Archives for 2014

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Lennie Tristano was born in Chicago on this day in 1919. At birth, influenza ruined his vision. By his 10th birthday he was blind. Formally trained at a music conservatory, he played piano and, as a 12-year-old clarinetist, led a traditional band. When he moved to New York in1946, Tristano had begun deepening the harmonic possibilities in modern jazz and by the end of the decade was a guru to forward looking musicians including saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh guitarist Billy Bauer, and a few adventurous veterans like tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman. His piano playing and harmonic innovations were examples to Bill Evans, Clare Fischer and many other pianists, composers and arrangers of the post-bebop generation.

Tristano’s teaching had a significant impact on jazz but, despite his influence, his public performances were few. That helps account for the importance of his June, 1964, engagement at the Half Note in New York and for the importance of showing you film made during his quintet’s run there that summer. The CBS television program Look Up And Live sent the theologian William Hamilton and a crew to the Half Note to make a segment of the program; more about Hamilton after we see the video.

The picture quality may have been fine originally, but it appears to have been through several generations of dubs. No matter; the sound is reasonably good. Through the murk you get a tour of the beloved Half Note in the days when folks dressed to go out in the evening. Those strips of cloth you will see on the mens’ shirtfronts were called neckties.

The bartender we glimpse now and then is Mike Canterino. He and his brother Sonny manned the bar. Their father may have had a formal name but his family and the customers called him Pop. You will get a glimpse of Pop and Sonny greeting Hamilton as he comes in. Pop and Mamma took care of the kitchen. The word pasta never crossed Pop’s lips; it was spaghetti. The uncomplicated menu gave jazz club food a good name, a major accomplishment. Mike’s wife Judi and Sonny’s wife Tita helped out. Judi became a singer after James Moody recruited her one night to sing the Blossom Dearie bridge on “Moody’s Mood For Love.” Al the waiter completed the staff.

In its original incarnation, the Half Note was among the warehouses and garages of lower Manhattan. In the seventies, the club moved uptown, lost its soul and died. Years ago on Rifftides, we embedded a 10-minute segment from the Look Up And Live show. Now, we can bring you the entire half hour, thanks to YouTube. The band is Tristano, Konitz, Marsh, Sonny Dallas on bass and Nick Stabulas on drums. They play Konitz’s “Subconscious Lee,” Tristano’s “317 East 32nd Street” and Marsh’s “Background Music.” As “Background Music” begins, Dr. Hamilton speaks his essay, or sermon, but be sure to stay around for the strength and intensity of Tristano’s solo on that final piece.

Those Tristano performances are included in this CD. William Hamilton, the host of the Half Note Tristano film, was a doctor of theology who in the 1960s became a leader in the radical Christian faction questioning the existence of God. He appeared in several Look Up And Live segments. For more about Hamilton and the Death Of God movement, go here.

For a lovely remembrance of the Half Note by Dave Frishberg, who often played there, go here. Dave paints splendid pictures of Al the waiter and of Mr. George, a dedicated customer for whom Al Cohn named a tune.

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“How Are Things In Gloca Morra,” featuring Sonny O’Rollins, tenor saxophone; Donald McByrd, trumpet; Wynton Kelly, piano; Gene MacRamey, bass; and Max O’Roach, drums.

On St. Patrick’s day, the whole world is Irish.

The recording is from Sonny Rollins, Volume One, Blue Note, 1956.

May the road rise up to meet you this fine day.

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Thanks to Lester Perkins of Jazz On The Tube for reminding us that today Tommy Flanagan would have celebrated his 84th birthday. The great pianist died in 2001. From the time he made his debut as a teenager in his native Detroit, Flanagan was one of the busiest sidemen in music. These are just a few of the musicians with whom he toured and recorded: Milt Jackson, Miles Davis, Lucky Thompson, J.J. Johnson, Ella Fitzgerald, Jim Hall, Thad and Elvin Jones, Tony Bennett. From the late 1970s, Flanagan functioned almost exclusively at the head of a trio that employed superb bassists and drummers. In this video made in Cologne, Germany, in 1991, Flanagan had George Mraz, who played with him for many years, and Bobby Durham. Flanagan was a knowing and subtle interpreter of Billy Strayhorn’s compositions, in this case, “Raincheck.”

To find out about Jazz On The Tube, go here

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In his Jazz Profiles blog, Steve Cerra posts a piece about Bud Shank (1926-2009) that is packed with remembrances of the saxophonist and flutist, interviews, photographs and music clips that recall the career of an amazingly productive, versatile and expressive musician. Steve’s introduction summons his own youthful impression of Shank:

To the older guys that I hung out with, Bud Shank was the epitome of West Coast “Cool.” He was a tall, broad shouldered, good looking guy with a brush cut, who drove a sport car and who always seemed to have a good-looking babe on his arm. And, he also played the heck out of the alto saxophone.

Bud, however, was not just another pretty-face or wastrel artist-type. Rather, he was the living embodiment of the motto of my tax and financial advisor: “Work hard, put some of your earnings away and remember that it’s not all yours.”

In addition to his recollections of Shank, Steve includes a substantial portion of the notes I wrote for Mosaic’s 1998 Bud Shank box set, now long out of print. He reprints the Shank chapter of Gordon Jack’s book of interviews with jazz musicians and closes with three tracks by the superb Shank quintet that had Carmel Jones, Gary Peacock, Mel Lewis and Dennis Budimir. For a welcome Bud Shank refresher course, visit Professor Cerra’s seminar. Click here and scroll up.

It has been Rifftides practice to make Doug’s Picks recommendations in batches, with long periods between. Beginning with the recommendation below, the picks are going to come singly and more often. As always, clicking on the title of the CD, DVD or book will take you to where it can be found. The current recommendations are in the right column under Doug’s Picks. If you click on “More Doug’s Picks” at the end of that section, you can read them clear back to 2006. That covers a lot of listening, viewing and reading.

I am deciding which day of the week would be best for posting new recommendations. If you have an opinion about that, please send a reply in the comment box at the end of this item.

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Speaking of Poodie James (see the previous post), if you have read the novel you might like to see a bit of the town and valley that bear a not entirely coincidental resemblance to the book’s locale. I just watched a short promotional video made by Charley Voorhis and his colleagues at an outfit called Voortex Productions. I had never heard of Voortex until a friend sent me a link to this little film. I am impressed with the shooting, editing, post-production and story-telling skill that went into it. I plan to see more of their work. The fact that the film made me nostalgic for the town where I grew up has nothing to do with my assessment of the video. See what you think. If you can, watch it full screen, then press esc and see the special Poodie offer at the end of the post.

If you have not read Poodie James, we can arrange that. For Rifftides readers, we have a special price and free shipping. For details, go here. Hey, if a guy can’t use his blog for shameless self-promotion, what’s it good for?

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The Bill Holman documentary that I helped with late last year is moving closer to reality. Its producer, Kathryn King, has launched a fund-raising drive to help her and her crew complete the film on schedule. That is how many projects are accomplished these days when they don’t have the backing of big Hollywood investors. Few of them have that kind of support, especially when the ventures have to do with the arts. In November, I spent a few days in Los Angeles interviewing Mr. Holman for the film, observing him rehearse his band and attending a remarkable performance of his arrangements of Thelonious Monk compositions.

As one who in his television days wrote and produced a number of documentaries, I was impressed with the skill and savvy of Ms. King, her director Gil Gilbert and their helpers. She has put herself on a tight schedule to complete the funding. I wish her well. It should be self-evident that Bill Holman’s accomplishments and his enrichment of America’s—and the world’s—culture need documentation.

For Rifftides posts about the week of filming in L.A., enter “Bill Holman” in the search box at the top right of the page.

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Jan Allan with the Visby Big Band, Berwaldhallen Stockholm, Sweden, 1985. Arranged, conducted and introduced by Rob McConnell.

Later this month, Allan, now 79, will join pianist Jan Lundgren, bassist Georg Riedel, saxophonist-composer Erik Norström and the Bohuslän Big Band for an eight-city tour of Sweden in honor of the late pianist Bengt Hallberg.

For a previous Rifftides post about Jan Allan, go here.

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Rifftides reader Ted O’Reilly writes from Toronto:

I wasn’t much inclined to shop much at Crocojazz personally – I’m not into vinyl as some are – but it was not as inviting as I’d hoped. Unorganized, dusty, boxes and crates on the floor…a treasure hunt, perhaps, but as I was without my spade, not much more than ‘a cultural’ experience.

Here’s the late John Norris in a picture I took (it sez here) on May 28/08. Note that it was taken before we went in. He might not have been as excited on the way out…

Later that night, we went to hear a good-fun-revivalist gang (with a great bilingual pun-name) the Hot Antic Jazz Band. (authentique = hot antic of course…)

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Rifftides reader Greg Curtis is on a study sabbatical in Paris. Wishing to stimulate envy—and succeeding—he sent an illustrated message about two used record stores in the 5th arrondissement, near his apartment. One, La Dame Blanche, specializes in classical recordings. The name of the other, Crocojazz, is self-explanatory. They are across from one another on the rue de la Montagne-Ste-Geneviève.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Curtis writes about Crocojazz:

This store featured a complete run of 33 1/3 anthologies of rare blues and jazz tunes from 78s, with R. Crumb art on the cover. VERY tempting but I didn’t buy. Maybe I’ll go back and see if the owner can ship to the states and what that would cost.

All dedicated collectors agonize over such decisions, as did Harvey Pekar. The drawing taped on Crocojazz’s window is a panel from American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar by the late jazz critic, philosopher and ironic humorist. Pekar was portrayed by Paul Giamatti in an award-winning film, also titled American Splendor. See this series of Rifftides posts about Pekar at the time of his death in 2010.

Greg Curtis’s most recent book, worth collecting, is The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World’s First Artists. His previous one, Disarmed, was about the Venus de Milo.

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From her opening blues, “Filosophical Flying Fish,” to the concluding “Summertime” done as a sort of neo-boogaloo, Grace Kelly’s Thursday concert at The Seasons in Yakima, Washington, left no doubt that she is in the top flight of today’s alto saxophonists. She has been there for some time. Here is what I wrote after I first heard her at a festival jam session in 2007 (pictured then, above).

I know of no explanation other than genius for this slender fourteen-year-old girl’s attainment of maturity in her art. She has mastery of the instrument, passion, profound swing, and judgment that one would expect in a player with twenty years of professional experience.

Now that Ms. Kelly is 21, I’ll revise that to the equivalent of forty years of experience and musical wisdom, with her teen enthusiasm intact.

Fresh from the Portland Jazz Festival with a rhythm section of Los Angeles pros, she played a program of nine original compositions and a sprinkling of standards. Introducing “Don’t Box Me In,” she explained that the title refers to her insistence on exploring many genres of music, but her solo had the bebop purity and passion that characterize her playing. The motion in her improvised lines on “Autumn Song” paralleled her physical movement, which might have been choreographed by Twyla Tharp at her most uninhibited. In Billy Strayhorn’s “Isfahan,” Ms. Kelly met the challenge of not sounding like Johnny Hodges, who all but owned the piece, or anyone else, except for one little trill suggesting Phil Woods.

A new Kelly song, “Touched By an Angel,” with a riff-like section and lyrics delivered in her high, clear voice, has pop potential. Electric bassist Jerry Watts and drummer Steve Hass added to the contemporary feel as Ms. Kelly played boppish lines that no one would mistake for Kenny G. For the extended coda, she recruited the audience as the band’s backup choir. She did McCoy Tyner’s “Blues on the Corner” in the spirit of Tyner’s 1967 original recording. Full of originality, Quinn Johnson played a solo that avoided the universal temptation of jazz pianists to approximate Tyner’s style.

Johnson was also impressive in “Amazing Grace,” a piece from Mr. Kelly’s 2011 album of gospel music. She played an extended ending that suggested she is as familiar with Hank Crawford as with Phil Woods, Lee Konitz and Charlie Parker. Hass, a veteran of associations as varied as Nicholas Payton, Tierney Sutton and Art Garfunkel, was a source of rhythmic power and good cheer throughout the concert.

From Yakima, Ms. Kelly was headed to a couple of one-nighters in California, then a European tour that will include Germany, Sweden, Austria, Turkey and Switzerland. She will be back to play at the March 22 Marian McPartland memorial service in Port Washington, New York.

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Listen to Kurt Vonnegut.