, NYC, etc, with some quite explicit details. One has to remember this is volume one of two. I had the impression that it was pushed out on to the market to satisfy contract requirements (it's been gestating forever) It has the feel of a not quite finished work, almost a draft copy. Anyway, just some additional thoughts on it.

Alexander Korda Kordell Stewart E.L Cord

STAMPS - Steve Lacy . hatHut 2LP. Started listening to compare his version of "The Dumps" with those by The Lacy Pool and Ideal Bread, ended up listening to all 4 sides.

This ones a burner. You can get CD-Rs of dubious provenance. I wonder if those "Jazz Messengers" might do this one, since it is on Fontana.

He seems to have Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/people/James-Kousakis/100002298000454 For me, his playing is the weakest part of that record. I think that might be the son. Looks a little too young based on the photo on the back of the jacket, and the 1981 recording date. But I agree with your assessment. That was why I was kind of wondering who or how someone with so little--actually none-- recording experience could be selected to play with veteran musicians. I might ask Bobby Bradford when I see him this week. I asked Bobby Bradford about it at the Baltimore concert. He told me that Kousakis was a student of his and played gigs in the Pasadena area. However he subsequently joined his father's hamburger restaurant, and then later opened his own restaurant. Bobby thought he still does gigs in the Pasadena area, usually backing up a female singer.

I'm not sure I follow you completely. From my own modest collection of his albums, I really enjoy "Like Someone in Love" from Lush Life, "In a Sentimental Mood" from the Duke Ellington album and of course "Blue in Green" for example, and count them amongst the best of his ballad playing (there is a lot of Coltrane material that I haven't heard though especially late Coltrane). Would you say that those are "mystically infused"? How about "Naima"? I would definitely call the intense and intensely beautiful material from 1965 like Dear Lord, Dearly Beloved, and certain pieces from First Meditations for example mystically infused ballads. They probably wouldn't qualify as ballads by definition. These pieces are profound. Kind of what erwbol said. I think "Naima" qualifies, the others don't. (I'm talking about Coltrane leader dates, but I assume you are referring to "Blue in Green" on "Kind of Blue." Having Miles on the recording changes the context). Perhaps you rate them more highly than I do. My larger point is that when Coltrane was able to get out of the "me and thee" of Tin Pan Alley ballads and into some larger sphere of feeling or connectedness, then his music is more powerful. "I love you" as opposed to "a love supreme." To me, handing Coltrane a stack of well-worn ballads was insulting, and a cash grab. Did someone tell Picasso, "Pablo baby, all these cube things, with womens' heads on sideways," just not what people are asking for. Here, paint some nice boats on a lake or something, people can hang over their sofas." Although well-made, according to the conventional standards, it was retrogressive to his particular artistry.

I've always given the "Ballads" album lesser weight because of its more deliberately commercial angle, an effort by Bob Thiele to make Coltrane more acceptable to mainstream audiences (or rehabilitate him for those audiences), who were starting to balk at Coltrane's avant leanings and new mode of playing. Not that Coltrane objected too strenuously, but the passionate personal commitment of the later Impulse albums (or even some of the earlier Atlantics) is really not there. It seems a retrograde step to me. It also seems to me that his best ballads are not romantically grounded but mystically infused.

John Butcher Jim Baker Havard Wiik

Mona Lisa Mona Simpson Lisa Simpson

Actually I was there, but I was too young to fully appreciate the concert. Pisa Jazz was a great festival back then, I have fond memories of Sun Ra and others. That's pretty cool! I bought a copy of the double CD, "PISA 1980 IMPROVISORS SYMPOSIUM" from Evan Parker at a NYC concert. Still need to give it a spin. So clearly some great music played there.

Did you get that at the concert? I just picked up my copy at the Baltimore show. How do you like it? It seemed from your comment in the Live Music thread that you might be getting more interested in free jazz/improv?

Just got back a little whole ago from the Bradford-Gjerstad-Rosaly -IHF show in Baltimore. When I left the house in NoVa, it was snowing (!) briskly, by the time I rounded the Beltway, it had turned into a driving rain and stayed that way all the way to Baltimore and back. The gig, however, more than made up for the dismal weather. A very, very fine set. Everyone played beautifully individually and as an ensemble.Really, everything seemed to click nicely. The show was recorded, so I assume that you might be able to hear it on a CD in the not too distant future. BTW, Frode usually shows up with a virtual record store of CDs and LPs. The last time he was in Baltimore, with PNL, he brought some incredible stuff. This time he said he sold over 100 CDs at the prior stops of the tour, leaving us in Baltimore with....not much. I did leave with a Chicago Sextet LP and a CD by Mars Williams, looking forward to hearing them.

Dexys Midnight Runners Dixie Chicks Chick Corea

Still waiting on mine. Shows an April 2 delivery date. I had also ordered a Roscoe Mitchell disc with the Miles. For some reason, the RM was not "dispatched" with Miles, yet it shows a March 31- April 4 date. I guess we'll just see what shows up.

Thanks for the clip MJAZZG. Really enjoyed it.

Brew Moore Magnus Broo Ambrose Bierce

Whoa. That's got to be a beauty. Often been tempted to shell the $$$$ for it but not yet...one day. That trio has to be right up there in the list of my most overwhelming live music experiences in the Bim? Thanks. I got it at a local dealer about a year ago, maybe a bit longer. I spotted it in a box of recent arrivals. Let's just say the price quoted was extremely favorable. (OTOH, I've bought stuff from the same dealer that was not so favorable ). Mint sleeve and vinyl. The performance is outstanding. I wonder if it will make it onto CD someday.

Anthony Blunt Guy Burgess Anthony Burgess

"If you evidently cannot and don't swing by any stretch of the imagination you may be playing interesting and satisfying music but you ain't playing jazz." Really? Says who? I guess Stanley Crouch, but I don't find his words binding on the matter. I feel I am actually paying jazz the compliment of considering it a living and growing music, something organic, and not a "mouldy" conservatory piece, kept under glass for fear of contamination of all these other influences. One need only scroll through the "What are you listening to?" thread to find an incredible divergence of music. I'd hate to be the gatekeeper who has to say, "Jazz/Not Jazz," "Swing/Not Swing." Whatever happened to "Beyond Category?"

DETTO FRA DI NOI: Live in PISA 1981 - PoTorch Records (2LP) Alex von Schlippenbach, piano Evan Parker, soprano & tenor saxophone Paul Lovens, selected drums and cymbals, saw 'This album presents the complete recording of the performance given by the Schlippenbach Trio during the final concert of the 6 Rassegna Internazionale del Jazz on June 21st, 1981, in the Teatro Verdi of Pisa." Cyclonic intensity relieved occasionally by steely meditative moments.

Beverly "Bubbles" Sills Alan Sillitoe Ministry of Silly Walks

In a Jazz Times article from October 2002, Crouch stated that he saw the rise of of Euro jazz, multi-ethnic jazz etc as a "movement to neutralize the Negro aesthetic." Crouch ends the article by stating: "Jazz is an art, not a subjective phenomenon. Negroes in America, through extraordinary imagination and new instrumental techniques, provided a worldwide forum for the expression of the woes and the wonders of human life. Look like what you look like, come from wherever you come from, be either sex and any religion, but understand that blues and that swing are there for you too—if you want to play jazz." One could probably argue over every sentence in this paragraph, but taking Crouch at his word, he is saying anyone can play jazz as long as it has the element of the blues and hence swing. Racially, the statement is inclusive, musically, the statement is exclusive. This is where my objection to Crouch comes in, and not just Crouch, but the considerable number of others, of all stripes, who use "swing like mad" and "swing like crazy" and other enduring cliches as mechanisms for defining, controlling and limiting the music. It is indeed a code word, but a code that has to do with prioritizing the music of previous generations, or at least a certain kind of well-established formula. Personally, I don't really care if something "swings" as long as it is interesting, complex, thought-provoking, innovative and otherwise possessing the "shock of the new." Swing as an adjective to simply describe is one thing, as a noun that has a certain ontological or abstract priority is another. I'm always a little leery when I hear it thrown around like a royal prerogative. Crouch is bright enough to know that new generations of free improvisors, free jazzers, international mixing and matching of musicians, etc has change the "shape of jazz to come." He is fighting a rearguard action, in his mind to protect and preserve the "Negro aesthetic." I understand his concern. I have no problem with that as long as it does not become the controlling factor. The tide of the music cannot be contained by artificial seawalls, it is a natural process that will go where it will.

Happy to be of service, but I consider it simple recompense, if that, for all the cool LPs you've posted.