fasstrack

Thanks. I'm leaving shortly to drive---like only a true lunatic would---all the way out in this weather (snow, rain, schmutz in NY and probably it's worse on LI) to Riverhead, LI (probably 90-100 miles from me, anyway a long-ass drive) to visit Teddy Charles. He has sessions but today the weather sucks so I get Teddy to myself to play a few, listen to his stories about the cats, tell the little I know (boy did I know some jazzers in my day...). With Mr. Charles' permission I may report some of those stories...................

Then you oughta let him know when they start making albums again......

Wow. You MFrss are even nuttirer than me. I lorve it

Couldn't resist that self-congragulatory opening The truth is I've hardly checked in here for a while and I will again more frequently. I may even have something intelligent to add (wasn't that slick the way I appeared to hedge in mock-self-deprecation? ?) My news: (Thank you so much for asking) is that things are looking up. Either that or my recent purchase of a telescope is paying off (rimshot) after some rough years. A few years back I got fed up with life and moved to Holland (no not Holland, Mi. Lazaro, the nation). I had friends there. Let's just say that proved an extremely dumb move, but live and learn. Came back after less than 2 months, one 'gig' in a smoky Den Hague 'lunchroom' (just an eatery---and, sadly for this non-smoker 'smokery') and virtually no chance of being allowed to emigrate (not with my kind of money---namely little to none). Didn't do much for most of the rest of '07 and a big chunk of '08. Was not in the greatest mood But now for the happy ending: I started playing again around early October and soon thereafter began leading gigs for the Jazz Foundation. They send me to schools, nursing homes, and psych wards---which works out perfectly since I'm an old, nutty arrested adolescent . I also had a song mostly written and had in mind to get a guy named Jimmy Norman (a Coaster for many years and the guy who wrote lyrics to "Time is on My Side" for Irma Thomas in the studio---naturally everyone thinks Mick Jagger wrote it---b/c we Americans are idiots, and I'm being very kind) to collaborate and write some verses to the melody and lyric I had. We wrote it and now we'll see if 'time (and luck) is on our side'. Also I recently formed a trio with IMO the best jazz cellist I've heard at least with my own ears (probably a good way to hear considering the alternative) and also a hell of a bassist who knows tunes, can solo with musicality and swing. The third (but by no means last) member is Vandelai Periera, IMO a great talent on drums, originally from Brazil but here many years. His ears are unbelievable, and only in part b/c of being blind (that one is no joke). His command of rhythms from his native land to American swing are masterful, as is his creativity and accompaniment skills. I play guitar and will be writing some things, arrangements and tunes already written, but I mostly want to play underappreciated songs by Staryhorn, Waller, so many others. I actually want all three of us to have input but since I got the gigs I guess everyone thinks I'm the 'leader' now.. We did 2 jazz foundation gigs last week, with our friend singer Deanna Kirk rounding out the group---and all feel we made a hell of a start. Just hit and it already sounded good. But we have a ways to go. I also got us a gig at Smalls in late May and I intend to have us cookin' by then. I saved the best for last: I finally found a way out of the depressing rooming house shithole I've inhabited for well-nigh 2 years: I busted my ass, worked, saved, (and got some help from the JFA) and just singed a lease on a nice one-bedroom WITH PARKING near Hastings, NY. I repeat WITH PARKING. (NYers will undersatand my joy more than anyone, I daresay. So shortly, after I get settled and aqcuiring a PC, you will be hearing more from me and I look forward to occasionaly checking in with the best jazz forum in my experience. PS: Er, Joe, send that check fast. Gotta buy furniture and stuff

Noal Cohen came out to introduce/moderate a pre-concert discussion with Teddy Charles back in early October, I believe. He did a good job and we have one mutual friend. I want to read this, b/c Gigi was not only a hell of a musician, but he caught hell starting his own publishing company and the powers that be, that famous non-instrumental group, tried to run him out of the business. Sadly, it seems they succeeded.

Thanks. I'll look into it. (FWIW: Reading "Warne Marsh: an Unsung Cat" now, which ain't half bad.)

Jim---no secret---is a great listener. He figures out, as accompanist, what the leader (or whoever he's supporting) needs and gives that. If someone like Paul Desmond or Art Farmer wants the chord first he'll play the chord first. If Sonny Rollins wants to lead and be in the moment he will stay out of the way and respond only when a response is musically required. This is, I believe, why so many people have wanted to work with him over the years. He just makes it so easy and so little has to be explained. The secret of his soloing IMO is that he has great time. Listen to any example of him playing 4/4 and you can hear where his soloing comes from. He's right out of the swing era and adds harmonically as he hears things. Then there is his quietness--increasingly rare these days---and the motific development---also increasingly rare.

Damn, my reply got got off in mid-thought...George was a gentleman, I was saying, and he did me a favor making me play 4/4 rhythm, as I was young and overplaying a bit and it made the whole rhythm section so much more unified. George also featured himself on a tune with said rhythm section (Richard Wyands, Peck Morrison, Ronnie Cole, yours truly). I remember "How Deep is the Ocean". I remember him singing a bit too. He was a hell of a blues shouter, too (on tenor, that is) That gig was kinda special to me since it was my first 'big-time' weeklong gig in the Apple with pros like George (the rest of the front line was Norris Turney, Benny Powell, Virgil Jones--and Don Leight---who the play Sideman by his son Warren was based on---subbed the last night for Virgil. Virgil is a MF, still very underrated. I had worked with Big Joe Turner before (and got fired---not by Joe, though----'nother story for another day...) but this was my first big-time jaz[z/i] gig. The West End, where that gig took place, is now the Havana Cafe and they started up jazz again, spelled with Latin on Sundays.

We spoke of this before, I know. Isn't it a MF of a piece? Through-composed and constantly moving. Orchestral jazz of the 30s was a bitch---just on a very high level. There was something that came out on LP when things actually still came out on LP---and it seems it wasn't all that long ago I got it, called "Jazz, the Arrangers". It had Fletcher, Duke, Gibson (can't remember the first name, shame on me) and others, all with great pieces of this caliber. The blowing was short, sweet, and meaningful and I love it for that and the whole attention to an exciting unfolding game plan. Great stuff....

Yo, Laz..... Tidal Wave is phenomenal. Radio Rhythm is a masterpiece, and I never could find out squat about the guy that wrote it, Nat Leslie. Dan Morgenstern surprisingly had no info, and Phil Schaap, as usual, flapped his gums but didn't know (or say) shit.... I played some of Don Redman's music in the early 80s with George Kelly's octet at the West End here in NY. We did some pieces that are on Tidal Wave, like Chant of the Weed (it was also featured in, of all places, a Betty Boop cartoon---back when she was a racy broad). I'm sorry I can't listen. I hope you play some of Fletcher's BG charts. He was really a musical giant, and to think he was gonna be, what a pharmacist? He got drafted into a musical career----the opposite almost of every musician I know, including the more successful ones, who want to play more but have to live.....

Lotta guys to add to that list: Eddie Diehl (I'm right across the street from his house in Poughkeepsie right now); Ray Crawford; the great and totally forgotten John Collins; the late Shawn Leavitt (he died young and was a great player when I knew him in the late 70s, early 80s); Joe Cohn; an amazing player named Tim Breen who scared the shit outta everyone who ever heard him (including his hero George Benson) then died at 56 a wreck from drugs; the late Dan Converse whose only sins seem to have been being a good player and getting cancer----just so many soldiers no one ever heard of except a few musicians---because---at least in part in some cases---they spent their lives making other people with bigger egos sound good. If there's even one guy on the scene today that could fill any of those shoes I'd love to hear it. Haven't yet. Ah, life is BS, to loosely quote the Book of Ecclesiastes. I guess the consolation is when you know you're good as well as those with ears to hear it. In the cases of the above and others there aren't too many of those kinda ears around these days (or any days)............. If I sound bitter......................well, I sound bitter.

Boy, can I relate. Trying to grease the wheels lately. With paint thinner. Re poverty:Feeling like shit is highly overrated.... :rsmile:

Actually, I dread playing that tune with most guys b/c they play wrong changes on the bridge, copying them, sheeplike, from guys they like who are also wrong. I happen to dig Vince, BTW, but Americans (myself incluided, or especially) really ruin Brazilian music. The feel of their clave is really their own, and unlike Afro-Cuban. It's just subtle and the ahead-of-the-beat but so nice phrasing, like when Elis sings is just something you have to grow up with. I heard (probably apocraphal) Jobim was pissed at Getz and Sinatra both for fing up the phrasing of his music---though I'm sure he was grateful as hell they recorded it and probably enjoyed their versions anyway. Getz really felt that music and adapted to me. Sinatra singing Gene Lees' lyrics after hearing Elis sing the original Portugese on Corcovado....well I love the Chairman but No Cigar. For Lees' lyrics either, though they're serviceable or better. 'Dindi' is a hell of a good lyric. 'I'd let you go away...if you'd take me with you'...But it still pales... I don't have those kinds of problems really. People do get out of line but only slightly. I usually know who to get anyway. I have no gigs now so it's six and one half.........

That's too funny, Chris. I'm slowly coming around to your way of thinking re our friend (and definitely his) Mr. S. I'm still a NY musician and don't wanna bite the hand what feeds re gig announcements----but I would amusedely muse that perhaps a shovel and a placement of said teeth in Mr. Schaap's mouth---not enough to hurt the man,. mind you, only enough to weigh down his frightfully annoying tongue wouldn't be a half bad idea. I used to be a fan and know him almost 30 years from my break-in gigs at the West End. Now I switch to anything with a signal within two minutes of Mr. Schaap's 'chin music' and figure safe conduct/actual music will take place around a 1/2 hour later. Often I have to plan again.....Evidently our loquatious friend hasn't picked up on the message he so often cites from Bird to Earl Wilson, when he told Wilson (meaning why not shut the $%^ up, Earl) 'music speaks louder than words'. Johnny Hodges died at the dentist. Route canal? Well, we all knew that one. Hey, Paul. Been in touch w/the Big Diehl. I oughtta be up that way sometime soon. Maybe we all can do dinner again.

Just me wanting to keep this alive for comments. Also see related comments on related matters at: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=47994

You listen louder. It's almost impossible to maintain an exact personnel gig to gig. Probably it's easier if you're a well-known leader with young players eager to make a name or, better, committed to the music. Still something's (can't refuse offer, situation the player wants to broach or keep alive, a personal matter) always gonna come along and a sub will be called. This is not a bad thing. To an astute, seasoned, prepared, and open bandleader it's an opportunity for many things: You get to feel out a new person musicially and personally; what they can, can't, or won't handle. You reserve the right as bandleader to call the person again or move on. If it works out, and it usually does (in my long bandleading experience anyway) you have another name to add to the talent pool and they will have had one gig already to learn the material. Often today and of necessity, especially in these days of fewer stable-personelled working groups an improvising group at a very high level and with the greatest players can and do meet (as people and players) and hit on the bandstand and make damn good or even great music. Again, the greatest improvisors listen the loudest, are the most open and trusting, musicially speaking and are also, again at least musically, ready to surrender their smaller selves to the musical journey. It's also a given that they will know hundreds of tunes and possibly some or many of each other's. At that level the main thing is the listening and the openness. For me, I got used to changing partners long ago and love it. I enjoy shifting gears, thinking on my feet to adjust to new people and having new strengths come into play each time out. As a composer, in a showcase setting for my material I can't wait to hear what the newest bad mo fo in the band will bring to my pieces. I also want to hear and try my wings on their songs if they write. In what I call 'service music' i.e. gigs where it's important to reach people first and last with material they know (this is a large part of my gig income as I've been leading groups in the mornings and afternoons for the Jazz Foundation of America in schools and homes for the aged, etc. It's also something I believe in to the marrow and am proud and thrilled to be part of) professionalism, punctuality, knowledge of tunes in all keys without the music and a desire to want to do a great job for the audience, bandleader and JFA become very important. But listening loud, going with the flow in situations where the gig itself is fluid and can turn on a dime again are paramount. I'm so lucky to live in NY where the talent pool and level of professionalism are pretty much par---and make it so easy. Finally, the greats we know and love, especially 'back in the day' were all really good friends. That helps a lot as good music and friendship are like ham on rye. It's still that way a lot of the time. Hope some of this helps.

Yup, that's the link. Mea frickin' culpa. Thanks for the kind words BTW. There also are 9 full tracks at: www.soundclick.com/joelfass

http://www.myspace.com/joelfass Click on view all blog entries. Go to entry titled 11/12/08 (bandleader's diary) and please discuss if moved to. Thanks, Joel

3000 words spoken here. What a beautiful, wise, humanitarian of a person. What an open, adventurous player. He recently got me when he said in an interview that his favorite version of "Smile" was Jerry Lewis's ballad b/c "You know he felt it after the man lost his looks and everything". Absolutley the man I wanna see when passing through Chi-town. And in anticipation of you wiseacres' JL comments: "LAAAAAAAADDDDDYYYY!"

Thanks everyone. As far as this bothering me personally, that 'un's already 'long gone from Kentucky'. But it's good that most folks' reading here is that this is no bigger than the mind of the woman involved---in other words not very. Anyway, FWIW I'll be out of the driving racket soon as my playing-teaching schedule is picking up and I expect to be cooking by '09. But, since Chris has observed, when in a good mood I'm a 'silver lining' kind of guy and the driving experience, though largely a shit and stressful job, has given me exposure to many nice people---BTW including Dr. Billy Taylor, who I knew before as a neighbor. I got to to know him a bit beyond the driving and the more I know the more I like. Very personable, generous guy who accomplished a tremendous lot in this biz and ain't done yet. Since I'm back in the business I hope I can report soon we've interacted as musicians. And he was far from the only one I've enjoyed the company of. I guess maybe it's where I currently am in life, (when I was in a shit mood recently and for a long time I hated not only the job but also doing just about anything, socially, musically, or otherwise) but that cliche about getting back what you put out across the board can't be repeated enough---to myself, that woman, and all us knucklehead humanoids.

Paul: Thanks. Long time no hear from. It really was no big deal, and nowhere near made me crazy, only concerned and thinking---and this was a good place to put it from the thoughtful responses so far. . (And speaking of Big Diehls I spoke to Eddie the other day---Note:Paul and I met through my longtime buddy fellow jazz guitarist Eddie Diehl. The three of us had a nice dinner in |Poughkeepsie not too long ago).

Thoughtful offering as usual Tom. I thought the response to perceived racism coupled w/defensiveness (shutting me off after my first feedback and speaking only to her son) indicative of larger, more serious troubles, though clearly she had some less than stellar experiences with whites. Re her son: I wouldn't assume he's aware of any of that, though perhaps he is. What troubled me and pissed me off is, of course, that this malleable and open child is being telegraphed negative BS and denied the chance to draw his own conclusions. Oh well, he'll begin the never-ending trek toward adulthood after leaving home, one would hope.

I drive a local car service in the Bronx as a day gig. I picked up a woman and her son close to two hours ago and what ensued is still sticking in my craw. Want to sort it out and started a productive discussion if warranted. Said passenger was fine at first, playing learning games with the boy. I was tempted to join in. But dark clouds arrived after I made a turn she didn't like (my way was faster to the school). She told me how to go and her tone immediately turned edgy, saying things like "you go the way I tell you. Do you know what customer service is?, etc. Foolishly I--initially politely, then more assertively as she got ruder---engaged her (but went her way anyway). After a few such words were exchanged she first commented that if I'd just shut up and drive there would be no problem---again edgy and pissy. Then it descended a bit and annoyed me as she, still in evidently what she considered teaching mode, started lecturing her son about 'see what happens when people are poorly brought up and rude, etc'. I don't remember the comment that got on my last nerve but she must've hit one out of the park because I pulled over and politely asked her to leave the car---no charge as getting rid of her was payment enough. Here's where the magic words came: She had been talking to her son the whole time, about what a bad person I was, etc. Now she threw in the piece de resistance: "And you need to learn that he's doing it (all of the above accusations plus tossing her) because mommy's black." I shudda seen that one coming. My comment as she left (for myself I guess since it would have been wasted on her) was 'I hope you work out these issues'.... So what is this really about? I have been known to overreact and read more in to situations, being thoughtful, than they deserve. I don't feel bad for me, (being an artist if this continues to stew I can write a tune or something) but for her and her hurt, but I especially feel for the kid, who probably gets a steady diet of this from, IMO, damaged goods mommy. I guess if he's smart enough he'll figure it out eventually, but it's a drag that he has to overcome a stacked deck. There's the slightest of possibities that she got this a drop right, because my own prejudices (not against blacks but two other groups I've had lousy experiences with through the years and am trying to deal with that beast like we all should be) have been on my mind. Slightly crazy people can pick up on that. I've also been extra sensitive to pissed-off minorities (especially in shitty jobs) lately because I'm always dealing with the public and sometimes people set people off Hell, if I were they and dealing with constant disrespect, I'd be pissed off too---at a minimum. But I tend to doubt this was the story here. She obviously is troubled. But I see what I see and today's incident does trouble me. Is this just one slightly nutty lady whose food maybe went down the wrong way or indicative of any or all of the above alluded to? Your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen...................

Actually, I find I was wrong regarding Teddy's age: he's only a kid of 80. I wanted to to mention again Don Hahn. I think he played with, and was loved by Maynard for years. I heard about him years ago through a mutual friend but only heard him a few years ago. He's a great, mature lyrical bebop trumpet/flugeler and we had a nice rappoire, I thought. No piano, so there was a lot of room for counterpoint while-you-wait and generally. Catch him if you can in NY. He plays with Ari every week at Fat Cat. Music is great. You can become old friends with someone in 5 minutes on the stand if you listen and know the material. I think Teddy is out of sand and will do more things. Chris Byars was definitely a catylist. I hope to play with Charles again and expect I will. Yay octagenarians!

The band was at least 50% old friends, which made it all the nicer. I caught the end of Cohen's talk. (Actually a lot of talking went on b/c the guitarist was late and Chris was stalling like a MF. He can talk at length, but meaningfully I think). The little bit I heard seemed well meant and researched. I wanted to talk to Noal, b/c we have a mutual friend and I also admired his Web history of the Rochester, NY jazz scene---from whence came our friend, Ron Carter, the Mangiones, and Cohen himself. Also had something else to broach. I Decided to leave him his space though and hopefully will catch up with him later. Again, it was a great free event and I believe was recorded. Who knows......