Wallace Roney R.I.P (COVID-19 victim)

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

RIP WALLACE RONEY

[Al in NYC]

This is brutal.  I was just told of Wallace's death this afternoon by a friend from one of the old jazz boards.  And I started to reminisce about the several times I saw him and the few times I personally interacted with him.  The most memorable were seeing him twice in a couple of weeks leading an orchestra and playing beautifully doing Wayne Shorter's previously unrecorded Universe suite at the Charlie Parker Festival in NYC and the Detroit Jazz Festival, seeing him with his wife Geri Allen at the Brooklyn Museum (heartbreaking now), and seeing him in an impromptu late night set here in NYC with Russell Malone on my 50th birthday weekend, when he came down and sat in the audience next to us playing some beautiful ballad comping while Russell soloed.  But the most beautiful show was almost 20 years ago now on a hot night in Detroit, where he simultaneously improvised with Bennie Maupin over a few Miles tunes in a surpassingly beautiful moment I still treasure among my very best jazz memories.

On a more sobering front, I believe Wallace was playing shows into March.  I wonder if he was exposed then?  I know most NYC clubs were open to mid-March  I'm hoping against hope that not too many of our great musicians (and their audiences) were exposed and potentially infected during those weeks when we should have been so much better about seeing what was coming.

Wallace Roney is a big loss, gone way too soon, and he will definitely be missed. 

Bye...

[kh1958]

I recollect seeing him with Tony Williams, and as a leader with Geri Allen, Lenny White and James Spaulding in the group.

[Joe]

This is just terrible.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

 

people are saying he was mentored by Miles Davis- can anyone elaborate on this- 

[Dmitry]

NPR has done a good job on the  obituary.

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/824801424/wallace-roney-intrepid-jazz-trumpeter-dies-from-covid-19-complications-at-59

 

[Pim]

Awful, just awful  great trumpeter!

[Guy Berger]

Breaks my heart

[Gheorghe]

Very sad. He was my favourite trumpeter from the Generation of musicians from the (for me) "younger generation" (1960 Born). 

[aparxa]

I had the pleasure to listen to his group in 2011 at the New Morning in Paris for a tribute to Miles. Thanks for the music!

 

[Joe]

Not a silver lining, but at least there's this to look forward to. https://www.universedoc.com/#overview

[JSngry]

3 minutes ago, Joe said:

Not a silver lining, but at least there's this to look forward to. https://www.universedoc.com/#overview

Is there a possible connection to this music and the music on Wayne's "rejected" Blue Note session?

[Balladeer]

Damn virus!

[bertrand]

10 hours ago, JSngry said:

Is there a possible connection to this music and the music on Wayne's "rejected" Blue Note session?

You mean because the opening track of the rejected session is called 'Creation?

I have been wondering that for years. Here is what I know:

1. When I helped put together the appendix of Wayne compositions for the paperback edition of his bio in 2006, I tried to find out what exactly were the compositions on the rejected session. Wayne's answer was that he did not remember the session at all. I don't think he was asked if there was a connection to Universe, but I did not ask him directly so was not in a position to prod more deeply.

I listed them as group improvs in the appendix but I know that was not accurate.

2. Neither McCoy nor Mouzon remembered the date, but Mouzon did tell me that he never did a session with Wayne where he did not bring some music. It would be nice to ask Vitous, but the person who may know more is Barbara Burton if she can be found.

3. A musician who is in a position to have heard both Universe and the rejected session did not hear an obvious connection.

4. If the session ever does come out, then scholars can have a field day debating the question.

Regardless of how good the session is, there are five Shorter compositions that are currently AWOL. That makes it of some musicological interest, I would think.

As I posted before, the rejected Duke Pearson tune from Solid popped up on YouTube. Someone grabbed it for me and I paid someone to make a lead sheet. Now a lost Pearson tune is lost no more. It's not a classic, but that is besides the point.

One question that can be debated right now is the connection between Twin Dragon and the Atlantis album. Wayne himself told me he borrowed from it, he seemed to imply it was quite overt. I don't hear anything blatant, but I hear a little something. You can listen to Twin Dragon on the NPR site.

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by bertrand

[bertrand]

2 hours ago, Joe said:

Not a silver lining, but at least there's this to look forward to. https://www.universedoc.com/#overview

I emailed the film-maker last year and he told me he was hoping it would come out this year. However, a month ago at a Tolliver gig, Lenny White told me it would be up to him when he comes out since he produced it. He was going to talk to Wallace, I don't know if he did or not. Lenny may have been talking about the recording, not the film. The plan I think was for both to come out at the same time.

I am sure there will be discussions now about releasing it. It really should have come out while Wallace was alive. It would belong on Blue Note, especially as Wayne is under contract with them.

All the obits will perpetuate the same error: the first performance was not at Winter Jazz Fest in 2014. It was first performed at Drome in January 2013, then four nights at the Jazz Standard in July 2013. A performance in August 2013 at Strathmore near my house was cancelled, no comment.

There was a 10-minute segment on the Jazz Standard residency on the Brian Pace report and an article in JazzTimes. Claiming it was January 2014 is sloppy journalism.

Legend was performed at UCLA in May 1967. It is not clear from the downbeat review if Miles and Wayne played on the piece. Ray Brown and Grady Tate were on it.

Edited April 1, 2020 by bertrand

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

STATEMENT FROM JOHN MAYER
 

I had the honor of playing with Wallace Roney in the winter of 2014, during a week-long recording session of improvised music. Wallace was a beautiful soul and a divine musician. He was Miles Davis’ only true protégé, and though he could channel (brilliantly) the spirit of his mentor, he played from his own heart, always breaking quickly through the cloud of the unknown and into deeply inspired territory. Wallace passed away due to complications from COVID-19. My wish is that every soul lost to this disease be remembered as individually as the lives they lived. I’m so lucky to have had the opportunity to make music with him. Rest in eternal peace, Wallace Roney.

Edited April 2, 2020 by chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez

[Dave Garrett]

https://twitter.com/Wayne_Shorter/status/1245500483978047489

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

saw him one time- herbie hancock's 2003 fusion project

[david weiss]

On 4/1/2020 at 8:04 AM, JSngry said:

Is there a possible connection to this music and the music on Wayne's "rejected" Blue Note session?

Not really, actually hardly at all. He uses the same 3 note melody fragment that is in Universe and Sanctuary on one of the tunes here and on another tune, there is another melody fragment that has something in common with a few notes from Universe and Sanctuary. Other then that, there is nothing in common. I believe the tunes on the unreleased session are probably sketches at best and perhaps a few chord changes written out while Universe is essentially through composed. 

[mikeweil]

On 4.4.2020 at 5:10 AM, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

saw him one time- herbie hancock's 2003 fusion project

Same here, but also his own band in a local venue.

[bertrand]

10 hours ago, david weiss said:

Not really, actually hardly at all. He uses the same 3 note melody fragment that is in Universe and Sanctuary on one of the tunes here and on another tune, there is another melody fragment that has something in common with a few notes from Universe and Sanctuary. Other then that, there is nothing in common. I believe the tunes on the unreleased session are probably sketches at best and perhaps a few chord changes written out while Universe is essentially through composed. 

How about the connection between Twin Dragon and the Atlantis album. Wayne himself told me about it so there must be something there.

[david weiss]

13 hours ago, bertrand said:

How about the connection between Twin Dragon and the Atlantis album. Wayne himself told me about it so there must be something there.

To me, it just sounds like another tune written during the same period that just didn't make it onto the album. Nice tune, totally in the style of the other tunes on the album. 

I don't recall any parts of the tune being used elsewhere later on....

[bertrand]

I don't hear much either, but Wayne specifically wanted to make a point to me that he reused elements of Twin Dragon in Atlantis. The way he said it, it was almost like he was saying Twin Dragon was a rough draft.

It definitely fits in with Atlantis although it was four years earlier. Of course, who knows how long he had actually been working on Atlantis. He may have been saving it for a non-Weather Report solo opportunity, which he did get of course.

Do you see a stylistic difference between Twin Dragon/Atlantis and Wayne's Weather Report pieces from that era? That would be Plaza Real, Predator, Swamp Cabbage, Pearl On The Half Shell and Face On The Barroom Floor. Would those have fit on Atlantis or would they have clashed?

[david weiss]

5 hours ago, bertrand said:

I don't hear much either, but Wayne specifically wanted to make a point to me that he reused elements of Twin Dragon in Atlantis. The way he said it, it was almost like he was saying Twin Dragon was a rough draft.

It definitely fits in with Atlantis although it was four years earlier. Of course, who knows how long he had actually been working on Atlantis. He may have been saving it for a non-Weather Report solo opportunity, which he did get of course.

Do you see a stylistic difference between Twin Dragon/Atlantis and Wayne's Weather Report pieces from that era? That would be Plaza Real, Predator, Swamp Cabbage, Pearl On The Half Shell and Face On The Barroom Floor. Would those have fit on Atlantis or would they have clashed?

To be clear, I was talking about Atlantis the album, not the specific tune and again, while Twin Dragon stylistically fits right in with every other tune on the album, I hear no part of the melody showing up on any of the tunes on Atlantis. At least I don't recall this to be true, it's been a while since I worked on this music but just singing Twin Dragon in my head now tells me there is nothing there I have heard elsewhere in any of the other tunes on Atlantis. I would need to take a deeper dive into the tunes he wrote for Weather Report to really give you a complete answer there but a lot of this has more to do with the band performing the music then what was written. 

[Rooster_Ties]

Just stumbled on this mini-doc about Wallace...