Cornelius

At the IAJE conference last week, Bob Blumenthal briefly interviewed Glenn Barros, president of Concord Records. Barros said that (as I am paraphrasing as best I can recall) there won't be any deletions from the Fantasy catalog but some titles might not be available in the usual form; Instead, these titles might be available "on demand" from Amazon. He didn't specify whether 'on-demand' means on-demand download or on-demand disc. Later I spoke with someone from Fantasy. He hadn't heard of the on-demand plan, but he said that as far as he knows the plan is to continue the availability of all CDs, for the Fantasy catalog to be administered still in Berkeley by the same staff, and for the product to be warehoused where it is now. He said that he could not conceive of Fantasy damaging the catalog by deleting from it. And he said that even more warehouse space was recently acquired for both the existing Fantasy catalog and more product being developed.

Two thousand if you count both songs.

Red Rodney?

Teenie Harris was a great photographer. Some of his best is right up there with Weegee. It's good that there's a web site for him, but the small digital renderings there don't even hint at how beautiful his pictures are. I highly recommend the published book of his photos for anyone interested in this kind of photography.

I don't find the engineer's name in the booklet for the LP set. One drawback of the CD set is that it doesn't include this booklet with Leonard Feather's essay. There's not a lot of musical analysis in the essay, but there are some nice personal details. For example, I was disappointed to read that though Basie loves to play the horses, he's not a smart player. He doesn't know how to handicap a race but instead bets hunches and from the names of the horses. That conflicts with my notion of Basie as hip and shrewd. Also, the LP booklet indentifies the soloists as the CD booklet does not. I wish they had recorded "One O'Clock Jump" as part of this project, just for the sake of having all of the most famous tunes included. The sound of the CDs is great. If you look at the wav files, they're real fat. However, this necessitates care in programming these tracks next to tracks from other CDs that have less dense audio, since they tend to have less perceived volume.

This is a great reissue. A ton of great Basie. Also, Basie Land, On My Way And Shoutin' Again, and Basie's Beat, came out this year. Basie's Beat, with five Eric Dixon arrangements and five arrangements by other Basie regulars, is a giant of an album.

Point well taken about parallelism. Thanks. I'm interested in both views: 1. The more practical approach you describe and 2. The exact-match extensions/scale approach. I think this "stereo" view can enrich one's understanding of the music. If nothing else, I don't think it hurts just to know that there are other options, especially that of collecting all the extensions into an easily remembered scale.

I understand that. I'm just suggesting that if you're going to arpeggiate a triad pair, why not just choose a triad pair that best fits the extensions of the chord? All other things being equal, it's just as easy to use G augmented as it is to use G major, and be spot on doing it. So I'm just pointing out an advantage of another option. I'm not arguing against anyone playing or practicing anything they want to play, especially since, as your quote suggests, historically, actual jazz practice can't be accounted for by any one theoretic framework - ultimately, the greats just play whatever they want and make it sound good by, if nothing else, rhythmic momentum and the stand-alone logic and direction of their own melodic ideas.

"D7 - play D, F#, A and C, E, G." I would think that the C augmented triad, not the C major triad, would be the one to concentrate on here, since the G# gives an augmented 11th, which fits the chord much better (and is much more frequently voiced) than the perfect 11th that is usually felt as too dissonant to voice with the major third. That reminds me that along with the circle of fifths, one might consider the following observation to be a useful summary: Except for the b9 and +9 played for a dominant chord, it is rare that a "straight ahead" jazz chord has a minor 9th formed betwen any of its intervals (including internal intervals) in the strictly upward construction of the chord, even if the chord is not voiced in strict upward construction. This is especially true since locrian half-diminished is increasingly replaced by half-diminished with major 9th. One could take it pretty much as a rule: Virtually any stacking of thirds or any intervals up through the 13th will make the chord notes/scale notes (not necessarily the voicing) of a jazz chord if no minor 9th is formed in the intervals (whether reckoned from the root or internally) in upward construction. And no construction that entails minor 9ths will work (except for b9 and +9 on a dominant). The sus with a perfect 4th might be an exception, except that the major 3rd is usually absent or at least somewhat supressed.

"Do you mean to say that contrary to everything I've ever read about Kind of Blue, it[']s not (aside from 'Freddie Freeloader' which Wynton Kelly plays on anyway) the breakthrough modal album?" [Dan Gould] "Freddie Freeloader" is not the only tune on Kind Of Blue that's not a modal tune. "All Blues" is a blues, and "Blue In Green" has detailed changes. So only two ("So What" and "Flamenco Sketches") of the five compositions on the album are modal.

I don't get it. How could Desmond tell (speak) the story of being arrested while he was soloing? He was quoting melodies while he was soloing, but the melodies related to the driving incident? I'm confused. / Dr. Rat I don't mean to endorse any particular outlets, but I just had in mind the usual places like half.com, amazon.com, et al.

Hope Is In The Air: The Music Of Elmo Hope - New Stories (Origin Records) Marc Seals, p; Doug Miller, b; John Bishop, d Guests on certain tracks: Roberta Gambarini, vo; Don Sickler, tp, flgh; Bobby Porcelli, as; Bertha Hope, p; Ronnie Matthews, p; Peter Washington, b; Kenny Washington, d Sikler, prod; Van Gelder, eng Elmo Hope tunes:. "Carvin' The Rock", "Barfly", et al. (And I don't remember if there's a dedication tune or two also.) Bertha Hope plays on three tracks. Release date: Oct 19. It's not bad. I only listened to it "other-tasking" though. I'll try to listen to it this weekend and let you know more.

"Basie? I don't follow you..." [Jim R] I was asking Dr. Rat if "April In Paris" is an instance of "Pop Goes The Weasel" that he dislikes. "Favorite quote: Cannonball plopping Fascinatin' Rhythm right into his solo on Miles from Milestones." [jazzypaul] Oh my lord, yes! This is such a sublime moment on a sublime solo on a sublime track on a sublime album. Just that solo, even just that one moment in that solo gives me hope, makes me feel it's a blessing to be alive. Cannonball Adderley on "Miles" is the very air on a crisp, blue spring morning. / Dr. Rat, Thanks for that story and for a fond glimpse of Benny Carter. As to your (rhetorical?) question about buying the Desmond box for your station, I think that if your library has gaping holes in it, then it would be better to spend your public station's money on used CDs online or elsewhere. With a modest budget you could scoop tons of monumental music for a few bucks a CD rather than going after Desmond at $17.00/disc. We all love Mosaic of course for what they do, but a public radio station has to look out for itself too. I'd first get as much great music on the cheap as I could.

Dr. Rat, Would you give some examples that irk you? (Other than "Pop Goes The Weasel", by which you mean Basie?)

Apologies for having misstated that the session is not listed. Should we think there is something amiss, some unwarranted "revisionism", in changing from 'unissued' to 'rejected'? How was the session marked in '59? / People naturally use terms differently, but it seems to me that 'squeek' and 'clinker' denote two very different things, since a clinker is not a squeek but rather an actual wrong note. / A Blue Note side note: The new album Hope Is In The Air by New Stories (produced by Sickler, w/ Sickler, Porcelli, Bertha Hope, and others guesting) has a Wolff photo that I don't recall having seen: Elmo Hope, Philly Joe Jones, and Percy Heath at the piano in the living room, by the shuttered blinds. The composition - the way they're sitting and standing together - is beautiful. Just another little thing to make your heart glad. By the way, do other Blue Note nuts sometimes wonder, as I do, what the rest of that living room looks like?

"[MV 6] is the only one with the great trio with Paul and Art that isn't on CD." [shrdlu] I too await that release. Of course, Garland and Chambers are like chops and onions (can't say which is chops and which onions, though). On the other hand, one of the felicities of MV1 is the gorgeous interplay between Garland and Sam Jones. They're just so clear and natural and elegant. You know, you just marvel at the beauty of these guys.

This is not in the first edition of the Blue Note Discography, even though rejected takes and sessions are listed. Is it in the new edition? If not, why not? If the session is a stinker, then nonetheless it would be nice if it were available for study in a library or archive, but I don't think it would do the art(blakey)form any good to make a commercial release of it. Also, the analogy with sessions like Search For The New Land doesn't hold since that session was shelved not rejected. "Hank squeaks a lot [. . .]" So vat elze is new?

montg, Yeah, don't it just make you want to cry? But the corporation is there to make money. From that view, there's no need to wonder why this music is unreleased. But considering that the corporation touts itself as a worthy custodian of this great art (which, being jazz, is not just great art, but also the manifestion, the expression of a profoundly heroic culture), the lack of availability of these works is obscene. P.D., I don't think there were any VSPs made of this material. Aside from the vinyl releases, re-releases, and compilations, the few CD tracks that I know to have trickled out are: "Blue 'N Boogie" on Dizzy's Diamonds. "The Mooche" on Stan Getz & Dizzy Gillespie "All The Things You Are" on Stan Getz: Best Of The Verve Years, Vol. 1 "Stuffy" on Coleman Hawkins And Roy Eldridge At The Opera House

montg, There's some primo stuff. I suspect that Universal owns it, since bits have come out on Verve CDs. Time to militate for the release of this material! The known session details are not all clear, and I should listen to my LPs with the aim of fixing some details, but, just to make your mouth water, it goes something like this: prob. Carnegie Hall, NYC - Sep 57 Stitt, Jacquet, Phillips, Young w/ Ellis, Peterson, Brown, J. Jones The Slow Blues ______ Opera House, Chicago - Oct 57 Gillespie, Stitt, Getz w/ Lewis, Heath, Kay Now's The Time Autumn In New York Wee Round Midnight Dear Old Stockholm ______ Opera House, Chicago - Oct 57 Eldridge, Johnson, Getz, Hawkins, Young w/ Lewis, Heath, Kay Stuffy Polka Dots And Moonbeams ______ Shrine Auditorium, LA [not, I don't think, Philharmonic Hall, which seems to conflate with a venue in some other city] - Oct 57 The Slow Blues Merry-Go-Round Stuffy ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// all below are from Konserthuset, Stockholm - Nov 60 Eldridge, Carter, Byas, Hawkins w/ Schifrin, A. Davis, J. Jones Take The 'A' Train These Foolish Things Yesterdays The Nearness Of You You Go To My Head Indiana ______ Gillespie, Johnson, Wright, Getz w/ Schifrin, A. Davis, Lampkin, Camero Kush The Mooche Weatleigh Hall ______ Gillespie, Johnson, C. Adderley, Carter w/ Schifrin, A. Davis, Lampkin Bernie's Tune Swedish Jam ______ Eldridge, Byas, Getz, Hawkins w/ Schifrin, A. Davis, Lampkin All The Things You Are ______ Johnson, Getz w/ Feldman, S. Jones, Hayes Sweet Georgia Brown I Waited For You A New Town Is A Blue Town Yesterdays Trotting ______ Gillespie, Johnson, Getz w/ Feldman, S. Jones, Hayes Blue 'N Boogie ______ Eldridge, Carter, Byas, Hawkins w/ Schifrin, A. Davis, J. Jones A Jazz Portrait Of Brigitte Bardot

I don't know how, or even if, instructions were conveyed. But the Moodsville albums I've heard do tend to sound different to me.

"[. . .] this is listed in Lord as being a Granz Jam session [. . .]" [P.D.] It seems to me that Lord sometimes lists sessions twice. So, in this case, there's a good chance that his G4465-2 is subsumed by J2034-2. / A small CD set I wish they would issue already are the live jams in November 1960 in Stockholm. Great lineups and tremendous music. Some of the very greatest. Also, the October 1957 concerts would be nice to have on CD. More of the very greatest. By the way, Lord cites Schaap as listing two of those October 1957 concerts - one in Los Angeles and one in Chicago - on the same day, even though Lord has Oscar Peterson on both of them. It's probably Lord who errs by not catching that it's actually John Lewis at the Chicago concert. Granz also contributes to the confusion by suggesting in liner notes that music that was actually recorded in L.A. is from the Chicago gig.

"Still missing from the reissue box is the August 1957 Jam Session [ . . . ]" [brownie] Are you sure this is a separate studio session and not part of the unissued material from the Hollywood Bowl concert?

The contention that the Moodsville albums don't have a different character from Prestige albums doesn't seem correct to me. There are exceptions, but generally, my perception is that the Moodsville albums are more sedate, simpler, and somewhat less "jazz intensive", even comparing with Prestige ballads.

These are sounds I love. I recompiled this way: DISC 1 Jan '59 from Jackie's Bag Byrd, McLean, Clark, Chambers, Jones 1. Quadrangle (McLean) 4:42 2. Blues Inn (McLean) 9:04 3. Fidel (McLean) 7:07 May '59 from New Soil Byrd, McLean, Davis, Chambers, La Roca 4. Hip Strut (McLean) 11:15 5. Minor Apprehension (McLean) 7:30 6. Greasy (Davis) 7:20 7. Sweet Cakes (Davis) 6:41 8. Davis Cup (Davis) 5:25 9. Formidable (Davis) 6:13 DISC 2 Sep '60 from Jackie's Bag Mitchell, McLean, Brooks, Drew, Chambers, Taylor 1. Appointment In Ghana (McLean) 6:56 2. A Ballad For Doll (McLean) 3:16 3. Melonae's Dance (McLean) 6:47 4. Isle Of Java (Brooks) 7:25 5. Street Singer (Brooks) 10:18 6. Medina (Brooks) 6:46 Oct '60 from Back To The Tracks Mitchell, Brooks, Drew, Chambers, Taylor 7. Back To The Tracks (Brooks) 8:05 8. The Blues And I (Brooks) 8:53 9. For Heaven's Sake (Don Meyer, Elise Bretton, Sherman Edwards) 6:03 10. The Ruby And The Pearl (Jay Livingston) 5:08 / "The first session [is] Jackie's first visit to the Van Gelder studio as a BN recording artist [. . . ]" [king ubu] It was his first session as a leader for Blue Note. But he had previously recorded as a sideman for the Cool Struttin' and Off To The Races albums.

"I believe [Stan Getz And J.J. Johnson At The Opera House] also had some "manufactured" cuts made to seem like they were live." [Free For All] There is confusion about which tracks were recorded at the Opera House in Chicago and which at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. And there is confusion about the dates. But I've not seen any mention that any tracks are doctored. "Wasn't Newport '56 also partially studio takes?" Yes.