Larry Kart

"It's not so much about playing the head and then going of into a series of solos as it is about constantly playing/paraphrasing the melody in different ways, and the improvisational element comes not just from the lead voice, but from the trio as a whole." That's exactly what I hear, Jimm and it is kind of rare and/or not not easy to bring off. Two younger pianists who seem to have zeroed in on that aspect of Jamal, I think, are Bruce Barth and Fred Hersch -- especially the former's "Don't Blame Me" (Double Time), with Ed Howard and Billy Drummond, and the latter's "Dancing in the Dark" (Chesky), with Drew Gress and Tom Rainey.

My first impression of the album way back when (c. 1955, for me, I think), and one of the most startling moments in my life as a listener, was the opening phrase of Gil Evans' arrangement of "Boplicity," in particular the magical rhythmic taffy pull that places the utterly unexpected kind of weight it does on each of the first four notes. I suppose you could say it was '30s Lester Young thinking made orchestral, but that it was orchestral somehow made it different --- so beautiful and (in my experience over the years) never less than strange; I felt that first time as though I were stepping into an alternate universe and still feel that way now. Maybe, the "coolest" piece on the album, along with "Moon Dreams," it exemplifies one of the key aspects of the cool sensibility at its most seductive and (it could be argued) dangerous -- the belief that just the right degree and sort of detachment from the world could bring peace, relief, and enlightenment. (Interesting, BTW, to compare the way the original band plays that passage on "Boplicity" to the way Mulligan's crew plays it on that GRP album of the "Birth of the Cool" charts -- as I recall, that eerie step-slide glide feel is missing on the GRP performance, though perhaps, as with much else on the GRP album that feels different from the original, this was a matter of choice.)

As a hardcore used book addict, I've had my best luck here: http://www.bookfinder.com/

Me either. Yes, there has been some odd changes in the weather around here recently but nothing that we members and Jim (if necessary) can't handle in the normal course of things. (In fact, I think it's been handled quite well just that way.) Any "remedy" beyond that seems likely to make things worse.

The intensity of swing Rushing creates on his recording of "Russian Lullaby" is thrilling. (I know he's got help there, but he's the main force.)

The musical analysis in Porter's excellent Coltrane biography is particularly strong because it's not merely a verbal/notated account of what most anyone with ears can already hear (Hans Keller: "What usually goes by the name of analysis is nothing of the sort. Most critics have never grasped the essential difference between analysis and description"). Rather, Porter identifies and zeroes in on the essential musical issues at stake. For a good example, check out his discussion on p. 228 of Coltrane's motivic thinking.

relyles -- Many thanks for your comments about the book. I know that members of this list are its core audience, but it always a kick to get a response from an individual whose identity I can gauge because of his previous comments on other things. About Murray, I certainly can't claim comprehensive experience -- which given his body of work would be quite a claim -- but I do have the Steve Coleman Five Elements album "Curves of Life" (RCA) from 1995, where Murray can be heard as guest artist on two longish tracks, "Country Bama" and "I'm Burnin' Up." My impression was/is that this is still pretty much the same guy I'd heard on record and in person in the '80s.

There's a very nice version of North's theme song for the film "The Long Hot Summer" on one of tenor saxophonist Walt Weiskopf's Criss Cross albums. As I recall, Walt taped the movie and learned the song that way because it wasn't available as sheet music.

There was (is) a great Rudepoema by Nelson Freire (1974 Teldec LP, reissued in Europe in 2003 on Warner) but Petchersky on ASV is close behind and the price at Berkshire ($5.99 I think) is right. Terrific recording job too. At one point Berkshire had three albums of her Villa-Lobos.

I recall that in the liner notes to his Blue Note 12-inch LP, Herbie Nichols speaks affectionately of Heitor Villa-Lobos piano music, particuarly his Rudepoema. Today I was listening to a fine ASV Villa-Lobos CD by pianist Alma Petchersky, available cheap from Berkshire (it includes Rudepoema), and found some Nichols pre-echoes in several of the pieces from the sequence Cirandas.

There's some discussion here: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...20shelton&st=30

At some point you'll want to turn the tables and get James P. Johnson's "Snowy Morning Blues" (Decca), which includes his 1944 date of Waller tunes. To hear Waller's mentor pay sublime musical tribute to his recently deceased pupil is something else -- I always feel as though I'm eavesdropping on a seance.

Didn't North do the score for I'LL CRY TOMORROW? Yes.

Samples from North's "Wonderful Country Score" can be found here http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=SRS-2016-2

I looked around and saw that there was some stuff available, but not this one. Another one of the same vintage that caught my ear a few months ago was Alex North's score for an interesting Robert Mitchum western "The Wonderful Country" -- sort of Mexican Stravinsky at times, very witty and deep into the story.

Sorry --- Raksin, Raksin, Raksin, Raksin!

Caught a bit of this movie the other day -- starring Kirk Douglas, it's something of a sequel to "The Bad and The Beautiful"; both films are dark, inside-Hollywood tales; both directed by Vincent Minnelli, both starring Douglas, both with Raksin scores -- and the scene I came in on had some of the most striking, storytelling scoring I've ever heard. Director Edward G. Robinson is trying to lure the semi-washed-up Douglas into working with him on a film on the cheap; we're in a Rome hotel suite full of mirrors and long perspectives, and all we hear in addition to the dialogue is a floating choir of saxophones (a bit ala Bob Graettinger's "This Modern World," perhaps -- exquisitely played) that perfectly expresses/shadows Douglas' wavering, doubtful mood.

On the other hand, Joe Farrell unclothed vs. Josphine Baker unclothed is no contest.

Doesn't quite fit your dream, but I've heard reliable accounts of a jam session held on the U. of Illionois campus back in in the late 1950s where all three musicians involved (Joe Farrell, Percy Heath, and a drummer who shall be nameless), plus their girlfriends/female companions for the evening were unclothed.

Allen -- I'd forgotten about the musicians wives piece. Put that together with the Miles piece, and you definitely get the feeling of someone who wants to claim territory by mobilizing a currently fashionable political/cultural agenda. I recall, too, that he was a fervent advocate of Sherri Tucker's highly dubious book "Swing Shift."

I assume that this Robin Kelly piece about Miles Davis and the pimp aesthetic http://www.racematters.org/milesdavisgeniushustler.htm is among those Kelly NY Times effusions that gave Allen Lowe pause.

Dan Morgenstern has written that there's a lot of Irish soul in Bunny Berigan. Also, of course, there was a lot of whiskey in Berigan, some of it Irish too perhaps.

Shouldn't that be Clifford/Max at the Bee Hive? There are times when it sounds like he and Max have fused or Max is even playing both instruments.

There's an excellent 2-CD Naxos set of C.P. E. Bach's flute concerti (damn fine works) with Patrick Gallois. A bargain.

As a sometime friend and supporter of Emo (I think I gave him his first review, back when he was working at a comedy showcase under his real name, Phil Soltanek), I think he's something of a comic genius, though I still have doubts about his adoption of the Emo character. On the one hand, it obviously works for him commercially -- the broad clownish-geek vibe strikes a chord in England and Australia (he worked a good deal Down Under at one time); on the other hand, I once said to him that I'm worried when you come up with something that's really funny and you can't say it onestage because your character can't say it. (I believe, though, that he's broadly expanded the limits of what Emo the character can say.) Emo, in normal conversation, is at least as funny as he is in performance; he just thinks funny. Also, as far as I know, Emo does, as he would put it, "like the ladies."