Larry Kart

The Town Crier label still exists http://www.towncrierrecordings.com/catalog/index.htm and they have a Lance Hayward album with France on some tracks, though it's not the same material I have on those Town Crier cassettes. If there are any Roland Hanna fans out there, his Town Crier solo album may be his best recording. Terrific sound too.

I've got two commercially released cassettes on the Town Crier label under the leadership of pianist Lance Hayward (a kind of Eddie Heywood/cocktailish type) -- "That's All!" and "Live at Eddie Condon's" -- the former with France and Buddy Tate, plus Major Holley and drummer Clarence "Tootsie" Bean, the latter with the same lineup minus Tate ( Rec. in March and April 1984.) France is in great form, as is Tate, and the sound quality is exceptional for live recordings.) Town Crier was the creation of Claudia Marx. She also produced a nice solo album by Roland Hanna, and one that paired Flip Phillips with Toronto-based pianist Carol Britto.

Now that I've reread Shelton's email, what he meant was that Dragons 1976 was in Georgia in the midst of a 10-day tour but not a 10-day tour OF Georgia.

Whoa -- I think should write about it myself. Pass the coffee.

Chris -- What puzzles me is that Chilton, unlike Dahl, had no malicious or self-serving agenda that I could detect; also, he may not have been taping the interview, just taking notes. My best guess is that this kind of paraphrase was/is the norm for some writers, though of course it shouldn't be. Again, what bugs me about this is that he took an incident that I was thrust into by circumstance and that shook me up as few things I've ever been party to have done and, by genteely rephrasing in what I said, sort of painted me as a blase neo-British twit. Twit I may be, but I was far from blase that day. Maybe the answer is to right about it myself.

No -- it's Ed Partyka, a bass trombonist, born in Chicago, a resident of Cologne.The album is "Madly Loving You" (Challenge) and features Bob Brookmeyer as soloist. The other pieces are by Bill Holman, Maria Schneider, Partyka, Brookmeyer, etc. Personnel seems to be drawn from the NDR Big Band.

Correction: The writing on "Drum Suite" was split between Albam and Ernie Wilkins, though I'll bet Billy Byers was in the trombone section. Also, the four drummers on the album were Osie Johnson, Teddy Sommer, Gus Johnson, and Don Lamond. I think, mercifully, it was one drummer for each movement of the suite, though there may have been some all-in stuff too. (The writing, I recall, had a lot of what they used to call in the musical theater "fire in the whorehouse" stuff, the kind of music that would be played while male dancers ran around in circles holding female dancers horizontal above their heads at arms length.) Four years later, in 1960, RCA made "Son of Drum Suite," with arrangements by Al Cohn. Never heard that one, but a lot of copies of "Drum Suite" must have been sold.

About Chilton's book on Hawkins, it seemed basically solid to me, but there is an odd aspect to it that perhaps someone knows enough to comment on. I was the person who took Hawkins to O'Hare airport after his disastrous late April 1969 trip to Chicago to record a public TV show with Roy Eldridge and to play a Sunday afternoon (4/20/69) concert at the North Park Hotel. (I think Hawkins flew out on Monday; he died on May 19.) I gave Chilton an account in a telephone interview of what happened when we got to O'Hare, but while this passage is placed in quotes (i.e. as though these were my actual words), they're not. Chilton doesn't add to or subtract anything from what I told him, but I swear it's a somewhat British-ized paraphrase of what I actually said, and includes several strings of words (e.g. "I'm normally diffident in the face of officialdom..." "...he looked at me with a gaze of appreciation as he went aboard" ) that not only were not spoken by me but probably could not have emerged from the mouth of any American. I've never known what to make of this.

I have grim memories of Albam's "Drum Suite" (RCA), a big, empty production-number thing (two tracks to a side) that featured a big band of the usual NYC-studio suspects of the mid-1950s and four drummers -- Osie Johnson and Teddy Sommer are the names I recall; Charlie Persip might have been one of the other two. On the other hand, Albam's "Jazz Workshop" album for RCA from about that time has some genuinely clever/heady writing. Albam seemed to have two gears -- generic (as Chuck said) and something more personal. There's a longish Albam piece of recent vintage on an album on the Challenge label, featuring a German radio big band led by a U.S. trombonist/arranger whose name I can't recall. (Ed somebody, maybe? -- Challenge no doubt has a website where it can be tracked down.) In any case, this piece struck me, again, as empty and a good bit more pretentious than "Drum Suite." On the other hand, Albam, who's gone now, was much respected by several musicians I respect. I don't think he played his instrument (bari. sax) on record after his time in the Charlie Barnet band.

In case anyone is interested in those two self-produced albums by altoist/composer Arma Shelton that I've touted on this thread -- Dragons 1976's "On Cortez" and Arrive's "Arrive" -- I got in touch with Shelton, who says that he still has copies he'd be happy to sell. He's at aramshelton@yahoo.com but won't be able to act on this immediately because he and Dragons 1976 are in the midst of a 10-day tour of Georgia. There are 10-days worth of places to play in Georgia? Who knew? (BTW, I have no financial interest in this.)

Don Friedman ... probably. About whether someone is Jewish -- for our purposes here, several sometimes overlapping circles of possible definition come to mind: The aforementioned technical Orthodox one (if you're mother is, yes, father only, no); self-definition and/or social identity (do you think of yourself as Jewish in some significant way? do others, preferably without malice, do so?) For instance, Garth mentioned Shorty Rogers, who apparently did something (converted to Christianity, I assume) that made him not Jewish from one point of view. But Rogers' parentage and social background were Jewish, and, to my mind, there's an arguably Jewish strain in the pensively meditative/witty gestures that mark his playing. Of course, a lot of that came to Shorty by way of Harry Edison, and nobody's saying he was Jewish.

Lennie Niehaus? I doubt it. Many jazz writers of course: Dan Morgenstern Ira Gitler Yours truly Garry Giddins and Lester Bowie's favorite critic, Dave Flexingbergstein

"Keepnews, too? What was his original name?" Mackie Messer

You're kidding, Mike -- right?

Not Zoot! Steve Lacy Tiny Kahn Warne Marsh (on one side -- the same for Desmond) Mel Lewis Art Hodes Sonny Berman Teddy Charles Shelly Manne Mel Torme Ziggy Elman Victor Feldman George Handy Dick Hyman Chuck Israels David Izenson Chubby Jackson Max Kaminsky Dick Katz Lou Levy Abe Most Sam Most Andre Previn Red Rodney Frank Socolow Cy Touff

The first Arrive CD is a self-produced (though quite well-recorded) sold-on-gigs affair. I'll bet that the Jazz Record Mart (312-222-1467) has some copies; they did at one time. If they don't, let me know, and I'll ask Shelton if he has any left and put you in touch with him. There will be a second Arrive album (already recorded) coming from 482 Music some time this year. It's one hell of a band, I think. Shelton's playing you may already know; the vibes player, Jason Adasiewicz, is also special.

After one listen, I'm impressed. Rooster Ties and Africa Brass, I think I know what you're saying about track two -- "On that second track (Jump Up), I guess I wish the guitar tone was a little less overdriven and processed. The cat is playing some cool stuff at times, but the tones of the guitar and piano don't mesh with me. But, JaMo is playing the hell out of the piano on the track." While I noticed the same things, to my ears that's part of what Moran was trying to do: place that twangy, neo-bluesiness inside a compositional/emotional frame, at varying distances from us and from himself at the piano (note the way the guitar is far down in the mix on that track), and then have his own playing comment on the whole "varying distances" shebang. Whether this all works, I'm not sure yet, but I think that's what Moran is going for here and throughout the album. The operatic, hand-on-chest tone of "Field of the Dead" seemed a bit too much the first time through, but I wouldn't be surprised if that will change over time. Whatever, it doesn't sound to me like Moran's motives here are the least bit cheesy.

Uli -- Were you planning to catch this tonight?: AACM Great Music Ensemble: Ari Brown, Douglas Ewart, Tony Herera, Norman Palm, Ike Jackson, Nicole Mitchell, Steve Berry, Martin Alexander, Harrison Bankhead, Avreeayl Ra, Art Burton, Dushun Mosley, Ann Ward, Ed Wilkerson, Mwata Bowden, Ernest Dawkins, Darius Savage, Jeff Parker, Tomeka Reed, Junius Paul, Aaron Getsug 10 PM at the Velvet Lounge - 21281/2 S. Indiana On the one hand, it's a lot of good players, on the other hand, it might get pretty messy. Any thoughts? If you're planning to go, send me a PM and maybe we can hook up.

Uli -- I'm going to try to get South more in upcoming weeks (I live in a far North suburb, which makes it more difficult). Thanks for the nudge.

Uli: If I said that Boykin need to challenge himself more, what I really meant was that IMO he need to focus more, weed out to some extent what seems to me to come to him too easily and bit formulaically and in turn really develop his good/original ideas and/or realize better what those good ideas imply about what he might do next. The guy has a whole lot of talent. Greg Ward sounds OK to me but only OK. He tries hard, but there comes a time in his solos IMO where he sounds more excited than what he's actually playing warrants. Mike Reed has grown a lot, I think, and may grow a great deal more. Haven't heard the Nicole Mitchell/Ed Wilkerson/Harrison Bankhead /Avereeayl Ra 4tet. I've heard Wilkes more often than Maurice Brown, but they both left me much the same feeling. I know what you mean about showboating being a natural part of youthfulness, but my sense of Wilkes and Brown was that there was something kind of jive going on there -- that they were playing like their hair was on fire when in fact it really wasn't, that were trying too damn hard to sound delirously excited. When Lee Morgan was young and hot, he usually really WAS hot.

I have a tape of that Monk band with Lacy, Waldron, Rouse et al. performance at the Chicago Jazz Fest. It begins at a very high level and then gets giggly great, as though the musicians themselves couldn't quite believe how well it was going. In fact, the overall level of execution plus enthusiasm probably exceeds that of either of the Monk/Overton charts concert recordings -- albeit the CJF lacks the presence of the man himself (but Waldron is in inspired form). I'll never forget walking through the crowd behind the seats as the band was playing and watching some little kids respond to the rhythms. When the band played the opening lick of "Bye-Ya," one kid literally jumped for joy.

I'll have to check out the new "Yo Miles!" I really liked the first one, thought Leo played great on it. BTW, at the time I wrote those notes for "Filles," I'd not yet heard the rumors about what Miles and Tony might have had going on on the personal level, even it might read like that's what was in the back of my mind.

First one I saw (I think) was the Herman Third Herd, probably in 1955, at the Blue Note. Age 13, I went with my parents. Starting time was 9 p.m., so to be on the safe side we arrived at about 8:30 -- to an utterly empty room. At my urging we took the front center table. At maybe 9:30 the band came on. Woody had six (!) trumpets that night -- somebody new was probably coming in, while the guy he was replacing was still there -- so you can imagine what the impact of the first number (a Manny Albam flagwaver from the "Road Band" album) was on someone who'd never heard a big band in-person before. I was stunned and delighted -- grinning like an idiot. My mother, though, asked if we could move to a table further back, and we did. I definitely recall that John Coppola and Jay Migliori were in that band, perhaps Cy Touff and Bill Harris too. Wish I'd been able to heard the vintage Third Herd, with Perkins and Kamuca, but what the hell! Second one, that same year, was the Basie Band at the Chicago Opera House. Again -- as with Herman and as others have said here -- the in-person dynamic range/physical impact was unforgettable. And the grooves! Also, from that time, Ellington at Ravinia from the front row -- I remember the unreality of being that close to the porta-desks with Duke's name on them in script and the magic of watching Johnny Hodges -- and Maynard Ferguson on a Birdland All-Stars tour. There was a weird moment there that may resonate with Jim Sangrey. Jimmy Ford was on the band, and at one point, in the midst of a fiery solo, he briefly seemed to have some kind of seizure -- one hand suddenly flew off the horn and rose head-high in a Jerry Lewis having a spasm manner, or as though Ford were a bird flapping a broken wing. A scary thing to see, and I'm still not sure what was up -- could have been an actual fit of some sort, induced by any number of things, but it's not impossible that Ford, who certainly was playing his ass off and literally didn't miss a beat, was just letting off some steam in a rather free-form manner. I assume, from things I've heard, that he was a rather free-form guy. A nice intro to bebop values.

Further notes (after re-listening) on some of those recent Chicago Scene recordings: Dragons 1976's "On Cortez" is even better than I remembered. Only caveat is that Aram Shelton, a strong player, likes to mix himself down. I 'd suggest adjusting the volume until Shleton sounds life-size and then live with the larger-than-life-size bass of Jason Ajemian and drums of Tim Daisy. Perhaps that balance is what Shelton wants. (BTW, the band's name comes from the fact that all three members were born in 1976, a year of the Dragon on the Chinese calendar.) And the band is two years further down the road from this recording (made in Jan. 2003). I forgot to mention Grey Ghost's "How To Create Words" (482 Music) -- Grey Ghost being the duo of Shelton and drummer Jonathan Crawford (plus in-real-time laptop and synthesizer stuff by both men). Most of it is very strong playing, and even this Luddite feels that some of the electronic stuff works. A re-listen to Matana Roberts' "Sticks and Stones" (Thrill Jockey) was very disappointing. Not only is it almost as claustrophobically recorded as the group's first album, but Roberts also is only intermittently in representative form. I heard this band play much of the program in person around the time they made this recording and was bowled over. A missed opportunity. Which reminds me of how much of a difference people like Chuck make. That he captured on record the young masters of the AACM (Roscoe in particular) at the level of their best in-person performances of the time -- not only sonically but also in terms of emotional intensity and all the rest -- and got it out into the world so it it could be heard by people who hadn't yet or weren't going to hear this music in person.... Those opportunities are matters of the moment that need to be seized in the right way, then and there.

"he's a good (and active) organizer. This shows up in his performances/recordings where many worthy musicians are "showcased" in a way they would not be without his work." That fits what I've heard.