Larry Kart

I have just about all, maybe all, of Florence's albums, and I'm of two minds about his work. On the one hand, I have a friend who's a very talented New York-based composer-arranger-bandleader-instrumentalist, and he dismisses Florence's work as much too white-bread and stage band-ish. I can hear what he means -- there's an arguably complacent acceptance of '40s and '50s shout-chorus big band conventions in Florence, and some of his focus on motivic detail can be a bit sewing-machine-like. On the other hand, that focus on motivic detail intrigues me -- if only because it speaks of real, almost obsessive, compositional thinking -- and I'm also attracted by the distinctiveness of his sax- and trumpet-section writing. In fact, it's more like he writes the same way for trumpets and reeds, which makes the trumpet writing doubly distinctive (and judging by the commitment with which it's executed, very interesting to play). Also, his lead trumpeter, George Graham, is terrific -- very powerful AND musical.

You're right, Chuck. BTW, who's that distinguished-looking fellow in the photo? Look like he's about to endorse a single malt whiskey.

Possibly interesting anecdote about "The All Seeing Eye." Soon after the record came out, I was in Chicago's Jazz Record Mart (the old W. Grand Ave. location) while the title track was being played in the store. Standing at the counter listening was Roscoe Mitchell, and during Freddie Hubbard's trumpet solo on (as I recall) the title track, Roscoe made one of those sub-verbal sounds that indicate intense approval. A bit surprised because I assumed he wasn't a big Hubbard fan, I said something along the lines of "You like Freddie Hubbard?" Roscoe replied, "No, man -- the drummer" (i.e. Joe Chambers).

A very strong second-stage (I guess) Jordan quartet album is "Bearcat" (Riverside, now OJC) with a terrific bass-drum team -- Teddy Smith and J.C. Moses. There are some Jordan solos here that have an unusual feel even for him, in that they sound (and certainly are) improvised and swing like mad but also have a kind of superior R&B blues-ballad melodic coherence, as though there were no break between the line and the blowing.

Jaspar and Blossom Dearie once were husband and wife.

Records be damned, too. In 1957-8, at a Joe Segal-run regular (for a while) Monday night session at the Gate of Horn in Chicago, I heard a band of Ira Sullivan, Griffin, Jodie Christian, Victor Sproles, and Wilbur Campbell play "Night in Tunisia," with Ira on trumpet. Then, after he, Griffin and Jodie played, Ira switched to tenor and he and Griffin went at it.

Ubu -- Not sure if by "what a title" you meant that "March of the Siamese Children" was an excellent track (it sure is) or an odd title for a piece, but at the risk of explaining something that you already know, if you meant that it was an odd title, "March of the Siamese Children" is from Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical "The King and I," where it accompanies the entry of the King of Siam's children, therefore it's not an odd title at all. Lawrence Kart