lkaven

The Smalls Records label and the Smalls Live label both came from the club Smalls. The Smalls Records name was licensed to me by Mitch Borden in the year 2000. The club was brought back in 2007, after closing for a time, by Spike Wilner, who began the Smalls Live label. Legally, the Smalls Live label can only present live recordings made at Smalls. The Smalls Records label can present live and studio recordings from any venue. There is some spirit of cooperation, and there may be collaboration in the future. Both labels originate with the club, though different generations of its existence.

This is true. There should be early copies available first at CD Baby about two weeks in front of the late-Feb release date. Teddy is playing in top form. I don't know why he hasn't made more records in the last 40 years. He certainly is up to it musically. I think you all will be pleased with this one. Luke

It is important enough that I am pretty committed to it. But the project requires an intern, some gear for transcribing cassettes, and a couple of months. Most of the material is very lo-fi, but it is more than enough to validate the claims people made about Sharpe.

Hi All, This year, bassist Ari Roland and his quartet were chosen by the US Dept. of State to represent the US in the "American Music Abroad" program. This is the continuation of what used to be called the Jazz Ambassador program. I think the idea first came about when Louis Armstrong went to Ghana in 1956 and 100,000 fans reportedly showed up at his concert. I am among those who believe that jazz is something that truly exemplifies freedom and democracy, and that a 'jazz ambassador' stands a chance of spreading more good will overseas than most anyone else in current employ. Ari has been traveling with saxophonist Chris Byars, and pianist Sacha Perry along with drummer Stefan Schatz. Chris Byars, who was chosen for next year's program, has been live blogging their tour with photos and mpegs from here and there. It's a very engaging presentation, so I thought I would share the link with members of the group here: http://web.mac.com/chrisbyars/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html Ari Roland's recording Sketches from a Bassist's Album (the title comes from Turgenev's Sketches from a Hunter's Album) is described here: http://www.smallsrecords.com/roland-sfaba.htm Chris Byar's record Photos in Black, White and Gray (in tribute to Jimmy Lovelace, who was a monochromatic dresser) is described here: http://www.smallsrecords.com/byars-pibwag.htm Best to all, Luke

Hi all, It took me a while to catch up with this thread! Frank was remarkably consistent to the point that there really were no outtakes (save for a handful all told) on Frank's own call. I'm planning to release the second part of the afternoon session that Fresh From The Cooler comes from, and more or less arbitrarily divided the takes into two parts based on mood and flow. I needed to do a little forensic work on the original DAT to recover some data from a particularly interesting version of Lover that Frank does that I think is so hip, and now that it's done, I'm going to go ahead. I think next spring we will be able to have a DVD of the "Not Afraid To Live" session, or a significant part of it. My film associate, Brock Graham and his partner Stu Entner, were working on a film about Smalls Records at the time, and came in to film this session. We never knew it would be Hewitt's last at the time. But you will get to see him talking in one part where he says "I'm not afraid to die, but I'm not afraid to live either." We only have two cameras for some of it, and only one camera for part of it. But there is a lot of Hewitt on camera and it really helps to give one a picture of the man playing in a way that helps one to understand the music more. But there are several things still to come, all consistent. The weight that is added to his musical reputation with each new release makes the neglect -- the malfunction -- seem that much more pathological. By the way, we also filmed what turned out to be Gil Coggins last recording session. I'm hoping we will get that out too. It does look good for my being able to release those recordings I made of him between 2000-2002 beginning this fall. Luke PS -- NHK is making a documentary about Perry/Roland/Byars right now and it should be very interesting. I like this filmmaker Hide Watanabe a *lot*.

This one should be available on stealth release by Wednesday direct from CD Baby. It has a couple of the tracks featured on David Brent Johnson's (aka Ghost) program. David, I will be sending this to you. It has remastered versions of those tracks that are quite a bit better than the draft masters I gave you for your progam.

What's going on with this? I want to put it out, but the task of handling the rights is a bit daunting. Perhaps Lou Erlanger can help to simplify it. I'll talk to him and see where we can take it from there. Eventually...one way or another. Bobby was a personal favorite of mine.

Hmm. He almost does tuck it under his chin. Just to say that Ari's arco playing is not really influenced primarily by other bassists at all. While we're here, I want to garner everyone's semantic intuitions about this part of Ratliff's piece: '"Sketches From a Bassist's Album" (Smalls), a strong record, puts him with a like-minded, bop-obsessed group, including the tenor saxophonist Chris Byars, the pianist Sacha Perry and the drummer Phil Stewart.' [Emphasis mine.] To me the term "bop-obsessed" seems to imply some sort of unhealthy preoccupation. I really don't understand why any mention of "bop" has to include a derisive put-down. I understand that most of what is passed-off as bop these days is as bad as muzak (and maybe that's what most people think it is now). But if Ratliff had listened to me or read my notes, he should have understood that there are a few players who came up in the NY underground where bop was as real and alive as it ever was. It is not retro, and it is not revival. Would anyone say that someone who grew up in Cuba and plays Cuban music is "Cuban-obsessed"? Apparently killing off music that isn't dead is a big part of being a critic these days. Luke

Ari and I puzzled over this when it came out. Did Ratliff mean Ray Brown instead of "Steve Brown"? For the record, Ari's way of playing arco is influenced by interpretative violinists Eugene Ysaye, Fritz Kreisler, and George Enescu. Luke

Ned's quartet has Neal Caine on bass and Sacha Perry on piano, with Charles Goold Jr swinging his ass off on drums. Very good chemistry. There's plenty of "Fred Astaire meets Count Dracula". It's subtly subversive. Ned's internalized an amazing set of original moves to the extent that he swings freely with them. His message has a dark edge, perfect for the times we live in. Worth getting hip to.

I recorded one set of Bobby Forrester at Smalls with Bubba Brooks and William Ash and hope to have that out before too long. I really thought Bobby was great and we were planning a record before his death. Many thanks to the selfless Lou Erlanger for putting out Organic Chemistry as a labor of love. Luke

In lieu of Tommy, we can send a couple of our own cats to shout epithets from the back row.

If you could get Night Lights syndicated, I would count it as a significant victory for the art. You know the NYC regionals, both hard to penetrate. WAER Syracuse NY. Jazz theme station. It's just possible that Eric Cohen would be open to such a thing. There is an increasingly adventurous spirit in Syracuse. Though WAER is sometimes known for conservative fare. Contacts at: http://www.waer.org/contact.html WSQG Binghamton NY, w/relay to Corning. Small jazz theme station. Very conservative, bland. Small fish, but needs a wake up, gentle, like a velvet brick through the window. WAMC Albany NY, relayed around the state. They have some jazz programming. They have a dozen or so relays around the state and reach a big audience. Obviously, it'd be great to get you on the flagship stations with statewide relays. WRTI in Philadelphia covers a very large listening area. WPFW in Washington DC might find your show very appealing. I think Willard Jenkins is still there. WDET in Detroit packs a punch. It wouldn't hurt to talk to Linda Yohn at WEMU.

The lack of published method makes it even worse. It reminds me of the "non scientific" polls that CNN runs. It is a classic paradox. The presentation of the poll is intended to induce the belief that the poll is meaningful; but the poll is explicitly disclaimed and the lack of controls and adherence to scientific methods entails that the poll is meaningless. If you want to know how much ignorance is expected of the viewer/reader, that is a measure of it. The same is true here.

Isn't it a vanity piece? Isn't its real purpose to elevate the reputations of the putative experts as experts? Once again, popularity is slyly substituted for excellence (as often wealth is subsituted for importance). And popular misconceptions pass as "expert" judgments. This is another way that the best artists become relegated to the arts ghetto. Luke