Larry Kart

Lovely.

Both excellent at best, but apples and oranges. I like the emphasis in "Rome" (no doubt John Milius's contribution) on the role physical force/violence (and the willingness to use it) plays at crucial junctures. In that vein, all of "I, Claudius" takes place in a potentially and at times actually no less violent world that that of "Rome," but it's an Imperial world (for the most part a world of courtiers and intrigues), while "Rome" is about an Imperial world coming into being, and thus it has more to do at times with largish chunks of the populace. Also, good as it is, "I, Claudius," taped for TV in the studio, can seem a bit claustrophobic after a while.

I should add that, as Chuck said, it does sound like wonderful stuff. And it might well be -- no doubt you'll tell me if this is so -- that a certain level of randomness and what might look to a semi-stranger like confusion is part of process. And yet did you hear that 16-piece work "Never Enough Hope" that Toby Summerfield recorded in Chicago in Jan. 2005? At once as loose as can be and built like the proverbial brick facility. I submit that this was in large part because those 16 players, though young (names upon request, but you probably know who they are), knew what they were doing.

Again, I have to ask: what are you referring to specifically? And who are you calling "kids"? Nicole Mitchell? Jay Rozen? No, not Nicole Mitchell; Jay Rozen I don't know. But by and large they look like rather young people and sound and look like they're not that familiar with the music they're trying to play. Is that is so tricky to understand? Or do you think that they're on top of this music as much as Braxton himself is? BTW, I certainly don't have anything against young musicians. It's just that I get spoiled listening to young musicians who can really play, and the ones who can usually don't shrug, wink, and the like while doing so.

What Chuck said -- those kids sound and look like they're at sea. On the other hand, what they're trying to deal with obviously is something else. Braxton should come back to Chicago for a while; there are players here who could jump all over this music, joyfully. Haven't seen/heard Braxton talk in many years. Heartwarming.

"Two Caesars are too many." Excellent. How does that go in Latin?

Probably Orbert Davis: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=16986

In case I wasn't clear, the killing of Caesarion wasn't just a plot suggestion -- he was actually hunted down and killed, on Octavian's orders, in the wake of Actium.

Not that anyone should care, but leaving aside the Bud Shank-Laurindo Almeida stuff from the early 1950s, which in part gave rise to the Bossa Nova back in Brazil, I wonder whether the version of Luiz Bonfa's "Samba De Orfeu" on "Ease It!" (rec. March 13, 1961) is the first American jazz version of a Bossa Nova piece. If so, the second might be Curtis Fuller's version of Jobim's "One Note Samba" (rec. Aug. 23, 1961) -- with Zoot Sims, Curtis Fuller, Tommy Flanagan, Jymie Merritt, Dave Bailey -- on the album "South American Cookin'" (Epic); these men, plus Dorham, were on a South American tour together in early '61, where their interest in Bossa Nova material no doubt was piqued. In any case, Boyd-Dorham and Fuller recordings precede the Stan Getz-Charlie Byrd album (rec. Feb. 13, 1962) that sparked the jazz-Bossa Nova craze and probably precede the Vince Guaraldi album of "Black Orpheus" material as well. (Don't have a recording date for the Guaraldi, but it was released in April 1962.)

KD is in fine form on a nice but somewhat raggedy 1961 date "Ease It," which was recorded and originally issued (at least I think it was -- I have it as a 1974 Muse LP) under the leadership of tenorman Rocky Boyd. The rhythm section is Walter Bishop (dealing with a jangly piano), Ron Carter, and the marvelous Pete La Roca. Boyd is interesting -- kind of a cross between Wayne Shorter and Eddie Harris (or Tina Brooks?); he had an unearthly purity of tone at times (e.g. "Stella by Starlight," with fine work by both horns). It would have been nice to hear how Boyd developed over the years, but that was not to be. He worked with Miles for a short while, between Mobley and Shorter.

In the show, yes. If you're asking about the historical version, this is the account from wikipedia: No, I think that was Octavian responding to Antony's comment about enjoying the smell of victory. However, in history, Cassius -- "chagrined at defeat and despairing of the future" (The Cambridge Aincient History) -- did commit suicide in the course of the First Battle of Phillipi, after his troops were routed and his camp plundered by an assault led by Antony. How they're going to wrap things up I can't imagine. In history, no less than 12 action- and drama-filled years take place between Phillipi and Actium, the logical end point. If they do somehow manage to push on that far, though, I have an idea for one of the last moves. After Actium, Caesarion, the son of Caesar and Cleopatra, is hunted down and killed on the orders of Octavian, in part because Antony had declared that Caesarion, not Octavian, was Caesar's true heir. Now who's going to kill this poor young man? Pullo, of course -- trustworthy designated assassin of very important people (e.g. Cicero) and the person who happens to be, within the context of "Rome," Caesarion's actual father.

A few corrections to that fine Totah memoir: Hall Overton, not Hal Overton;Teddy Kotick, not Teddy Kotik; Jerry Hurwitz, not Jerry Horowitz. Also, Hurwitz, better known as Jerry Lloyd, may have been pretty much off the scene at the time the "Jazzville" album was made, but he had been fairly active in the late '40s and early '50s, recording with Mulligan among others.

Considering how much his first quintet sounded like Miles' second quintet, I think you're off by at least five years. Yes, but he eventually turned the clock back. Marsalis Saving Time.

Listened to "Jazz Contrasts" again. Rollins sounds very fragmentary and distracted IMO; my guess is that Hank Jones' rather busy comping was not at all to his taste, nor to KD's either. Also, none of the soloists is really making the tempo that Max sets on "La Villa." By chance, the Milestone LP two-fer on which I have the "Jazz Contrasts" tracks also includes three tracks from a terrific KD album of that time -- "Two Horns/Two Rhythm," with Ernie Henry, bassist Eddie Mathias (or Wilbur Ware), and drummer G.T. Hogan. Turning to "Lotus Blossom" from that date after the "Jazz Contrasts" stuff was a revelation; KD sounds so relaxed, rhythmically locked-in, and fluid. And Ernie Henry! His solo on "Lotus Blossom" comes close to forecasting Ornette at times.

Monterose isn't on "Jazz Contrasts," Rollins is. JR was a member of Dorham's Jazz Prophets group, which recorded for ABC-Paramount; he also appears on that live Blue Note KD Bohemia date.

I love KD but recall "Jazz Contrasts" as being a virtually lifeless album, depsite the very promising line-up. I think that was a date where things were Keepnews-ized.

"Camus readers" -- I love it; should have rhymed with "'Moby-Dick' eaters," though. Also, for some odd reason, the background chorus on "Where Y'all At?" sounds to me like a gathering of the younger members of the cast of "The Sopranos."

That's probably the best, maybe the only, way to show up Wynton's stuff for what it is.

Based on what I heard of Manny Albam way back when (mostly big band stuff -- "Drum Suite," yech!) I would agree, but having encountered in recent weeks for the first time a bunch of stuff that Albam wrote for the Hal McKusick Quartet (Hal, Barry Galbraith, Milt Hinton, and Osie Johnson), I think he had a subtler and more individual mind than I used to think. No George Russell of course, just a craftsman as Chuck says, but at best he had his own imprint.

Who's on that one? I heard Bud in London in the early '70s at a Sunday jazz brunch at some hotel, with saxophonist Johnny Barnes and trombonist Roy Williams (both very good players) alongside Bud in the front line. It was fine mainstream Swing -- less programmed that the later World's Greatest Jazz Band things.

I sold my deceased father's house last year without a real estate agent (because it looked like there might be good offers for it before we got into the showing it off phase, which proved to be the case). But the more-than-solid real estate lawyer we had proved to be essential. We found him through friends who had used him when they'd sold their own house, a place of business, and a parent's house; he was just who they'd told us he'd be -- unflappable and very smart too. Another thing that mattered to us and might matter to you; his office was in a nearby suburb, which meant at least two things -- when we had to get something to him or from him on short notice, which happened a lot, he was 10 minutes away, not in downtown Chicago; also, when we settled on a prospective buyer, our lawyer turned out to know his lawyer (both from the same area) from previous transactions, which seemed to make things go much smoother (i.e. free from arm-twisting bullshit).

Hodeir loathed "free jazz" in any and all of its manifestations, at least at the time -- and I'd bet he still does. See his book "The World of Jazz" (though his use of multiple personae there can make it tricky to sort things out). Even more so, there was an issue of Les Cahiers du Jazz that I no longer have in which there was a long roundtable discussion about the jazz avant-garde that involved Hodeir and a bunch of other French jazz critic-intellectual types. The others were basically sympathetic to Ornette, Coltrane, Ayler, Cecil, et al. Though my French is virtually non-existent, it was clear that Hodier's stance was adamantly, even mockingly, in opposition to all this.

GUNTER HAMPEL GROUP + JEANNE LEE Gunter Hampel (bcl,vib,fl), Willem Breuker (cl,bcl,ss,as,ts), Arjen Gorter (b,harmonium on 1), Pierre Courbois (dm,perc), Jeanne Lee (voc) Soest, April 2, 1968 Leoni Antoinette - 1 Wergo WER 80001 O, Western wind (J. Lee) - The capacity of this room (collect.- Robert Lax) - The four elements: water/air/fire/earth(G. Hampel - R. Lax)- Lazy Afternoon (collect - John LaTouche) GUNTER HAMPEL: The 8th of July 1969 Anthony Braxton (as,ss,cbcl), Willem Breuker (ss,as,ts,bcl), Gunter Hampel (bcl,vib,p), Arjen Gorter (b,elb on 1), Steve McCall (dm), Jeanne Lee (voc). Nederhorst, July 8, 1969 We move (G. Hampel) -1 Birth NJ 001, CD 001 We move (take 1)-1 - - We move (take 2)-2 - - Morning song - - Crepuscule (GH) - - The 8th of July 1969 (GH)-vib solo - - The 8th of July 1969 (take 1)-vib solo - Gib mir noch ein Spiegelei mit Schinken (WB - Evan Parker) ICP 008 Breuker as Breuker probably can be heard on this date (which I don't know): GUNTER HAMPEL: Assemblage Gunter Hampel (bcl,vib,ss,fl), Willem Breuker (ss,as,ts,bs,cl,bcl), Piet-Hein Veening (b), Pierre Courbois (dm). Baarn, Dec. 21, 1966 Assemblage (G.Hampel) ESP 1042 CD 1042-2 Heroicredolphysiognomystery (GH) - Make love not war to everybody (GH) - Love that title BTW -- "Make love not war to everybody." Wonder if it was meant to be ironic?

No, it wasn't Breuker's recorded debut: http://www.xs4all.nl/~wbk/disco59-69_WB.html And it's Arjen Gortner, not Argen Gortner.

Just off the top of my head, Gunter Hampel's albums "The Eighth of July, 1969" and "Wergo Jazz" -- with Willem Breuker, Braxton, Argen Gortner, Steve McCall, Jeanne Lee and others -- struck me at the time (1969, natch) as pretty significant. It seemed clear to me for one thing that Breuker (was one of these his recorded debut?) had something new, valid, and "European" to say.