"If That Arm Heals, It Ought To Be Broken Again" 2008 Jazz D Minor Bags Thread

'A Beginner's Guide to Coltrane on Impulse'

yeah I've been into Bernstein's Diaspora too. Saw this great footage from early '60s this week of Anita O'Day live in Japan, swinging--whatever that means--hard and looking cooler than anyone in history. Also found the Free Form Funky Freqs' Urban Mythology really far better than I would've guessed.

Have you guys heard about Andrew D'Angelo? He has brain cancer, no insurance...there's been a bunch of benefits, I was going to go to one in Chicago yesterday but didn't make it. He's blogging about it pretty extensively, which is kind of fascinating.

Peter Margasak was blogging enthusiastically about D'Angelo on his Chicago Reader Post No Bills blog and conveying the health news-- blurring the lines between edgy postbop and noise rock--

Jazz and more critic Howard Mandel in a comment to Christgau's posting re the demise of No Depression magazine on the NAJP website

Essentially the same circumstances resulted in the demise in print form of Mississippi Rag, the long-running mag covering traditional jazz, and with increases in US postage probably threatens publications I've worked for such as Rhythm (formerly RhythmMusic) and SignalToNoise (though that one's currently in expansionist mode -- how does publisher/editor Pete Gershon do it?). Other periodicals covering "marginal music" (American roots, world music, jazz and classical are marginal, not fundimental?) must be at risk, too. Will readers migrate to the websites or issues put out in pdf form? And most important to writers and photographers: Will online-only publications pay contributors as the print versions did? Robert Christgau is right that grants and funders are not known in this realm. Does the NAJP have ideas about addressing the problem, or are arts journalists just going to watch this happen, helplessly? If we're to go with the flow, at least let's build platforms that allow professionalism on the web to assert itself as worthy of and able to attract financial support.

http://www.najp.org/articles/2008/02/no-depression-lets-hope-so.html

Mandel blogs about 2008 releases - http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2008/02/best_records_of_2008.html#more

Holy Smokes. I just found this bunch of videos at the library called Jazz Casual, hosted by Ralph J. Gleason, with all kinds of great players on them. I took home two, the first being Jimmy Witherspoon with Ben Webster and the Vince Guaraldi Trio, the second Count Basie leading a quartet with Sonny Payne and Freddie Green, but it seems like they are all worth watching.

I just wish there was a better view of the front of Freddie's guitar so I could see him make those famous three note "Freddie Green chords."

hey does anyone on here groove on arthur blythe? i've gotten three of his albums - illusions, blythe spirit, and basic blythe -- and i think he's becoming one of my fav jazz dudes ever...perfect for me, a great mix of free jazz "out there" stuff with really curious and idiosyncratic "in there" trad moves...like maybe if you made a comparison to rock guitarist he would be robert quine, sort of bridging the classic/modern gap really nicely...plus he's not like super revered by collectors so you can pick up the vinyl for under $5!

Blythe is a knockout on the early Horace Tapscott LPs-- seek "The Giant is Awakened"... It's one of the first (if not the very first) sessions featuring "Black Arthur"

This music is not my cup of tea (but it might be yours), but I still find Villafranca an amazing pianist to see live.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/eliovillafranca

He was more-or-less based in Philadelphia for a while, but Philadelphia couldn't keep him any more than Cuba could.

My favorite Blythe, for decades now, has always been Lenox Aveneue Breakdown from 1979, which has a very cool Latin bulgalu feel at its root, somoehow.

(Wow, this Elio Villafranca stuff is really boring. All that skill and this is what he does. I don't understand musicians.)

xp Or at least that's how it's always felt to me.

Here's Christgau's take on it:

Lenox Avenue Breakdown [Columbia, 1979]
I prefer this to, say, Blythe's more conventionally "free" Bush Baby (on Adelphi) because--thanks to Jack DeJohnette, Guillermo Franco, and the lilt of Blythe's theme vamps--its passion for popular rhythms enables it to say something about them. The sinuous Latin groove of "Down San Diego Way" wends through three of the four tracks. But while the California opener is unfailingly sunny, the groove runs into two-way traffic on the title tune and suffers further cross-comment on the bluesy "Slidin' Through" before disappearing into "Odessa." Just as Steely Dan's lyrics (and chord changes, I suppose) work against the surface mellowness of the music, so the strength of the groove here is challenged and transformed by solo voices and alien rhythms without ever being defeated, much less exploited for its "accessibility." And if we're interested, all this conflict helps us understand why music like Bush Baby exists. A

thx chuck yeah my friend said real good things about lenox ave and bush baby i'll have to track them down...is blood ulmer on those? he's on illusions and i kinda like the choppy hard r&b feel he brings to it

i like some of the blythe stuff with bob stewart on tuba + joey baron, but haven't spent a ton of time with it.

Michael Bourne on WBGO talking to this cool-singing Abbey Lincoln-protegee named Libby York.

I have no idea what made me click this thread, but I just recently happened to find this record: Lenox Avenue Breakdown [Columbia, 1979] in a cutout bin for a dollar. I am glad to hear it is good.

Maybe you clicked because you wanted to learn the voicing of the elusive Jazz D Minor Bag Chord?

A couple of notable 2007 releases that I'm just now coming around to:

Joan Stiles - Hurly-Burly
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0nfixzu5ldhe

Great piano-led sextet in a Monkish mood.

The Blueprint Project with Han Bennink - People I Like
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:k9foxzlgld6e

A bit more abstract, Dutch-influenced trio with Han Bennink on drums.

I have no idea what made me click this thread, but I just recently happened to find this record: Lenox Avenue Breakdown [Columbia, 1979] in a cutout bin for a dollar. I am glad to hear it is good.

-- roxymuzak, Sunday, March 30, 2008 5:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

i'm sooo jealous that's supposed to be the best one!!!!!

Bennink is duetting with Brotzmann here later this month. I already have a stiffie.

Spring Jazz film series at the Library of Congress in DC on the next 4 Wednesdays for free. This Wednesday April 2 at 7 p.m.:

Imagine the Sound (Sphinx Productions, 1981). Dir Ron Mann. (90 min, color, DVD)

preceded by:

Jazz--Rhythms of Freedom (JAK Films, 2007). Dir Mike Welt. (32 min, color, DigiBeta video)

Ron Mann's recently restored version of his now classic 1981 documentary features interviews and beautifully shot studio performances by four free-jazz firebrands: pianist Paul Bley, trumpeter Bill Dixon, saxophonist Archie Shepp and pianist Cecil Taylor.

Preceded by the short film Jazz--Rhythms of Freedom , one of 94 historical documentaries recently produced by Lucasfilm, which explores the use of jazz as a tool for liberation with profiles of contemporary musicians Billy Taylor, Kahil El'Zabar and Joe McPhee.

Bennink is duetting with Brotzmann here later this month. I already have a stiffie.

-- Oilyrags, Monday, March 31, 2008 4:15 PM

dude i have never heard either one of these dudes in life but i am amped

Yeah, hard to go wrong with that line-up. I like the CD that Brotzmann did with Hamid Drake, The Dried Rat-Dog

I went to see Han Bennink at Tonic last year on Hurting's recommendation. Hurting ended up not going, but my friend and I really enjoyed the show, especially the duets with Anthony Coleman.

I'll hook a HOOS up, man, don't worry.

Anybody seen this doc (not that I can make it tonight to the free showing at the Library of Congress, as I have my son's baseball practice)

Anita O'Day--The Life of a Jazz Singer (Elan Entertainment/UGO Productions, 2007). Dir Robbie Cavolina & Ian McCrudden. Producers Robbie Cavolina, Ian McCrudden, Melissa Davis. (90 min, color, DVD)

I guess not

No, but I'd like to see it.

She had a crazy life

Frank Lowe's Black Beings is being reissued by ESP-Disk this week, with an additional 15 minutes of music. This was William Parker's first session, and it's a killer.

So, what's with Charlie Parker showing up in a Grand Theft Auto ad?

i posted this unnecessary shit on IMM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeJt1cB7AA0

(dude playing along to the Giant Steps sax solo on keys while accompanying himself on electric bass)

picked this up this weekend, $8 on nice shape vinyl:

http://img11.nnm.ru/imagez/gallery/4/c/1/8/6/4c1863edbde0c5d2fe67754c4d28c0b0_full.jpg

early coltrane stuff...looks like the bandleader is wilbur harden.

it's a nice little record...breezy bop for the most part, but it's cool when coltrane takes a solo as it's clear he's already starting to strain against the conventions, clearly on another level than the others (who are great players, don't get me wrong)....but yeah def. worth checking out...

Harden did a pair of albums with Coltrane in the band. A few years ago Savoy put 'em together on a 2CD set.

This Mary Lou Williams record with Ronnie Boykins and Roy Haynes is awesome.

it sounds like it

oh shit, there's finally a new Brian Blade fellowship album, must get immediately.

the clips alone sound incredible.

Interesting article about jazz obsessive: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/19/080519fa_fact_remnick
I'm listening to the radio show embedded on the bottom of that page. Dude is giving an hour-long monologue on what date Charlie Parker was recorded making a primitive overdub on a Benny Goodman 78 disc. WAS IT 1944 or 1941?!!! I think this guy might be king of the jazz d-bags. Fun stuff.

i'm reading this ethan iverson article on lennie tristano, race, etc.. i've never listened to tristano but it's pretty fascinating: http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2008/05/lennie-tristano.html

yeah, that does look good! thanks for the link. have only heard a little Tristano.

Was that Phil Schaap you were listening to tylerw? Every time I tune into his show I never hear any actual music, only him going on for an hour about what he played in the previous half hour.

Ah yes, I see it was. Mary Lou Williams disk is still great a week later.

Over a decade later he is still complaining about the drums in this 1958 interview for Down Beat. He does have one accurate and nice thing to say (“The cymbal beat is an intrinsic part of jazz. You just cannot do without it”)
Haha, that reminds me of a certain famous thread around here.

Tristano’s comment that “I never heard anyone’s foot keep steady time” is ludicrous. Tristano himself played with Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, Roy Haynes, Shelly Manne, Buddy Rich, Art Taylor, and Paul Motian. Granted, that’s a collection of humans, not metronomes,
One time I talked to Lee Konitz a little bit and he told me a story about once when he was playing with Lenny T and Jimmy Garrison and Lenny wanted to use a metronome! "What do you think of THAT?" said Lee. "Um, Um..." (I'm thinking that's insulting to Jimmy, isn't it). "I think it's a little corny, don't you?" said Lee.

ha, further down in that article:

One of the most amusing stories in Shim’s book is told by Konitz about the time Jimmy Garrison showed up at Tristano’s studio to play a session:

The first thing Lennie did was place the metronome on the piano, and Jimmy said, “Oh, no.” He refused to do it. I thought that was kind of an insult to do that to Jimmy Garrison, who had great time.

I’m sure Tristano didn’t mean to be insulting; he was just caught up in his own systems and not realizing just what kind of young musician he was dealing with. But this story is good example of the divide between Tristano’s scientific approach versus musicians who consider jazz folklore to be of the highest importance.

I've been reading that article and it's various links for half an hour and still haven't gotten to the bottom of it.

I didn't like The Bad Plus too much when I saw them performing outside City Hall across the street from J&R once but everything you've ever linked to in the blog is amazing. I guess I've gotta give them another chance.

I can listen to Phil Schaap for about 90 seconds before I want to reach through the speaker and throttle him. He is the absolute world-beating king of the jazz d-bags. That being said, he comes across in that article as slightly less pathetic than Rodney Bingenheimer, and very nice to lonely old jazz players the rest of the world has forgotten.