Steve Reynolds

We didn't get into his attitude toward women when I interviewed him for Down Beat back in 1968 or '69. But he was on a personal level as mean as a snake, even rather cruel (though I admit that in my still callow relative youthfulness and anxiety to please I left him an opening or two that I shouldn't have). The interview took place by a motel swimming pool with most of the Mothers within earshot, and they (Don Shelton, especially) were more or less appalled at the way Zappa had behaved and gathered around after he'd left to say a good many insightful things about the band that helped to make the experience a success after all, at least journalistically. I used to work with a drummer who went on tour with Zappa as a percussionist, and he said that FZ treated the musicians like dogs. And then there's his two famous quotes about jazz: "Jazz, the music of unemployment". "Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny..." Well, that was a dumb forecast if ever there was one, jazz is still here and..you know the rest. I've listened to a fair amount of Zappa and the sky-high praise for him always had me a bit puzzled, a lot of his output seems to oscillate between juvenilia and academia. I agree completely with your assessment of Zappa. Fwiw - as do I

Great upcoming shows there - including a quartet with Rudi Mahall & Axel Doerner this Sunday!!! Would love to see those dudes come to NYC Plus last night was a quartet with Agusti Fernandez

I'm sure they will have copies on Friday when I see Max Johnson with two different trios.

Whoa! Had no idea about this group or album... many thanks, off to track this down! They have 2 recordings I saw last night. One recently released and the other from about 3 years ago, I think

I wanted to hear Breedlove and Swell. When I heard Moondoc in 2012 in a quartet with Matt Lavelle as his front line partner, the alto saxophonist's delivery was fairly weak and uninspired especially compared to the very bright and energetic (overly?) playing of the trumpeter. Maybe it is the different night or maybe Leeway hears the musicians differently although we seem to agree on quite a bit. Next year, we will be sure to overlap on at least a night or two. Usually I've been able to get there 2 or 3 nights. That wasn't possible this year. I'm very glad I chose last night. Commentary on the closing set later.....

an aside from my wife. I mention what she thinks as she doesn't listen to jazz on CD except from time to time with me and is mostly coming at the music from a far different angle than almost all who read or post here. She said that last night should have been Tyshawn Sorey's big break - if you have one in this world of music. This is her response to a drummer who pretty much plays no groove, plays in a very non-traditional manner, focused more on the inside of the piano and then when he played the piano in a more traditional way approached the abstraction of Cecil Taylor. Yet he swings Yet live he is so accessible, endearing, captivating and in the end, pretty much irresistible. He has that magic gift. The gift of presence. He has the IT factor. The drummer who swings without groove. He is the one. Genius level musician based on the three concerts I've seen him play.

Tyshawn Sorey/Fay Victor Insert into previous post...... I'm no fan of "Jazz Singing" except maybe a dosing of Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughn from back in the day. Tried Betty Carter and I've heard a few avant sorts like Jeanne Lee and there is little that has caught my ear. I fell hard for Tyshawn Sorey on drums on a night he played with Evan Parker, John Escreet and John Hebert last September. As good as the other musicians were that night, Sorey was the ultimate highlight. I then saw him lead an improvising trio with Ben Gerstein and I think Kris Davis this past winter and that gave me hope that I could endure the singing. This mind and heart was opened. She sang, she wailed, she sweated, she sang about sweating, she sang with words, no words, all in all - gorgeous, compelling musician who even played some nice piano. Only problem with the piano is that it was AFTER Tyshawn Sorey played the piano. Now he is a drummer who swings like a motherfucker yet never plays a groove, and he created a tension beyond tension when 20 minutes in he walked to the piano and investigated it from all sides like only a master sound manipulator/master musician could. He then eventually sat down a played something that crossed Paul Bley and Cecil Taylor and I was stunned. after she left the bench, he returned to the kit and exploded on impact. First some more of the sticks and brushes in the air - just the sound of the air - and then the crack of the snare , the tom, the bass drum - then all of them. One of those great endings. One of those sets. Mesmerizing performances by both. My wife was all in now - she loved Sorey last fall - she now is questioning why Fay didn't enter and win The Voice - and then after the first set with her drummer, Mr. Hamid Drake, she was now in a good mood - and with my Barbara, sometimes that's not an easy accomplishment. Standing on a Whale Fishing for Minnows

A few comments on one of the sets for starters: My wonderful wife Barbara decides she wants to on the right side 4 rows back so she can be directly in front of the drummers. Two drum kits are set up - the one in front ends up being Tyshawn Sorey's personal kit - I want to sit on the left where I sat for the first set with the Steinway grand piano directly in front of me with the wonderful Angelica Sanchez playing them and a bit of the insides when appropriate. I want to see Dave Burrell up close and personal - hands and fingers included. I did not, at this point, know what else I would be missing from the piano perspective - as this would be, somewhat surprisingly a night of music that rose or fell depending in large part, what was played on that Steinway. Skip to after the Sorey-Victor duo set........for now...... Everything being started and finished on time, the quartet comes in stage right @ 7:00. Edward "Kidd" Jordan looking a bit more than a year older than last year - and maybe a bit thinner. Burrell smiling goes past me WAY off to the left as I cede to my dear wife's wishes - wishing I hadn't given in before the last set as I had NO idea Tyshawn Sorey.... Well I get to that later if I have any words for - my my my Lordy Lordy and whatever..... Well it's not so far I can't see him - in fact seats are all great and I like the sound and comfort at Roulette - and last night even more so for whatever reason. So bass and drums, added piano and all I can see is the tenor man trying to clear his throat, I think - as he is coughing while the playing trio is really playing. He finds an entrance point and it's pretty strong, gets stronger, lots of Kidd blowing and he stops, sits down, and I hope he's ok. Not normal for a 79 year old with a cough to blow like that. Maybe unprecedented. I seen Fred Anderson @ 80 but was always a way different kinda force than Kidd Jordan. Band smoking hot - we hear tenor from the chair softly, space, more, softly - stands up - cranking, smoking, white hot alternating Jordanesque altissimo lightning with pure tenor riffing - and it builds. Roof coming down - band at a peak - then like Dexter - he walks up tenor horizontal - people be screaming - one more peak. Standing ovation 10 minute encore starts with a perfect drum solo but one last group improvisation amazing ending on a even higher note. 47 minutes of so with band on fire. Fwiw Burrell never got in the way here - always there of not - and helped the great tenorman to find his peaks Palm of Soul, baby

Thanks for the comments. That final quartet would have been my motivation as well to go that night. As you can see I chose Sunday night. Yes - when Taborn is animated and really into it, it is quite something to experience. Now I'm regretting not picking up at least one of their two rogue art CD's.

Jordan Burrell Parker Drake Wow

By the time Sunday night gets here, I be all wound up!!!!

Fwiw, Lightcap's Big Mouth is a helluva jazz band with fine tunes. Poppy it isn't and Taborn, Cheek and Malaby wail. Another fine example of living, breathing jazz without compromise that IF actually HEARD would be enjoyed by many. However it would be enjoyed by many who like jazz. Hard enough to convince many actual jazz fans to listen to jazz as played by living musicians. Maybe that is why jazz smells funny to some

I think anyone writing music where there is an interest in melodic materials, that a hope would be that something memorable might happen. As you said, very hard to do. And some composers/jazz improvisors simply eschew melodic forms in some or even all their approaches. Some deliberately decide to work towards a melodic pursuit at certain times. See Barry Guy's Harmos as compared to especially earlier works where melody was not considered

A whole lot of vintage (and popular)Tommy Dorsey recordings weren't "watered down" anything. As for Glenn Miller, if there was a "watered down" aspect to his band, that wasn't the main reason it was widely popular. There were lots of semi-polite but non-"sweet" bands around at that time; the Miller band was hugely popular because of its distinctive sound, the quality of its execution, and its large number of catchy originals. A latter-day partial comparison might be to the Brubeck-Desmond recording of "Take Five." It wasn't/isn't popular because it's "watered down," it was and is popular because it's catchy/infectious and, for those who care/notice, has a very nice Desmond solo. Well, I reckon those bands were watered down in comparison to Cab Calloway. But OK, where do we see the present day jazz bands with a distinctive sound, quality execution and a large number of catchy originals? Maybe that's nearer to Kenny G than to Vijay Iyer (though I've heard neither). MG I don't see present day jazz bands with a large number of catchy originals. Some of the present day jazz bands have a distinctive sound and quality execution, but not catchy originals. Would it kill these present day musicians to write something like "Song For My Father" or "Watermelon Man"? Apparently you think that writing 'something like "Song For My Father" or "Watermelon Man"' is essentially a matter of will or intent. I think there are plenty of people who would like to write pieces that had that kind of effect on audiences if they could, but it ain't easy -- in particular, it's not a matter of simply putting aside one's supposedly snotty-complex "high art" habits of music-making. Well put, Mr. Kart Throughout the years, I have found a few new melodically brilliant nuggets within all the recordings I have listened to of post 1980 or 85 jazz. Not including improvisations for the point of this discussion. Catchy, exciting and memorable. The stuff that's a prerequisite for any sort of interest from anyone outside of us who are already listening. A few new tunes buried within and around all the other good stuff that we like. Michael Moore, Gerry Hemingway, Don Cherry, Jemeel Moondoc, Tony Malaby, Mat Maneri, Darius Jones, Mark Helias, Barry Altschul, Fred Anderson and I'm sure a bunch of other wonderful composers a bit more to the mainstream have written more than a few melodic, catchy, memorable gems. So they exist buried within recorded sessions that are heard by the hundreds sometimes at the most. Who the hell is gonna play these bedsides who has already heard them? And where are they gonna play these besides on their stereo, I-pod, MP-3 or whatever? Hot 888 or whatever gonna play Hemingway's gorgeous lilting Holler Up?!?!? Much of it could labeled or described as post Ayler of free or avant-garde.

Thanks for the comments. I guess I need to check that saxophonist out!

Another release I wish I put on my very recent order. at least I have the 10 CDs I did order all arriving over the next few days

Plus he plays in a wide variety of exceptional ensembles. His amazing trio with Craig Taborn and Mat Maneri is playing at Greenwich House in early September. I've seen them twice. The first time spring of 2013 was pretty much the most exciting 2 sets of music I've seen in the last couple of years. And as those who pay attention, I'm excited by a good bit of live music that I see fairly regularly. I urge anyone local to see that trio live.

I'm stoked as I'm going to see 65 year old Paul Flaherty roar on the saxophone for the first time. He sounds fresh as paint on record to me. It says on the liner notes that he made his first record in 1978. Maybe he's old school. I know he roars on the saxophone and I imagine the set is not gonna be cool or laid back or whatever the guy a few posts above was talking about. I might dance. I will move. I will be fired up.

Been tracking the upcoming shows and I'm circling the possible ones and a while back I noticed that Ches Smith's week of shows @ The Stone are very interesting with These Arches scheduled for 10/1 and a fine quartet the following night. Then I see on Saturday night 10/4, the first set is a trio of Brandon Seabrook on guitar, Toby Driver on bass and Ches on drums. Called TANK. Sounds smoking. THEN - the second 10:00 set: Ches Smith Tyshawn Sorey Randy Peterson Get Ready to Receive Yourself

I'm kinda dyin' over here knowing I can't make it on Thursday @ Vision Fest.

I'm now upset I didn't include this on my most recent order. Instead, I'm gonna make sure I revisit the original Lacy music that this recording is based on. I will make sure get this and I will make I check out the band live.

Not to mention playing videogames, which is a billion dollar industry which last i heard had officially eclipsed the movie industry earnings wise. From housewives playing casual games on smart phones to hardcore PC gamers, people are in to gaming. And unlike music they're willing to spend money on it. People will spend thousands on consoles and games; that's a large slice of the disposable income pie right there. Jazz is not that popular but i think the age of traditional popularity, household names etc, in pretty much any genre, is largely over. It was a blip. Having said that, i think if promoted in the right way jazz could at least reach more of the young/alternative audience. At the end of the day jazz is a different language to what most people grew up with. What motivation does anyone have to learn a second language if they don't need it? Also, it's a fact of life that factors other than the music itself come in to play = for most people jazz is a faceless, contextless music. When we pick up an album and look at the personnel we sense the history of the players and everything that comes with it: "whoa i wonder what Dude X will sound like with Dude Y on bass prior to that period of his playing." For most people however the personnel are a list of random names that carry no weight whatsoever. I've often thought that if a listener listened to an album not as a 'jazz' album but as an experimental album from one of their favourite alt bands it would be a mind opener. I'm 33 and starting getting in to jazz at around 25. FWIW here's what i thought pre-indoctrination: - In general i disliked brass. - The saxophone is the least cool instrument on the planet. In the eighties when i was growing up it seemed like every horrible pop song and cheesy sitcom theme featured a corny saxophone solo. - As a hip hop fan, i'd often check out jazz due to enjoying songs with jazzy samples. It always felt like it was missing something without the beat. Vacant, lacking. - Beats. I can't stress enough how used we are to hearing a strong kick snare four four beat and how wrong it feels to not have it there (in hindsight this is weird as i dug film music and other stuff that didn't have a beat). - That 'tss t t tss t t tss' and walking bass line thing made me want to slit my wrists. - Sometimes i'd enjoy the heads but i found solos to be completely tedious. Listening to Kind of Blue it was like a switch when the solos would start, like the carpet was being pulled out from under my ears. - Beats. No beats. No good. - Funny thing is i don't even remember consciously thinking that jazz was old or dead or whatever. People don't give it that much thought. I started listening to jazz when I was ~ 31 or so. My first thought was: 1) where the fuck are the drums? I was used to rock music. It took a few weeks to hear the music and it was Mingus at Antibes that did it. I then bought a zillion classic recordings and started listening to more current music including 70's and 80's Waldron, Murray, Hemphill, Lake and Rivers, etc. I started hearing something extraordinary about hearing music that to me was without limitations and very energetic and exciting. Seeing Trio 3 helped. Seeing Evan Parker roar on tenor with Dresser and Previte had me hooked on the "avant-garde"

Some people will. But that sort of music has a tiny audience. It might seem otherwise at a dedicated New York or London venue with millions living within commuting distance. I can't imagine many turning out for it in the market town I live in. We don't even get mainstream jazz here! Remember that in its determination to confront conformity and stereotype much of that music deliberately throws out or disguises the things most people recognise as music - recognisable melody (in the sense of tunes), a danceable beat, standard harmony. There is no doubt that if you are receptive to having your prejudices about music confronted then it can be enjoyed by anyone. But, as you said earlier, most people's interest in music doesn't go that far (and there's no reason it should). Agree with all of this. My wife heard the stuff I listen to at home for years and besides a few things, I was forced into listening via headphones. Cecil Taylor scared her and forget about Brotzmann. But when saw the musicians live it all changed. She told Nasheet Waits that he should be on Jay Leno

Plus the idea that extended improvisations or continuous playing through different compositions cannot capture the attention of an audience is not accurate based on my experience. When the music is good, people listen and get into it.

I don't think that jazz doesn't appeal to "those people" because "there is a huge entertainment deficit in today's jazz." Rather, as I think you suggest, it's because the kinds of musical entertainment they prefer already amply satisfy their desires to" just ... have fun." If I'm already having lots of fun, why would I go in search of some other ways to do that? Pondering these problems, there's always a temptation to say that jazz such as it is needs to be significantly other than it is, and then we might be OK. Not that the various ways that jazz is nowadays ought to be regarded with complacency, but my experience over the years has been that if we try to gee up the music's supposed "entertainment deficit," we then won't be OK, or that much better off, in terms of popularity, we'll just have some more music that no one will care that much about or remember after a short while. Hey, what about Windham Hill? That was supposed to be our salvation at one point. ​BTW, that is not to dismiss the important practical points that Allen Lowe made in post #34. I agree that jazz should not be watered down to try to appeal to a mass audience. However, even in my lifetime I can remember Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Sun Ra emphasizing an entertainment aspect in their shows, or at least a lively, friendly interaction with the audience. Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon and Carla Bley had large personalities and some people went to see them partly to hear their between song comments and just to see them. I am not aware of anything like that today. I can't name any jazz artist who presents an entertaining, engaging or compelling onstage personality, or who makes their shows entertaining. There are no jazz artists that I can think of who would generate a comment like "oh, he or she is really cool" from a member of the general public. ICP, William Parker's Quartet, and I would even venture to say Tony Malaby, despite what some feel is his desultory appearance. The bands I see are mostly highly entertaining *and* musically invigorating. Almost all the bandleaders are open and warm to the audience and my experience is the audience has plenty of fun. My belief is that most people just don't love music in the same way that some of us do - and that once they end up with some sort of stable life, they like what they might hear on the radio or see on TV. And the few concerts they might see would be a band from their past (Fleetwood Mac or The Eagles) or something that they heard on hot 97 or whatever the current Top 40 station is where they live. Same as it ever was, really - but as someone pointed out, music on a deep listening level is simply not as important to as many as it once was as there are a zillion new ways to be "entertained". Who is going to investigate some wordless sort of music when they aren't even really excited about the music they might currently listen to in between tweeting, surfing on line or watching DVRs of the latest shows or sporting events?!?!