The flute thread

[Rooster_Ties]

Am I really the only person here who's heard Gary Thomas on flute??

(Or, I guess, the only one who has, and taken notice of it.)

Check my post near the beginning of this thread.

[marcello]

Steve Kujala did some nice things w/Chick Corea.

Have to mention Joe Farrell and Frank Wess too.

I used to hear Steve Kujala many years ago when he was still a student at Eastman. Really wonderful even then!

He played tenor too but the flute is his instrument.

When I think of jazz flute I always hear Frank Wess in my head ( not Herbie Mann for some reason), and Lew Tabackin is fine too.

Sam Rivers has a voice on the flute too.

Edited December 7, 2008 by marcello

[Teasing the Korean]

Squares are not allowed to listen to "Jazz Heat Bongo Beat."

[Hot Ptah]

Anybody heard Jamie Baum? I think she's pretty good.

BTW, has James Newton recorded anything recently???

Good question about Newton. He was recording a lot in the late 1970s and 1980s and seemed to be rising to the level of a regular jazz recording star, in the way that anyone can become a jazz recording star these days. Then at some point he seemed to become less well known, and to have fewer high profile recordings.

[Ken Dryden]

Jamie Baum's latest CD for Sunnyside made my top ten, which is posted at Jazzhouse.org.

I enjoy Eric Dolphy (esp. "You Don't Know What Love Is" on Last Date), Lew Tabackin, Ali Ryerson, Holly Hofmann and Frank Wess (the last three who made one CD as Flutology). I know there are others, but I still need another cup of coffee to wake up.

[Larry Kart]

Anybody heard Jamie Baum? I think she's pretty good.

BTW, has James Newton recorded anything recently???

Good question about Newton. He was recording a lot in the late 1970s and 1980s and seemed to be rising to the level of a regular jazz recording star, in the way that anyone can become a jazz recording star these days. Then at some point he seemed to become less well known, and to have fewer high profile recordings.

The Beastie Boys did him in:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4701570

[Larry Kart]

More about the interesting issues in the Newton/Beastie Boys case from an IMO objective source (see from the middle of page 103 to the top part of p. 105):

http://books.google.com/books?id=KTRA-Ag5g...esult#PPA103,M1

[DMP]

A couple years ago Steig's "Flute Fever" was listed as "upcoming" by Collectables, but it never made it. I was hoping it would be tacked on to that Mosaic Denny Zeitlen package.

[Hot Ptah]

Anybody heard Jamie Baum? I think she's pretty good.

BTW, has James Newton recorded anything recently???

Good question about Newton. He was recording a lot in the late 1970s and 1980s and seemed to be rising to the level of a regular jazz recording star, in the way that anyone can become a jazz recording star these days. Then at some point he seemed to become less well known, and to have fewer high profile recordings.

The Beastie Boys did him in:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4701570

I knew about that unfortunate story. But why couldn't Newton also continue to record albums while he struggled with the Beasties on the side?

[Larry Kart]

Anybody heard Jamie Baum? I think she's pretty good.

BTW, has James Newton recorded anything recently???

Good question about Newton. He was recording a lot in the late 1970s and 1980s and seemed to be rising to the level of a regular jazz recording star, in the way that anyone can become a jazz recording star these days. Then at some point he seemed to become less well known, and to have fewer high profile recordings.

The Beastie Boys did him in:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4701570

I knew about that unfortunate story. But why couldn't Newton also continue to record albums while he struggled with the Beasties on the side?

I don't know that his suit against the Beastie Boys affected Newton's career as a recording artist -- I was being somewhat snide. On the other hand, I think Newton was left holding the bag for considerable court costs, which certainly could have had an effect on his career; in addition, there was the no doubt dispiriting fact of losing a case to which he clearly had devoted much time and energy, as well as money, and in which he felt that right was very much on his side.

[Mark Stryker]

The simple answer to what happened to James Newton is that his career took a left turn into academia in the early 1990s, when he started teaching at the Univ. of Calif at Irvine and focused his attention on (more or less) classical composition. There's a very interesting recording on New World that documents these activities, "As The Sound of Many Waters," which came out in 2000. I'm not sure where/if he's still teaching. His website seems to indicate that his last academic job was at Cal Intitute of the Arts-LA and ended in 2006. Nor do I know how the impact of the suit. I've lost track of him. But FWIW, I reviewed that New World CD back in 2000. Here's what I said:

In case you were wondering whatever happened to flutist James Newton (b. 1953), one of the most compelling left-of-the-mainstream instrumentalists to emerge in jazz in the late '70s, here is the album to get you up to speed. It turns out that about a decade ago, he quietly traded a life in the maelstrom of vanguard improvised music for the relative serenity of the academy, where his focus has become primarily composition and the intriguingintersection of the experimental jazz tradition and contemporary classical music.

Not that life at the University of California-Irvine has dulled Newton's creative fire. The music here -- including pieces for solo flute, solo violin

and small combinations of winds, strings, percussion and soprano -- encompasses unusually diverse compositional strategies, though almost

everything pulsates with energy, surprise and the kind of clarity and craft that enhances the emotional thrust of the music rather than dulling it.

The 14-minute title track is a tour de force solo performance by Newton. There are brilliantly improvised passages in which glissandos and multiphonics (playing more than one note at a time by singing through the instrument and false fingerings) add monumental weight to the cavernous vocal sound of his tone. His quick reflexes and the freedom of his phrasing suggest his jazz background, but there is also a fleeting yet telling quote from Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta."

"Violet" for flute, clarinet, cello, piano and two marimbas is a highly rhythmic work reflecting African roots music but transformed by the

imagination of a Western composer too smart to merely go slumming in the music of another culture. The layered polyrhythms, repeating cells, brief but memorable melodic gestures and the luminous tonal colors all suggest, for those looking for a classical reference, the music of Olly Wilson. But Newton doesn't sound like anyone but himself.

Edited December 8, 2008 by Mark Stryker

[Hot Ptah]

Thanks for that information about Newton. I will definitely check that album out.

[clifford_thornton]

Anybody heard the Newton LP on Flute Music from the '70s?

[Chuck Nessa]

Maybe Chas has since he had pics early in the thread.

[gmonahan]

Bobby Jaspar played some very fine jazz flute, but like others, I love Frank Wess and Sam Most. Wish more of the latter's work for Xanadu was available on cd.

greg mo

[clifford_thornton]

Maybe Chas has since he had pics early in the thread.

Nope.

Saw it on a list for $100 once and passed. Never saw it again!

[Mark Stryker]

Anybody heard Jamie Baum? I think she's pretty good.

/quote]

I haven't checked out Baum's new record "Solace" yet but her previous "Moving Forward, Standing Still" (Omnitone, 2004) showcased an ambitious compositional aesthetic, jazz-based but admiting lots of classical influences (Stravinsky, Bartok, Ives). The septet writing reminded me of Brookmeyer or McNeely scaled down to seven pieces -- pastels, counterpoint, shifting meters, vamps, slippery textures, careful plotting and thematic variations. The conception wasn't fully formed and it was academic at times but she seemed on to something.

Edited December 9, 2008 by Mark Stryker

[James]

I enjoy Eric Dolphy (esp. "You Don't Know What Love Is" on Last Date), Lew Tabackin, Ali Ryerson, Holly Hofmann and Frank Wess (the last three who made one CD as Flutology). I know there are others, but I still need another cup of coffee to wake up.

Ken...............Holly is one of my favorites as well. Treats a ballad like few others, and can more that hold her own at burnin'

tempos as well. She's got quite a catalog --- including a session recorded live at Birdland with Ray Brown, Bill Cunliffe and Victor Lewis.

[Teasing the Korean]

The greatest album ever made:

Jazz Heat, Bongo Beat by the Latin Jazz All-Stars on Crown, featuring Buddy Collette on flute.

Agree 100%, LOL

[Teasing the Korean]

I particularly like alto flute when used with Latin percussion and vibes.

that's a great point, will you go out on a date with me LOL?

[Teasing the Korean]

The Beat of My Heart by Tony Bennett has latin percussion AND a FULL FLUTE SECTION on most tracks!!!

kthxbai

[Mark Stryker]

The simple answer to what happened to James Newton is that his career took a left turn into academia in the early 1990s, when he started teaching at the Univ. of Calif at Irvine and focused his attention on (more or less) classical composition. There's a very interesting recording on New World that documents these activities, "As The Sound of Many Waters," which came out in 2000. I'm not sure where/if he's still teaching. His website seems to indicate that his last academic job was at Cal Intitute of the Arts-LA and ended in 2006. Nor do I know how the impact of the suit. I've lost track of him. But FWIW, I reviewed that New World CD back in 2000. Here's what I said:

In case you were wondering whatever happened to flutist James Newton (b. 1953), one of the most compelling left-of-the-mainstream instrumentalists to emerge in jazz in the late '70s, here is the album to get you up to speed. It turns out that about a decade ago, he quietly traded a life in the maelstrom of vanguard improvised music for the relative serenity of the academy, where his focus has become primarily composition and the intriguingintersection of the experimental jazz tradition and contemporary classical music.

Not that life at the University of California-Irvine has dulled Newton's creative fire. The music here -- including pieces for solo flute, solo violin

and small combinations of winds, strings, percussion and soprano -- encompasses unusually diverse compositional strategies, though almost

everything pulsates with energy, surprise and the kind of clarity and craft that enhances the emotional thrust of the music rather than dulling it.

The 14-minute title track is a tour de force solo performance by Newton. There are brilliantly improvised passages in which glissandos and multiphonics (playing more than one note at a time by singing through the instrument and false fingerings) add monumental weight to the cavernous vocal sound of his tone. His quick reflexes and the freedom of his phrasing suggest his jazz background, but there is also a fleeting yet telling quote from Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta."

"Violet" for flute, clarinet, cello, piano and two marimbas is a highly rhythmic work reflecting African roots music but transformed by the

imagination of a Western composer too smart to merely go slumming in the music of another culture. The layered polyrhythms, repeating cells, brief but memorable melodic gestures and the luminous tonal colors all suggest, for those looking for a classical reference, the music of Olly Wilson. But Newton doesn't sound like anyone but himself.

Update on James Newton's whereabouts: According to a note in the January issue of Downbeat, Newton is now a professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA, teaching jazz composition and co-directing the the school's contemporary jazz ensemble with Kenny Burrell.