Larry Kart

For sure IMO

Yes, I don't listen to the Nlonet albums that often. A Lee recording I can particularly recommend is "Rich Lee" (Steeplechase) which pairs him with tenor saxophonist Rich Perry. Perry is very heady player, not unlike Joe Henderson, and he and Lee stimulate each other.

Lee Konitz, and I don't regret a single one.

"The Modern Art of Jazz" -- never heard the other one. "The Modern Art of Jazz" has a great bass-drum team: Oscar Pettiford and and Kenny Clarke. Mat's' own playing is charming and hip, and the tracks with Art Farmer and Gigi Gryce are excellent.

Because I admire Coker's playing, I hope that he farmed out that "essential discography" list to some idiot instead of doing it himself.

I prize their recording of the Rachmaninov 2nd Symphony conducted by Edward Downes.

A

Brit trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar's "Pub Crawling" (recorded in Britain in '56-'57, released over here on Contemporary) with Tubby Hayes, drummer Phil Seaman, altoist Derek Humble, trombonist Ken Wray, et al. Deuchar is out of Fats Navarro but individual, the tasty originals (all named after Brit beers and ales) have a Dameron flavor. Just a lovely relaxed date. I'm soft on it because I've liked it all these years and nobody else seems to know about it.

Speaking of Ragtime/Stride piano that swings, here's my late friend Bob Wright playing a Luckey Roberts piece from the early 1900s. Back in the '50s Eubie Blake said that Bob was the best living Stride pianist. Wright plays Eubie Blake: Wright plays James P. Johnson: Wright play Ragtime and gets it right. Note the lilt of the rhythm.

One demurral about your Rollins analogy. What Rollins played in the '70s was of course based to some considerable degree on what he he had been playing for much of his life, as was our reactions to what he played in the '70s. We have no comparable evidence about Moran's involvement with Europe's music other than the fact of what he's done with it. Yes, Moran is free to handle Europe's music however he wishes, but ... let me try another analogy. We're all familiar with Duke Ellington's music. A variation on it a la Guy Lombardo or Spike Jones? These are not matters of restricting anyone's artistic freedom but rather of context and something like common sense.

Hutch Fan -- Given that James Reese Europe was a unique important figure, musically and historically, one would think that Moran was under an obligation to make a genuinely insightful connection to his actual music, which in Allen Lowe's knowledgable view, and in my view as well, Moran has not done. Admittedly doing so would have been quite a task because the "language," so to speak of, Europe's music, striking though it is, differs quite a bit from the habits of much African-American music from only few years later in the 20th Century. One point alone: while Europe's music had abundant "drive," it does not even in an incipient way really swing. To grasp that and to be able to convey its nature and implications to players of today would be a daunting proposition to say the least -- a considerable act of imaginative empathy would seem to be required.

Brainy guitar trio-- can be ordered from Light's website. Not unlike Lage Lund, but Light is quite individual. He also has recorded with Noah Preminger..

BTW, while I was the bearer of this Jazz Times news, via an email from Nate Chinen, I don't give a crap about Jazz Times, never have and probably never will. Only jazz mags I ever cared about were the Jazz Review and Jazz Monthly. I worked at/wrote for Down Beat for several years, but the only wholly positive aspect of that experience I can recall was becoming friends with Dan Morgenstern, Don DeMicheal, Martin Williams, and Ira Gitler and getting to review several Roscoe Mitchell albums.

As long as I -- an 80-year-old white guy who's been writing and thinking about jazz for more than 65 years, can continue to post here -- I'm OK. BTW Willard Jenkins once called me a racist -- I found this funny and don't even recall what I wrote that set him off, but this aroused the ire of Michael Fitzgerald, owner of the list where that dustup took place, and he told Jenkins to take his B.S. elsewhere. I got the impression from this that Jenkins had a history of such name-calling.

I think what elevated Evans' stature was what he actually played on the album -- albeit the popularity of the album made what he played there evident to many.

Have you seen the May issue of JazzTimes? Does that feel like a loaded question? My copy arrived in today’s mail. A NEW ERA, declares the cover — a bold headline that’s objectively true, though things get more subjective once you turn the page. In the event that you haven’t been following the saga of “America’s Jazz Magazine,” its new owner, Gregory Charles Royal, is eager to bring you up to speed. Upgrade to paid In an introductory manifesto, Royal writes: “As I say my peace [sic], I want you all to imagine a world in which Black writers, as a matter of course and almost exclusively, provide the critique, opinion and coverage of White jazz artists and their music. Scary, huh?” He goes on to affirm his own foothold within the music (“My Cred”), drop dozens of names in a word cloud (“Kevin Bacon Ain’t Got Sh%^ on Me!”), and finally, nurse a core grievance (“The Result of an Untreated Wound”). Here’s the top: Later in the issue, there are four pages of tweets critical of JazzTimes and its new direction, all stamped w In an introductory manifesto, Royal writes: “As I say my peace [sic], I want you all to imagine a world in which Black writers, as a matter of course and almost exclusively, provide the critique, opinion and coverage of White jazz artists and their music. Scary, huh?” He goes on to affirm his own foothold within the music (“My Cred”), drop dozens of names in a word cloud (“Kevin Bacon Ain’t Got Sh%^ on Me!”), and finally, nurse a core grievance (“The Result of an Untreated Wound”). Here’s the top: This publication has lived in an insular bubble for decades — a magazine seemingly written for the consumption and from the perspective of white journalists (often themselves wannabe jazz musicians) who have had no interest in appealing to a general public. A wankfest of the highest order, largely undertaken and overtaken by white people at the expense of cultivating a legacy amongst jazz's primary heirs — past and future Black generations. These writers, aka the gatekeepers, historically worked on a tab until this Black man said get the fuck out — now they want their money yesterday and are losing their fucking minds all over social media. Later in the issue, there are four pages of tweets critical of JazzTimes and its new direction, all stamped with an exultant kiss-off. Like the cryptic slug at the top of Royal’s note — RIP the April 2023 Issue — it’s all so inside-baseball that I can only imagine what the experience is for a reader with no knowledge of What Went Down. May 2023 issue of JazzTimes. The “good-bye!” [sic] stamps are printed on the page. Cards on the table: I haven’t been actively associated with JazzTimes for a handful of years, but I have a lot of history with the magazine, where I began writing features and reviews around the turn of the century. The Gig ran as a monthly column there for more than a dozen years, beginning with the May 2004 issue. The previous year, JazzTimes had ended Stanley Crouch’s tenure as a columnist — a reprisal, he claimed, for his scathing column “Putting the White Man in Charge.” Crouch’s polemic was recently anthologized by veteran jazz journalist Willard Jenkins in a vital book titled Ain’t But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story. So was another essay even more germane to this discussion, Amiri Baraka’s “Jazz and the White Critic,” first published in DownBeat almost 60 years ago. Baraka, then still writing as LeRoi Jones, opened that essay with a lucid provocation: “Most jazz critics have been white Americans, but most important jazz musicians have not been.”... A subscription gets you: The above is an email from Chinen

Right -- McKusick was the leader.

Don't remember it, sadly. but then I had many Jazztet albums so perhaps I wasn't in the market, Perhaps it included Art's Argo quartet album? That was a gem. Also working back in time, I listened to the combo he had with Hal Mckusick in '57-'58 with either Edie Costa or Bill Evans on piano. There was a 2-CD collecltion of their stuff, originally on Coral or Decca perhaps. One date of all Giuffre charts (really good ones) and one of all George Russell charts, including the debut recording of "Stratusphunk." Snap it up if you ever see it. Art is in great shape throughout, and McKusick is a kick, a very heady intelligent player.

The title track of "Cool Struttin'" would be one. One early one with Gigi Gryce, "Wildflower" I think it was. Many more.

Lots of thoughts. Yes, Art sort of floats, especially later on. The other thoughts I may get to at some point. Above all perhaps h'e's thoughtful -- thinks and takes the time to think. I'll never forget listening to the "Sing Me Softly of the Blues" Quartet live at the Jazz Showcase. That was some kind of magic.

When you have a soft spot for something it means that your personal affection for it exceeds iis actual value.

I went on a bit of a Farmer binge tonight, beginning very eariy (and Art does mature fairly early) and working on through his with strings album with Quincy Jones "Last Night When We Were Young" and pausing on the title track of the quartet album "The Summer Knows, " with Cedar Walton, Sam Jones, and Billy Higgins -- a near hallucinatory fluegehorn performance, where Art finds true beauty in what is to my mind a rather soppy Michel Legrand creation. As I'd hoped to find, there is a lot of variety in Art's work.

"Soft Spots" because you know your fondness for them is personal and a bit sentimental. They're not without some weaknesses/may lack some strengths, but you dig them nonetheless.

Oh yeah! Somewhat controversial cover.

There ya go. I might add the almost forgotten Seldon Powell.