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Adam
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Just received:
Dear Friend,
Hat Hut Records enters today March 31st, 2009 in its 35th year of operation.
Despite the label’s many successes and strong critical reputation, after all these
years it has become increasingly more difficult to sell “the music of the future.”
It is our hope to be able to continue on our path for many more than 35 years.
There is more “music for the future” which waits to be discovered and released.
Hat Hut Records entre aujourd'hui le 31 mars 2009 dans sa 35ème année d'activité.
En dépit des succès nombreux remportés par le label, et de sa solide réputation
de critique, il est devenu au terme de toutes ces années de plus en plus difficile
de vendre «la musique du futur».
Notre espoir est de pouvoir poursuivre sur notre chemin bien au delà des 35 années.
Tant de «musiques pour le futur» attendent d’être découvertes et diffusées!
Hat Hut Records tritt heute am 31. Maerz 2009 in sein 35jaehriges Bestehen. Trotz der
vielen erfolgreichen Produktionen des Labels, die auch von der Kritik mit großem Lob
bedacht worden sind, wird es immer schwieriger, "Musik für die Zukunft" zu verkaufen.
Wir hoffen, unseren Weg noch weit ueber 35 Jahre fortsetzen zu koennen. Es gibt mehr
"Musik für die Zukunft", die nur darauf wartet, entdeckt und veroeffentlicht zu werden.
Best regards,
Bien cordialement,
Mit besten Grüssen,
Werner X. Uehlinger
Hat Hut Records LTD.
Box 521
4020 Basel, Switzerland
wxu.hathut.com@bluewin.ch
Phone +41.61.373.0773
The Journey Continues the 35th Year too:
Since 1975, an ear to the future
Depuis 1975, une oreille vers le futur
Seit 1975, ein Ohr in die Zukunft
Quite an achievement, isn't it, given the small audiences for this sort of work?
Same as with Nessa Records.
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Dear Friend,
The sequence of the April to June releases:
April 24th, 2009 release:
hatOLOGY 683
Ellery Eskelin : On Great Night...Live ( n e w )
Ellery Eskelin –tenor saxophone
Andrea Parkins –accordion, electric piano, organ, laptop sampler & grand piano
Jim Black –drums & percussion
A live concert recording at Towson University, Baltimore on December 9th, 2007.
Throughout this set, Eskelin, Parkins, and Black are completely at ease with the core material…
Over the years these three have grown into a unit that can bristle and wail; pick up on a melody
and swing; or stretch out to whispering textures and scrubbed flutters. The magic is how they
string this all together as a seamless whole with careful listening and poised reflexes. That’s been
one of the ongoing joys of listening to this trio. Its all about hearing how they have worked
together to forge an ensemble sound and then checking in during each ensuing tour or release
to find out how they’ve built on that foundation. That dynamism is in full force here.
We’re fortunate that the tapes were rolling this “one great evening…” – Michael Rosenstein
May 15th, 2009 two more releases:
hatOLOGY 672
Polwechsel & John Tilbury : Field ( n e w )
Burkhard Beins –drums, percussion
Martin Brandlmayr –drums, percussion
John Butcher –tenor & soprano saxophones
Werner Dafeldecker –double bass
Michael Moser –cello
John Tilbury –piano
Along the Polwechsel path towards a reflected reintegration of the once excluded musical
parameters, the two composers for this CD, Michael Moser and Werner Dafeldecker, have
gone one step further while also reflecting Polwechsel’s own history: traditional parameters
are reintroduced into the original Polwechsel idiom as disturbances, refractions or inclusions.
The invitation extended to guest soloist John Tilbury is also part of the reflected reintegration
of traditional elements and the extension of Polwechsel’s concept, which they develop in their
cautious and persistent approach: it is a reference to both the tradition of free improvisation
and the reductionist currents in modern composition, for Tilbury is not only a proven Feldman
specialist, but also long-time pianist for AMM. – Nina Polaschegg
hatOLOGY 673
Gerry Hemingway Quintet : Demon Chaser
(remastered reissue of hatART 6137)
Michael Moore –alto saxophone, clarinet & bass clarinet
Wolter Wierbos –trombone
Mark Dresser –double bass
Ernst Reijseger –cello
Gerry Heminway –drums, steeldrums
A live concert recording at Ottenbrucher Bahnhof, Wuppertal-Elberfeld on March 2nd, 1993.
With Demon Chaser, Gerry Hemingway has written himself into the history of this great
music with a script that fulfils both the requirements of complete contemporaneousness
and absolute legibility. He has signed his name in the Big Book. – Brian Morton
June 15th, 2009 release:
hatOLOGY 668
Lee Konitz & Martial Solal: Star Eyes 1983
(remastered reissiue of hatOLOGY 518)
Lee Konitz –alto saxophone
Martial Solal –piano
A live concert recording at New-Jazz-Festival Hamburg on November 11th, 1983.
In their duo, Solal's gift to Konitz is a liberation from.....inherent restrictions. This in turn
inspires Konitz to follow his own lyrical impulses to the extreme–listen to how olften he
stretches his line to the breaking point. This is improvisation that goes far beyond merely
altered chords or variations on a theme. Each performance walks an invisible tightrope of
harmonic and rhythmic agreement–alll the more treacherous for beeing completely
spontaneous. Art Lange
Best regards,
Werner X. Uehlinger
Hat Hut Records LTD.
Box 521
4020 Basel, Switzerland
wxu.hathut.com@bluewin.ch
Phone +41.61.373.0773
The Journey Continues the 34/35th Year too!
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There was an article in the LA Times today that the Jazz Bakery in Culver City CA has lost its lease and will be closing at the end of May, but intends to reopen in the Fall.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et...0,5709736.story
This would be bad if it was gone forever.
And stupid that they want to open yet another furniture place there. There is a huge furniture store going out of business in the same complex, right around the corner.
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I know a decent amount about water in California, having researched it a while ago for a class with mike Davis, but I've forgotten a lot.
Anyway, some elements:
1. Agriculture uses much more than lawns, but sometimes vast quantities of water are used to grow water-heavy crops such as rice & alfalfa in areas that are basically deserts. I think this is silly. But CA is the largest produce grower and has vast area of superior land for growing such things, and great climate for it as well. Not easy to just transfer all that production to other regions that have such things as cold winters.
2. Water rights go back to original claims to water, which are usually controlled by agricultural interests that go back 100 years or more. Much of what you get these days are cities charging their customers more to buy the water from the farmers.
3. Most of that city water for Southern California comes from the Colorado River. But the demands on the Colorado are so great now, due to the growth of Vegas, Phoenix, and so forth, that there isn't even water left for California to take all of the amounts that it used to take. and the Colorado is close to dry by the time it reaches Mexico, but it's a key source for northern Mexico as well. And it has nothing left by the time it reaches the Gulf of Mexico.
And CA has signed a more recent treaty with other western states about water. but the treaty is based on expected Colorado River levels which are proving to be unrealistically high.
Drought conditions are not really determined by the amount of rain, but by the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada.
las Vegas really used far too much water for a place built in a desert.
Lawns will be the first to go, then full swimming pools, then some farm lands. Ground water supplies are already toast, as in most of the USA.
Climate change will probably make things worse.
In the long term, we're probably screwed. :-)
But more seriously, fresh water will be one of the key global issues of the 21st century.
I'll think of more soon. The class was over a decade ago.
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That was the first sentence of "The Go-Between" by English novelist L. P. Hartley:
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."
Did that book become the basis for the Joseph Losey-directed film of the same name?
Also, the first violinist to me doesn't look like he's using a bow per se. It looks like it he lets go of the string after each pull, moves his hand up, gathers string higher up (closer to the strings), and pulls down again. This would seem feasible if there were something like a spool of string above the strings somewhere. It also sound metallic to me, but wire would make it harder to do what I just described.
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That was the first sentence of "The Go-Between" by English novelist L. P. Hartley:
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."
Did that book become the basis for the Joseph Losey-directed film of the same name?
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If it was a CC, then it has been reissued, when it was a CC.
So you're asking why don't they reissue it again? My guess is that it didn't sell well the first time.
And if it had, they would have reissued it again.
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I’m glad you’ve met Allan and like him, it’s good that he has a friend, but nice? I don’t know. To me nice is someone like Alec, who discovered that his local Newbury was selling a Rollins box set cheap and then posted in the “Offering and Looking For... that he would buy as many of them as he could and sell them at cost to whoever sent him a PM. He didn’t have to do it, but he did, that is a really nice thing to do. Can’t really see Allen doing anything like that, however he will spend time starting pointless threads like this one, the gist of which is, “Francis Davis is a dick for doing the liner notes to the new reissue of Kind of Blue and is an even bigger dick for winning a Grammy for it and then became a total dick for accepting it”. Not only that but also post a pretty much similar comment in an existing thread regarding the new reissue of Kind of Blue. If it bothers you that much Allen, write the guy a letter. Personally I can’t imagine anyone with even a vague amount of intelligence giving the Grammys a second thought, let alone being upset by someone winning one.
I don’t have any type of cyber conflict with Allen, or anyone for that matter, and I don’t think the anonymity factor had anything to do with it either. I merely made a half jokey, half serious comment in another thread where he was again flippantly dismissing other people’s accomplishments, that he has a tendency to go on and on about trivial details. He never seemed to get over it, sent me lots of really stupid pms and kind of stalked all my posts to add even more stupid comments, the paedophilia one was a new childish low(e). Whatever, if that’s how the guy gets his kicks good luck to him. I would have hoped anyone approaching 60 would be a bit more mature and would make better use of their 5 posts per day.
What I object to most is people using this board as a personal blog, In this day and age it’s really not that difficult to start one, if that floats your boat, but what I enjoy about this board is the sharing of information, reviews of material, buying stuff I would be able to get elsewhere at a great price etc, etc. Not the same board members who are constantly bitching and whining about other people who may have had more success and a higher profile in a field they would like to work in, e.g. Allen and Clem. If that’s what you want to do, start a blog.
Hi,
I think you totally mis-read Allen's original post, which came across to me as sincere, and I also fully believe his further statement that he was sincere in making it.
I also think that Allen does make nice offers like Alec's (and Alec's was truly above and beyond...) - I've been the recipient of gifts from him.
I also think that most of Allen's humorous posts and sarcasm comes across with the humor with which it is intended, and I laugh and don't take them seriously. And I think you over-react to many of his posts at this time, and should avoid taking the bait (as should everyone).
And it doesn't feel to me like he is making this board his personal blog. If that accusation could be made of anyone, it's JSangry, and I don't even feel that it comes across that way from him.
In short, I think youa nd Allen have gotten caught up in nastier bickering which makes both of you look bad, and you both have mostly been been better than that. So I hope that you will both please get past it real soon.
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P.S. I'll try to investigate further, but it sounds like three-camera technique means that three cameras were shooting while the scene was done as few times as was necessary to capture good performances, then results from those cameras could be edited/combined (this modifying my earlier thought that editing may be less important in sitcoms than in films; rather, this suggests that it is may be as important but different in nature).
IIRC, the 3-camera technique was pioneered by DesiLu on "I Love Lucy", and remains pretty much the standard for sitcoms filmed/taped with an audience.
I know that with more recent shows (Seinfeld), they would run each scene more than once to get reaction shots from characters, and get back and forth shots during conversations (you can see TONS of little continuity errors in the editing). What I don't know is, did they do a similar thing in the '60s and '70s?
And that is exactly what three-camera means. Three cameras rolling, usually one down left, one down right, and one center, but all on wheels. Especially for shows done in front of live audiences.
For shows without live audiences (MASH and others), they usually went back to standard one-camera shooting.
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Yeah, I guess they will just put it all online, the latest update is 1.3, and it too has a note saying that it will be the last update.
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I’ve spent the afternoon listening to Super Biton de Segou, the great Bambara band from Segou, Mali.
Super Biton is one of the great Mande big bands but their music is radically different from the better known music of the great Guinean bands, such as Bembeya Jazz National, Balla & ses Balladins and Keletigui & ses Tambourinis. It’s much hotter and more frantic and the sax and guitar soloists in particular are very much funkier.
Thanks! that looks like something I need to look into.
Spent last night at Cal State LA at a concert featuring Mulatu Astake in his first appearance in Los Angeles. A pick-up band of high level LA-based jazz musicians mostly, including Bennie Maupin, Phil Ranelin, Azar Lawrence. Some messy transitions and unclear endings, as one might imagine from limited rehearsal, but overall a pretty marvelous concert! They really captured the moods of his music, and had good solos. Mulatu played vibes & occasional timbales, and had a nice vibe solo or two, but it was really about his songwriting & arranging I think.
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Mark is having surgery this week. I was trying to book a screening with him. Give him a week or two. I can give you his email & phone number off list.
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There is a cd:
Oh, cool. Didn't know.
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Not sure who listened to it, but Indie 103.1 went dark today, and moved to the web.
Sadness - it was good radio. When I listened to commercial radio, it was the only station that I listened to.
No more Jonesie's Jukebox
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/risky-business...its-course.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog...die-1031-h.html
http://idolator.com/5133238/the-demise-of-...ographics-fault
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how's the cd?
Not sure if there is one.
Who is that in your signature? She's purty.
Oh, what is wrong about Keroac? Did I misspell or something?
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I can tell you lots about it. it shouldn't really be on You Tube; it isn't PD. It's a really entertaining experimental early "American Independent" film, featuring most of the leading "beat" figures, as is obvious. It is what it is. "Frank Robert" is incorrect. It was made by the photographer Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, with text/narration by Jack Keroac as you can hear. Alfred Leslie & Robert Frank are both still alive, making films or photos and more. What else?
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Montalban went to the same high school as I did - Fairfax High in Los Angeles.
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Just received this:
Dear Friend,
2009 opening mid of February:
Luciano Berio & Edison Denissow
Works For Voice And Chamber Ensemble
performed by
Ensemble Fur Neue Musik Zurich
Hedwig Fassbender mezzo-soprano
hat(now)ART 168 (new)
Total Time DDD 55:15
Barcode 752156016823
Luciano Berio:
‘Time after time, I find myself returning to folk music. I want to take possession of
this treasure-store, using my own resources. Even though I know it cannot come
true, I have a utopian dream, namely to forge a single entity from our own music
and the folk tradition.’ America, the Auvergne, Sicily, Sardinia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan: their diverse geographical origins reflect the multi-cultural society that
Luciano Berio and his wife and preferred interpreter, Cathy Berberian, belonged to….
‘My transcriptions are analyses of folk songs, and at the same time convey the
atmosphere, the “aroma” of this music as I understand it.’
Edison Denissow:
The composer combines strict technique, echoes of Debussy and Webern, a casual
chanson style, bebop, the Marseillaise (maestoso), the speaking and singing voice,
colourful instrumentation, chromatic paraphrases that are squashed down as far as
crotchets, and entirely new sounds to form an idiosyncratic, close-knit musical
language that is every bit the equal of Vian’s in its fundamental blackness and
malignance. – Thomas Gartmann
Luciano Berio:
« Au fil du temps, je réalise que j’effectue un retour à la musique folk. Je veux
prendre possession de cette mine de trésors en utilisant mes propres ressources.
Même si je sais qu'il ne peut se réaliser, j'ai un rêve utopique ; celui de forger une
entité unique à partir de notre propre musique et de la tradition folk. » L’Amérique,
l'Auvergne, la Sicile, la Sardaigne, l'Arménie et l'Azerbaïdjan: la diversité des origines
géographiques reflètent la société multiculturelle à laquelle Luciano Berio et Cathy
Berberian, son épouse et interprète préférée, ont appartenu....
« Mes transcriptions sont des analyses de chansons folk, et transmettent en même
temps l'atmosphère, <l’arôme> de cette musique telle que je la comprends. »
Edison Denissow:
Le compositeur allie à la technique stricte, des échos de Debussy et de Webern,
un style décontracté de chanson, du be-bop, la Marseillaise (maestoso), une voix
parlante et chantante, une instrumentation colorée, des paraphrases chromatiques
pressées dans la mesure du possible en noires et des sons entièrement nouveaux
pour former un langage musical idiosyncrasique et étroit, en tous points égal à
celui de Vian dans sa noirceur fondamentale et sa malignité. – Thomas Gartmann
Morton Feldman
For Bunita Marcus
performed by Hildegard Klee
hat(now)ART 174
(remastered reissue of hatART 6076)
Total Time DDD 71:33
Barcode 75215601742?
Feldman once wrote that... “Renoir said that the same color, applied by two different
hands, would give us two different tones. In music, the same note, written by two
different composers, gives us—the same note. When I write a B flat, and Berio a B flat,
what you get is always B flat. The painter must create his medium as he works. That’s
what gives his work that hesitancy, that insecurity so crucial to painting.” I believe,
though, that Feldman underestimated the strength of his involvement in composing
that B flat. Feldman’s B flat does sound different, due to his, almost painterly, touch.
Depending upon the context, Feldman’s B flat can suggest anxiety, melancholy, heroism,
exaltation. The experience may be relative, may even be insecure, but it is inevitably
satisfying, if one commits to it as fully as Feldman did to its composition.
For Bunita Marcus has an aura like that which emanates off Rothko’s greatest paintings,
an aura that makes the experience, no less than the creation, more than an act of will,
an act of devotion. – Art Lange
Feldman a écrit ... « Renoir disait que la même couleur, appliquée par deux mains
différentes, nous donnerait deux tons différents. En musique, la même note, écrite par
deux compositeurs différents, nous donne - la même note. Lorsque j'écris un si bémol
et que Berio écrit un si bémol, ce que vous obtenez est toujours un si bémol. Le peintre
doit créer son médium au fur et à mesure de son travail. C'est ce qui donne à son oeuvre
cette hésitation, cette insécurité si cruciale à la peinture.» Je crois, cependant, que
Feldman a sous-estimé la force de son engagement au moment où il a composé ce si
bémol. Le si bémol de Feldman est bien différent en raison de son toucher, presque
pictural. Selon le contexte, le si bémol de Feldman peut suggérer l'anxiété, la mélancolie,
l'héroïsme, l'exaltation. L'expérience peut être relative, peut même être incertaine, mais
elle est forcément satisfaisante lorsque l’on s'engage aussi pleinement que Feldman l’a
fait dans sa composition.
« For Bunita Marcus » dégage une aura qui s’approche de celle émanant des plus beaux
tableaux de Rothko; une aura qui marque l'expérience autant que la création… plus qu’un
acte de volonté, un acte de dévotion. – Art Lange
Following mid of March 2009:
hatOLOGY 658
Anthony Braxton : Seven Compositions (Trio) 1989
(remastered reissue of hatART 6025)
Anthony Braxton -alto, C-melody, soprano and sopranino saxophones,
clarinet & flute
Adelhard Roidinger –double bass
Tony Oxley – drums
Total Time 58:21 DDD
Barcode 752156065821
The resulting music – a step into virtuoso improv within “vibrational space” – sings with
a relaxed exhilaration that will make it a certain pleasure for all who listen. Here, I guess
(to steal an image from William Blake), is the sound of “Joy as it flies”. – Graham Lock
hatOLOGY 662
Mary Halvorson – guitar
Reuben Radding –double bass
Nate Wooley – trumpet
Crackleknob
Total Time ??? DDD
Barcode 752156066224
One listen to this CD and that element of trust and synchronicity immediately comes
through. This is the kind of music that can only come from musicians who know each
other well. It is like dropping in on an intimate conversation. Ideas get launched and
then get immediately picked up, morphed, and woven back in. There is also a striking
compactness to the pieces. Free improvisation rarely displays the level of succinct
structural sensibility at play here. Wooley comments, “In general, we work at making
the cleanest, most elegantly simple piece of music that we can. It's not something
we've ever been implicit about, but I think that is just the general attitude about
improvising that we all share.” Here are three musicians who know how listen, how
to work together to develop a collective arc, and how to tie it all together to create
abstract, spontaneous pieces that span the length of a pop song. – Michael Rosenstein
Best regards,
Werner X. Uehlinger
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Just was sent this from Werner, but it's a reproduction from All About Jazz.
R.I.P Freddie
Article Courtesy AllAboutJazz.com
Meet Freddie Hubbard
By Craig Jolley
This article was originally published in May 2001.
New Colors (Hip Bop Records), new CD
I met David Weiss a couple of years ago. He's from North Texas State. He had a rehearsal band [New Jazz Composers Octet] in New York, and he had been writing out a lot of my compositions and arranging them. He said he'd like to get together and have me play some of my material with the group. At first it was only supposed to be a one-time thing, but we're going to be working together the next couple of years until I get back strong again on my horn. They appreciate my music and give it a good feeling like when I was playing with Elvin Jones. They inspired me to start back playing again. This is an opportunity to let some of the more serious kids play this music and have it arranged for them. Craig Handy and I did a record with Betty Carter (Droppin' Things, Verve 1990) years ago. I always liked his playing. Same with Joe Chambers--he had played some of these songs with me before. I brought in Kenny Garrett and Javon Jackson as guest soloists. Those are some of the musicians I really enjoy playing with. They've played in my previous bands, they know me, and they know my style. They came in and helped me out quite a bit. I'm very happy to have made this CD.
New Jazz Composers Octet Tour
We start in New York at the Iridium May 8-13. Then we go to Annapolis, Maryland; Arlington, Virginia; Scullers in Boston; Philadelphia; a couple more things. We're gonna make the Berlin Festival this year, but I'm not going to play the West Coast yet. We'll be playing the songs on the CD and some of my other tunes David, Duane Burno and Xavier Davis have arranged. With all the horns you can hear more color. When I originally recorded some of these tunes the music went by so fast people didn't get a chance to hear them. I have a lot of songs people have never heard that will sound good with eight pieces.
Lip problems:
I busted my chops. I had to go back to square one after 30-40 years of playing. I was out there trying to be Coltrane--take thirty choruses. I was working all the time, and I didn't warm up. If you don't start off getting the blood flowing later on you're chops get weaker. It wasn't from playing that commercial stuff--it was from hard-core improvising. What made my style different was a whole lot of jumps, strenuous ideas. That's what makes jazz chops different from classical chops--at any moment you may have to change your embouchure [the position of the lips when they touch the mouthpiece]. I gave it everything I had. You have to be ready for that style. It was really bad--I didn't know if I was gonna play again. I can still play, but I can't hold long tones--that's something I never had trouble with. I didn't realize there were so many muscles in the embouchure, about 120. When you're young you don't even think about it. You get a lot of bad habits--you think that's the hip way to do it, but it's tearing your chops down.
Comeback
“I can't play what I used to play, but that's not the point. Let Jon Faddis and those guys hit those high notes--that's their thing. Now I play better in the middle register. I have more ideas, and it's better than half-hitting it.”
I thank the Creator. He enabled me to attempt to come back. I have to practice, get the feeling, get the blood flowing again. If you don't do that you don't get back. I came back too soon before (in '94) when I had trouble with my chops. I'm playing the flugelhorn now because the trumpet would be too hard. Instead of playing all that hard stuff I'm gonna to play some ballads. Playing flugel is kind of messing up my chops in itself--I eventually want to get back to playing the trumpet. I can't play what I used to play, but that's not the point. Let Jon Faddis and those guys hit those high notes--that's their thing. Now I play better in the middle register. I have more ideas, and it's better than half-hitting it. It'll take another year to come back strong again. The trumpet is not like a piano or a saxophone. If you lay off it you're back to zero. I've still got a lot of stuff I want to play. I can play it on the piano--that's where I get a lot of my ideas--like [sings fast] dah-doo-dah-didli-ah-dit...bah-booo-dle-ootie...doo-deee-doo-dooodle-eedle-doodle-at...dee-dat...deee-dle-ootie. Those kinds of runs are very difficult to execute. It's the way you accent those things. I got that from playing with Sonny Rollins and Philly Joe Jones. I want to bring some that back.
Louis Armstrong
He had that funny sound. I didn't dig it when I first heard it, that Dixieland. But if you listen to him for a while he had that feeling. He didn't have that execution like Dizzy Gillespie.
Clifford Brown
When I was starting out I tried to sound like him. His execution thing and his phrasing were out of the book--Miles thought he sounded stiff. He gave me a lot of ideas. He could do it all--that style was the way I wanted to play. I was still in Indianapolis so I never got to hear him in person. When he died I cried like a baby. He was only 25 years old, and he never got his due. I've got my reward--now I've got to give some back.
Miles Davis
I used to try to play like him too--those ballads. One night he heard me at Birdland. He was sitting on the side of the stage. I had my eyes closed, and I was playing some of his licks. I looked down and saw him, and I almost passed out. When I got off he said, “Why don't you play some of your own stuff?” After that I stopped copying people. Miles and Dizzy used to tell me I played too hard and too long. I should warm up before I played. Miles might take an hour before he started. It would take him that long to get his embouchure set, but it came out pure and clean.
Lee Morgan
Yeah, I was close to that crazy ___. He and I were the Young Turks at that time. He was a cocky little young cat, and he was great, exciting, spirited. He was the only cat that could frighten me. He got messed up.
Maynard Ferguson
I used to go see that guy play at Birdland. He used to play those high C's every night. Remember when Maynard had lip trouble? He went over to England to get straightened out. He's still going strong.
Wynton Marsalis:
I didn't know it at the time [late 70's], but he was going to school in New York. He came to my dressing room and played all of my licks back to me, some I'd forgotten. I said, “Where did you learn to play all that?” He said, “It's all your stuff.” He's the only one I've heard who could play some of the stuff on my records. I dig that lip thing he can do--(sings) yaw-yaw-ya-yaw-yaw. He's a technician, but he's stiff--I guess he can play that way if he wants to. We did a big band thing at Carnegie Hall together.
Richard Davis:
I love to play with Richard--he's fantastic. I think he's teaching now. He and I made a record [Out to Lunch, Blue Note, 1964] with Eric Dolphy that was kind of advanced. That free music is not the feeling right now.
Current favorites
I like Tom Harrell--he's a nice guy. He wakes me up--he and Roy Hargrove. You think Roy sounds like me? Maybe that's the reason I like him! I like this guy Christian McBride and Benny Green--they worked with me. I love Bobby Watson--I heard him last time I was in New York. They're keeping it going.
Favorite records
One of my first records, Ready for Freddie (Blue Note, 1961). I had full control over it. That and Red Clay (CTI, 1970) were my best playing straight up. When it comes to more commercial stuff, First Light (CTI, 1971). It has some nice arrangements, and I won a Grammy. I've met all kinds of people, old and young, that like that record. I played it with feeling. Melody Maker did a discography on me. Check this out--I've made 300 records. I started looking into it, and I found some money from these companies.
Rap
I'm entertaining ideas about doing it after I get better on my horn. Those rap cats have some crazy meters. I'll have to give it some serious thought before I do it.
Jazz education:
I have students come over in the evenings. They want to play some of the fast stuff I used to play--they're in a hurry. These kids coming out of school now, they have the correct embouchure, but they don't have the strength or the time. It's hard to play the trumpet with feeling. Like Chuck Mangione--he doesn't play loud or hard, but he has that feeling. He's not trying to be hip. I used to go over to everybody's house and say, “Teach me this, teach me that.” They'd show me (They'd play it on the horn.), but they didn't teach me how to execute it. They didn't take time to teach me to play it right. We used to go on the road and play with Art Blakey, Count Basie, Horace Silver in the 60's and 70's. I used to sit in with bands that were established. I learned the backgrounds, everything. It's not like that now--it's more like a vacuum.
Wrap up:
I'm glad you're doing this for the Internet so people can find out about me. I have a computer now. My wife's using it to write a book. I'm 63. I don't feel like it, and I don't look like it. I still have a lot in me. Since I moved to California I haven't wanted to work much. I got discouraged for a while. I still don't want to work that hard, but if I can arrange to work about six months a year that's what I'll do. I hear all these kids playing my ideas on the radio. Sometimes I have to stop and say, “Is that me?” It feels good to hear it, but people think the kids started it. Tell the young boys to look out--Freddie Hubbard's coming back!
All material copyright © 2009 All About Jazz and contributing writers. All rights reserved.
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NYC-style salsa and Cuban music. From Cuba, not made by Cuban immigrants to the US.
You really need to check out Gary Stewart's Rumba on the River...
People in Africa get recordings from everywhere. I've been told by a reliable observer that you could get all sorts of rare, o.p. country, jazz, blues etc. records in the market in Bamako, Mali, back in the 70s. (Meaning things that were o.p. in both the US and Western Europe.) I have no doubts that that's true.
Re. salsa, NYC salsa is a lot different than Miami salsa, Puerto Rican salsa (from the island), Colombian salsa, etc. The term ""salsa" is pretty much as broad as the term "jazz."
Tito Puente would always say that "salsa" is something you eat, but not a music. It's a name invented by white publicists in New York. Instead, there are merengue, cha cha cha, and 10,000 more.
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Congrats! Really looking forward to this.
It makes perfect sense not to include much of the usual suspects, as those are already readily accessible. A reference in your book to the other essential recordings that you don't include in the 18 CDs would be much appreciated.
Also, will you include any more Tommy McLennan? Chuck Nessa once referred to his brilliance, but I've never found anything in print with his music. Haven't looked too hard, I grant you, but there's never anything at Amoeba or Amazon. So it would be good to have more via you.
As a general query, you be including anything not done by an artist from the USA?
Best,
Adam
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just pulled mine out of the mail box. guess it's time to open it!
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but he didn't kill the radio star; video did.
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the problem with thinking about minstrelsy is that there is a whole OTHER kind than the one we (and W) usually think of - the medicine show, the traveling tent shows, and early black vaudeville use the minstrel format but to MUCH different ends than the antebellum style. And in my research for the blues book, I am finding fascinating musical artifacts of minstrelsy which are quite affecting - singers like Kid Coley (who sounds, believe it or not, somewhat like Bobby Short!), a guy named Julius Daniels, Rabbit Newbern, Pink Anderson - they sing songs that are not the least bit racially demeaning, they are just great and somewhat old fashioned, about relationships and even racial fantasies of being rich. And more than one is very critical about racism (a lot of talk about the white folks who "get a meal, while the black folks have to rob and steal") - very race conscious, if in a different way than we might think. There's a great old song called Ham Beats All Meat which basically describes and depicts the class differences between whites getting all the good food and the help in the kitchen getting the scraps - this is all there, all available (sort of) - and will be on my collection. At some point I am going to try to post some of these on my web site as well. There's a lot of real insider sarcasm about white people, some of these old guys sing about being hungry and being talked to by food ("I Heard the Voice of a Porkchop") and of being treated unequally in the court system. So stereotypes and the usual assumptions fail us here. But a lot of these songs reflect the things Armstrong and Fats Waller ("I wonder where all the poor people are tonight?") were thinking about-
I think an issue here is the semantic one. WM has a single definition of "jazz" as we know, and it appears that he has a single definition of "Minstrelsy." In other words, he might have been able to discuss this form of entertainment that you describe above if you had not called it "minstrelsy," but found another term for it. In the same way that he might be able to discuss, oh, Cecil Taylor, as long as you don't it "jazz." Does that sound apt to you?
All Things Hat
in Miscellaneous Music
Posted
Yeah, pretty much. It's a tough ride.