Larry Kart

blustrated

Happy Birthday to one of Nature's noblemen. :party:

It was. Bauder in his bolder bag rather than his quiet/spacy one. John Herndon on drums. Very intense, even hard-swinging at times. Thanks. That would be great.

Thanks all. I'm going to celebrate (I hope) by listening to Matt Bauder, Toby Summerfield, and Josh Abrams at The Hungry Brain in Chicago tonight.

Two Stash CDs from 1990-1, "The Definitive Fats Waller, Vol. 1 and 2" (they may have been on LP originally) draw mostly from Associated Transcriptions material and are terrific. As Dan Morgenstern explains in his excellent notes, these programs were recorded in the studio for broadcast as "canned" radio programs -- "brief musicales to fill gaps in programming." What that meant creatively was that Waller had good-sized chunks of time to fill (about 15 minutes per program) and served in effect as in his own producer within that time frame -- probably more so (or so it feels to me) than he typically did while making records that would be released as such. One feels the flow from number to number quite strikingly at times.

No -- a year older than Ari Brown. Isn't that what I said?

That's the augmented version of the band I just went to Europe with in the last week of this April, with Ari Brown taking the place of Ira Sullivan. I was there, at Mike's kind invitation, to MC pre-concert panel discussions with Art Hoyle, Julian Priester, and Ari Brown, the band's elder statesmen (though, I'm a year older than Ari). Everyone played great, and we all had a good time. Art, Julian, Ari, Jeb Bishop, and I came back after the first week of concerts (Cologne, Amsterdam, and Hasselt in Belgium), while the other four guys in the regular band (Mike, Jason Roebke, Greg Ward, and Tim Haldeman) continued the tour for another two weeks or so, in Italy and elsewhere. Only problem for me was that the pieces they played got so ingrained in my consciousness that I'd wake up each day with one or more of them running through my head like the bell of alarm clock.

I'm not saying that John or I are "right" here, just that this is what two such people thought at the time, when we and Monk and all were still alive in the same continuum, for whatever that's worth.

From a 1964 John Litweiler review of "Criss Cross" (Columbia): "Frankie Dunlop is certainly the major liability in this quartet. He is an exceptionally facile drummer, but it is amazing how a drummer can be so insensitive to Monk's playing. He has learned all the tricks from Roach, Blakey, Philly Joe, Elvin Jones, Baby Dodds, Joe Podunk and the rest of the gang, and he feels compelled to use every trick in his voluminous bag on every song he plays. It seems that way, anyway; good intentions do not a drummer make. John Ore is an asset to the group, in spite of his unwillingness to solo (he has an appealing habit of playing his solo choruses entirely in double stops); since he plays slightly on top of the beat, he keeps show-off Dunlop from dragging the tempo." Dunlop seems to me to approach Monk's music as a more or less fixed object, like something in a museum display case, and have decided that it's "eccentric" stuff that calls for Dunlop to add external, ricky-tick cute decorations from somewhere outside anyplace where real rhythmic interaction might occur. At times he sounds like a way over-served Osie Johnson backing Spike Jones. For real rhythmic interaction with Monk, there's Blakey and Roach; for deep simpatico grooving, there's Shadow Wilson. Philly Joe, on his one encounter (I think it's just one), does quite well just being himself. Billy Higgins I'd have to listen again. If I had to chose between Dunlop and the rather faceless Ben Riley, I'd take Riley. IIRC, Riley's best Monk playing was on the first Sphere album; Rouse is in fine form there, too.

In Chris Albertson's post above, I think he meant to say George T. Simon, not John Simon. "Cootie Williams and Rex Stewart in The Big Challenge" is a gem, as is the Jazztone Henderson Band Reunion date, with Stewart, Hawkins, Ben Webster et al. and the "Coleman Hawkins All-Stars." On the Max Kaminsky, Pee Wee Russell and Joe Sullivan are frighteningly intense on "Stuyvesant Blues."

Because "the powers that be" have decided that it's "spot on."

More Gullin:

The young Gullin:

Carney, Chaloff, and Lars Gullin.

Do I have to spell out that both of those reactions/assertions/opinions, rapid-fire as they were, were based on my comparative sense of how people behave in good-sized chunks of other societies with which I'm quite familiar, including my own? Sad though it may be, neither of the sorts of behavior I noticed or thought I noticed in Hasselt seems to be common where I live. What illegitimate forms of entertainment do people indulge in where you live? I suspect they were going on a street or two away in Belgium. OK -- I finally see the problem, or part of it. When I said "legitimately," you took it to mean "as opposed to illegitimately," while I meant that the people I saw in Hasselt seemed to be genuinely (or actually or really) enjoying life and each other. I just don't see the sort of shared enjoyment of life that I thought I saw in Hasselt going very often where I live. It's not that what I think I see around here are "illegitimate" forms of enjoyment but rather less enjoyment of life across the board. I'm not making a judgment about "proper" ways of enjoying life; I'm just saying that the people I saw in Hasselt seemed to be having a good time being themselves.

Do I have to spell out that both of those reactions/assertions/opinions, rapid-fire as they were, were based on my comparative sense of how people behave in good-sized chunks of other societies with which I'm quite familiar, including my own? Sad though it may be, neither of the sorts of behavior I noticed or thought I noticed in Hasselt seems to be common where I live.

Ran into Michael Moore at the band's Bimhuis concert. He said he liked my book and mentioned specific things. OTOH, the audience there seemed quite cool (as in "cold"), had what I took to be a "prove that you have the right to be here at the Bimhuis" vibe. Have no idea, fond of stereotyping as I am, whether this is typical. Whatever, perhaps in part as a result of this edgy coolness (if indeed I wasn't imagining all that), this was the tour's least successful performance, though I don't know if the band members would agree. The venues in Cologne and Hasselt had a quite different feel, much warmth, an expectation that positive expectations were going to be fulfilled, as they then were.

What a bizarre collection of superficial assumptions, based on a flying visit! I imagine that the Belgians, like the rest of us, are a diverse people. "I saw a fair number of middle-aged couples who obviously liked each other" - astounding observation! What were you expecting? And: "the Belgians I saw en masse in bars and met individually seemed to give off a strong sense of legitimate enjoyment of life." My god, I bet they are grateful to know that the way they enjoy life has your validation. As for: "About Belgium, based on that one brief encounter, I wondered if there might also be a creepy side -- e.g. thoughts that the 19th Century imperial past in Africa must have drawn on something in the national character". I wouldn't dare assume the same about 'the American character' based on the Native American massacres of the 19thC (and I'd hope no-one would make similar assumptions about 'the British character' based on our awful imperialist record)! Dear, oh, dear! The arrogance of the intellectual tourist! Hey, Bev -- Wait till I get to Worksop.

I was worried too -- getting guys to talk fairly freely in public (and more or less stay on topic) without getting in their way can be tricky (and it's something I'd never done before, except once a few years ago with Lee Konitz, when out of nervousness I talked too damn much). The last panel, in Hasselt, went the best because I tossed my notes and asked all-new questions off the top of my head. Also, we all were getting along well. About Belgium, based on that one brief encounter, I wondered if there might also be a creepy side -- e.g. thoughts that the 19th Century imperial past in Africa must have drawn on something in the national character (i.e have been a bottom-up as well as a top-down affair) -- but the Belgians I saw en masse in bars and met individually seemed to give off a strong sense of legitimate enjoyment of life. For instance, in the bars, at least at certain hours, I saw a fair number of middle-aged couples who obviously liked each other -- groups of them playing cards at tables, etc. A certain fundamental warmth that I assume could take many forms. By contrast -- and this is completely unfair -- brief fore and aft slices of Amsterdam left me far from a fan of the city or its people, with the exception of the woman, a saint with a sense of humor. who was shepherding us around through the entire tour. "Association for the Advancement of Chicago Musicians"? Whoa!

Actually, Art Hoyle told what was in part a Bruz Freeman story in Belgium on Friday night. Art was at a Chicago session in the mid-1950s,in the audience listening to Bruz in top form, and said, to no one in particular, "Can you imagine anyone playing more drums?" As it happened, the legendary Ike Day was seated behind Art, took umbrage, got up on the stand and proceeded to deliver a percussive display that culminated in Day playing figures that began on the drums and continued on the walls of the club.

I don't believe there is one. John Dennis was a Philadelphia guy. Maybe Ratliff knew that Muhal quote in praise of Dennis and rashly assumed that Dennis was a Chicagoan.

It's one of my favorite McLean dates. Mine, too. P.S. I wrote the notes for that belated 1979 Blue Note Classic issue (the guys in Japan jumbled up the notes, got the typed pages out of order -- think that may have been corrected for the later CD). Also, it's "Consequence," not "Consequences."

Review of "Stories and Negotiations" from today's NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/arts/music/02play.html?scp=1&sq=mike%20reed&st=cse

Hi, Niko. Just got home (from Amsterdam) this afternoon. Mike's band, augmented by Hoyle, Priester, Brown, and Jeb Bishop, played Cologne, Amsterdam, and Hasselt (Belgium). The augmented lineup (with Brown subbing for Ira Sullivan) is same one that played a Millennium Park concert in Chicago in 2008; that concert is preserved on Reed's "Stories and Negotiations" (482 Music), liner notes by yours truly. I was along for this part of the tour as the "gespreksleider" for pre-concert panel discussions with Hoyle, Priester, Brown, who like me (and Bishop) were there only for the first week. The rest of the band (Greg Ward, Tim Haldeman, Jason Roebke and Mike) will play in Italy and elsewhere for another two or three weeks. Things went quite well, musically and otherwise, Hasselt and Cologne especially. Belgians, it seemed to me, really know how to have a good time. Duvel is an excellent beer. In Cologne, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum is something else -- a fairly compact, top-notch collection from the Middle Ages through the early 20th Century, and the annotations on the gallery walls (what's the term for those things?) were miles better than anything I've ever seen in any museum, really enlightening and free from b.s.