fasstrack Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 It's really gratifying and wonderful to see so many of our leading musicians playing and writing vital music well into their 80s (and beyond, as in Hank Jones). It's really a unique time in jazz history and shows how music keeps us young. Benny Golson, Billy Taylor, James Moody, Teddy Charles, Terry Gibbs, Clark Terry-----for openers. Then there are 'youngsters' Barry Harris and Phil Woods, both 78. It's not just that they survived or sound great for old men. They're playing and writing their asses off! And they survived....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 They're playing and writing their asses off! And they survived....... That could present some problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasstrack Posted April 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 (edited) I'll be 78 this year, I wish I could write my ass off (literally, as it were)! Happy birthday in advance. I forgot Bob Brookmeyer, also a kid at around 78. I was friends with the great Bill Finegan, who we lost at 91 last June. James Chirillo and I both studied with him and he was very dear to us and to American music. He wasn't in great health and losing his wife was a real setback, but his mind was razor-sharp and he kept writing---and did three charts for Warren Vache on a recent record that are as good as anything he ever did. Chirillo conducted and played on it. His son told me he has stacks of piano music by dad that is great. Speaking of Brookmeyer, he also considered Bill a hero and called him every day after Rosemary passed away. Edited April 3, 2009 by fasstrack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bill Barton Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Let's not forget Fred Anderson and Von Freeman... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 and Sam Rivers ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKE BBB Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 And Dick Hyman! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasstrack Posted April 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 BTW I have no dictionary here. Is it octo or octagenarian? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 And Charlie Parker, who may be dead in body, but who is still more alive than many who really are! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Lightning Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 BTW I have no dictionary here. Is it octo or octagenarian? Octo, I believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Lightning Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Fred Anderson just turned 80. It's indeed the octogenarian age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papsrus Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 80 is the new 50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 80 is the new 50. They must have swapped out then, because I'm 53 and lately I feel like I'm 80. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasstrack Posted April 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 (edited) 80 is the new 50. Yeah? My dad can beat up your dad........... I'm 54, biting hard on 55 and feel 84. (sigh and/or kvell) Edited April 3, 2009 by fasstrack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bill Barton Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 ...and Cecil Taylor!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papsrus Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 80 is the new 50. They must have swapped out then, because I'm 53 and lately I feel like I'm 80. Well, I do have the memory of a 51-year-old, so maybe I had that backwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trane_fanatic Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 And Roy Haynes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Lightning Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Vonski!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Martial Solal playing better than ever at 80... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 I think Barry Harris was born in 1929 - (I could be wrong) and Dick Katz is 85 - and I'm 104 - (or maybe I just FEEL 104) - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 and Buddy Bolden will turn 132 - I hope Wynton goes to visit him in the nursing home; it never fails to lift Buddy's spirits - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Dan Morgenstern and Toshiko will turn 80 this year and neither of them is ready for the dust bin. I certainly agree about Dan, but about Toshiko, I agree with this recent remark (from Doug Ramsey's blog Rifftides) by Bill Kirchner (and the Rayburn Wright remark inside it), which Bill made while responding to comments about a post he'd made there about the best big-band writing since (I think) 1960: "I wish I could be more enthusiastic about Toshiko Akiyoshi's writing, but with occasional exceptions (I included 'Sumie' in the now-out-of-print Smithsonian Big Band Renaissance boxed set), I cannot. The late Rayburn Wright, one of the greatest composing-arranging teachers, once described her writing to me as follows: 'It makes sense horizontally but not vertically.' Her bands were consistently excellent, though." I had the same feeling when I heard the band live in the mid-1980s and they played a Frank Wess chart between two of Toshiko's; the contrast couldn't have been greater along just the lines Wright described (though I arrived at that conclusion on my own). I wrote about that rather grating and to my mind revealing contrast in a review that appeared the next day; a few days later I got a postcard from Bill Russo, whom I'd never met, that read something like "God bless you for saying that." Take any of all of this for what you think it's worth, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randyhersom Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 I'll be 78 this year, I wish I could write my ass off (literally, as it were)! Check with a Certified Public Accountant! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7/4 Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 Chuck Berry, Queen Elizabeth... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papsrus Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 I'll be 78 this year, I wish I could write my ass off (literally, as it were)! Check with a Certified Public Accountant! Am I missing something? as in, tax writeoff ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aparxa Posted April 3, 2009 Report Share Posted April 3, 2009 randy weston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.