Larry Kart

Does anyone know if a Times reviewer ever referred to Sun Ra, the second time around, as "Mr. Ra"? Also -- and I think this come up elsewhere long ago -- what did they/do you do with Meatloaf?

I guess not that many people have seen Todd Soldonz's "Storytelling," but in the light of the way that movie ends, the conclusion of the Sandra Bullock portion of "Crash" (where she discovers that the Latino maid she's habitually abused is her only "real friend") just cracked me up. In fact, "Crash" is the most unintentionally amusing movie I've seen in a long time.

In case someone's curious, here are two Jan Allan links: http://www.stim.se/avd/mic/prod/jazzfacts....33;OpenDocument http://www.jam.just.nu/ The latter site, in Swedish only, displays a whole lot of albums. Those I've heard/have are very nice, particularly "Sweet and Lovely" and the one with guitarist Rune Gustaffson, bassist George Reidel (and a vocalist on some tracks--you can't win 'em all) doing all Lars Gullin tunes.

Sorry for being redundant. I see now that Clunky is on top of "Very Cool."

That's Don Joseph, not Don Ferrara, on Mulligan's "All the Things You Are." There's a lovely latter-day Joseph album on Uptown with Al Cohn. Joseph, Ferrara, Tony Fruscella, and Phil Sunkel (maybe a few others) were a kind of school of like-minded players -- very lyrical/linear, soft-cloudy in tone (like bebop Bobby Hacketts), rhythmically graceful, and with lots of harmonic imagination. I believe that Ferrara's best and most extended outing as a player is on Lee Konitz's OOP Verve album "Very Cool" (which may have been reissued in Japan). Playing Tristano-ish ideas on the trumpet is not an easy thing to do, but Ferrara did it. Another who did/does a nice job of that IMO is the Swedish veteran Jan Allan.

Earlier today I read the liner notes to Stephen Riley's recent Steeplechase album while it played in the background at the Jazz Record Mart. Turns out Paul Gonsalves was the tenorman who first caught Riley's ear.

Am enjoying Neal Caine's "Backstabber's Ball." Maybe the best I've heard from our friend Ned Goold, and Stephen Riley is interesting -- a kind of soberly intellectualized take on Paul Gonsalves? Interesting. Got the Frank Hewitt "Four Hundred Saturdays" too (my second Hewitt) and was impressed, but reactions haven't quite colaseced into words yet. Keep 'em coming, Luke!

Nice post on Doug Ramsey's Rifftides about the new Newman: http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/

Typo alert II: Don Byas, not Don Bayes. Also, I've read in a number of places (including Feather-Gitler) that Lateef changed his name to Lateef from William Evans. Did he change it before that from William Emanuel Huddleston to William Evans?

Not to mention the Grateful Dead thread.

I like Garland, so this is tempting, but can anyone tell me about how those multiple versions (e.g. I think three "One O'Clock Jump"s) of tunes work out. I ask because Garland could be a bit formulaic, and I'm afraid that a good deal of each of those tracks would be recycled material.

Skipping through the Ellington volumes, I think I see what Chuck means up to a point -- for instance on Vol. Two, Side B, "It Don't Mean a Thing" is too straight and respectful, almost boring (i.e. by Hines standards). But then the rest of that side -- "I Let A Song Go Out of My Heart," "Satin Doll," "In A Sentimental Mood" -- is very inventive, albeit on the tasteful side at times (though that does wonders for "Satin Doll"), and Vol. Four, Side B leads off with a "Black Butterfly" that is fine throught and eventually gets damn wild. As the notes explain, all the tunes on that volume were new to Hines, and on "BB"" he literally seems to be playing it for the very first time as the tape rolls, then builds and builds on it for more than 10 minutes -- quite an experience, for the listener for sure and it seems for Hines too.

Would love to jump in, but a near week-long bout of respiratory flu prevents full participation. Did listen tonight to side one of "Hines Play Hines" on Swaggie -- those towers of rhythmic independence he builds are amazing; that was a great day in the studio -- and to the almost 11-minute "The Man I Love" (also on Swaggie); its lovely framing device seemingly Hines' personal nod to the composer.

About the overall mix, I notice the name Kurt Lundvall.

First time through, I like it a lot and am sure that I'll grasp its subtleties more each time. Agree about the recording quality, except that I'd like more presence on the drums. Another recent Hill album (rec. 2003) that should not be missed is "The Day the World Stood Still" (Stunt), recorded live on tour in Denmark and Sweden after Hill had won Denmark's 2003 Jazzpar Prize by Hill, Scott Colley, Nasheet Waits, and a band of talented, fiesty Danes (and/or Swedes) -- Staffan Svensson, tpt; Klaus Lohrer, bass trb., tuba; Peter Fuglsang, alto, clarinet, bass clarinet; Thomas Agergaard, tenor sax, flute; Liudas Mockunas, sop. sax., bari. sax, clarinet, bass clarinet; and, on one track, vocalist Lenora Zenzalai Helm. Judging by the performances, the band had become very at ease in Hill's music, and that makes a difference.

Don't want to repeat myself, but the thread in the "Jazz in Print" forum about Nat Hentoff's article about violinist Aaron Weinstein led me to spout off on (and to provide links to further info about) this remarkable French ensemble and also to say a bit about the likes of Australian master Dave Dallwitz.

More info on Le Petit Jazzband de Mr. Morel can be found here: http://www.jazzbymail.com/ViewArtist.aspx?...nd+De+Mr.+Morel Now known as just Le Petit Jazzband, they appeared at last year's Chicago Jazz Festival. I can't tell you how good these guys are. Clarinetist Alain Marquet and tenor saxophonist Michel Bescont are superb soloists, wholly idiomatic yet quite individual and in-the-moment. (BTW, Morel's first name is Jean-Pierre, not Jeanne-Pierre. Must have had Jeanne Moreau on my mind.) Also worth seeking out, in a related vein, is the music of the late Australian composer-bandleader Dave Dallwitz. His Ern Malley Suite (1976) on Swaggie is a work of genius, and there's a lot more where that came from -- from Dallwitz and quite a few other gifted Australians (Graeme and Roger Bell, Frank Johnson, Ade Monsborough, et al.) who arose in the post-war era in what can be called a "trad" bag, though it is far from what usually is charactered as "trad." A sound though brief overview can be found in Terry Martin's "Jazz in Canada and Australia" in "The Oxford Companion to Jazz." Martin writes: "Seemingly simultaneously and independently, musicians in the southern arc of the continent (Melbourne, Hobart, and Adelaide) took spirit froom the great Chicago recordings of the '20s to generate a style that, while sharing some aspects wwith the slightly earlier revivalists in the United States, had in its prime a joy of liberation and swing all of its own." With this music itself in one's head (and with the music of Morel and his fellow Frenchmen in there too), Martin's reference to "liberation" may be the key. It's as though something nascent (but up to that point only nascent) and personal in the souls of these men has been released by their specific, loving, immediate contact with the music of the jazz past.

To Frank M -- All I was saying is that if Hentoff thinks that Vache and, especially, Scott Hamilton have made "self-discoveries" akin to those that Zoot Sims, Lester Young, and Bud Freeman have made (they were the others he mentioned in that sentence), then he's been smoking the old opium pipe. Actually, that's not all I meant to say. What Hentoff set in motion in that piece in general, and in that sentence in particular, is a characteristic flim-flam operation, even if the person being flim-flimmed is to some extent the writer himself. The writer fastens upon a genuinely, permanently worthy figure from the music's (and usually his own) past -- in this case, Stuff Smith -- and links him to some young player of today who has an essentially revivalistic and/or preservationist relationship to that older figure's music. I'm not saying BTW that the music of Stuff Smith, Bud Freeman, etc. is no longer "relevant'; rather it's that the process whereby some present-day figures manage to engage in real dialogue with figures from or aspects of the music's past is a very tricky one that tends to be endangered or corrupted by the presence of nostalgia and dreams of "rebirth." For an example of IMO true musical engagement with aspects of the jazz past that one would have thought were gone forever, let me recommend the string of CDs that Le Petit Jazzband de Mr Morel, led by French cornetist-arranger Jeanne-Pierre Morel, has made in recent years for the Stomp Off label: Delta Bound, Baby!, Farewell Blues, Cafe Capers, and Au Petit Journal Saint Michel, working with pieces from the '20s and early '30s by the likes of Elmer Schoebel, Morton, Tiny Parham, Clarence Williams, A. J. Piron, Santo Pecora, Alex Hill, Sam Morgan, Bennie Moten, etc. To quote from the annotator of the Farewell Blues CD: "This is very original music using an old idiom as its means of expression."

Also revealingly inane is Nat's "'Absorbing the self-discoveries of ... Warren Vache and Scott Hamilton,' says Mr. Weinstein"....

Well, these days that's what a lot of the stuff that Arbors and others package (per Hentoff) as "classic jazz" is all about.

Bertrand -- you're right. I meant to say Kelley's "Miles as pimp" piece. About Pullman's Powell biography, I pretty knew much know where in the process it is now, and I know for sure at which publishing firm (a very good university press), and I have much confidence and every hope that it will emerge. Based on the parts I've seen, it will be a superb book.

Keepnews' claims? What are they, and are they Orrin's or Peter's? I believe the latter was/is also writing a Monk biography. Also, echoing Allan, Kelly's infamous Monk as pimp piece was ominous, especially its aggressively wised-up tone.

Can't say for sure in Wright's case, but doesn't virtually everyone known as "Specs" wear eyeglasses?

I agree with Allen's post. A moment of revelation for me was the time I caught Day's first film (or the first one in which she starred) "Romance on the High Seas" (1948), on TV -- "absolutely gorgeous, sexy singing with perfect time" exactly. And not only was she very nice to look at, I also recall thinking that her physical relationship to the act of singing was strikingly direct and joyful. She does a number or two in the film with the Page Cavanaugh Trio that is/are very jazzy, in the good sense. This is the one in which Oscar Levant appeared with Day, thus giving him the authority to make his remark.

Dos anyone else know Barretto's 1995 album on Owl/Blue Note -- "My Summertime," with Michael Mossman, Adam Kolker, Hector Martignon, Jairo Moreno, and Vince Cherico? I'm no Barretto expert, but I picked this up a few years back and was very impressed. Sounded like the album that I wish Horace Silver would have made at the time. Are there other Barretto albums of this style and quality? (P.S. It's a fine David Baker recording, and Martignon in particular plays his ass off.)