Sonny Clark Leapin' and Lopin'

[Michael Weiss]

 

The BN trio record is a classic as are all the others. But if I were to pick a favorite - for the whole band, the arrangements, the spirit.. this is the one:

 

In the early 80s Tommy used to sit in with us at the Star Café. he played a little trumpet, but mostly sat in on piano - quite deftly too. 

Around 1986 there was a benefit for Barry Harris' Jazz Cultural Theater one afternoon at the Village Gate. One band had a front line of Tommy, Jimmy Heath and Slide Hampton. I remember they played Our Delight. Wow, those were the days...

[mjzee]

Tommy Turrentine around the 21 minute mark and again around the 28 minute mark.

Edited May 13, 2016 by mjzee

[fasstrack]

i hope my comments didn't come off as too harsh. i truly loved tommy. he was in my corner all the way, too---he and c. sharpe. it just frustrates me to see a great talent go down like that.

 

Edited May 14, 2016 by fasstrack

[Larry Kart]

Not too harsh at all. Honest and soulful, I thought.

A bit repetitious, though.

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

N no addiction, st too harsh at all. Honest and sou. lful, I thought.

A bit repetitious, though.

But repetition defines addiction, so hey, style points for thematic amplification to make the point!

[fasstrack]

i'm glad you guys aren't mad at me for 'telling tales out of school'. i feel guilty making any negative comments about friends---especially deceased ones who aren't around to defend themselves. but this was the tommy turrentine i knew: a brilliant but messed-up guy who was capable of being like a lovable child at times. he used to tease people he liked, saying 'you ugly'. one time at the jct a little kid turned the tables on him, saying 'YOU ugly!'. so there were good times with him, too, for sure. he was a true friend, too, who always told the truth, even if it hurt. i have a lot more tommy t. stories in a book i almost finished about the nyc jazz scene in the '80s. unfortunately, said book is in the bowels of a computer with a crashed hard drive---and, foolishly, i didn't back up the data...

 

Edited May 14, 2016 by fasstrack

[fasstrack]

a vivid memory i have of tommy is of the street band he was in that george braith ran in the '80s. (they were in a scene in the movie moscow on the hudson. tommy told me 'a guy came up to us with $100, and said 'wanna be in a movie?, i said---gestures grabbing the money'). i heard them one afternoon. tommy was sitting on a stool with his head down, wearing a leather vest and nothing under it. he was playing so much shit---4ths and other intervals and ideas in a totally personal way. he was a near-genius, i always thought, and it was very clearly the case that day...

 

Edited May 14, 2016 by fasstrack

[JSngry]

Dude-try making a post on somebody else's phone and see what happens.

[BillF]

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

[fasstrack]

16 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Not too harsh at all. Honest and soulful, I thought.

A bit repetitious, though.

3 hours ago, BillF said:

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

Thanks Fasstrack

12 hours ago, JSngry said:

Dude-try making a post on somebody else's phone and see what happens.

I fixed it. I am sorry about the multi-posts. I know they are tedious to look at and a drag. I don't have wifi in my building, and refuse to give $ to 'the man for service'---ergo the cell phone postings after the 'berry closes and I can't use my laptop. I have no idea why this happens when I write from the cell phone. I always fix it later, though. Sorry again, and thanks for bearing with me...

[JSngry]

Try somebody else's phone one time, just as an experiment.

[fasstrack]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Try somebody else's phone one time, just as an experiment.

Maybe I can come to sunny Texas and try yours ...

[JSngry]

Maybe. Maybe not. You got bus fare?

The point is, if your phone is bugging somehow and is really slow processing the first post, you would be well within your rights to keep hitting that button until things start to move. And then, all those "send" signals go through together. If you tried another phone and/or another location you could see if that was so or not.

It's happened here before, to posters using regular computers, the packets lag or something, people push that button again, same results duplicate or more posts.

So if you want to eliminate the issue, there are ways to identify the variables and then test them.

[fasstrack]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Maybe. Maybe not. You got bus fare?

The point is, if your phone is bugging somehow and is really slow processing the first post, you would be well within your rights to keep hitting that button until things start to move. And then, all those "send" signals go through together. If you tried another phone and/or another location you could see if that was so or not.

It's happened here before, to posters using regular computers, the packets lag or something, people push that button again, same results duplicate or more posts.

So if you want to eliminate the issue, there are ways to identify the variables and then test them.

I PM'd you...

[danasgoodstuff]

15 hours ago, fasstrack said:

i'm glad you guys aren't mad at me for 'telling tales out of school'. i feel guilty making any negative comments about friends---especially deceased ones who aren't around to defend themselves. but this was the tommy turrentine i knew: a brilliant but messed-up guy who was capable of being like a lovable child at times. he used to tease people he liked, saying 'you ugly'. one time at the jct a little kid turned the tables on him, saying 'YOU ugly!'. so there were good times with him, too, for sure. he was a true friend, too, who always told the truth, even if it hurt. i have a lot more tommy t. stories in a book i almost finished about the nyc jazz scene in the '80s. unfortunately, said book is in the bowels of a computer with a crashed hard drive---and, foolishly, i didn't back up the data...

 

Data recovery dude may be able to fish it outta there, but it would co$t some

[fasstrack]

3 hours ago, danasgoodstuff said:

Data recovery dude may be able to fish it outta there, but it would co$t some

Someone told me about a cheaper way: you only extract the files you need, then save them in other media. I haven't tried it yet. The old laptop is in storage. One day...

[JSngry]

3 hours ago, fasstrack said:

I PM'd you...

Thanks, good Idea!

[Dave Garrett]

7 hours ago, fasstrack said:

I don't have wifi in my building, and refuse to give $ to 'the man for service'---ergo the cell phone postings after the 'berry closes and I can't use my laptop. 

What kind of phone do you have? With many phones it's possible to enable "tethering", which allows you to use the phone's data plan/connectivity on other devices such as laptops or tablets. Your laptop just sees the phone as another wifi network to connect to. I've had to do this on occasion when my regular cable internet connection was down and I was doing something that required an internet connection but was not optimal to do using a phone. 

[fasstrack]

to get back to the music: the cd arrived yesterday. i'm listening now, and i love it! great tunes and burnin' playing by everyone, especially my man tommy t. his ideas are da bomb. he really was one of the top jazz trumpeters of that period...

   

Edited May 18, 2016 by fasstrack

[BillF]

I guess multiples are in.

[Gheorghe]

Strange but Leapin and Lopin doesn´t get as much spinning from me like "Cool Struttin" "Dial S for Sonny" and "Sonny´s Crib".

I know many people say the prefer his trio album, but if I want to get the "Sonny Clark-Groove" it´s those hard-boppish medium tempos. I don´t think so much about him as a piano player, I like his relaxed solos on the mentioned albums but don´t pay much attention to his version of "Be-bop" and other up tempo stuff. Too little stuff happening with the left hand. I don´t say everybody must be a "two fisted pianist", you can overdo this showing everybody that that goddamn piano has 88 keys, but some more "fill in´s", some rhythmic patterns like the snare shots or the bombs a drummer throws would be good. I know what it means not to do too much with the left hand after a 1 year battle with tendovaginitis de quervain combined with athrithis, but I try not to forget I got a left hand too under the condition I won´t hurt it to much anymore....

[JSngry]

The guy comped with the power and drive of an organist. If you couldn't swing with that under you, that would be nobody's fault but your own!

[mjzee]

I wonder if some of the musicians here could comment on his comping.  I find it fascinating, because it sounds like if you were to listen to what he's playing while he's playing behind someone, if you were to listen to it in isolation, I'm not sure it would sound coherent - it would sound more like scattered odd notes and broken chords.  But the effect when he's behind someone is electric, and I'm sure he's making the soloist play better and harder than he would be otherwise.  There's a magic there, and I wonder whether some more knowledgeable folk here could expound on that and tell a little about how that works.

[JSngry]

It's the syncopations, the kicks. And then how he'll set a riff, like a big band. Always putting his foot all the way up in it (colloquialism, sorry). Harmonies, he would open those up too, but the thing about his comp to me is the pure kick of it, the solid propulsiveness of where he puts his pocket. Even those little "broken" things he'd do, they always started right and landed right, he wasn't "in" the pocket as much as he was the pocket. Of course, in those days, he tended to play with people of whom the same thing could be said, so yeah, ubiquitipocket.

[fasstrack]

he was adaptable as an accompanist, too. he recorded nicely with jimmy raney, and adapted to his much gentler approach to swinging. i feel one real crucible for accompaniment is one's work with singers, especially getting down to brass tacks in a duo setting. there's nowhere to hide there, and you can hear a superior accompanist set up tempos and renditions with intros, anticipate, answer when the singer stops, 'hear around the corner', and bring the singer out generally. i never heard sonny clark with a singer. that would be interesting as hell...

 

Edited May 18, 2016 by fasstrack