Larry Kart

The companion date to "Basie Reunion," "For Basie" (with just the rhythm section, Quinichette and Shad Collins) was significantly more successful IIRC, so I'd suggest you get "Basie Reunion" in this form, which combines the two: http://www.amazon.com/Basie-Reunion-Paul-Stars-Quinichette/dp/B0018BF31G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1279760234&sr=1-3 Again IIRC, Jack Washington was not in great shape at the time "Basie Reunion" was made, and that seems to let some of the air out of the balloon. Further, and I should have said this first, "For Basie" has Walter Page on bass, and that makes a world of difference.

Warne Marsh's solo on the up-tempo portion of "How High the Moon" is sublime. According to John LaPorta, who was there, "Warne Marsh improvised a Bach-like solo that soared from beginning to end. Fortunately, I did not have to improvise after Warne's solo. After all, what could one play after that!" Also sublime is Pres' sotto voce backing to Eckstine's vocal on the ballad portion of this track. I recall reading somewhere that Pres complimented Warne on what he had played, and that this understandably meant a great deal to Warne.

http://cleanfeed-records.com/disco2US.asp?intID=310

I'm no expert in this area, but Jason Vieaux seems to be one heck of a player, and Ponce's sonatas are more substantial than I would have thought: http://www.amazon.com/Ponce-Guitar-Sonatas/dp/B00006YXAQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1279389697&sr=1-2

Profoundly frightening. The CIA could have used this instead of waterboarding. The passage of time excruciatingly almost ceases (Iglesias clearly feels that to be the case; he's like a trapped animal). Who did Ray's hair? IIRC he played some pretty good trombone solos with Artie Shaw.

A second check on the way -- can't leave Organissimo short.

Larry, Which volume is his piece on Fats in? I tried going through them but couldn't find it. It's a pretty painful process on my old machine... Q November 1959

That sounds amazing! Bassist is Milt Hinton, drummer is Panama Francis. Recorded 1959, probably produced by George Avakian. May be available as a download somewhere. Eubie is in great form, as is the whole band. As the title suggests, the material is marches (Sousa, etc.) played in ragtime, which was commonly done back in the day.

The reed player would be Garvin Bushell. And Mike Wellstood is a slip for Dick W. There was another stride scholar (maybe also a pianist, maybe not) named Mike -- Mike Lipskin who I believe was tight with Eubie Blake. Speaking of stride albums with clarinet, I love Eubie's "The Marches I Played on My Ragtime Piano" (20th Century Fox), with Buster Bailey, bass, drums, and Kenny Burrell playing rhythm guitar!

But the description below that entry outlines Larry Kart's concerns, and in fact says that the second definition (outlined by Larry) is the one most frequently used today. None of this is going to help Tiger much though. 'She was staring up at me. "He's burning up a dictionary?" '"Right. That's nothing. Once he burned up a cookbook because it said to remove the hide from a ham end before putting it in the pot with lima beans."' – Archie Goodwin, in Rex Stout's "Gambit," chapter 1, explaining Nero Wolfe's reaction to a dictionary [Webster's Third] that allows the use of "infer" ("to deduce") in place of "imply" ("to hint at, suggest"). The misuse (as with "disinterested" versus "uninterested") often seems to spring from the belief that the two words mean the same thing but that "infer" sounds classier. Webster's Second, published 1934, stated which usages were "proper" and which were not. Webster's Third (1954, I think) was "descriptive" -- for the most part it took a hands-off approach to usage and/or listed definitions in the [estimated] order of how commonly used they were.

"Boogie Woogie Conga" sequence: http://www.ganges.com/Hellzapoppin_1941_Ending_Conga_Sequence_Conga_Beso_Jane_Frazee_Martha_Raye_The_Six_Hits_video_6981544/ She sure had great time.

Raye (in "tan face"?) with Louis Armstrong from "Artists and Models" (1937): http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=224002 She's perhaps intentionally (for comedic purposes) broader/less hip here than in the other clip, but there's some sublime Armstrong.

I knew that Anita O'Day cited her as a key influence, but my view of Raye was essentially shaped by '50s TV comedy shows. I think I missed something: Would have been nice to hear her with Leo Watson.

They're more porous because people either don't know that there's difference or don't care that there's a difference. Don't think I'm just being cranky or schoolmarmish about this because, to quote from "Garner's Modern English Usage," "'disinterested' captures a nuance that no other word quite does." Garner adds: "A 'disinterested' observer is not merely 'impartial' but has nothing to gain from taking a stand on the issue in question." What I especially don't like is the use of "disinterested" where plain old "uninterested" would be right. E.g. "Losing in straight sets, Agassi looked disinterested." In those cases, it usually feels to me like the writer has chosen "disinterested" because he or she thinks it sounds classier, that it's not a matter of writing casually but pretentiously.

The Navarro piece makes it clear that Harvey was responding to negative assessments of Navarro from other writers, so this must be the one that began as a letter to Martin Williams.

Apparently Harvey's first Jazz Review piece was on Fats Navarro, published in 1959. It should be up on the Jazz Review's online archive. November 1959 issue

I believe Harvey got his start writing about jazz at The Jazz Review. He wrote an angry letter to the magazine about a piece or review he didn't like (I believe it was a negative assessment of Lennie Tristano), and Martin Williams wrote back suggesting that Harvey turn his letter into an article about Tristano, which he did (Jazz Review, July 1960). The July 1960 issue isn't up on the Jazz Review online archive, but the January 1960 issue (which is the latest one posted at this time), has a review from Pekar of Ben Webster and Associates. Did Pekar's angry letter come before or after this? Unless I've got my facts haywire, I would guess that they held onto Harvey's initial Tristano piece for several months until it could be placed after the two pieces about Lee Konitz (by Max Harrison and Michael James)that ran in the July 1960 issue. I wouldn't be surprised if Harvey himself wrote about all this in an issue of American Splendor. An archive of Harvey's jazz reviews for the Austin Chronicle can be found here: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Archive/author?oid=oid%3A73812

I believe Harvey got his start writing about jazz at The Jazz Review. He wrote an angry letter to the magazine about a piece or review he didn't like (I believe it was a negative assessment of Lennie Tristano), and Martin Williams wrote back suggesting that Harvey turn his letter into an article about Tristano, which he did (Jazz Review, July 1960).

Sorry to hear this. Had a fair amount of contact with him off and on over the years -- from the days I was editing his Down Beat record reviews (1969-70) to the ones when I was asking him to write book reviews (and/or he was asking me to assign some to him) for the Chicago Tribune (mid- to -late 1990s). The second or third act of his life (the "American Splendor" part) was among the most heartening things I've ever witnessed -- not that Harvey didn't more or less remain the same cranky guy he'd always been, but that anyone could find and/or pioneer a medium for himself the way he did, and one that was so damn effective, was amazing.

Ralph Pena, "Master of the Bass" (with Joe Albany, Pete Jolly, and Herb Geller)

First Giuffre: "Tangents in Jazz," with Jack Sheldon, Ralph Pena, and Art Anton.

Don Byas referred to the tenor saxophone he used in his later days (the one with the top key in the form of a snake) as "The Sexophone": http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/IJS/instrumentsB/don-byas.html Unfortunately, as a knowledgable fellow saxophonist once told me, while that horn certainly looked striking, it was in musical terms notably inferior to Byas' previous instrument.

Either that, or he's just "harumph"-ing/trying to sound real serious about something because that's part of the family gig. I'll close now, my friends.

This passage is yummy: "In closing, there are those who wonder why I bother? Why am I so outspoken about music? Why not let the music speak for itself? Why am I wasting my time with this subject instead of practicing?" Can't be entirely sure why I like it so much, except that probably there's no one who wonders why he bothers, why he's so "outspoken," etc. Also, you can't beat that "in closing..."

One symphony series I got in a single impetuous swoop is the symphonies of William Alwyn, cond. by Richard Hickox: http://www.amazon.com/Alwyn-Complete-Symphonies-Sinfonietta-Strings/dp/B000000AYH The idiom is more conservative than I usually fancy in 20th Century composers (Alwyn was a prolific composer of film music), but the works have much conviction and inventiveness, and the performances and recordings are top notch. Another very different series of orchestral works I've been tracking are those of the Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino (b. 1947). I particularly recommend the three-disc Kairos set that includes Allegria della Notte, Recitative Oscura, Il suono di tacere, and Shadow of Sound (Sciarrino's music typically hovers on the border between sound and silence).