Eric Alexander Anyone?

[Tom in RI]

I am surprised to see reference to Scott Hamilton's RnB roots referred to as a dirty little secret. Scott was credited with a guest spot on the first Roomful of Blues lp which, without looking it up, probably predated his own first date on Concord. There has been, for a long time, support for this older style RnB around RI and Massachusetts and what's wrong with that? If some jazz purist turns up their nose becasuse a guy came out of RnB wouldn't that reasoning affect more than half of all the heros of jazz from the last half century, including John Coltrane and Clifford Brown just to name two? What the hell, I am sure most of today's younger musicians have put time in funk or hip hop bands. Is there something automatically denigrating in that?

[JSngry]

Kevin - if I'm playing regularly, it's no problem. Blowing keeps the lungs elastic, or so it seems. If I'm not, well...

Tom - I don't know if anybody else has denigrated R&B roots in a jazz musician, but you sure as hell won't hear me doing it. For one thing, it would be extremely hypocritical!

The "dirty little secret" business merely meant that Concord hyped Hamilton as somebody who was coming purely out of the Swing Era, and Hamilton himself played along for quite a while. So the phrase is being used in reference to all the P.R. machinations (not too many Swing Buffs of the type that favored the Concord ouvre get a hardon for gritty R&B, although it's GOT to be for more than musical reasons), NOT the music itself.

If anything, that's a "plus" for Hamilton in my mind - he really DOES have a good feel for the blues, a natural feel, unlike the "other guy" of this thread. At least that's how I hear and feel it.

Individual mileage does indeed vary.

[Larry Kart]

Jim -- Martin Williams blowing his top must have been something to behold. I was never on the receiving end in person but do have several knife-in-the-gut letters and postcards from MW. He was my idol I guess back in the mid- to late-1950s when he was writing for Down Beat, the Saturday Review, Evergreen Review etc. -- he seemed like the only guy around who was dealing with the music seriously (although in Martin's hands, seriously sometimes became "seriously," which to an impressionable teenager of a certain sort must have been part of the charm). When I got to DB in '68, he still had a column there, and we corresponded/talked on the phone a fair bit over the years on a tense/friendly basis -- the master/mentor thing still hanging in the air in both our minds I think. That altered some when he asked me to look at the about-to-be-published revised version of "The Jazz Tradition." (I'd reviewed the first edition of "The JT" for the American Record Guide back in '70 or so and said then that it was as good as it was [and is] but also made it clear that I thought Martin's approach was a bit puritanical in its reluctance to talk about the expressive/emotional side of the music--though I understood that he felt, with good reason, that there'd been too much "impressionistic" blather of that sort in the history of writing about jazz. In effect, his master/mentor was B.H. Haggin.) Anyway, I gave him some I think useful responses to the revised JT, and after that I think we met more as two grown-ups, to the degree that was possible. The thing was, Martin was an inherently testy guy -- not only because he had legitimate oppositional responses to a lot that was going in jazz, the arts in general, and the world in general, but also because he was embattled bureaucratically at the Smithsonian and elsewhere and seemed to find himself in (or seek out) relationships with young disciples whom he would on occasion browbeat unmercifully, perhaps a la "The Great Santini"--Martin was the son of a Navy officer I recall), in one case to the point of a nervous breakdown on the part of the disciple (also the son of a high-ranking military man I believe). BTW, I mean nothing sexual by "relationships with young disciples." I'm pretty sure that neither Martin nor the guy I'm thinking of was wired that way, not that there's anything wrong with that.)

My favorite perhaps-revealing personal encounter with Martin took place at a Duke Ellington conference that was being held at the U. of Illinois-Chicago in the early '80s. Martin was there with his current tweedy young disciple, and I sat down next to them at what turned out to be a long Gunther Schuller lecture. Back then I was a smoker, and after 40 minutes or so I began to fidget and brought out a pack of Dentyne. Martin noticed this and said quite sternly: "You chew gum?" I sort of knew what he meant -- that the Virginia patrician side of him regarded gum-chewing as a vile, vulgar habit indulged in only by shop girls in 5 and 10 stores or guys who pumped gas -- but mentally and physically I was caught in mid-motion and said without really thinking: "Sure, you want some?" The one good putdown I've ever delivered in my life, and I didn't even mean to do it.

My favorite by-mail dispute with MW was about a long contra-Bill Evans piece I'd written for the Chi. Tribune in '82 or '83. MW said in a letter that I didn't care for Evans because I was "afraid of lyricism." I replied that it seemed a mistake to equate lyricism with romantic moods, that to me lyricism in music primarily meant a commitment to the life of the evolving line and that to the degree that highly patterned harmonic sequences determined the shape of Evans's lines in much of his later music (IMO), that made his status as the jazz lyricist par excellence rather shaky. And I added that my idea of great jazz lyricist was Jimmy Raney. To which MW replied with a one-sentence postcard: "Jimmy Raney was a bebopper!"

[JSngry]

I hear you about Williams, Larry. I dug him a lot more when I was an impressionable teenager too. Serious vs "Serious" indeed!

Still, the guy did a LOT of good stuff at the Smithsonian. Fault can be found, but when is that NOT the case?

[JSngry]

My favorite perhaps-revealing personal encounter with Martin took place at a Duke Ellington conference that was being held at the U. of Illinois-Chicago in the early '80s. Martin was there with his current tweedy young disciple, and I sat down next to them at what turned out to be a long Gunther Schuller lecture. Back then I was a smoker, and after 40 minutes or so I began to fidget and brought out a pack of Dentyne. Martin noticed this and said quite sternly: "You chew gum?" I sort of knew what he meant -- that the Virginia patrician side of him regarded gum-chewing as a vile, vulgar habit indulged in only by shop girls in 5 and 10 stores or guys who pumped gas -- but mentally and physically I was caught in mid-motion and said without really thinking: "Sure, you want some?" The one good putdown I've ever delivered in my life, and I didn't even mean to do it.

Your book gone to press yet? THAT'S a great story well told.

[Larry Kart]

Jim -- My feelings about Williams are way on the plus side. Not that many critics in any realm ever do as many things right as he did and do them on the spot too. (His immediate response to/role in making a way for Ornette was a great thing, even if some feel that he stepped over a critical ethical line or two at that time, praising a guy in print while he also was involved in pushing/guiding his career to some extent.) On the other hand, I didn't have to work with/for Martin.

The chewing-gum story is for the sequel (or "sequel").

[danasgoodstuff]

Just so happens that the only hamilton i own (I think, sometimes I forget just what I own) is the abovementioned Duke R. Swing album. Since posting above i pulled it out just to make sure and, to not mix metaphors, I found it reasonably fluent in that particulart proto-R&B idiom, if not quite native speaker fluent, but I didn't find that he had anything particularly interesting to say. I'll have to find some Eric Alexander to check out and get back to y'all. There is, of course, nothing at all srong with a jazz player coming out of R&B (of any era), and there are plenty of guys out there who show those roots off 'in a good way' in a jazz context. But there definately is a certain strain of jazz fan/critic/promoter for whom that would be v. much a bad thing--downbeat from back in the day is full of condecending jibes re 'honkers & screamers'. There's a shole world of possible legit expression twixt Warne Marsh and Jay McNeely; Red Holloway is one guy who straddles that particular fence without getting hung up on it (and we all know how painful that can be)...

[paul secor]

He was my idol I guess back in the mid- to late-1950s when he was writing for Down Beat, the Saturday Review, Evergreen Review etc. -- the master/mentor thing still hanging in the air in both our minds I think. That altered some when he asked me to look at the about-to-be-published revised version of "The Jazz Tradition." (I'd reviewed the first edition of "The JT" for the American Record Guide back in '70 or so and said then that it was as good as it was [and is] but also made it clear that I thought Martin's approach was a bit puritanical in its reluctance to talk about the expressive/emotional side of the music--though I understood that he felt, with good reason, that there'd been too much "impressionistic" blather of that sort in the history of writing about jazz.

Larry - I'm not a critic in any formal (or even informal) sense, but Martin Williams was a sort of idol of mine in the early to mid sixties. I used to read and reread his columns in Down Beat and the Evergreen Review - I believe I remember reading a few pieces that he published in Kulchur also, but my memory may be misleading me there. I felt that as time went on, he seemed to avoid writing about the emotional sides of the music - I came to think of this as "music is logic". I know that's an oversimplification, but for whatever reasons, Martin Williams' writings seemed to lose most of their appeal to me. Perhaps this may be a good time for me to reread some of his essays and columns.

[paul secor]

And I added that my idea of great jazz lyricist was Jimmy Raney. To which MW replied with a one-sentence postcard: "Jimmy Raney was a bebopper!"

Are the two antithetical? I guess that for M.W. they were.

[John Tapscott]

This is a great thread, mainly because it compelled to to pull out some Eric Alexander and Scott Hamilton discs. Maybe I'm not muiscially sophisticated enough to hear all the nuances that others hear, but I am more convinced than ever that both these guys are the real deal. On Friday I grabbed the Gene Harris/Scott Hamilton Quintet CD "At Last" off my shelves and gave it a spin at work. I hadn't heard it for a while and had forgotten how good it is. Surprised me actually. Beyond question one of the top 2 or 3 out of approx. 20 CD's I heard last week.

[Larry Kart]

Paul -- What I understood MW to mean by "Jimmy Raney was bebopper!"was that beboppers by and large (in his opinion) were prone to build solos by stringing together a lot of licks, not by thinking melodically. I recall that he said something like that in a DB Bystander column about Serge Chaloff. So for me to cite Raney as a great jazz lyricist was in Martin's view absurd. I still say he was dead wrong on this one, but then by that point he was pretty angry.

[blue lake]

Well, this is a great thread because it's made me listen to Tim Armocost and Kalaparush.

Larry, I did pull out the Tim Armocost "Live at Smalls" and he plays tenor on "Invisible" (which is credited on the recording to Armocost! (sic) and not Ornette) and soprano on "Hank's Other Bag." That aside, I hear your larger point: now that is swing, he swings within the framework and it's greazin' without flexin'.

Around the end of March, first of April I had the chance to hear Ornette live in Ann Arbor, Tony Malaby/Angelica Sanchez/ Tom Rainey live in at the station here (right after their two hits in Chicago -- Nessa was at the station, too), and Kalaparush and the Light at a coffee shop in Grand Rapids.

And within that compressed time frame it became clear that the music isn't dead, it's just flying below the radar of style. Style has become the hallmark of corporate sponsored jazz presentation, while the music un-encumbered by such a restriction is going on it's own happy way.

The case of Kalaparush, on the subway, literally underground. But what a musician. While Sam River's fans will marvel at his multi-instrumental trio and it's astonishing technical virtuosity and power, Kalaparush has taken another direction that is just incredibly musical, melodic -- I wouldn't call it "warm" in terms of tone, but in terms of spirit. And one might not describe it as powerful in terms of athleticism, but it is powerful in musical sophistication. As Nessa says, shading. The way he shades and nuances those beautiful lines. Damn! KALAPARUSH!

Up until hearing him live, he was a mystery to me -- even after having heard "Sound" many times, and "Humility In Light of Creator," too. His is just not the kind of playing that jumps out at you, it is the kind that draws you into a realm that late 'Trane and Ayler may have understood, but sounds nothing like them. That is creativity. That is taking a previous individual's music and not just fucking around with it as some "style," but working it from the viewpoint of ideas with what George Lewis calls "radical individualism."

Yet, there was more than Kalaparush as "soloist." His whole band and their approach was an extension of his musical values, and it was beautiful. Jesse Dulman on tuba really gets around on his horn, and Ravish Momin flows through several different grooves, often setting the pace with his youthful drive.

Malaby with his wife and Raney, that collective trio, was wonderfully organic in their improvised structures. I remember you've made observations regarding his playing from harmonic node to harmonic node without creating what you might consider a real melody (that sort of comment sticks), yet in terms of working intervals he is becoming a force to be reckoned with. There are several recent recordings featuring his playing where he adds considerably to the dialogue. The fact that he's doing it more challenging forms than Scott Hamilton gives him a leg up in my book.

I mean, stick Scott Hamilton in the Fletcher Henderson band in the 30's and he's lost. What is he going to base his playing on? Stick Kalaparush or Malaby in the context of now, and they are sayin' something.

My feelings for the music of Ornette, well, even Lincoln Center has caught up to OC.

Standards are cool and all, but there is music of this moment, it just isn't commercially viable, and that seems to be the only thing that matters to a huge portion of the audience any more. Does it sell? "Well, I really only like to look at Picasso's Blue Period. The rest, well, you know: why?" Absurd, yet similar ideas great some of the most creative music of the last 50 years.

Trane's career should throw a monkey wrench in the predominance of style because style does not explain his music after 1965, only ideas do.

It's just a lot more work.

Carry the load, carry the load, and carry the load until you die.... yet jazz's radical individuals are a load worth carrying.

[Larry Kart]

Blue Lake, sorry for mixing up what horn Armacost plays on what track. It's been a while since I listened to the album.

In my recent experience -- a couple of live performances last Sept., several recent albums -- Kalaparush has been pretty variable, but at his best he can stop your heart. At the Chicago Jazz Fest he played a ballad (said later that he'd essentially improvised it on the spot; it sounded like that was the case) that was one of the most beautful songs I've ever heard -- as though Coleman Hawkins had improvised "Body and Soul" as well as played his solo on it. That night at a club, or maybe it was the next night, it seemed like he and the trio never got into gear. Could be that the variability (if I'm right about that) and Kalaparusha's ability to go to deep primal places are aspects of the same thing. He's got little or no "professional" armor, but when his (honest, vulnerable, open?) human presence aligns with the musical setup of the moment, it's something else. I've gotten some of the same feeling from other Chicago musicians in other styles over the years -- in particular, Wilber Campbell and Nicky Hill, maybe Jodie Christian and clarinetist Frank Chace too -- an exceptional sensitivity to the immediate musical environment (sometimes to the point of vulnerability if things weren't going just right around them) that allowed them to go to places that more iron-clad "pros" would never dream of. Kalaparush's background and era are different, though, and all this may be just my imagination working overtime.

[Lazaro Vega]

Yeah, Larry, that's a clear way of expressing it. We talked a lot while he was here in Grand Rapids and it was fascinating. I'll post some of that when it comes into form and there's some time. When I mentioned I'd be featuring Duke Jordon on the radio program he just kept saying with equal parts astonishment and reverence and disbelief, "Duke Jordan!....Duke Jordan!....Duke Jordan....!"

God rest Wilbur Campbell. The Chicago scene lost a major voice when he passed.

Was playing the Louis Smith/Jodie Christian duo cd the other night. Have you heard that? Jodie carries a big load musically and brings the music a fullness and gentleness that is fullfilling and touching.

Maybe I heard Chase live once, but most of his music I recall from the few records he's on. Would love to have talked to him -- there's a great example of a musician going into the tradition, pulling out even one of the most eccentric players in the world to emulate, and yet remaining personal. What a great example few will ever hear or follow.

Nicky is only familiar to me from his records with Ira which are fine.

By the way, I am Blue Lake, too. Peace.

[Larry Kart]

I know that Lazaro Vega = Blue Lake, just dunced out on your given name while typing that reply and didn't feel like hunting for it. Would love to hear what Kalaparusha had to say. Don't know that Louis Smith/Christian duo album, will look for it. Another Chicago guy (at one time) who had/has that open, perhaps even vulnerable, non-ironclad "pro" feeling was Chris Anderson.

I have cassette I made of Frank Chace rehearsing with pianist Bob Wright (a sadly little-known player who had one foot in ragtime and Harlem stride, one foot in Tristano but really sounded like no one but himself and who no longer is able to play because of arthritis or some similar muscle-joint condition). Among the pieces they play are "Warm Valley," "If You Could See Now" and "Ladybird." Commercially available at one time from ragtime pianist-writer Terry Waldo was a cassette Waldo had made of Wright playing rags and stride pieces. It's something else.

[montg]

Alexander has a new CD coming out next week (8/28)...I don't listen to many of the contemporary mainstream tenors, but I've grown to like Eric Alexander's music quite a lot. The usual suspects: Farnsworth, Hazeltine, Rotondi etc.

press release hype

Temple Of Olympic Zeus

Alexander, Eric

Tenor saxman Eric Alexander has more than lived up to his Young Lion hype, with his amazing 18 recordings as leader only reinforcing what has been clear from his work of the past decade: Alexander is one of the leading talents of modern tenor saxophone. Eric and his working band explore a wealth of material, finding treasures and mining each gem without getting tedious, varying his strategies from fluttering wisps, meaty arpeggios, and evocative swirls.

Eric Alexander Temple of OlympicZeus

[Larry Kart]

It's those meaty arpeggios I have a problem with.

[JSngry]

[JSngry]

Rippling his muscles in a meaty arpeggio, the Strong Man tells the gods: "I want to live like any other mortal. I want children of my own."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...iid=chix-sphere

[JSngry]

press release hype

Eric and his working band explore a wealth of material, finding treasures and mining each gem without getting tedious, varying his strategies from fluttering wisps, meaty arpeggios, and evocative swirls.

Geez, even the hype is recyled:

Monk’s “Ruby My Dear” is the only track to qualify as a jazz standard, and there is nothing standard about Alexander’s upbeat arrangement, taking an improvisor’s approach to a melody often played straight. It’s less angular than many of Monk’s works, which may open the door more readily to modification. Notes Eric, “It’s a beautiful melody, and the chord progression is very interesting. If you play all of the passing chords Monk used, there’s a lot of material.” And Alexander explores the wealth of material, finding treasures and mining each gem without getting tedious, varying his strategies from fluttering wisps, meaty arpeggios, and evocative swirls.

http://www.jazzpolice.com/content/view/6042/79/

The Jazz Police dig it!!!!!!!!!

[montg]

It's those meaty arpeggios I have a problem with.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

One way or another, I've got quite a bit of Eric Alexander; mainly because I like - a lot - some of the people he's recorded with. The ones I can lay my hands on readily are:

Four of his own - Alexander the great; Mode for Mabes; Stablemates (with Lin Halliday); Summit meeting

Earland - Unforgettable; I ain't Jivin' I'm jammin'; Ready 'n able; Blowin' the blues away; Cookin' with the mighty burner; Stomp

Harold Mabern - Kiss of fire

Junior Mance - Yesterdays; Groovin' blues

Mel Rhyne - Tell it like it is (and yes, I can tell the three tenors apart - Eric doesn't sing); Stick to the kick; Classmasters

Randy Johnston - Jubilation; In a-chord; Homage

I really don't mind him. But I've always felt he wasn't really quite as good as he ought to have been running with that company. If you compare him with another young musician, Randy Johnston, who really does feel in place working with Houston Person; Jack McDuff etc.

Where I do really quite like him is when he's backing up Irene Reid's vocals. Irene made four albums with Alexander

Million $ secret; The uptown lowdown; I ain't doin' to bad; One monkey don't stop no show

He WASN'T on "Movin' out", the first one after Earland died. I think he was missed on that album.

Now, if you want to compare Alexander behind Reid with Houston Person behind Etta Jones; Jaws behind Arthur Prysock; Webster behind Carmen McRae or Spoon; Hawk behind Spoon; Newman behind Charles, or Prez behind Billie Holiday, we are definitely NOT talking about the same league. But I think he fits well behind Irene and, while this kind of stuff is not the first port of call for people who want to assess a jazz musician's work, there's something to be said for a guy who can handle what might be called a backwater with an excellence that makes you miss him when he ain't there.

Dinner time. Not sure if I've said what I wanted.

MG

[montg]

Mode for Moms Mabley

edc decrees this an embarrassment to all involved, tho' Moms deserved the props; maybe a rabbit pot pie MG?

Eric doesn't swing

NOW we're gettin' to the other meat of the matter which is if we listen above grade-school level & consider so-called "swing" MORE-- lots more, in fact-- than a variable set of rhythmic relations... which on one level it is but on others... it ain't nearly enough. i'll take ya'll to a Brooklyn textile sweatshop if you wanna see a whole factory floor of Singers "swingin'"-- ain't a big deal, really.

Isn't an organic, meaningful 'swing' pretty rare among most musicians born post-beatles. There aren't enough drummers willing or capable of bringing it?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Eric doesn't swing

NOW we're gettin' to the other meat of the matter which is if we listen above grade-school level & consider so-called "swing" MORE-- lots more, in fact-- than a variable set of rhythmic relations... which on one level it is but on others... it ain't nearly enough. i'll take ya'll to a Brooklyn textile sweatshop if you wanna see a whole factory floor of Singers "swingin'"-- ain't a big deal, really.

That wasn't a typo - it was a fuckin' joke! (Perhaps a fuckin' awful one )

And Clem, have you heard him behind Irene?

Er - it's a bit like hearing Trudy Pitts behind Gator. There are some people who can make others do things so well you wouldn't believe it.

Which reminds me - Irene = Gator (vocal version).

MG

[clifford_thornton]

I saw him once and was hoping he would be better than he turned out to be... oh well.