Jazz

[Dzimas]

I picked up a collection of early sets of Max Roach at amazon.co.uk,



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Studio-Recordings-Max-Roach/dp/B000JBWWJW/ref=sr_1_11/203-2286297-0228752?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1187962784&sr=1-11

[Dzimas]

It must have been hard filling Clifford Brown's shoes.  He was much too short on this earth,

[madupont]

Dzimas,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/arts/music/24park.html?

Thanks to you, I discovered the location of the downtown house Ave B which I had to pass when walking to The Five Spot (on the "Bowerie");when walking from Avenue D, one normally passed Tompkins Square, while previously the group-walk of ladies who listened was from  mid-block east of 2nd.Avenue where Grizzuti and I had the apartment immediately next to what was then the Polish Clinic and in those days was staffed completely with doctors who were women arrived from Poland after the war. But I do recall Mal Waldron (Billy Holiday's drummer) walking me back to Avenue D, where I relocated to stay with friends once parting company with book-reader Barbara G.

It was only when finding the on-line bebop Bentley, and pictures of the funeral, at least one of the funerals considering the three-wives,with Charlie Mingus looking beleaguered at the door of the funeral home as he gazed toward Bird's coffin which was finally sent off to Kansas because Parker's Mom was a shrewder woman than any of "the wives", that I read further details about the Stanhope death scene and the continual wrangling about who sits where at Bird's funeral, and the consequent thefts of grave decor,etc., admittedly offset by the charming Ted(or,Tad) Jones* story.

This Jones was, as far as we know, never Diane Di Prima's lover; that was Leroi. But as you probably know part of the route to the Bowery from either Second Avenue or Avenue D involved a little something known as Great Jones Alley (offset by, Little Jones Alley) and both were a source of amusement for what they implied when you consider the drug habits of musicians in that era. In fact, this was precisely the point in time when Billie Holliday was in the hospital dying but "naturally" being supplied with the usual stuff by her impenitent visitors.

Thus I ran across the story of the house on record for all time(and Max Roach's comments, while going home to his mother and getting clean) as the house where Bird lived according to the wishful thinking and delusional notion of the little woman who conceived that they were living the middle-class life and that Charlie Parker was just your average middle-class but very dark brown soul.  Because of the cabaret-laws, I heard more of these top musicians out of town on the road because they were not performing in Manhattan, they didn't have a card; but I did go up to mid-town Birdland for one of the big band performances (Junior's Bar remained a Lounge)yet it no longer comes back to me exactly who was going for that sound again which you no doubt would recall era winter '58 into ongoing '59 when things slipped a notch into The Sixties!

Be back later to listen. I'm behind schedule.

[Dzimas]

I promised myself no more epitaphs, but it was sad to hear Joe Zawinul passed away,

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/12/america/obits.php

Not too long ago he was in Vilnius.

[Dzimas]

Heard Richard Bona and Bobby McFerrin the other night on Mezzo,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iimMKWF7SK0

very nice.

[ponderosa]

Heard this guy tonite paying tribute to Miles Davis.

http://www.myspace.com/jeffloftonquartet

Very nice, indeed. Solid band.

[Dzimas]

Speaking of Miles,



http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Corner-Sessions-Miles-Davis/dp/B000TLMWMO/ref=sr_1_4/105-5791205-4542015?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1191396233&sr=1-4

[Dzimas]

Was a bit disappointed in McFerrin's Beyond Words after seeing the clip from his concert in Montreal.  I would buy the DVD if it didn't come with such an outrageous price,

http://www.amazon.com/Bobby-McFerrin-Live-Montreal/dp/B000AANBJM/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-5791205-4542015?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1191403502&sr=1-1

I guess some DVD's are now considered collector's items until a reissue comes out.

[rmdig]

dzimas

I found two jazz cds recently that I like!  One is a double cd issued on Riverside of Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane.  Very cool multiple takes of "Crepescule with Nellie" and one of my favorite Monk songs, "Well You Needn't."

The other is an ECM recording from 1978 of Keith Jarrett with Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielson and Jon Christensen, My Song.  The music on this cd is beautifully played.  It's also a little more commercial than I remembered it being -- I owned it in vinyl ages ago.

The death of Joe Zawinul has had me listening to some old jazz fusion stuff like Weather Report's Mysterious Traveler and others like Chick Corea's Return to Forever album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, featuring Bill Connor on electric guitar.

[Dzimas]

Rmdig, great choices!  Another great album is Brilliant Corners with Monk and Sonny Rollins.  I've been doing a Max Roach retrospective myself, including a very nice 2-CD package of Roach with Kenny Dorham and Sonny Rollins,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Studio-Recordings-Max-Roach/dp/B000JBWWJW/ref=sr_1_1/202-0132640-8479059?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1191736227&sr=1-1

[rmdig]

dzimas

Thanks for those recommendations.  As it turns out my local library has the Brilliant Corners cd, and I've also put a borrower hold on a Max Roach/Clifford Brown double cd, Alone Together.

[Dzimas]

You should see if your local library has We Insist! - Freedom Now Suite by Max Roach, which features Coleman Hawkins, Abbey Lincoln and Baba Olatunji to name a few.  Or download the MP3,

http://www.amazon.com/We-Insist-Freedom-Now-Suite/dp/B000QZUOAK/ref=sr_1_2/002-4086232-9828850?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1191994351&sr=8-2

I recently picked up Time and Time Again with Motian, Lovano and Frisell.  A bit reserved perhaps, but a very fine trio,

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Again-Paul-Motian/dp/B000LSA84E/ref=pd_bbs_10/002-4086232-9828850?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1191994458&sr=8-10

[rmdig]

I look for that Max Roach/Abbey Lincoln cd. 

Paul Motian has always been a little too arsty-fartsy for my taste.  His drumming never seems to go anywhere.  And yet his discography is huge!  Someone likes him.

[Dzimas]

Motian is very highly regarded, but I can understand your view.  I bought the CD mostly for Lovano, curious to hear what he has been doing recently.  Lovano's From the Soul is hard to beat,

http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Joe-Lovano/dp/B000002V10/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-4086232-9828850?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1192043494&sr=1-2

[chipstern]

Motian was the drummer in Bill Evans premier trio with Scott LaFaro.  "nuff said. 

Playing goes nowhere?  Might more poetically talk of how he is a jazz impressionist, able to play the pulse as well as in a more time-oriented manner, creating a free-flow of colorations and accents and rhyhmic signposts and milestones without necessarily having to commit to straight-time patterns.  Paul can swing and state the One with the best of them; he can also demarcate a pulse without locking the improvising ensemble into any discernible groove.  One always has a feeling of a flow, of tensiona and release, but the time is more implied than stated in a marvellously personal style of broken field running. 

He is immensely musical.  Check out his work on the recent Nonesuch release Bill, Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian.  Musicians love to play with him for the manner in which he HEARS THE MUSIC.  Paul does not have the most eleaborate floor routine or employ a lot of technical flummery--he is like a modern jazz Baby Dodds, and a great listener.  Pauls's work on pianist Frank Kimbough's Palmetto release, Play, with bassist Masa Kamaguchi, is also superb. 

I once characterized Paul's avant garde stylings by dubbing him "...the patron saint of spastics."  He has a way of playing free form that is completely unique.  Again, a great listener, who lets the music happen all around him, with unpreditable syncopations and punctuations that break up the flow into odd little groupings and build tension without stepping on anyone's toes.  A great orchestrator and colorist. 

If you want to hear Paul rock out as it were, in a more groove-oriented manner, he comprises a pretty interesting power trio with Jack Bruce and John McLaughlin on Carla Bley's Esacaltor Over The Hill, and his work in the Keith Jarrett Quartet with Charlie Haden and Dewey Redman was quite powerful. 

Paul is also a very fine composer and has led a number of original ensembles, including his multiple guitar Electric Bebop Band and his longstanding trio with Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell.

No Paul's playing is not to everyone's taste, but he is an original stylist and a great listener with his own sound who does not indulge in any discernible rhythmic cliches. 

Not your bag.  Cool.  Somebody must like him. 

Fucking A: 



Bill Evans Trio
Pierre Favre
Fredy Studer
Nana Vasconcelos
John Gilmore
Gary Peacock
Charlie Haden
Carla Bley
Keith Jarett
Paul Bley
Electric Bebop Band
Geri Allen
Joshua Redman
Kurt Rosenwinkel
Joe Lovano
Bill Frisell
Oscar Petitford
Thelonius Monk
Zoot Sims
Lennie Tristano
Sonny Rollins
John Coltrane
Charlie Haden
Keith Jarret
Ed Schuller
Electric Be Bop Band
Trio 2000
Tony Scott
Gil Evans
Art Farmer
Lee Konitz
George Russell
Stan Getz
Coleman Hawkins
Roy Eldridge
Scott LaFaro
Chuck Israel
Paul Bley