tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1572663381934429612024-03-13T23:32:46.378-07:00Tony Flood's House of Hard BopDedicated to jazz of "the Blue Note persuasion," mid-'50s to mid-'60s and the cats who created it and keep it alive.Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-9405089786721433182013-04-22T07:55:00.000-07:002013-04-22T08:36:12.789-07:00Wes Montgomery's "Boss Guitar": April 22, 1963<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Am I the only one cognizant of this golden anniversary? I hope not. Recorded at Plaza Studios in New York City on April 22, 1963 <i>Boss Guitar </i>is more than enjoyable: it is essential Wes Montgomery. (I'm merely contradicting Scott Yanow's opinion, as excerpted in the <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_Guitar"><span style="color: red;">Wiki article on the album</span></a>.</span>) The sensibility of his later albums (<i>Boss Guitar</i> was his ninth) provides the session's "popular" atmosphere, but it is drenched in the mind-engaging improvisational chops the world had already heard on <i>The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery </i>and other LPs.<i> </i></b></div>
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<b>I recommend to jazz guitarists reading this that they "live" with each of Wes's solos for a concentrated period (if they have not already done so), immerse themselves in these gems of spontaneous musical composition, intently notice how he builds them, "dig" the signature earthy texture with which his calloused right thumb incarnated their every note. They are as emotionally accessible to the casual listener as they are challenging to the veteran player. </b></div>
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<b>It's a trio date -- the recently deceased <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Rhyne"><span style="color: red;">Mel Rhyne</span></a> on Hammond B-3, the apparently immortal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Cobb"><span style="color: red;">Jimmy Cobb</span></a> on drums -- that packs the punch of a big band. If you feel you must sample what I'm talking about before acquiring this CD, I am pleased to note that the tracks are available on YouTube, but I'm embedding it here for your convenience:</b></div>
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<b>Not seven weeks earlier, the eponymously titled, and classic, collaboration of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, <a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2011/03/coltrane-hartman-collaboration-march-7.html"><span style="color: red;">which we have celebrated</span></a>, to mention no other great contemporaneous jazz recording, had transpired. 1963 was memorable for transition (Pope John XXIII dies mid-Vatican Council on June 3, Paul VI is elected), trail-blazing (the March on Washington on August 28th, but also many other sentinel events in the history of the civil rights movement), and tragedy (JFK's assassination, subsequent/consequent escalation of US involvement in Vietnam). </b></div>
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<b>But it was also the year the Beatles made pop culture history with <i>Please, Please Me </i>and <i>Meet the Beatles. </i>Comic book superheroes Iron Man and the X-Men continue to do that, but those superheroes debuted fifty years ago. James Bond's second cinematic adventure, <i>From Russia with Love, </i>hit the big screen. </b></div>
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<b>That year Blue Note Records released <i>Blues for Lou, Am I Blue</i>, and <i>Idle Moments </i>all three albums helmed by its most prolific musician, <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2011/06/happy-birthday-grant-green-1935-1979.html"><span style="color: red;">Grant Green</span></a></span><i>. </i>But as wonderful as they are, and as much as they continue to delight, <i>Boss Guitar </i>must be singled out for the extraordinary gifts it bestows. And as infrequently as I tend this blog, I could not proceed with anything else today without saying so.</b></div>
Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-21525325698522295082012-05-08T08:34:00.000-07:002019-05-21T08:56:39.028-07:00Sadik Hakim: "Forgotten Duluthian"<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A fine<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://zenithcity.com/archive/people-biography/sadik-hakim/"><span style="color: red;">profile of Sadik Hakim</span></a>, one of the unsung heroes
of the musical revolution we call “bebop”</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">—</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and subject of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/sadik-hakim-1919-1982-vignette-from-my.html"><span style="color: red;">one of our earliest posts</span></a></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">—</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">appears in the first issue of <i>Zenith City,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>an online newsletter devoted to
all things Duluth.<span class="apple-converted-space"> David Ouse, author of
</span></span></b><b><i><span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.perfectduluthday.com/2010/12/19/duluth-librarian-writes-book/"><span style="color: red;">Forgotten Duluthians</span></a></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> and a research
librarian for “the air-conditioned city’s” public library system, deserves the
gratitude of jazz lovers for helping solidify Hakim's place in the history of the music </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">in the popular mind</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. For as of 2012, that place largely depends
on the ability of information-hungry jazz fans to notice, recall, and connect the
scattered references to him in the biographies and memoirs of others.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Mr. Ouse
enriches his few paragraphs with just enough genealogical and sociological
detail to help us envision Hakim's journey from a Black working-class musical
household in Duluth just after World War I, to 52nd Street in New York in its
glory days in the mid-'40s, his conversion to Islam, his participation in the
recording of the bop classic "Ko-Ko," to the concert halls of Japan
"before enthusiastic crowds" in 1979-1980. (It brought me great
satisfaction to learn the last-cited fact.) <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sadik
Hakim (1919-1983)</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If there
is to be a sequel to Mr. Ouse’s book, I hope Sadik Hakim finds a place in
it. In that spirit of recovery, we are pleased to refer again
to Tom Surowicz’s 1990 “Forgotten Man,” a substantial appreciation of Hakim for
the <i>Twin Cities Reader</i>, </span></b><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2012/03/sadik-hakim-duluth-clippings-and-wes.html"><span style="color: red;">available via this blog</span></a></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. (</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Last
year Dave Lull provided me with that article, scanned with the resources of the
very library Mr. Ouse serves, and tipped me off to the latter’s recent item only
today. Thanks again, Dave!)</span></b></div>
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Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-75841223708998322252012-03-27T08:48:00.000-07:002012-03-27T12:46:57.998-07:00Wes Montgomery and Harold Mabern, Coltrane's "Impressions," March 27, 1965<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The
great pianist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Mabern"><span style="color: red;">Harold Mabern</span></a> turned 76 last Tuesday. He's on several of my
favorite sides: Grant Green's earliest recordings (with Jimmy Forrest, December
10, 1959), 1964's now-classic <i>Inside Betty Carter</i> and, the
subject of today's post, Wes Montgomery's trio dates in Paris and
Belgium 1965. As Thom Jurek describes it for his <a href="http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=5865033"><span style="color: red;">CD Universe review</span></a>
of the recording of the Paris concert, <i>performed 48 years ago this evening</i>:</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Wes
Montgomery's 1965 concert at the <a href="http://www.theatrechampselysees.fr/le-theatre/un-peu-d-histoire"><span style="color: red;">Theatre des Champs Elysees</span></a> [<i>let Google translate the French for you, if necessary.--T.F.</i>] in Paris is one of
the greatest live dates ever recorded from the decade. Here, Montgomery,
pianist Harold Mabern, drummer Jimmy Lovelace, bassist Arthur Harper, and
saxophonist Johnny Griffin</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">—</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">who guested on three selections at the end of the
gig</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">—tore </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">the City of Light apart with an elegant yet raw and immediate jazz
of incomparable musicianship and communication. </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Montgomery was literally on
fire and Mabern has never, ever been heard better on record. From the opening
bars of "Four on Six," Montgomery is playing full-on, doing a long
solo entirely based on chord voicings that is as stellar as any plectrum solo
he ever recorded. Mabern's ostinato and legato phrasing is not only blinding in
speed, but completely gorgeous in its melodic counterpoint. And while the bop
and hard bop phrasing here is in abundance, Montgomery does not leave the funk
behind. It's as if he never played with George Shearing, so aggressive is his
playing here. </span></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Nowhere is this more evident than in the tonal inquiry that goes
on in the band's read of John Coltrane's "Impressions," in which the
entire harmonic palette is required by Montgomery's series of staggered
intervals and architectural peaks in the restructuring of the head. Likewise,
in Griffin Montgomery finds a worthy foil on "'Round Midnight" and
the medley of "Blue and Boogie/West Coast Blues." Montgomery assumes
the contrapuntal role as Mabern floods the bottom with rich, bright chords and
killer vamps in the choruses. Highly recommended. </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A few weeks later in April of 1965, Montgomery and Mabern appeared (again with Arthur Harper on bass) on Belgian television and, thanks to YouTube, we can get a glimpse of what Mr. Jurek enthused over:</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Although we lost Wes on June 15, 1968, Harold Mabern has been teaching several generations of jazz musicians at William Paterson University. He also continues to perform, often in ensembles led by tenor saxist (and one of his former WPU students) Eric Alexander. Last year he gave a priceless interview in which he tells about his being "at the right place at the right time" in late 'fifties and early 'sixties in Chicago and New York (including his first Birdland gig) and, more touchingly, about the trauma of witnessing the murder of his friend, Lee Morgan (at Slug's jazz club forty years ago last February 19). </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Simply put, Mabern has played with nearly all of the jazz greats who were his contemporaries. But now <i>he's</i> one of the greats with whom it is the privilege of others to play. A belated Happy Birthday, Harold! Thanks for keeping the flame.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SR3acaRpbiU" width="560"></iframe></span>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-29825437347565089002012-03-06T13:07:00.000-08:002012-03-28T16:05:21.176-07:00Sadik Hakim Duluth Clippings and Wes Montgomery Birthday Release<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>I am surprised, and a bit ashamed, to note that it has taken me a full year to post some rare clippings of Sadik Hakim (see other posts by clicking on his name in the right column) that a correspondent supplied me. Dave Lull, who works in Minnesota, went out of his way to photocopy </b></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">these valuable portals into the past </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">from a library, preserved </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">on microfilm, </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">scan them to .pdf's, and send them to me. Unfortunately, making them available to others got kicked down my list of priorities</b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">—</span></b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a rather poor way to show my appreciation to Dave for his research. Thanks again, Dave! </b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>On a new page of "The Jazz Annex"</b></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">—</span></b><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.anthonyflood.com/hakimduluthclippings.htm"><span style="color: red;">here's the link</span></a></b></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>are hyperlinked titles of two </b></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">articles</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b> </b></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">about Hakim</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>. </b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The first, <a href="http://www.anthonyflood.com/SadikHakimDuluthNative.pdf"><span style="color: red;">"Duluth Native Hakim to Give Concert Here,"</span></a> is a <i>News Tribune </i>piece, dated May 16, 1976 (the jazz great, who died in 1983, was still with us then). Underneath that scan is an imperfect copy of the second article, </b></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">one of the fullest accounts extant of Hakim's career, written with enthusiasm by </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">jazz journalist Tom Surowicz for the </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Twin Cities Reader</i>, a weekly paper. (If you don't scroll past Tom's piece, you'll miss a great photo of Hakim at the piano, arms outstretched as though he were excitedly amplifying a point of conversation. I copied it onto <a href="http://www.anthonyflood.com/hakimduluthclippings.htm"><span style="color: red;">that Annex page</span></a>). </b><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dave later provided me with a </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">better scan of</b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_170619096"><span style="color: red;">"</span></a></b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.anthonyflood.com/SadikHakimForgottenMan.pdf"><span style="color: red;">Forgotten Man: Duluth Pianist Sadik Hakim, Unsung Hero of Minnesota Jazz,"</span></a> now accessible through this link and the second link on the Annex page.</b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (Be assured that </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the text is all there; </b><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in order to follow it, however, you must "page down" from the bottom of the first column on the first page to the top of the first column on the second, and then back to the top of the second column of the first page. I'm sure you'll find doing more intuitive than it sounds.)</b><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Separately: long-buried tracks of live and studio dates of Wes Montgomery's from late '50s Indianapolis were released on CD today, the 89th anniversary of his birth. <i>Echoes of Indiana Avenue </i>is available in .mp3 files, but the CD comes with a booklet packed with historical and pictorial goodies, so that's what I'm getting.</b><br />
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<br />Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-72235342347200262962011-10-17T09:23:00.000-07:002011-10-17T10:56:16.655-07:00“I’m gonna tell Benny about you”: When Barney Met Charlie<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On
the occasion of what would be the 88th birthday of Barney Kessel (1923-2004) . . .</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. . . a</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">nd
also, remarkably, what is the 53rd of another guitar virtuoso, Howard Alden, a
keeper of Barney Kessel’s flame . . .</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2Pzp3i9Xevw/TpxUQgyvXaI/AAAAAAAAANQ/9BylSdHYRgk/s1600/Howard_Alden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2Pzp3i9Xevw/TpxUQgyvXaI/AAAAAAAAANQ/9BylSdHYRgk/s1600/Howard_Alden.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. . . I reproduce this reminiscence of Kessel’s cited
by Wayne E. Goins and Craig McKinney in <i>The
Biography of Charlie Christian,</i> <i>Jazz
Guitar’s King of Swing </i>(Edwin Mellen Press, 2005, 286-88). </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 1981, in
preparation for a special Charlie Christian issue, Jas Obrecht, who had edited
Barney’s column for <i>Guitar Player</i> magazine
since the late ‘70s, interviewed him. In that interview Barney elaborated upon not only what Charlie meant to him personally, but also upon the context of jazz guitar playing that Charlie had burst into and then transformed. This valuable interview was never published until earlier this year
when <a href="http://jasobrecht.com/barney-kessel-interview-meeting-jamming-charlie-christian/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Mr.
Obrecht posted it on his blog</span></a>, to which I hope jazz aficionados will turn after visiting mine. What now follows is </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Goins and McKinney's introduction to</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Barney Kessel recollection taken from that earlier interview:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One
of the places Charles [Christian] dropped by while on vacation, at the behest
of a friend who worked there as a waiter, was the Oklahoma Club. As he worked, the waiter listened to the band
blow and was quite taken by a young guitarist whose style had shadings similar
to the unique Charlie Christian approach. The guitarist was Barney Kessel, who
was still in his teens. Years later, Kessel recounted the incredible story of
how he got to know Charlie Christian for <i>Guitar
Player </i>magazine:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Around October of 1940 [<i>i.e., the month Kessel would
turn 17.--T.F.</i>] I was going to high school and playing with a college band from
Stillwater, Oklahoma called the Varsitonians. We were playing three nights at
the Oklahoma Club in Oklahoma City during some time off from classes. The first
night I was taking a lot of solos on electric guitar, and throughout the
evening I noticed that a young black waiter kept looking at the bandstand listening
and smiling, and when I would play a solo he would nod and grin. He became very
animated and showed me from a distance that he really did like what I was
doing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we took an intermission this waiter approached me
and told me that he did enjoy the way I played and was surprised to find someone so young
playing solo guitar. He went on to say that he knew Charlie Christian. He also
said Charlie was there in Oklahoma City at the time, and that he intended to
call him and tell him about my playing. Well, I didn’t believe that at all; as
far as I knew, Charlie Christian was playing with the Benny Goodman Sextet
somewhere in New York—certainly not in Oklahoma.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So in the middle of the next set I was absolutely
astounded and bowled over when I looked down and in front of my very own eyes
there was Charlie Christian looking up at me, registering his approval of the
music and what we were doing. He was tall and very lean, and he must have been
about twenty-one then. [<i>Born in July 29, 1916, Charlie Christian was 24 in
October 1940.</i></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>--T.F.</i></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">] I was just overwhelmed! I guess for me to see Charlie Christian
at that time would be very much like a twelve-year-old girl having The Beatles
look at her during their hey-day.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He seemed genuinely happy to be in my company, and of
course I was delighted to be in his; so when he found out I was going to be in
town for two more nights, he suggested that we might get together the following
afternoon to jam. Well, I hadn’t dared
to bring this up, just out of respect for his artistry and his stature, but
since he suggest it I was all for it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So that night I went to bed almost unable to sleep,
just thrilled beyond belief over being able to meet this man and have him be so
nice and helpful. I say it over and over again, because I did respect him so
much.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Charlie
kept his word, and over the next two days, he spent some quality time with the
young Kessel, who couldn’t believe what he was experiencing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, when we had finished playing and Charlie was
taking his leave, I just thanked him over and over for having allowed me to jam
with him and told him how I would never forget him or that day. He walked away
a few steps, then turned and smiled. I can recall today his last words to me
and just the way he said them, they inspired me so much. I lived on these words
for a long, long time, and they helped me to build a sense of worth in myself. He
walked away just a few steps and turned around and said, “I’m gonna tell Benny
about you.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[<i>Barney
would first play in Goodman’s orchestra seven years later.</i></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>--T.F.</i></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">]</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-26428911468240515242011-06-06T13:29:00.000-07:002012-03-28T16:12:42.066-07:00Happy Birthday, Grant Green (1935-1979)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mR1AvkaXGag/TezgijDT6xI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/STVqCXQq1Bo/s1600/Grant+Green.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mR1AvkaXGag/TezgijDT6xI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/STVqCXQq1Bo/s400/Grant+Green.png" width="400" /></b></a></div>
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<b>The basic facts about the legendary jazz guitarist Grant Green's life (June 6, 1935-January 31, 1979) and career can be found easily enough. Here's the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Green"><span style="color: red;">Wiki entry for him</span></a>. Here's the <a href="http://www.jazzdisco.org/grant-green/discography/"><span style="color: red;">complete discography</span></a> (although I prefer <a href="http://www1.icnet.ne.jp/au_discography/gg.htm"><span style="color: red;">the more colorful version</span></a> with its thumbnails of album covers, compiled by a Japanese fan). While he was at Blue Note records, he was its most recorded artist.</b><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xY3g7wZWXJ0/Tezq4wNZYJI/AAAAAAAAAMY/q2gT4T3l0MQ/s1600/GGBlueNoteYears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" height="318" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xY3g7wZWXJ0/Tezq4wNZYJI/AAAAAAAAAMY/q2gT4T3l0MQ/s320/GGBlueNoteYears.jpg" width="320" /></b></a></div>
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<b>A technical discussion of Grant's distinctive tone (over the years: tones) is <a href="http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/Get%20That%20Tone_%20Green%20Street-er/"><span style="color: red;">here</span></a>. Sharony Andrews Green's <i>Grant Green: Rediscovering the Forgotten Genius of Jazz Guitar, </i>his daughter-in-law's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grant-Green-Rediscovering-Forgotten-Genius/dp/087930698X"><span style="color: red;">biography</span></a>, fills in the many blanks left by his albums' liner notes. (Here's Bill Milkowski's helpful <a href="http://jazztimes.com/articles/20578-grant-green-rediscovering-the-forgotten-genius-of-jazz-guitar"><span style="color: red;">review</span></a>.) </b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4PIp7MOzfQI/TeziBbKPsVI/AAAAAAAAAMU/Wn-vtB7Su6U/s1600/GGBio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4PIp7MOzfQI/TeziBbKPsVI/AAAAAAAAAMU/Wn-vtB7Su6U/s1600/GGBio.jpg" /></b></a></div>
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<b>I prefer to devote this birthday tribute to Grant Green by recalling my long road to appreciating his playing. </b><br />
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</b><br />
<b>I began playing the guitar shortly after the Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan Show, and jazz guitar became a topic for me in 1971 when I heard Melvin Sparks on the radio. One by one, I investigated all the names my jazz aficionada mother dropped on me: George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessel. A friend of hers, who had played briefly in the '50s, turned me on to Kenny Burrell, and in his living room I discovered one of the more powerful influences on my playing, Pat Martino. (In my mind's eye, I can still see his <i>Strings! </i>album on Charlie's living room floor.) </b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>A few months passed, and Grant Green's name was in the air, but I knew of no one who really knew or dug his playing. I took it on faith that he was great, and bought one LP album after the other every payday at J&R's on Park Row. Here are three I remember buying (and still have, but listen to them on my iPod):</b><br />
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</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gn6TpQLFF5c/Te0VIF_h_RI/AAAAAAAAAMc/0xyzPposO_U/s1600/GGFirstStand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gn6TpQLFF5c/Te0VIF_h_RI/AAAAAAAAAMc/0xyzPposO_U/s200/GGFirstStand.jpg" width="198" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VF2qGGGP6EE/Te0VQBtJ7BI/AAAAAAAAAMg/9kznWDaP0R4/s1600/GGrantStand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b></b></a></div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VF2qGGGP6EE/Te0VQBtJ7BI/AAAAAAAAAMg/9kznWDaP0R4/s1600/GGrantStand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VF2qGGGP6EE/Te0VQBtJ7BI/AAAAAAAAAMg/9kznWDaP0R4/s200/GGrantStand.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hOjP7gHfjaI/Te0VZRb0J5I/AAAAAAAAAMk/OlgsywGCW30/s1600/GGAmIBlue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hOjP7gHfjaI/Te0VZRb0J5I/AAAAAAAAAMk/OlgsywGCW30/s200/GGAmIBlue.jpg" width="200" /></a><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b></b></span></b></span></b><br />
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<b><b><b><b>Unfortunately for my musical ears at the time, however, nothing "clicked."</b></b></b></b></div>
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<b>I wanted "more" from Grant's playing. More what? More notes. Notes, notes, notes. He was a "single-note" player, that is, you didn't go to him for innovations in voice-leading chord progressions from him. I liked that. But I thought others, </b><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/08/pat-martino-hard-bop-years-happy.html"><b><span style="color: red;">Pat Martino</span></b></a><b>, for example, doled out in bushels what Grant Green seemed only to be hinting at. I had thought, and continued to think, that Pat and George Benson "said" more. </b></div>
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<b><b><b><b>"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Cor. 13:11)</b></b></b></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><br />
</b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>I was looking for the evidence that others had apparently found. Several times in the early '70s, before <i>Breezin' </i>changed his life, Benson and I -- <i>separately and coincidentally</i> -- would come into the same New York clubs to catch one or more of Pat's shows, which offered me a chance to chat with him. On one of those between-set occasions (</b></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>at "Folk City" on West Third Street, as I recall), </b></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>I asked George, seated on a barstool, straight up: </b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><br />
</b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><i>"What is 'it' about Grant Green? <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>What am I missing?" </b></span></b></span></i></b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></b></span></b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><i>"Aw, man! . . . "</i></b></span></b></span></b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></b></span></b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Smiling easily, but unable to hide a "where-do-I-begin?" look, George began to express his apparently limitless admiration for Grant's musicality. </b></span></b></span></b></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>His touch, his taste and, yes, technique were exquisite (not George's exact words, which not even my diary holds, but those were the bases he covered). Grant's "chops" or technique was perfectly suited to his musical intention. (And what are "chops" without that correspondence but so much unmusical showing off?) His intention was simply to groove, high and hard.</b></span></b></span></b></span></b><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OneeZdtKdM0/Te0rVEil2YI/AAAAAAAAAMo/VJnBsSBv35I/s1600/Grant+Green+Larry+Young+1966.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OneeZdtKdM0/Te0rVEil2YI/AAAAAAAAAMo/VJnBsSBv35I/s400/Grant+Green+Larry+Young+1966.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Grant with Larry Young on Hammond B-3. The picture was <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/61578214@N00/169312879/"><span style="color: red;">allegedly taken in 1966</span></a>, </span></b></span></b></span></b></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">making a mystery out of the display of the LP of a '63 recording.</span></b></span></b></span></b></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></b></span></b></span></b></span></b></div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>I sensed that perhaps George was merely being gracious: if I couldn't hear "it" in Grant's playing, his words weren't going achieve what only further listening, and living, could.</b></span></b></span></b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><br />
</b></span></b></span></b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>When I made a firm intention in October 2007 to return to jazz guitar with a renewed sense of purpose, I engorged myself on a great deal of music, much of which I had heard decades ago, but never listened to with the ears of someone who intended to do this one day for a living. Tunes became objects of study, not just vehicles for jamming. </b></span></b></span></b></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><br />
</b></span></b></span></b></span></b><br />
<b>I bring my autobiographical musings to a grinding halt to say that during the next few years I finally "got" Grant Green. After downloading over a dozen of his albums as .mp3's, I understood and respected his ability to express himself in diverse genres in diverse settings, to lead a trio, a quartet, or a <a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/dream-come-true-grant-green-leads-hard.html"><span style="color: red;">hard bop band</span></a> that could rival <a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/10/art-blakey-1919-1990-dean-of-hard-bop.html"><span style="color: red;">Blakey and his Messengers</span></a>, or to play whatever was called for in someone else's setting. </b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kwQ1uJln3TA/Te0yESf0VoI/AAAAAAAAAMs/w4TouO6fWIo/s1600/GGwithHerbie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kwQ1uJln3TA/Te0yESf0VoI/AAAAAAAAAMs/w4TouO6fWIo/s1600/GGwithHerbie.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Grant with a 22-year-old Herbie Hancock at piano. </span></b></span></b></span></b></span></b></b></div>
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">From the <i>Goin' West </i>or <i>Feelin' the Spirit </i>recording sessions.</span></b></span></b></span></b></span></b></b></div>
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<b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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<b>Most pleasantly, and surprisingly so, I found myself wanting, not to "sound" like Grant Green, but <i>make others feel the way I feel when I listen to him</i>, the joy and happiness carried by those clean, articulate lines<i>. </i>That's what his playing exudes. But the process of "entering into" the music of another, like entering into the thought of another, is not something done without intention. </b><br />
<b><br />
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<b>My appreciation of Grant Green has not lessened my regard for anyone else's playing. It is tinged only with the regret that although I have lived simultaneously with his music (albeit it was "below my radar" until 1971), I was never got to hear him "live."</b><br />
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</b><br />
<b></b><b>I cannot repay someone on whom I can count to make me happy with his music, but I can try to pay it forward. </b><br />
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<b>Enough feeling-diluting words! Here is the only known footage of his playing (alongside legends Kenny Burrell [left], Barney Kessel [center]). Grant solos first. Enjoy it, and then with the help of the links provided above, explore and share his legacy!</b></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AKW40qCeql8" width="425"></iframe></div>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-68330410346586397372011-03-07T07:52:00.000-08:002011-03-07T08:27:31.698-08:00The Coltrane-Hartman Collaboration, March 7, 1963<div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">47 years ago today, two men named John walked into Rudy van Gelder's studio and made music history, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Coltrane_and_Johnny_Hartman">John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman</a>, </i>with the indispensable assistance of McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums.</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-6gBTRkMuCpE/TXT2bt-J7tI/AAAAAAAAAMI/RVBa7F9m8jI/s1600/album-john-coltrane-and-johnny-hartman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-6gBTRkMuCpE/TXT2bt-J7tI/AAAAAAAAAMI/RVBa7F9m8jI/s320/album-john-coltrane-and-johnny-hartman.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div><ol start="4"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">1. "They Say It's Wonderful" (Irving Berlin) - 5:15</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">2. "Dedicated to You" (Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin, Hy Zaret) - 5:27</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">3. "My One and Only Love" (Guy Wood, Robert Mellin) - 4:50</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">4. "Lush Life" (Billy Strayhorn) - 5:20</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">5. "You Are Too Beautiful" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) - 5:32</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">6: "Autumn Serenade" (Peter DeRose, Sammy Gallop) - 4:11</span></b></div></ol><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal;"><b>At just over 31 minutes in length, it was shorter than the average LP, but incomparably richer esthetically:</b></span></i></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-G31dRIgg3Z4/TXT2BKPgfqI/AAAAAAAAAME/4lgw3wplqsk/s1600/HartmanTraneMcCoy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-G31dRIgg3Z4/TXT2BKPgfqI/AAAAAAAAAME/4lgw3wplqsk/s1600/HartmanTraneMcCoy.png" /></span></b></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></b></div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">"Though Coltrane and Hartman had known each other since their days playing with Dizzy Gillespie's band in the late 1940s (Hartman had been with the band on an on and off basis, and Coltrane played [third] alto with the band in 1949), Hartman is the only vocalist with whom the saxophonist would record as a leader. Initially when producer Bob Thiele approached Hartman with Coltrane's request that the two record together Hartman was hesitant as he did not consider himself a jazz singer and did not think he and Coltrane would complement one another musically. However, Thiele encouraged Hartman to go see Coltrane perform at Birdland in New York to see if something could be worked out. Hartman did so, and after the club closed he, Coltrane, and Coltrane's pianist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCoy_Tyner">McCoy Tyner</a>, went over some songs together. On March 7, 1963 Coltrane and Hartman had decided on 10 songs for the record album, but en route to the studio they heard <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_King_Cole">Nat King Cole</a> on the radio performing "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lush_Life_(song)" title="Lush Life (song)">Lush Life</a>", and Hartman immediately decided that song had to be included in their album. The legendary compilation was made that same day . . . ." (From the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Coltrane_and_Johnny_Hartman">Wiki</a> entry)</span></b></blockquote><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">Now let's get lost in their classic take on Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life": </span></b><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/X1gELbBMFjA?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">And on Guy Woods and Robert Mellin's "My One and Only Love": </span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dRh7M9zQiIc?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">The last word (at least here) is from reviewer <a href="http://jazz.about.com/od/classicalbums/gr/JohnColtraneJohnnyHartman.htm">Jacob Teichroew</a>:</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan; font-family: inherit;">"The most striking aspect of this album, filled with songs about love's shortcomings, is the simplicity with which both Coltrane and Hartman treat the melodies. Hartman, never much the bebop singer, chose to stay close to original melodies as a general rule, letting his velvety tone and thoughtful phrasing become the focus. Coltrane, who had a few years before recorded <i>Giant Steps</i> (Atlantic, 1959), a document of his technical wizardry, was inspired by Hartman's simplicity. On <i>John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman</i>, Coltrane plays as if he is singing. The result is a stunning combination of lyrical and emotional expression. Coltrane went on to produce many more albums, and developed an often-studied body of experimental work. Hartman never saw quite the same level of fame, and never strayed far from nuanced, romantic jazz. While Coltrane is now considered an American icon, Hartman is unknown to all but jazz enthusiasts. However, on this record, the two talents meet to create a dark and beautiful masterpiece."</span></b></blockquote></div>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-23333774588054229062011-03-06T17:50:00.000-08:002011-03-07T07:54:36.762-08:00March 6, 1923. Happy Birthday, Wes!<b>Wish I had time to do more than to say I hope you'll enjoy this clip of Wes Montgomery's hard-boppin' lines on "Jingles." That's Harold Mabern on piano, very much still with us!</b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IXOrj7QAc8M" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-77843590259856762262011-03-04T07:36:00.000-08:002011-03-04T08:07:50.820-08:00March 4th in Jazz History: Two Charlies, Too Soon Departed<b>On March 4, 1941, </b><b>"pre-bop" </b><b>Jazz guitar </b><b>legend Charlie Christian recorded (</b><b>with the Benny Goodman Sextet) </b><b>"Solo Flight," which reached the top of Billboard's Harlem Hit Parade and 20th from the top of Billboard's Hot 100 (Pop). (A very helpful analysis of Christian's distinctive ideas, some from "Solo Flight," is <a href="http://www.midside.com/2007/03/02/christian_formulas/">here</a>.) A couple of days less </b><b>than a year later, </b><b>Christian died of complications of tuberculosis (contracted in the 1930s), age 25. If you have three minutes to spare, spend it on this, right now:</b><br />
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<b>Exactly fourteen years later, March 4, 1955, at </b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Birdland, the club named in his honor (and from which, ironically, he was once barred for lack of a cabaret license), </b></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Charlie Parker</b></span></b></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b> </b></span></b><b>played in public for </b><b>the last time. He died eight days later at the Stanhope Hotel in Manhattan at the age of 34. ("The official causes of death were lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, but Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosis of the liver and had had a heart attack. Any one of the four ailments could have killed him." From the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_parker">Wiki article</a>.)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span>A moving reminiscence by Jackie McLean was my favorite part of this video clip:</b></div><div _extended="true"><br />
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</div>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-33741308962556295332011-02-21T14:37:00.000-08:002011-03-09T19:06:50.316-08:00A Night at Birdland: February 21, 1954<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 1954, February 21st fell on a Sunday. </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In that morning’s <i>New York Times </i>you might have been amused by a little article on Atlantic City boardwalk chairs by Gay Talese. (He was then working as a copy boy at the <i>Times.</i>) </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By 1954, you probably owned a black-and-white television. In April, <a href="http://community-2.webtv.net/stevetek/StevesCT100/">RCA would launch its first color model</a>. </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you stayed home that evening, you could have seen Lucille Ball play mystery guest on <i>What’s My Line?, </i>which had premiered on CBS only a few weeks earlier. </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Or you could have bought a ticket to see her surprise hit comedy, <i>The Long, Long Trailer</i>, which had opened a few days earlier. </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></b></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you were <i>au courant</i>, you knew the war against polio would accelerate that Tuesday in Pittsburgh, where children would be vaccinated </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>en masse</i></span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, thanks to Dr. Jonas Salk and his colleagues. </span></b></span></b></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, as in our time, Egypt was in the news with Gamal Abdel Nasser’s grabbing the helm of state two days later.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The same week <i>What’s My Line? </i>hit the airwaves, President Eisenhower used them to warn against American intervention in Vietnam—after authorizing $385 million to fight communists there (on top of the $400 million already committed).</span></b></div><div style="margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To put those millions in perspective: gas was 29 cents a gallon; a loaf of bread, 17 cents; a stamp, 3. The average working stiff grossed $4,700 a year, putting that thousand-dollar color TV out of reach for most.</span></b></div><div style="margin: 6pt 0in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BUT . . . </span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you loved jazz, then for the cost of a few drinks you could have witnessed heaven on earth at </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Birdland, </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hard Bop’s Bethlehem, “The Jazz Corner of the World.” For an equivalent amount today, you can download the tracks that Alfred Lion produced and Rudy Van Gelder so expertly recorded there that night, which practically put you at a table down in that Broadway & 52nd Street </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">basement. (Yes, you can find heaven in a basement.)</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_HM3sigiK7E/TW5lC93vQoI/AAAAAAAAAMA/GINPJRwyTN4/s1600/Art_Blakey_Birdland_Marcel_Fleiss_small_AG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_HM3sigiK7E/TW5lC93vQoI/AAAAAAAAAMA/GINPJRwyTN4/s320/Art_Blakey_Birdland_Marcel_Fleiss_small_AG.jpg" width="314" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For February 21, 1954 was the night The Art Blakey Quintet (or, "Art Blakey and His All Stars," as </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Birdland's M.C. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pee_Wee_Marquette">Pee Wee Marquette</a></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> announced) </span></b></span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">recorded what became </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>A Night at Birdland, </i>Volumes 1 and 2 (Blue Note 1521 and 1522).</span></b></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1isFx_WwCnA/TQfI-YV8DQI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/UMYyYkQhnfU/s1600/MeetYouAtJazzCornerVols1and2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1isFx_WwCnA/TQfI-YV8DQI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/UMYyYkQhnfU/s400/MeetYouAtJazzCornerVols1and2.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">VOLUME 1</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">1. Split Kick (Silver)</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">2. Once In A While (Green-Edwards)</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">3. Quicksilver (Silver)</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">4. Wee-Dot (Johnson-Parker)</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">5. Blues (Traditional)</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">6. A Night In Tunisia (Gillespie-Paparelli)</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">7. Mayreh (Silver)</span></b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>VOLUME 2</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1. Wee-Dot (Johnson-Parker)<br />
2. If I Had You (Shapiro-Campbell)<br />
3. Quicksilver (Silver)<br />
4. The Way You Look Tonight (Kern-Fields)<br />
5. Lou's Blues (Donaldson)<br />
6. Now's The Time (Parker)<br />
7. Confirmation (Parker)</b></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><div style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2008/peeweemarquette.jpg" /></span></b></span></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his distinctive delivery, the M.C. appeals</span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to the audience's vanity: their applause will be part of</span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> the recording session and then announces the</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> line-up</span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>:</b></span></div><blockquote style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>". . . the great <a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/10/art-blakey-1919-1990-dean-of-hard-bop.html">Art Blakey</a>, and his wonderful group, the new trumpet sensation, <a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/08/clifford-brown-first-recording-as.html">Clifford Brown</a>, </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>Horace Silver on piano, </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>Lou Donaldson on alto, Curly Russell on bass." </b></span></div></blockquote><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>Marquette does <i>not </i>announce them as "The Jazz Messengers," even though Blakey had used "Messengers" </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>on and off </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>for the title of his various groups since 1947 (e.g., "The Seventeen Messengers," reflecting Blakey's conversion to Islam). The album covers refer simply to "Art Blakey Quintet." They become "The Jazz Messengers" regularly after Hank Mobley joins the group later that year, and </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>"Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers" </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>permanently </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>after co-leader Horace Silver leaves in 1958.</b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>(Stephen Schwartz and Michael Fitzgerald's virtually complete discography of Blakey and his ensembles is enhanced by many excerpts </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>from interviews with him</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>, so <a href="http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Blakey/chron.htm">I encourage you to explore their site.</a></b></span></span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>)</b></span></span></b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b></b></span></span>In the interest of accuracy, we should remember the joint leadership of Blakey and Silver who (unlike Blakey) contributed many songs to the band's book. Indeed, in 1955 the group was known as "Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers," and it <a href="http://atane.net/2011/01/07/horace-silver-and-the-jazz-messengers/">recorded under that very name</a>. </b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4124KT8ZV2L._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers" border="0" height="200" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4124KT8ZV2L._SL500_AA300_.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>Horace Silver is indisputably a father of hard bop. Or, as he dubs himself, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hardbop-Grandpop-Horace-Silver/dp/B000003N8J">"The Hardbop Grandpop."</a></b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mLWcIsWaep0/TWUaZcvkJ1I/AAAAAAAAAL0/zloZSQ-JWNA/s1600/Hardbop+Grandpop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mLWcIsWaep0/TWUaZcvkJ1I/AAAAAAAAAL0/zloZSQ-JWNA/s320/Hardbop+Grandpop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some of the stand-out tunes: "Split Kick" (a contrafact of Harry Warren's "There Will Never Be Another You"); two versions of Michael Edwards' "Once in a While"; two of Horace Silver's breakneck "Quicksilver" (which recalls, and rivals in inventiveness, Bird's most distinctive compositions); Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" that could make me forget Blakey's 1960 studio version featuring Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons, and Jymie Merritt. (</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am ashamed to admit that I have not yet encountered the recording of the 1957 line-up that tackled that classic: Jackie McLean, Johnny Griffin, Bill Hardman, Sam Dockery, and Spanky DeBrest. Both albums are titled, <i>A Night in Tunisia.</i>)</span></b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two versions of a J. J. Johnson' and Leo Parker's fast blues, "Wee Dot," surround </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Mayreh," another Silver bebopper. </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The featuring of two of Charlie Parker's signature tunes, "Confirmation" and "Now's the Time," nearly a decade after they heralded the birth of bop, shows Bird's continuing influence over the next generation.</span></b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The longest track (10:15) belongs to Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight," Oscar winner for Best Original Song (Fred Astaire crooned it to Ginger Rogers in <i>Swing Time </i>in 1936). It is exemplary of how the jazz improviser can mine and refine hitherto undiscovered harmonic and melodic possibilities of popular music. In his solo Lou Donaldson (born 1926), throws in the proverbial kitchen sink, including a taste of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" (just as his idol Bird, on that very stage three years earlier, <a href="http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/mainHTML.cfm?page=greatencounters1.html">interpolated the opening</a> of Igor Stravinsky's <i>Firebird Suite, </i>to</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> its composer's delight, into his solo on "Ko-Ko"). </span></b></span></div><div style="font-weight: 800; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>After finishing "Now's the Time" (vol. 2, track 3), Blakey with his </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>crisp, resonant voice, </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>acknowledges to his audience </b></span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>"that</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>I'm working now, and I hope forever, with the greatest musicians in the country today. That includes Horace Silver, Curly Russell, Lou Donaldson, and Clifford Brown. Let's give them a big round of applause! Yes sir, I'm gonna stay with the youngsters, and when these get too old I'm gonna get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active."</b></span></div></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal;"></span></b></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Of this stellar outfit, only Donaldson and Silver (born 1928) are still with us. (When I was being introduced to jazz in the early '70s, these two gentlemen had taken their music in a direction that didn't interest me, and so their improvisational and compositional gifts on so many historic recordings stayed below my radar for too many years. May no one reading this make that mistake.) A car accident took Brownie's life in June of 1956, and Blakey himself passed away in 1990. Bebop bass pioneer Dillon "Curly" Russell (1917-1986) had left music altogether by 1960. (Miles Davis' bop classic "Donna Lee" was named after his daughter.)</b></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Hard bop expert Eric B. Olsen (who compiled the discography for Silver's autobiography <i><a href="http://hardbop.tripod.com/sessions07.html">Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty</a></i>) does <i>not</i> list <i>A Night at Birdland </i>in his list of <a href="http://hardbop.tripod.com/music.html">100 Hard Bop albums</a> which he lists chronologically. If he had, that session -- one of the first "live" recordings of jazz -- would have been listed third. Perhaps that's because while the players are all budding hard boppers, the music they made that night is bebop. There's no hint of gospel or rhythm & blues, elements that set that stage of jazz's evolution off from its predecessor. Listen to two other double-album sets by </b></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Blakey and the Messengers recorded six years later in the same club: </b></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>At the Jazz Corner of the World </i>and </b></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: 800;"><i>Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World. </i>It's Bebop-Plus.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: 800;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: 800;">No, <i>A Night at Birdland </i>isn't hard bop. But anyone, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: 800;">57 years ago tonight, who </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: 800;">wanted to see and hear its progenitors would have had to skip <i>What's My Line? </i>and make their way to Broadway & 52nd. A lucky few did, and as Pee Wee Marquette promised, their applause was immortalized on wax along with the searing sonorities they cheered.</span></div></div>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-90371536598757828872010-12-15T06:15:00.000-08:002013-10-02T10:36:20.590-07:00Birdland, 1949-1965: Hard Bop Mecca<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-t-9GAALI/AAAAAAAAAJk/-hrOFOs_YGI/s1600/BirdlandExterior1949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-t-9GAALI/AAAAAAAAAJk/-hrOFOs_YGI/s1600/BirdlandExterior1949.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, happy birthday to <a href="http://www.barryharris.com/">Barry Harris</a> (b. 1929) and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=31033">Curtis Fuller</a> (b. 1934)! (Two stories for future posts!)</span></b><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">61 years ago, December 15, 1949, a basement club -- following (I'm not sure of the order) the Ubangi, the Ebony, and The Clique -- opened as Birdland: The Jazz Corner of the World. Its birth coincided with the demise of "The Street," i.e., the serendipitous concatenation of jazz clubs that sprung up on 52nd Street between Fifth and Seventh Avenues in the wake of Prohibition. (For a complete history, see Patrick Burke's scholarly <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Come-Hear-Truth-Jazz-Street/dp/0226080714">Come In and Hear the Truth: Jazz and Race on 52nd Street</a></i>. Arnold Shaw's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/52nd-Street-Jazz-Capo-Paperback/dp/0306800683">52nd Street: The Street of Jazz</a> </i>makes an excellent companion reader.)</span></b><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQa2rfslF0I/AAAAAAAAAJ0/_I6ja_r2Mxw/s1600/52nd_street_l1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQa2rfslF0I/AAAAAAAAAJ0/_I6ja_r2Mxw/s400/52nd_street_l1.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A daytime shot of legendary 52nd Street -- on its last legs in the late '40s.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birdland_New_York.jpg">upscale jazz club and restaurant</a> on Manhattan's West 44th Street possessing legal title to "Birdland" is therefore <i>not </i>topic of this post. (On its home page, take the "History" </span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">link </span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to a fact-filled page about its historic predecessor.) With all due respect to that venue for the great music and food it offers, it is not the historic Birdland that was effectively <i>the </i>House of Hard Bop from its first stirrings in the early '50s to its ripening in the early '60s.</span></b><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The address is 1674 Broadway, at the corner of 52nd Street . . .</span></b><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-WmxYaXQI/AAAAAAAAAJA/nW-owY9xGOs/s1600/Birdland+Building+today.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-WmxYaXQI/AAAAAAAAAJA/nW-owY9xGOs/s200/Birdland+Building+today.jpg" width="188" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A view of NE corner of Broadway & 52nd Street</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. . . but Birdland had its own number, 1678 (probably to expedite delivery of the great volume of mail it must have received compared to that of other tenants), as can be seen on this flyer from 1955, every detail of which is worth savoring:</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="473" n4="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-TwrBiLbI/AAAAAAAAAI4/44pm891GCOE/s640/Birdland+Slim+Jim+1955+outside.jpg" width="640" /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Above, left pane: Broadway looking north, fans line up for Sarah Vaughn; </b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>right pane: looking south. </b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b></b><b>Below: This is what awaited them:</b></span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfVVL2ayoI/AAAAAAAAAKs/Oqv3NlCSWPk/s1600/Birdland+Sarah+Vaughn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfVVL2ayoI/AAAAAAAAAKs/Oqv3NlCSWPk/s400/Birdland+Sarah+Vaughn.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-UjeFa0jI/AAAAAAAAAI8/lhiJeFqls54/s1600/Birdland+Slim+Jim+1955+inside+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" n4="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-UjeFa0jI/AAAAAAAAAI8/lhiJeFqls54/s640/Birdland+Slim+Jim+1955+inside+1.jpg" width="558" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Above, right pane: George Shearing's "Lullaby of Birdland," the club's theme song is noted.</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;"><b>Below: cover of contemporary sheet music for </b><b>"Lullaby of Birdland."</b></span></b></span><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-aTz18w7I/AAAAAAAAAJM/A9l4Os-NX2w/s1600/Lullaby+of+Birdland+sheet+music.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-aTz18w7I/AAAAAAAAAJM/A9l4Os-NX2w/s200/Lullaby+of+Birdland+sheet+music.jpg" width="146" /></span></a><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-XG2c4X9I/AAAAAAAAAJE/A2Po8XoQlTM/s1600/Birdland+Slim+Jim+1955+inside+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="497" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-XG2c4X9I/AAAAAAAAAJE/A2Po8XoQlTM/s640/Birdland+Slim+Jim+1955+inside+2.jpg" width="640" /></span></a><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Above: notable guests included: Duke Ellington, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, Jr., Marlon Brando, . . . and Harry Belafonte, who helped open Birdland on December 15, 1949. </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Just a sampling of the stars who regarded Birdland as the place to see and be seen -- and hear - great jazz. </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Yet nothing marks the spot.</b></span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The cover of Birdland's menu:</span></b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfTusNYoJI/AAAAAAAAAKo/ZC6lNTiFf8U/s1600/Birdland+Menu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfTusNYoJI/AAAAAAAAAKo/ZC6lNTiFf8U/s320/Birdland+Menu.jpg" width="238" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>For the first few weeks of its existence, </b><b>Birdland's guests were greeted by </b><b>birds in cages suspended from the ceiling. They were a nice touch, but the poor things could not survive the combination of smoke and air-conditioning.</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The current occupant of that basement is Flash Dancers (part</b><b> of its awning is visible, next to Leone's Pizza Pasta) -- </b><b>of which I will say no more:</b></span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-b82sz-XI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/_kGYxCJMaW8/s1600/Pizza+Pasta+1674+Broadway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-b82sz-XI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/_kGYxCJMaW8/s320/Pizza+Pasta+1674+Broadway.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's a daytime shot, 1960, by William Caxton:</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-ojAfUZxI/AAAAAAAAAJU/wH-E-37ctcc/s1600/Birdland+1960+Wm+Claxton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="270" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-ojAfUZxI/AAAAAAAAAJU/wH-E-37ctcc/s400/Birdland+1960+Wm+Claxton.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span id="goog_987787730"></span>Clearly the inspiration for the cover art for <i>Birdland Stars 1956</i>:</span></b></div>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-o_UTHywI/AAAAAAAAAJY/oP4ZYXIZkck/s1600/Birdland+1956+Joel+Spector+landscape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="311" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-o_UTHywI/AAAAAAAAAJY/oP4ZYXIZkck/s320/Birdland+1956+Joel+Spector+landscape.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>At All About Jazz, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=25298">Bertil Holmgren sketches a portrait of Birdland</a> as he experienced it one night in June 1962, when the John Coltrane Quartet was "on duty":</b></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A rather small club, maybe 150 square meters, after descending down the stairs from 52nd Street [that makes no sense to me; but in our exchange of comments, Mr. Holgren stood by his memory], which is a side street to Broadway at Times Square [Birdland was situated in the Times Square <i>area, </i>but Times Square, where the<i> New York Times </i>was once published, like Longacre Square before it, was ten blocks south of Birdland], the room opened up with the bandstand right in front and with a bar along the left wall. </span></b></blockquote>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-4rxhfySI/AAAAAAAAAJo/u1_mr5sJGdc/s1600/Birdland+Bud+Miles+Blakey+Konitz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Behold, the left wall (that's Jay McNeely on tenor sax):</span></b></span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQjEOtFQrlI/AAAAAAAAAK0/nm1JWkwSU6I/s1600/Birdland1952JayMcNeely.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQjEOtFQrlI/AAAAAAAAAK0/nm1JWkwSU6I/s320/Birdland1952JayMcNeely.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[Holgren continues:] To the right, on the opposite side from the bar, as well as just in front of it, there were rows of chairs reserved for listeners only, and in the middle a number of tables, maybe ten to fifteen, were placed where certain solid and liquid nourishments could be taken. </span></b></blockquote>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQkKb6de3YI/AAAAAAAAAK8/pHaIKeiYlYU/s1600/birdland+tatum+garner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQkKb6de3YI/AAAAAAAAAK8/pHaIKeiYlYU/s320/birdland+tatum+garner.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Behold, the right wall: </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Erroll Garner and </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Art Tatum</b></span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-4rxhfySI/AAAAAAAAAJo/u1_mr5sJGdc/s1600/Birdland+Bud+Miles+Blakey+Konitz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="309" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP-4rxhfySI/AAAAAAAAAJo/u1_mr5sJGdc/s320/Birdland+Bud+Miles+Blakey+Konitz.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">On stage: Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Lee Konitz, Art Blakey</span></b></span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQjK03xcfHI/AAAAAAAAAK4/gOP2TxpAJy0/s1600/birdland+bird+with+strings+1951+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQjK03xcfHI/AAAAAAAAAK4/gOP2TxpAJy0/s320/birdland+bird+with+strings+1951+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Bird with Strings, 1951</span></b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>[Holgren continues:] </b><b>On the tables were nothing but white-and-red-chequered cloths and black plastic ashtrays carrying the words “Birdland - The Jazz Corner of the World” in white. . . . </b><b> </b></span></blockquote>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP_MMxi7-hI/AAAAAAAAAJw/c5Ty9i7fJG0/s1600/Birdland+Musicians+Table.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="330" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TP_MMxi7-hI/AAAAAAAAAJw/c5Ty9i7fJG0/s400/Birdland+Musicians+Table.bmp" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>[Holgren continues:] </b><b>Since the drinking age limit was 21, how I, younger than that, managed entrance belongs to the secrets you learn when you are desperate to gain admission! Initially I would be sitting as far from the bar as possible (an imperative requirement by the door guard), but eventually I would slowly move forward and by the time Trane started set no. 2, I'd have him one meter in front of me, the McCoy [Tyner] piano to the left, [Jimmy] Garrison to the right and a steam boiler called Elvin [Jones] further back. This felt to me a bit like being in the middle of the engine room on <i>The Titanic</i> . . . . I believe they started playing at around 9:00 P.M., in forty-five minute sets interrupted by half hour intermissions, and the place closed at 5:00 A.M.</b></span></blockquote>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The roster for opening night is worth a study in itself:</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TDXjaX2AmrI/AAAAAAAAABc/TqqWGzgy7Yc/s1600/Birdland+Opening+Night+Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TDXjaX2AmrI/AAAAAAAAABc/TqqWGzgy7Yc/s1600/Birdland+Opening+Night+Poster.jpg" /></a> </span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For ninety-eight cents -- "including tax" -- one could have the history of jazz parade before one's ears "from Dixieland to Bop." Imagine Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano, and Lester Young on the same stage! (Is that Max Kaminsky and Kenny Dorham on trumpets in the photo below? And who's the fellow looking at the camera? Where is he now?)</span></b><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQa4jrI-S7I/AAAAAAAAAJ4/2QL8W80r43Q/s1600/birdland+bird+tristano+young.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="262" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQa4jrI-S7I/AAAAAAAAAJ4/2QL8W80r43Q/s320/birdland+bird+tristano+young.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The "Roy Haines" </b><b>listed on the </b><b>poster is, </b><b>of course, Roy Haynes, still going strong at 85. He played the new Birdland on the original's 60th anniversary last year (and was there again last week)!</b></span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQe4aiqt5jI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/95iQb1l6qMc/s1600/Roy+Haynes+Birdland+2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQe4aiqt5jI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/95iQb1l6qMc/s320/Roy+Haynes+Birdland+2009.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>On August 25, 1959, on the Broadway sidewalk just outside Birdland, Miles Davis was beaten and arrested by police for insisting that they </b><b>misapprehended his chivalry. As the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis">Wikipedia article on Miles</a> summarizes the altercation:</b></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After finishing a 27-minute recording for the armed service, Davis took a break outside the club. As he was escorting an attractive blonde woman across the sidewalk to a taxi, Davis was told by Patrolman Gerald Kilduff to "move on." Davis explained that he worked at the nightclub and refused to move. The officer said that he would arrest Davis and grabbed him as Davis protected himself. Witnesses said that Kilduff punched Davis in the stomach with his nightstick without provocation. Two nearby detectives held the crowd back as a third detective, Don Rolker, approached Davis from behind and beat him about the head. Davis was then arrested and taken to jail where he was charged with feloniously assaulting an officer. He was then taken to St. Clary Hospital where he received five stitches for a wound on his head. </span></b></blockquote>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQe6JieCmWI/AAAAAAAAAKA/9DELo4Unpcs/s1600/milesarrest2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQe6JieCmWI/AAAAAAAAAKA/9DELo4Unpcs/s320/milesarrest2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Davis attempted to pursue the case in the courts, before eventually dropping the proceedings in a plea bargain in order to recover his suspended Cabaret Card, enabling him to return to work in New York clubs. [End of Wikipedia account.]</span></b></blockquote>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQe69Ga3SLI/AAAAAAAAAKE/RGuOxnTz11w/s1600/milesarrest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQe69Ga3SLI/AAAAAAAAAKE/RGuOxnTz11w/s320/milesarrest.jpg" width="247" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More details are provided on <a href="http://boatagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2009/08/this-day-in-jazz-history-miles-davis.html">this blog post</a> on last year's anniversary of the beating. </span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A while back, with this event on my mind, meandering near that spot, I was startled by a billboard-size advertising of VH-1's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards. The huge poster hung on the north wall of the Sheraton Manhattan Hotel, just south of 1674 Broadway. Startled, because as though looking down on the spot where he was humiliated, across the street and across half a century, was the triumphant visage of Miles himself, a Hall inductee. I could not interest any passerby in this irony.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A collection of albums subtitled "Live at Birdland" would fill a shelf. Chronologically, this is probably the first:</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfHJD0fYFI/AAAAAAAAAKM/MxpKM0NW9ew/s1600/Live+At+Birdland+1949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="306" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfHJD0fYFI/AAAAAAAAAKM/MxpKM0NW9ew/s320/Live+At+Birdland+1949.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Miles Davis' from 1951:</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfV5wM6SOI/AAAAAAAAAKw/NDdv9ksrlHw/s1600/Miles+Birdland+1951.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfV5wM6SOI/AAAAAAAAAKw/NDdv9ksrlHw/s1600/Miles+Birdland+1951.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's "Lullaby of Birdland" composer <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0001MZ86S/ref=asc_df_B0001MZ86S1355717?smid=A1L1LPVB9RINQ5&tag=dealtmp548802-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B0001MZ86S">George Shearing's</a> from '52:</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfJ8IZIKTI/AAAAAAAAAKU/tTt3qSrDpU8/s1600/George+Shearing+Birdland+1952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfJ8IZIKTI/AAAAAAAAAKU/tTt3qSrDpU8/s320/George+Shearing+Birdland+1952.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bill Evans, 1960:</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfRiQ5cDyI/AAAAAAAAAKk/p2rTxBviuqI/s1600/Bill+Evans+Birdland+1960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfRiQ5cDyI/AAAAAAAAAKk/p2rTxBviuqI/s1600/Bill+Evans+Birdland+1960.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But this pair of 1954 albums (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Night-Birdland-Vol-Art-Blakey/dp/B00005MIZ8">Volume 1</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Night-at-Birdland-2/dp/B00005MIZ9">Volume 2</a>) turned Birdland into the Bethlehem of Hard Bop (which is, after all, what we're mainly about here):</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I almost left out this classic from 1963!</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfMZqPTEyI/AAAAAAAAAKY/GIQku_T1oNk/s1600/Coltrane+Live+at+Birdland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TQfMZqPTEyI/AAAAAAAAAKY/GIQku_T1oNk/s1600/Coltrane+Live+at+Birdland.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Birdland still pleasantly haunts the memories of thousands of musicians and their fans. Their numbers dwindle daily, however, and the few who do remember seem to wish not to be bothered about it. </span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(One exception is Nat Hentoff who, during a phone chat, confirmed its location for me and related his brief encounter with Bird himself [once banned from the club named after him for want of a cabaret license] on the stairs between the club and a street-level eatery, which was probably where Leone's pizza parlor is.) </span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For sixteen years the greatest music in the world was generated nightly within its walls until it succumbed to the accounting ledger logic that doomed The Street a generation earlier. Birdland deserves its historian. May those of us who can offer oral testimony, artifacts, and other evidence be ready when he or she makes inquiry. </span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the meantime, if you wish to share your knowledge about or memories of Birdland on this blog, by all means, do so!</span></b></div>
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Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-11453086560540026732010-10-24T19:03:00.000-07:002010-10-24T19:29:21.395-07:00"Hard Bop and Its Critics": Now in The Jazz Annex<b>From the perspective of 50+ years, it is easy to romanticize, and thereby distort, the era of Hard Bop. Jazz scholarship is the antidote. To remind us what Hard Bop was up against, the late David H. Rosenthal wrote <a href="http://www.anthonyflood.com/rosenthalhardbopcritics.htm" style="color: orange;">"Hard Bop and Its Critics,"</a> published in <i>The Black Perspective in Music </i>in 1988, the text of which is now available in The Jazz Annex. (Take the link in the preceding sentence.) It should whet your appetite for the book he produced five years later, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Bop-Black-Music-1955-1965/dp/0195085566" style="color: orange;">Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955-1965</a>. </i></b>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-65800633353254832042010-10-21T10:36:00.000-07:002010-10-21T11:43:05.385-07:00Coltrane's "My Favorite Things": Recorded 50 Years Ago Today<em><strong>“I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.”</strong><strong>— John Coltrane, 1960</strong></em><br />
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<strong>Thanks to visitor Dave Lull, I was alerted to Robin Washington's </strong><a href="http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/181451/publisher_ID/36/"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>reminiscence of that time</strong></span></a><strong>, published a few days ago in the <em>Duluth News Tribune. </em>The article refers to a wonderful radio documentary on Trane: <a href="http://www.prx.org/pieces/53808-my-favorite-things-at-50"><span style="color: orange;">this 29 minutes of heaven can be enjoyed here</span></a>. Hear Trane himself speak, along with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Steve Kuhn (Trane's pianist immediately before Tyner), and Harvard jazz scholar<span style="color: orange;"> </span><a href="http://www.aaas.fas.harvard.edu/directory/faculty/ingrid-monson"><span style="color: orange;">Ingrid Monson</span></a> (whose perceptive comments heard in this documentary have moved me to put several of her books on reserve at my library).</strong><br />
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<strong>In 1996, Scott Anderson </strong><strong>wrote <a href="http://coltrane.room34.com/thesis"><span style="color: orange;">his thesis on Trane's revolutionary appropriation</span></a> of that lilting waltz, which sets it in its late '50s context (Rogers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music"), analyzes its form, and provides copious information on Trane's main recordings of this classic (including the one that knocked me out in the early '70s, the performance at Newport Jazz Festival, July 2, 1965). This study deserves the widest possible dissemination among Coltrane fans.</strong><br />
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<strong>Two great documents, using the written and spoken word, to help make present to us what occurred fifty years ago.</strong><br />
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<strong>Finally, my favorite video of "My Favorite Things," not least of which because it shows, not only regular quartet members Tyner, Jones, and Jimmy Garrison, but also Eric Dolphy (on flute) .</strong><br />
<div align="center"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xw4Hy6MtBLE?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xw4Hy6MtBLE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-55121180503208709182010-10-17T19:24:00.000-07:002010-10-18T13:35:55.747-07:00Jimmy Ponder, In Depth<strong></strong><strong>In the interest of bringing jazz guitarist Jimmy Ponder out of the "out of the background to the foreground of our minds," as </strong><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/08/jimmy-ponder-keeper-of-flame.html"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>I recently said I hope to do</strong></span></a><strong>, I am happy to bring to your attention a detailed analysis and stimulating discussion of Ponder's career and music entitled, </strong><a href="http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-11302006-194600/unrestricted/HARPER_2006.pdf"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>"Jimmy Ponder: A Case Study of Creative Processes and Identity Formation in American Popular Music."</strong></span></a><strong> It is the Master's Thesis of Pittsburgh-based guitarist </strong><a href="http://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/ColterHarper"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>Colter Harper</strong></span></a><strong>, and the University of Pittsburgh has made it available online. </strong><br />
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<strong>In his introduction, Harper says that as</strong><br />
<blockquote><strong>"a student and friend of Jimmy Ponder’s, I have been struck by the conviction of his musical values and their relationship to all aspects of his life. I am deeply indebted to Ponder for sharing his artistic vision with such vehement dedication and will carry his lessons in all of my artistic endeavors. This study is my offering of appreciation for his teachings and lifelong dedication to the art of music."</strong></blockquote><br />
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</div><strong>(In my previous post on Ponder, I opined that Pittsburgh "needs its counterpart to </strong><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=K11GJ-xaEcoC&dq=before+motown&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=ItBZTLvAD5aLnAfp4tW0CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false"><span style="color: orange;"><em><strong>Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-1960</strong></em></span></a><strong>. Well, Harper, who is currently working toward his doctorate at Duquesne University, has chosen for his dissertation topic "Jazz in Pittsburgh, 1948-1968." Something to look forward to.)</strong><br />
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<strong>Although I needed nothing more than the title to be drawn to Harper's monograph, I was pleasantly surprised by how much more it contained than the usual thesis ingredients (biosketch, discography, bibliography, quotation, etc.) Among the many topics he explores are: "Soul and Hammond Organ Jazz," "Race and Ideology," "The Chitlin' Circuit," "Authenticity and the Creation of 'Voice' in Jazz," "The Aesthetics of Soul Jazz," and "Ponder as a Band Leader." Harper weaves the content of interviews with Ponder and his colleagues into an historical narrative supported by solid reading, and renders his synthesis with journalistic concision. His brief forays into social theory do not derail but rather enrich his narrative. </strong><br />
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<strong>(One quibble: I find "meaningful" meaningless, but it seems to be Harper's his one verbal crutch. He never defines it, but uses it seventeen times. It is out of place in a scholarly effort in which he otherwise made the meaning of all his distinctive assertions clear.)</strong><br />
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<strong>Harper's insights into jazz's social dynamics have forced me to think differently, and harder, about what I have to work on to further my own musical growth. In themselves, one's practice materials, no matter how diligently attended to, can shed no light on the experience of "locking in" with one's fellow musicians or on communicating with the audience. </strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TLuvI1I4RHI/AAAAAAAAAIw/QKVEDOFo17s/s1600/jimmyponder2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" ex="true" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TLuvI1I4RHI/AAAAAAAAAIw/QKVEDOFo17s/s200/jimmyponder2.jpg" width="157" /></strong></a></div><strong>Other writers have noted the difference between playing before an audience and recording in a studio, but Harper illuminated it for me in a few sentences:</strong><br />
<blockquote><strong>"Part of the creative energy of the live performance is the close proximity of the musicians, which aids their ability to communicate musically, visually, and orally. Separation in a recording studio removes the physical experience of creating music, replacing it with a purely aural one. . . . " </strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong>"[M]usicians in a studio environment are conscious of the fact that the performance will become a lasting statement of their abilities and so are less likely to experiment with new ideas. What may feel and sound like an inspired moment in a live environment may appear faulty out of context."</strong></blockquote><strong>Don't be put off by the words "master's thesis." Minus the scholarly paraphernalia, the text takes up about 90 pages of double-spaced typescript. Think of it as a long magazine article about something you love. Then tell others about it. Jimmy Ponder will be in the foreground of our musical minds in no time.</strong><br />
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</strong><br />
<strong>Now sit back and dig Jimmy's tone and groove on "Jennifer" from his 1976 release for ABC Impulse, <em>Illusions</em>.</strong><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NppLVfb_Pw8?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NppLVfb_Pw8?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></strong></div>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-49666863649316516732010-10-11T14:23:00.000-07:002013-04-22T15:45:59.050-07:00Art Blakey: 1919-1990, Jazz Dispatcher<strong>For more than 35 years, from the mid-50s to his death in 1990, Art Blakey gathered around him the finest musicians in the post-Bebop era and crystallized a new sound, that of The Jazz Messengers.</strong> <br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Art Blakey w/Messengers Benny Golson, Bobby Timmons, Lee Morgan and Jymie Merritt.</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Zurich, 1958. From </span><a href="http://newstalgia.crooksandliars.com/gordonskene/newstalgia-labor-day-jazz-concert-art-"><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-small;">Newstalgia</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></strong></div>
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<strong>There were previous incarnations of this idea, one of a rehearsal band called The Seventeen Messengers, the key term evocative of Blakey's conversion to Islam in the late '40s. The moving parade of stellar personnel over the years revealed Blakey to have been The Jazz Dispatcher.</strong><br />
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<strong>Since to reproduce here the list of the messengers he dispatched to the four corners, and his discography, might shift focus away from him, I direct you to </strong><a href="http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Blakey/chron.htm"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>this page</strong></span></a><strong> where Steve Schwartz and Michael Fitzgerald have laid it all out. Wikipedia's shorter version is </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Blakey_discography"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>here</strong></span></a><strong>. </strong><a href="http://jazzdisco.org/"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>JazzDisco.org</strong></span></a><strong>'s Blakey page is also essential. (My desert-island album picks? <em>A Night in Tunisia, Mosaic, Free for All</em>, and all three volumes of <em>A Night at Birdland</em>, which features the pantheon of <a href="http://www.horacesilver.com/"><span style="color: orange;">Horace Silver</span></a>, <a href="http://loudonaldson.com/"><span style="color: orange;">Lou Donaldson</span></a>, and <a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/08/clifford-brown-first-recording-as.html"><span style="color: orange;">Clifford Brown</span></a> along with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curley_Russell"><span style="color: orange;">Curly Russell</span></a> on bass.)</strong><br />
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<strong>There was, of course, Blakey's drumming, which seemed to announce the opening of Heaven's Gate:</strong> <br />
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<strong>Jazz has been blessed with many great drummers. Art Blakey, however, was unique: one cannot imagine the history of Jazz over the last sixty years without his eagle eye for talent; his ability to motivate them to reach their potential; leadership skills that turned a half a dozen of them at a time into musically cohesive working units (and entrepreneurial foresight to keep them working!); and "tough love" that made room for new blood when it was "time," often regardless of whether the musician on the receiving end of the news agreed with the timing. The Jazz Messengers never were, thank God, a "nostalgia band." They were more like an Academy of Hard Bop, of which Blakey was the Dean.</strong><br />
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<strong>Having worked with many of the giants of Swing and Bebop, including Fletcher Henderson, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Eckstine, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker, Blakey was the conduit of that legacy to every young person who came under his wing, including <a href="http://www.bennygolson.com/"><span style="color: orange;">Benny Golson</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Fuller"><span style="color: orange;">Curtis Fuller</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Shorter"><span style="color: orange;">Wayne Shorter</span></a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Walton"><span style="color: orange;">Cedar Walton</span></a>, and <a href="http://www.valeryponomarev.com/"><span style="color: orange;">Valery Ponomarev</span></a>, all of whom create music to this day. (Ponomarev cleverly pays tribute to his former boss by calling his big band "</strong><a href="http://www.valeryponomarev.com/VPJBB.html"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>Our Father Who Art Blakey</strong></span></a><strong>.") Blakey personally represented to them living tradition while spearheading the movement that made Hard Bop, not an acquired taste as it is today, but one form of Black popular music. (David Rosenthal's <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Bop-Black-Music-1955-1965/dp/0195085566"><span style="color: orange;">Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955-1965</span></a></em> tells the story.)</strong> <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TDZz91n8ztI/AAAAAAAAABk/8nyVmk57CQY/s1600/Rosenthal+Hard+Bop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TDZz91n8ztI/AAAAAAAAABk/8nyVmk57CQY/s320/Rosenthal+Hard+Bop.jpg" width="203" /></a><strong>One night in the mid-'70s I found myself standing in front of Art Blakey inside <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_Gate"><span style="color: orange;">The Village Gate</span></a>. Having just finished a set, he was listening to two other musicians conversing off-stage where I happened to be. He didn't speak while I was standing there, and as I had no particular reason to continue to do so, I moved on. </strong><strong><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/sadik-hakim-1919-1982-vignette-from-my.html"><span style="color: orange;">Once again</span></a>, this was case of my not knowing then what I know now, and wishing I could have asked him something, anything. In any case, I recall being struck by how short and stocky, relatively speaking, this man was. (I'm taken aback when I realize that he was then as old as I am now.) More pertinently, I had just been impressed by how thunderous was his playing, thinking for a moment that perhaps I could have saved a few bucks merely by standing outside the club and listening. But that there was more to the experience than percussive power, this neophyte even then knew.</strong> </div>
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<strong>In this rare color video from 1986, following (at around 3:00) former Messenger <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Watson"><span style="color: orange;">Bobby Watson</span></a>'s appreciation of the man, Blakey personifies not only the passion that must fuel commitment to Jazz as a way of life, but also the knowledge that music is a three-way encounter among the Creator, the musician, and the audience. Finding this sermon -- there is no other word for it -- made my day. I hope it will makes yours.</strong><br />
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<strong>My favorite saying attributed to him is that "music washes away the dust of everyday life," for which dust the Shakespearean metaphor is "mortal coil." [Note: I've just learned that this revises an aphorism of poet Berthold Auerbach (1812-1882): "Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."--T.F. 2/8/11] Art Blakey, born 91 years ago today, shuffled off his twenty years ago this Saturday. I can only imagine that he is in heaven preparing to accompany The Second Coming.</strong><br />
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Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-5857912393851768802010-09-23T06:26:00.000-07:002010-09-23T07:46:11.678-07:00John Coltrane Fifty Years Ago: "Giant Steps," First Quartet, and Beyond<strong><em>That tone . . . that cry</em>, from the depths of his soul . . . that aural taste of the divine, gladdening our hearts . . . that signature lead-in to every solo ("Green Dolphin Street," "Blue Train," "Black Pearls," and others too many to list), breaking down our defenses and carrying us aloft, allowing us to soar with him above the mundane, and in doing so wash away, as Art Blakey observed, the dust of everyday life. </strong><br />
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<strong>The mortal vessel of John William Coltrane, this pneumatic and therapeutic force, emerged into the light 84 years ago today in a hamlet called Hamlet, North Carolina, and was raised in that state's larger municipality of High Point.</strong><br />
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<strong>At 19, roughly 65 years ago, Trane (and thousands of his contemporaries) experienced the musical equivalent of an epiphany in the form of Charlie Parker, with whom he would soon practice and perform.</strong><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJo_AdpzR3I/AAAAAAAAAHQ/zrKuJ8EQe6g/s1600/Ascension_album.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJn_107Oc_I/AAAAAAAAAGY/Tn2KQq_lquU/s1600/Bird+Diz+Trane+Birdland+1961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" qx="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJn_107Oc_I/AAAAAAAAAGY/Tn2KQq_lquU/s400/Bird+Diz+Trane+Birdland+1961.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em><strong>"<span style="font-size: small;">. . . the first time I heard Bird play [June 5, 1945], it hit me right between the eyes."</span></strong></em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>[Bird, Diz, Trane, Tommy Potter on bass, at Birdland; this pic is from 1951]</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><strong>This year also marks the 50th anniversary of both the landmark album <em>Giant Steps</em> and of his first quartet, which included pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones. </strong></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJojlFoKKtI/AAAAAAAAAG4/Vw3dA3DBIQc/s1600/KindOfBlueBW4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJojlFoKKtI/AAAAAAAAAG4/Vw3dA3DBIQc/s320/KindOfBlueBW4.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><strong>The multi-tonic revolution he had introduced to the world in the late '50s with </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Train_(album)"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>"Blue Train"</strong></span></a><strong> and most assertively with </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltrane_changes"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>"Giant Steps"</strong></span></a><strong> helped jazz musicians re-interpret the </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/II-V-I"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>ii-V-I cadence</strong></span></a><strong>. </strong><strong><br />
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<strong>Trane had been one of the apostles of Hard Bop, but after he had said all he had to say (and arguably all that could be said) in that subidiom of Jazz, he went on to help found an idiom or two of his own. </strong><strong>From 1960 to 1962 he explored the soprano sax with such creavity and intensity -- most famously (and perhaps ironically) on Rodgers and Hammerstein's<em> </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Favorite_Things_(album)"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>"My Favorite Things"</strong></span></a><strong> -- that it was almost as if he gave the world a new instrument (no slight to Sidney Bechet, whom Trane's admired, intended).</strong> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJpNlvElf_I/AAAAAAAAAH4/I6K0112JJuM/s1600/TraneDolphy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJpNlvElf_I/AAAAAAAAAH4/I6K0112JJuM/s200/TraneDolphy.jpg" width="146" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>From 1962 to 1965, both his continuity and discontinuity with Hard Bop were on display, <em>through </em>the modal explorations. (The chord changes maybe have been fewer, but the groove and drive were unmistakeably urban and Black.) </strong><br />
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<strong>The sound whose development he spearheaded during this period (with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_dolphy"><span style="color: orange;">Eric Dolphy</span></a>, it must be noted) found outlets even in Hard Bop hot houses like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. (I adduce as "Exhibit A" Wayne Shorter's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_for_All_(album)"><span style="color: orange;">"Free for All"</span></a> on the 1962 album of that name. That track's Trane-ish spirit points forward and harkens back.)</strong></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"><br />
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<strong>Then there's the aptly titled <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_(John_Coltrane_album)"><span style="color: orange;"><em>Transition</em></span></a><em>, </em>the classic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Love_Supreme"><span style="color: orange;"><em>A Love Supreme</em></span></a> and its free-jazz aftermath, <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_(John_Coltrane_album)"><span style="color: orange;">Ascension</span></a></em>, compared to which the first two sound downright conventional.</strong><br />
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<strong>While Trane lived in Philadelphia ('</strong><strong>43-'58: from '52-'58 in the boarded-up house on the right, below, 1511 N. 33rd: story <a href="http://sct.temple.edu/blogs/murl/2009/06/17/strawberry-mansion-coltrane%E2%80%99s-house-of-blues/"><span style="color: orange;">here</span></a> and <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1546/is_3_14/ai_54939027/"><span style="color: orange;">here</span></a>) . . . </strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJpPirR236I/AAAAAAAAAII/LqnMaG3ubLg/s1600/TranePhillyHouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJpPirR236I/AAAAAAAAAII/LqnMaG3ubLg/s320/TranePhillyHouse.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"><strong>. . . he studied musical theory under the guidance of </strong><a href="http://www.myspace.com/dennissandole/photos/2192754#a=0&i=3065312"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>Dennis Sandole</strong></span></a><strong>, as did a much younger Philly native (and my former teacher) </strong><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/08/pat-martino-hard-bop-years-happy.html"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>Pat Martino</strong></span></a><strong> (who learned as much from observing Sandole's interactions with his students as from his teaching). From the earliest sketches of Pat's life we know that when he was 14 (and therefore in 1958), Trane once treated him to a hot chocolate after lessons. </strong> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>Thus Trane's last year in Philly was also Pat's: in 1959 the Hard Bop generation-straddling kid would leave home to enter the world that Trane was about to dominate.</strong> </div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJqj5EQnjVI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/jrTLkDekVRo/s1600/Coltrane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TJqj5EQnjVI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/jrTLkDekVRo/s320/Coltrane.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em></em></span><br />
<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong><em>"During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music." -- John Coltrane, </em>A Love Supreme, <em>liner notes.</em></strong></span></div></blockquote></div>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-26233272442849304442010-08-29T19:47:00.000-07:002010-09-02T13:21:48.338-07:00On Bird's 90th, a Stop at 151 Avenue B<strong>Before meeting my wife in the seating area near the stage inside Tompkins Square Park, the site of an annual (since 1993) musical birthday tribute to Charlie Parker (1920-1955), I asked a gentleman standing on the park's east side (a three-block segment of Avenue B christened "Charlie Parker Place" in 1992), if he happened to know which of the buildings across the street from where we were standing housed Bird and his family from late 1950 (no source to my knowledge is more specific) to September 1954. (As the chap was sporting a black tee shirt with Lester Young's image, I guessed rightly that he wouldn't respond with, <em>"Who?"</em>) He wasn't sure, and as it turned out his educated guess was off only by one building, for neither he nor I could see the plaque noting the landmark status of the 1849 Gothic Revival townhouse at 151 Avenue B. </strong><br />
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<strong>Later that night at home I found </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charlie-parker-151-ave-b.jpg"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>this unambiguous graphic</strong></span></a><strong>:</strong><br />
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</strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THsV-1IDIUI/AAAAAAAAAFw/OAH7MDgHGE8/s1600/Charlie-parker-151-ave-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THsV-1IDIUI/AAAAAAAAAFw/OAH7MDgHGE8/s320/Charlie-parker-151-ave-b.jpg" /></strong></a></div><strong>There's the plaque between the two staircase-level windows.</strong><br />
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<strong>An excellent place to start one's research on the Charlie Parker Residence is </strong><a href="http://www.charlieparkerresidence.net/"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>this site</strong></span></a><strong>, which has </strong><a href="http://www.charlieparkerresidence.net/pages/bricks.html"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>a page</strong></span></a><strong> on Charles Lockwood's </strong><a href="http://bricksandbrownstone.com/"><em><span style="color: orange;"><strong>Brick and Brownstone</strong></span></em></a><strong>, which used an elevation of 151 Avenue B's façade for one of its many illustrations. According to Chan Parker's memoir, <em>My Life in E-Flat</em>, "Before Pree was born [on July 17, 1951], we moved to a large apartment on Avenue B and 10th Street. For the first time in his life Bird had a stable family life. He played his role of husband and father to the hilt." (Page 31) For what it was like to live there with Bird, one could hardly do better than </strong><a href="http://www.charlieparkerresidence.net/pages/kimparker_interview.html"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>this interview with his step-daughter Kim</strong></span></a><strong>. </strong><br />
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<strong>The site of the original Birdland is now a strip joint, but at least the townhouse wherein Bird did his utmost to be husband to Chan and daddy to Kim, Baird, and Pree has suffered no such indignity. </strong><br />
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<strong>I mean no disrespect to the fine musicians who played their hearts out in the park today from 3:00 to 7:00. Their virtuosity notwithstanding--and there <em>were </em>a few transcendent moments--by the tribute's end, all I longed to do was to don my headphones and lose myself in something like this:</strong><br />
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<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4rMiD8UUcd0?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4rMiD8UUcd0?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div></strong>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-82362311157754267452010-08-28T07:08:00.000-07:002010-08-30T08:08:19.714-07:00Clifford Brown, First Recording as Leader, August 28, 1953<div align="center"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THge7D90URI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/6wYEKa-3O9E/s1600/Clifford+Brown+Memorial+Album.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THge7D90URI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/6wYEKa-3O9E/s320/Clifford+Brown+Memorial+Album.jpg" /></strong></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>Clifford Brown Memorial Album</em>, Blue Note 1526</strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Tracks 10-18. Audio-Video Studios, NYC, August 28, 1953.</strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong></strong></div><br />
<strong>Clifford Brown (trumpet), Gigi Gryce (alto sax, flute), Charlie Rouse (tenor sax), John Lewis (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Art Blakey (drums). </strong><br />
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<strong>Track 10. Wail Bait </strong><br />
<strong>Track 11. Hymn of the Orient </strong><br />
<strong>Track 12. Brownie Eyes </strong><br />
<strong>Track 13. Cherokee </strong><br />
<strong>Track 14. Easy Living </strong><br />
<strong>Track 15. Minor Mood</strong><br />
<strong>Track 16. Wail Bait (alt. take)</strong><br />
<strong>Track 17. Cherokee (alt. take) </strong><br />
<strong>Track 18, Hymn Of The Orient (alt. take)</strong><br />
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<em><strong>From Stuart Broomer's Review on </strong></em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memorial-Album-Clifford-Brown/dp/B00005MIZ6"><em><strong>Amazon</strong></em></a><em><strong>:</strong></em><br />
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<blockquote><strong>Clifford Brown emerged fully formed in 1953, a trumpeter gifted with an ebullient swing and technical skills that added polish and precision to fresh invention. Foregoing both the manic pyrotechnics of Dizzy Gillespie and the laconic introversion of Miles Davis, he also provided a stylistic model for jazz trumpeters that has never gone out of style. This CD combines Brown's first two recording dates as leader, placing him in quintet and sextet settings with some of the core musicians of the New York bop scene. The first nine tracks [recorded June 9, 1953] have Brown in an inspired quintet, prodded by the twisting, off-kilter solos and comping of the brilliant and underrated pianist Elmo Hope and the sparkling complexity of drummer Philly Joe Jones. While altoist Lou Donaldson is deeply in the sway of Charlie Parker, Brown sets his own course, whether it's the boppish "Cookin'" or the standard "You Go to My Head." </strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong>The final nine tracks [<span style="color: orange;">recorded August 28, 1953</span>] have Art Blakey's drums driving the sextet, while altoist Gigi Gryce's understated concentration acts as an effective foil to Brown's joyous, dancing lines. Taken at a medium up-tempo, "Cherokee" is one of Brown's most effective vehicles. The alternate takes from each session highlight Brown's spontaneous creativity, while Rudy Van Gelder's remastering adds fresh focus to both his gorgeous tone and the explosive drumming.</strong></blockquote><em><strong>From Bob Blumenthal's liner notes (2001):</strong></em><br />
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<blockquote><strong>. . . It was at this last session [trombonist J.J. Johnson's first for Blue Note] that [Blue Note founder] Alfred Lion offered the trumpeter a date of his own, which was held on <span style="color: orange;">August 28</span>. By that time, Brown had become a member of Lionel Hampton's orchestra. he included another Hampton sideman, Gigi Gryce, on alto sax and flute, </strong></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THggm-tCTLI/AAAAAAAAAFg/DAIheObsPJQ/s1600/Brownie+and+Gigi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THggm-tCTLI/AAAAAAAAAFg/DAIheObsPJQ/s320/Brownie+and+Gigi.jpg" /></strong></a></div><br />
<blockquote><strong>as well as Charlie Rouse on tenor. </strong></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THghAAC2u3I/AAAAAAAAAFo/0dIMxxkhOMs/s1600/Brownie+and+Rouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THghAAC2u3I/AAAAAAAAAFo/0dIMxxkhOMs/s320/Brownie+and+Rouse.jpg" /></strong></a></div><blockquote><strong>Heath was again on bass, together with one of his partners in the recently-formed Modern jazz Quartet, pianist John Lewis. The drummer was Art Blakey, who would feature Brown on the memorable <em>A Night at Birdland </em>recording for the label six months later. . . .</strong></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THgf5DWTQ6I/AAAAAAAAAFY/jo4qy7laXYQ/s1600/Brownie+and+Max.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THgf5DWTQ6I/AAAAAAAAAFY/jo4qy7laXYQ/s320/Brownie+and+Max.jpg" /></strong></a></div><br />
<blockquote><strong>The final two years of Brown's abbreviated career were spent in partnership with Max Roach and produced his most famous recordings, yet the present performances are in no way inferior. On the contrary, they announced the musician Blue Note justifiably failed when the sextet session was first released as a New Star on the Horizon--a star that unfortunately shone all too briefly.</strong></blockquote><strong>Beside musical delight, this recording has personal significance to me: it took place the very day I emerged from the womb into the light. </strong><br />
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<strong>I sometimes romantically imagine the synchronicity of Brownie's wailing in the studio and mine in labor and delivery.</strong><br />
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<strong>C'mon, by how many hours could I be off?</strong>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-71077442693123337452010-08-25T06:00:00.000-07:002010-08-30T08:11:37.252-07:00Pat Martino: The Hard Bop Years -- Happy Birthday!<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</tbody></table><strong>Anyone who knows me knows how central to my musical universe Pat Martino has been for almost 40 years. Today, however, on the occasion of his 66th birthday, I will celebrate a period of his evolution that preceded this personal influence by a decade. Pat Azzara (his birth name) is the Pat Martino I wish my parents had taken me to see when I thought George Harrison's opening riff on "Ticket to Ride" was the apex of guitar improvization. </strong><br />
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</strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THLRtDy7-6I/AAAAAAAAAEw/hbwDHhjOYaM/s1600/Pat+Martino+McDuff+Holloway+Hibbler+Dukes+1963.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THLRtDy7-6I/AAAAAAAAAEw/hbwDHhjOYaM/s320/Pat+Martino+McDuff+Holloway+Hibbler+Dukes+1963.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>Pat Azzara at a Boston club, 1963, with Jack McDuff (organ), </em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>Red Holloway (reeds), Joe Dukes (drums), </em><em>Al Hibbler (vocals). </em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>[Pat made made this pic available on his </em><a href="http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/showthread.php?t=14335&page=27"><em>All About Jazz bulletin board</em></a><em>.]</em></div><br />
<strong>This Pat is virtually "another guitarist" than the one who, in a few precious lessons in the '70s and in countless live performances over the past four decades, altered how I contemplated the guitar's possibilities. </strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TFltTDpNKSI/AAAAAAAAADk/AGLEyTLJwwo/s1600/Pat+Martino+Tony+Flood+01.01.73.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TFltTDpNKSI/AAAAAAAAADk/AGLEyTLJwwo/s400/Pat+Martino+Tony+Flood+01.01.73.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>With Pat, Folk City, 1/1/73, 3:20 A.M. </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>A few weeks later, on the day the Paris Peace </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Accords (ending the Vietnam War) </em><em>were signed, </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>I traveled from New York to Philly for my first lesson.</em></div><strong><br />
</strong><strong>Pat Azzara, the <em>Wunderkind, </em>was socially as well as professionally surrounded by almost every cat to whose collective legacy this site is dedicated, most notably John Coltrane and Wes Montgomery. They guided him, taught him, shaped him. In the early '60s, they constituted his musical <em>milieu</em>, even if it changed and he with it to become a major guide, teacher, and life-shaper himself.</strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TFlzQC6e8lI/AAAAAAAAADs/HrjjY-ama7w/s1600/Atlantic+City+Kentucky+Avenue+1961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: right; height: 200px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 247px;"><img border="0" bx="true" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TFlzQC6e8lI/AAAAAAAAADs/HrjjY-ama7w/s400/Atlantic+City+Kentucky+Avenue+1961.jpg" width="354" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>The solos you must hear are on the sides he cut with with Willis Jackson, 1963-1964, when Pat was in his late teens. (Pat's time with Jackson goes back to '61, but I know of no recording before '63). Those stellar solos are on the following eight albums (given chronologically by date of recording, not of release): </strong></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strong>I. Willis Jackson, <em>Grease 'n' Gravy </em>(Prestige 7285, recorded May 23-24, 1963) and Willis Jackson, <em>The Good Life </em>(Prestige 7296, recorded May 23-24, 1963). Remastered in 2001 and re-issued together on CD as Willis Jackson with Pat Martino<em>, Gravy </em>(PRCD 24254-2). </strong></div></blockquote><strong><blockquote><strong>II. Willis Jackson, <em>More Gravy </em>(Prestige 7317, recorded October 24, 1963) and Willis Jackson, <em>Boss Shoutin' </em>(Prestige 7320, recorded January 9, 1964). Remastered in 2002 and re-issued together on CD as Willis Jackson, <em>Nuther'n Like Thuther'n </em>(PRCD 24265-2).</strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong><strong>III. Willis Jackson, <em>Jackson's Action </em>(Prestige 7348, recorded live at the Allegro, New York City, March 21, 1964) and Willis Jackson, <em>Live! Action </em>(Prestige 7380, same place, same date). Remastered in 1995 and re-issued together on CD as <em>Willis Jackson with Pat Martino </em>(PRCD 24161-2).</strong></strong></blockquote><blockquote><strong>IV. Willis Jackson, <em>Soul Night/Live</em> (Prestige 7396, recorded live at the Allegro, New York City, March 21, 1964) and Willis Jackson, <em>Tell It</em> (Prestige 7412, same place, same date). Remastered in 2002 and re-issued together on CD as Willis Jackson, <em>Soul Night Live! with Pat Martino </em>(PRCD 24272-2). </strong></blockquote><strong>Now, to the solos themselves. Following the CD compilation's track number is the title of the track on which Pat solos (he doesn't on every track); the location of his solos on the track; song type; and number of choruses Pat takes.</strong><br />
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<strong>I. Willis Jackson with Pat Martino, <em>Gravy </em>(PRCD 24254-2):</strong><br />
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<strong>1: "Brother Elijah," 3:36-4:32 (blues, 4)</strong><br />
<strong>2: "Doot Dat," 2:04-3:52 (blues, 7)</strong><br />
<strong>3: "Stompin' at the Savoy," 1:14-1:49 (rhythm changes, 1)</strong><br />
<strong>4: "Gra-a-a-vy," 8:17-10:28 (slow blues, 3)</strong><br />
<strong>5: "Grease," 2:31-4:37 (blues, 8)</strong><br />
<strong>9: "Fly Me to the Moon," 1:15-1:56 (ballad, up-tempo, 1)</strong><br />
<strong>10: "Angel Eyes," 0:01-0:10 (intro), 0:10-4:11 (ballad, mod. slow/bluesy, 1, except for trumpet on B section)</strong><br />
<strong>11: "Troubled Times," 0:59-2:02 (blues, 4)</strong><br />
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<strong>II. Willis Jackson, <em>Nuther'n Like Thuther'n </em>(PRCD 24265-2).</strong><br />
<strong>3. "Stuffin," 3:24-4:46 (blues, 5)</strong><br />
<strong>4. "Nuther'n Like Thuther'n," 1:16-2:28 (Vamp tune, 1)</strong><br />
<strong>6. "Fiddlin'," 1:51-2:29 (blues, 3)</strong><br />
<strong>8. "Que Sera, Sweetie," 2:48-4:37 (minor blues, 5)</strong><br />
<strong>9. "Shoutin'," 3:18-5:00 (fast blues, 9)</strong><br />
<strong>10. "Nice 'n' Easy," 3:16-5:19 (pop tune, 2)</strong><br />
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<strong>III. <em>Willis Jackson with Pat Martino </em>(PRCD 24161-2)</strong><br />
<strong>2. "A Lot of Living to Do," 3:33-4:26 (show tune, 1)</strong><br />
<strong>3. "I Wish You Love," 0:11-2:09 (ballad, 2; Jackson takes it out from B section of second chorus)</strong><br />
<strong>7. "Hello, Dolly," 1:11-1:44 (show tune, 1)</strong><br />
<strong>11. "I'm a Fool to Want You," 1:06-1:44 (ballad, lines behind Jackson)</strong><br />
<span style="color: orange;"><strong>12. "Gator Tail," 4:39-7:23 (fast blues, 12)*</strong></span><br />
<strong>13. "Satin Doll," 5:32-7:41 (jazz standard, 2)</strong><br />
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<strong>IV. Willis Jackson, <em>Soul Night Live! with Pat Martino </em>(PRCD 24272-2). </strong><br />
<strong>1. "The Man I Love," 3:10-3:54 (ballad, "manic" uptempo, 1)</strong><br />
<strong>2. "Perdido," 4:02-5:33 (pop tune, 2)</strong><br />
<strong>3. "Thunderbird," 2:40-4:25 (rock blues, 5)</strong><br />
<strong>4. "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," 0:19-5:50 (ballad, 2; cadenza from 5:04 to 5:50. Note: The more one concentrates on Pat's playing, the more painful are the charming atmospherics provided by the live audience, e.g., <em>"What the hell are you doing over there?"</em> at 0:43.)</strong><br />
<strong>6. "Flamingo," 0:17-5:36 (ballad, 2; cadenza from 4:48-5:36)</strong><br />
<strong>8. "One Mint Julip," 1:11-3:20 (rock blues with a bridge, 2)</strong><br />
<strong>9. "Up a Lazy River," 0:35-1:22 (pop tune, 2)</strong><br />
<strong>11. "Tangerine," 0:33-1:08 (ballad, uptempo, break + 1)</strong><br />
<strong>14. "Secret Love," 1:28-2:30 (ballad, uptempo, 1)</strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: orange;">* This takes the crown.</span> No lover of soul-jazz-blues guitar should go to his grave before hearing Pat's twelve break-neck blues choruses on "Gator Tail." Every listener has been left speechless (at least in my presence; at least initially speechless). As more words will sound like hype, I implore you, listen to them as soon as you can, and then ask: "Who else, of whatever age, of no matter how many years of experience, was doing <em>that</em> in those years?" And then remember that Pat was all of 19 when he laid down that solo before the Allegro's live audience on March 21, 1964.</strong><br />
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<strong>Twelve of the above-listed 29 tracks are blues. Remarkable, apart from their groove and clean articulation, is their linear and rhythmic <em>variety</em>. There is, of course, a discernible common vocabulary, but at no time is one driven to say, "Oh, <em>that </em>again!" Not only from one track to another, but from one chorus to another, inventiveness reigns. The seven choruses of "Doot Dat" and the eight of "Grease" are excellent examples of this. And, again, "Gator Tail"'s dozen are in a class of their own.</strong><br />
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<strong>On several ballads, "Angel Eyes," "I Wish You Love," "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," and "Flamingo," Jackson lets his young guitarist show off his hard bop chops virtually from start to finish. Pat's sound here invites comparison, and contrast, to the one he would achieve a few years later on <em>El Hombre</em>, his first released album as a leader<em>. </em>For a taste of the latter period, dig this rare, live, 1969 recording of "Who Can I Turn To" with Gene Ludwig (who passed away last month) on organ, recently posted on YouTube and graced by an equally rare still shot:</strong><br />
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</strong><strong>I dedicate this bit of discographical mining to Pat on the occasion of his birthday, hoping it will send others to all of his recorded work (</strong><a href="http://www.patmartino.com/"><strong>and to his gigs</strong></a><strong>). Our paths have crossed many times since September 9, 1972 at New York's Folk City; may they do so again and again.</strong><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THLVrfJit9I/AAAAAAAAAFA/Mo3kGhUpJK8/s1600/Pat+Martino+Gloria+Tony+Blue+Note+09.09.95.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/THLVrfJit9I/AAAAAAAAAFA/Mo3kGhUpJK8/s320/Pat+Martino+Gloria+Tony+Blue+Note+09.09.95.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>With Pat and my wife at the Blue Note, New York, 9/9/95 </em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em>(22 years after I first approached him after a set at Folk City across the street)</em></div></strong><strong><strong></strong></strong><strong><br />
</strong></div>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-39320038934086823622010-08-06T08:42:00.000-07:002013-08-31T10:28:19.803-07:00Happy Birthday, Eddie McFadden, Wherever You May Be<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TFwrH-9dbqI/AAAAAAAAAEg/uhv5rKaoKLY/s1600/Eddie+McFadden+Live.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" height="287" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TFwrH-9dbqI/AAAAAAAAAEg/uhv5rKaoKLY/s400/Eddie+McFadden+Live.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong>Not much is known about Jimmy Smith's late '50s/early '60s guitarist beyond the fact that he was born on this date in 1928. (The above rare pic was found on organist </strong><a href="http://www.danfogel.org/pics3.shtml"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>Dan Fogel's site</strong></span></a><strong>.) For discographical information, go to </strong><a href="http://jazzdisco.org/"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>jazzdisco.org</strong></span></a><strong>, search his name<eddie mcfadden="">, go to each “hit” on the results page and search his name <eddie mcfadden="">again. It seems all the tracks listed were made on recording dates with Mr. Smith.</eddie></eddie></strong><br />
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<strong>I found this wonderful item on a 2008 post by </strong><a href="http://buelahman.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/who-wasis-eddie-mcfadden/"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>another McFadden seeker</strong></span></a><strong>.</strong><strong><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TFwrxBRBrwI/AAAAAAAAAEo/qbO3YvAoBRI/s1600/Eddie+McFadden+Painting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" bx="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TFwrxBRBrwI/AAAAAAAAAEo/qbO3YvAoBRI/s320/Eddie+McFadden+Painting.jpg" /></strong></a></div>
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<strong>Got a minute? If you do, consider spending it listening to Eddie's solo from 0:48 to 1:48 before Lou Donaldson's. Exactly one minute:</strong></div>
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<strong>I'm not alone in my interest in Mr. McFadden's career and his understated, quietly intense improvisations. If you have information worth sharing, please do so, and I'll post it here. Thanks! </strong></div>
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<strong>Can someone at least confirm that he is still "on the planet"?</strong></div>
Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-64971921241142383372010-08-04T13:35:00.000-07:002010-10-17T17:17:54.981-07:00Jimmy Ponder, Keeper of the Flame<strong>I blog about Jimmy Ponder today, not because I have been one of his fans, but because I should have been. In a </strong><a href="http://www.nathanielturner.com/timberensinterviewsjimmyponder.htm"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>rare 1994 interview</strong></span></a><strong> extant online only in a "second-hand" version (because all of the sites associated with guitarist Tim Berens, the interviewer, seem to be defunct), Ponder said some things that touched me both as a guitarist and personally. When you read it, you will know which statements I mean.</strong><br />
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<strong>We can see Jimmy play beautifully in some grainy online videos. There are too few of them, but they at least give us a glimpse of the soulful playing this site seeks to draw attention to. For example, here's the instrumental (and vocal!) treatment of "Summertime" he provided at a Pittsburgh club:</strong><br />
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<strong>And this version of "Autumn Leaves" (from August 4, 1984 at Mikell's ['69-'91]) just made me want to play, play, play <em>my </em>guitar:</strong><br />
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<strong>He has an impressive resume of recordings and performances. His albums have been favorably reviewed over the years. If the comments sections of blogs are an accurate indication, there is a widespread affection for Jimmy Ponder, and deep respect for both his accomplishments and equally deep appreciation to him for the joy he brings his audiences.</strong><br />
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<strong>He has yet to "break through." Like George Benson, he is a Pittsburgh native, but unlike his near-contemporary he remains a denizen of that "City of Bridges" (which desperately needs its counterpart to <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=K11GJ-xaEcoC&dq=before+motown&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=ItBZTLvAD5aLnAfp4tW0CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false"><span style="color: orange;"><em>Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-1960</em></span></a>). He is an active player and teacher, but I've never seen his name in a lineup for any New York jazz club or festival. Never.</strong><br />
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<strong>But who else is doing what he's doing? No one.</strong><br />
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<strong>He is a (if not <em>the</em>) keeper of Wes Montgomery's Hard Bop/Soul Jazz flame -- "legacy" is the word Wes himself used, </strong><a href="http://www.nathanielturner.com/timberensinterviewsjimmyponder.htm"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>according to that interview</strong></span></a><strong>. Therefore, since Jimmy rightly declares that "there's no guitar player that's aware of jazz that is not aware of me," he must be brought out of the background to the foreground of our minds. </strong><br />
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<strong>Let it begin, or at least continue, with me.</strong>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-15620058502113119222010-08-03T09:44:00.000-07:002010-08-24T07:18:12.524-07:00Baker's, A Hard Bop Home: A Hat Tip to Dennis Coffey<strong>Although I savored every page of Lars Björn and Jim Gallert's scholarly and profusely illustrated <em><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=K11GJ-xaEcoC&lpg=PA74&ots=Z6L5z8rDzF&dq=Drome%20Lounge%20club%20Dexter%20detroit&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false"><span style="color: orange;">Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit</span></a> </em>last year, its brief mention of Baker's Keyboard Lounge did not make a deep impression. Ironically, it took a chat with Motown studio legend </strong><a href="http://www.denniscoffeysite.com/"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>Dennis Coffey</strong></span></a><strong> last Saturday to begin to remedy my near-nescience on this under-recognized jazz venue.</strong><br />
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<strong>Coffey was always in my peripheral vision. I was never a rocker, having embraced jazz in earnest only in 1971, a few years after my musical interest had shifted from the Beatles and kindred groups to Soul Music, Coffey's bread-and-butter. I therefore had known his playing, but not <em>as </em>his playing. He was "Author Anonymous" for me and for millions of others (as were all the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funk_Brothers"><span style="color: orange;">Funk Brothers</span></a>"). His 1971 debut album, <em>Goin' for Myself, </em>sported this image:</strong><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strong><img border="0" bx="true" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LASHskRv9x0/TFgljS9VQQI/AAAAAAAAADU/VHAwMXLA54c/s200/Dennis+Coffey+early+70s.jpg" width="145" /></strong></div><strong>At Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors' "Motor City Soul Review," it was closer to this:</strong><br />
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</strong></div><strong>I hope I'll be playing with equivalent conviction and energy when I'm pushing 70. </strong><br />
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<strong>As he was packing his gear, the only thing I could think of to ask him about was the Detroit jazz scene. I broke the ice by mentioning to him that <em>Before Motown </em>leaves the post-1960 period a blank. Coffey assured me that the scene is alive and well and that he plays "about once a month at Baker's." A research assignment.</strong><br />
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<strong>What a revelation! </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker's_Keyboard_Lounge"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>Baker's Keyboard Lounge</strong></span></a><strong> in Detroit has been in continuous operation since 1934, and thus its claim to be "the world's oldest jazz club," which it broadcasts on its site. It may have been in continuous operation since '34, when Chris Baker opened it as a sandwich shop, but his son Clarence (owner since '39) booked no "name" acts, only local jazz talent, until '54. (What about </strong><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET34hesyfnM&feature=player_embedded"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>The Village Vanguard</strong></span></a><strong>? It opened in '35 and didn't have a fulltime jazz policy until the late '50s.) Every jazz great, including every Hard Bop giant, played Baker's. But why not hear the story from the lips of Clarence Baker himself?</strong><br />
<strong><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jbcV-vV5sho&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jbcV-vV5sho&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></strong><br />
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<strong>Current co-owner John Colbert proudly drives home the historical importance of Baker's in the following clip (which morphs into a rousing performance of Miles Davis' "Four" by Dwight Adams and his colleagues):</strong><br />
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<strong><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TtvaWqnkZoU&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TtvaWqnkZoU&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></strong><br />
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<strong>Colbert mentions that the club's original piano is being restored. This informative </strong><a href="http://events.detnews.com/detroit-mi/venues/show/36831-bakers-keyboard-lounge#"><span style="color: orange;"><strong><em>Detroit News</em> article</strong></span></a><strong> notes that it was Art Tatum who had selected it in New York and had it shipped to Baker's!</strong><br />
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<strong>And so this expansion of my inventory of jazz historical knowledge was occasioned by an unplanned encounter with a soul guitar master. In a short exchange of e-mails with me yesterday Dennis Coffey recalled having seen, "back in the day," fellow Detroiter Kenny Burrell not only at Baker's but also at the Minor Key (which would have had to be sometime between Winter '58-'59 and 1963, the club's short lifespan). Coffey also remembers catching Wes Montgomery at a club called "the Drome Lounge . . . a small club on Dexter" (he must have meant the Bowl-o-Drome, which was on Dexter) and hanging out with Joe Pass at his house in Los Angeles. </strong><br />
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<strong>I close this post of gratitude to Mr. Coffey (you see why I wasn't so formal until now?) for his graciousness in opening my eyes (and, yes, even my ears) over the past few days by posting a clip of his playing -- his music -- at Baker's this past February.</strong><br />
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<strong><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7RzOPkvjW5Y&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7RzOPkvjW5Y&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></strong>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-11004138349141941702010-08-02T17:42:00.000-07:002010-08-24T07:18:37.962-07:00A Welcome Mat for The House!<strong>Doug Ramsey, a seasoned writer of all things jazz, became aware of this blog thanks to Dave Lull, a visitor we have in common -- thanks, Dave! -- and welcomed it to the "the neighborhood" yesterday </strong><a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/2010/08/other_places_a_hard_bop_blog.html"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>on his blog</strong></span></a><strong>. (Every major jazz figure should be lucky enough to get the treatment -- equal parts passion and hard research -- that Mr. Ramsey give his subject's life and work in <em><a href="http://www.parksidepublications.com/takefive.html"><span style="color: orange;">Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond</span></a>.</em>)</strong><br />
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<strong>Mr. Ramsey chose to hold up the text of </strong><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/hard-bop-dominant-not-sole-focus-here.html"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>my inaugural post</strong></span></a><strong> for his readers' consideration. Thus began my side of what already threatens to be a battle to focus on Hard Bop rather than on the words we use to pick it out from the rest of the jazz universe. Mr. Ramsey invites us to consider (and links to) his past posts on Hard Bop and the comments they stimulated in his visitors. I read them all with interest--and with more determination than ever to keep to an absolute minimum the space that dialectic will consume on this blog. I can no sooner say something than someone else immediately asks in all sincerity, "<em>Whatever </em>are you talking about?" My inevitably poor answer -- suggesting </strong><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/hard-bop-blues-gospel-virtuosity.html"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>a unity of gospel plus blues plus virtuosity</strong></span></a><strong> -- invites only more of the same: "Oh, no, no, no! You've got it all wrong! What about the following counterexamples!" (And "What is 'jazz,' anyway?") And we're off to the races. </strong><br />
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<strong>The day the fog of contentiousness threatens to descend on this blog -- whether on little cat feet or with seven-league boots -- to obscure its eirenic aim is the day I'll shut it down. For forty years I've lived and breathed the negativity of dialectic (that is, of affirmation and denial, <em>not </em>of "negative vibes, man," of the dynamism of the human mind, not of depressed moods). This is where I take a break from it, not where I force upon my readers the alternative of either tolerating or combatting my "beautiful theories."</strong><br />
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<strong>Even to say that bare minimum required participation in dialectic, and it leaves a bad taste, the very opposite of Hard Bop.</strong>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-68488065086593971722010-07-26T07:43:00.000-07:002010-08-30T13:05:05.802-07:00Lubricant for Someone "Stuck in '62"?<a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/stuck-in-62-with-qualifications-yes.html"><span style="color: orange;"><strong>Someone like me</strong></span></a><strong>. </strong><br />
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<strong>The promotional site for Cicily Janus' new book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Face-Jazz-Intimate-Tomorrow/dp/0823000656/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280148338&sr=1-1#_"><span style="color: orange;">The New Face of Jazz</span></a>, An Intimate Look at Today's Living Legends and the Artists of Tomorrow, </em>has a promotional page with a message that I must take to heart:</strong><br />
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<strong>"You’ve heard about them time and time again. Their music—the most influential notes ever played. Bird, `Trane, Miles, Ella and their peers are immortalized in personal CD and iTunes libraries around the world. You can find their histories, the dirt behind their careers and endless archives in hundreds of books, encyclopedias and limitless websites</strong><br />
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<strong>"Oh . . . and one more thing.</strong><br />
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<strong>"They’re dead.</strong><br />
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<strong>"The musicians cataloged in these pages are not. They eat, breathe, sleep and live for Jazz. As unsung heroes of America’s only original art form, you need to know them. As a matter of fact, you already should.</strong><br />
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<strong>"Because they’re accessible.</strong><br />
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<strong>"Prolific.</strong><br />
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<strong>"Entertaining. . . ."</strong><br />
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<strong>All right. I'll re-think my stuck-ness.</strong>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157266338193442961.post-38403645611619677462010-07-21T18:58:00.000-07:002010-10-17T16:09:58.719-07:00The Grand Opening of "The Jazz Annex"<strong><span style="color: #a2c4c9;">I have decided to open a "jazz portal" within my philosophical website. If this is my Hard Bop House, then consider that portal its annex. I don't want to be restricted to ten "stand-alone" pages on this blog, and since I have a capacious site, I don't have to.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #a2c4c9;">The first offering, following up our recent </span></strong><a href="http://tonyflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/sadik-hakim-1919-1982-vignette-from-my.html"><strong><span style="color: orange;">tribute to Sadik Hakim</span></strong></a><strong><span style="color: #a2c4c9;">, is the text of his long-out-of-print memoir, </span></strong><a href="http://www.anthonyflood.com/hakimreflections.htm"><strong><span style="color: orange;">"Reflections of an Era: My Experiences with Bird and Prez."</span></strong></a><strong><span style="color: #a2c4c9;"> I hope you enjoy it as much as I did formatting it.</span></strong>Tony Floodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14663613595039505496noreply@blogger.com0