Posts
woke up around 1:30 PM, started with the computer, talked to my dogg about JAMO and his blind date through Match.com, did my duty, got in the shower (with my glasses on), glasses fell off while shampooing, didn't worry about it, finished shower refreshed ready for a new day, crouched down to pick up glasses, found one lens and frames, other lens must've gone down the drain, SOL, looking at screen with left eye shut, guess I have to hobble to the closest pharmacy....(thanks google maps)
As Mindy of Animaniacs might have said, "Lens go down the hohhhl."
now listening to: Tim Hagans - "Are You Threatening Me (Kingsize Remix) off of Phonography (on newly updated Last.fm "recommendations radio" player).
Saturday, July 15, 2006
fragments of a day
did the jazz clinic, trained to NYC, had meeting at blue note, shopped for expensive menswear, realized I left my MacBook at Blue Note, met agata, bought a TimeOutNY, chatted on a park bench, checked email on a park bench, agata left me, went to catch pianist michael weiss at the kitano hotel, a japanese destination in midtown, came to to the conclusion that steve wilson, the saxophonist, is an insane man. the guy is incredible, talked to kendrick scott of terence blanchard's band who was reading for michael's drummer chair and was masterfully sublime, chatted for a while about the biz, headed downtown to see if I could catch some of monder w/ rebecca martin at FatCat (who I keep wanting to call Kate McGarry because in my mind they sound similar, but in reality don't at all). what a bizarre place. pool tables, checkers, Mac minis, ping-pong courts, and live jazz behind mystery door #1? ok..... lost my wallet, found it, checked email, charged my MacBook, cabbed across to East Village, waited for Siffert to call me back, drank framboise in a bar called Burp Castle (which by the way had a stellar selection of imported bottles) with WRCT friends Anthony, Matt, and Matt's girlfriend Jen, took a cab to the Bronx for $35, found nothing to eat in Anthony's fridge, dranks some OJ, plugged in the laptop, entered the WEP key, tried to send email, failed, fell asleep writing this post....
now listening to: John Fahey's "The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death" as inspired by the feature appreciation in the June issue of The Wire
now listening to: John Fahey's "The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death" as inspired by the feature appreciation in the June issue of The Wire
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Do You Feel Alive?
View from the Third TierLast night, the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center was transformed into an international dance fest as the king and queen of world music, Amadou & Mariam (a blind married couple from Bamako - the capital of Mali) energized a mixed-age audience into a really energetic set of fun.
The band definitely started out slow. But song-by-song for the roughly 75 minute set, the band built up the energy to a fever pitch by the end. Amadou was definitely the leader, as his wife and partner Mariam only came on-stage to join him for about 3 or 4 songs. Her visage was totally blank though except for a couple smiles when she rubbed Amadou's head while saying in English, "I love you, baby."
The other really funny part and the reason for this post's title is Amadou kept repeating the phrase, "Dohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif you feel alive?" in his strong Malian accent. Obviously, he doesn't know much English and this was a genuine phrase that both fueled and captured the energy the band was generating for the enthusiastic crowd.
Highlights for me were from their latest album, Dimanche A Bamako. Some of the songs played included the title track, M'Bife (which I think has something to do with love), Liberte, and an engaging audience participation piece where the audience would repeat these words after Amadou uttered them in succession in the song's verse: "fatigué," "malheureux," and "misérable," which in French mean tired, unhappy, and miserable respectively (go 8 years of French!).
View from Stage RightAnyways it was hot. This was all part of World Music Wednesdays that the Kimmel Center is hosting throughout July. Next week is a group called Daara J from Senegal, the week after a group from India called Musafir, and they are ending the miniseries with Tiempo Libre from Havana via Miami.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show: Podcast 48 : Andrew Hill
Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show: Podcast 48 : Andrew Hill
This is a great podcast on Andrew Hill. Check it out!!!
This is a great podcast on Andrew Hill. Check it out!!!
Friday, July 07, 2006
no Jazz Clinic today
I woke up at 10:15 today and called a friend to sub for me since I had to work anyways this afternoon. Rushing up there with 40 minutes to get there and prepare and then drive right back did not seem like a worthy prospect.
So please await the return of the Jazz Clinic to WPRB airwaves next Friday promptly at 11 AM.
Now listening to Grachan Moncur - Evolution (Blue Note)
So please await the return of the Jazz Clinic to WPRB airwaves next Friday promptly at 11 AM.
Now listening to Grachan Moncur - Evolution (Blue Note)
Saturday, July 01, 2006
prognotfrog.blogspot.com - amazing!!!
prognotfrog.blogspot.com is an amazing blog featuring full album downloads of rare jazz, avant-garde, psych-rock, and noize bands from the 60s through today.
I was hipped to this blog at 1:30 in the morning by a drunken member of the Dreadnots (the one who usually spits the rhymes and plays with various manipulation boxes), a Pittsburgh nerdcore experimental hip-hop band. They are three white dudes who have so much musical knowledge between them that it boggles my mind as why & how the hell they're still in Pittsburgh!
He dialed me arouund 1 AM with his number blocked and told me first he was Jonathan Winters, whom I googled and found was the famous the character actor. Then he started dropping knowledge on me at alarming rates about the Sun City Girls, the Sublime Frequencies series, The Residents, and various other psych bands whose names I had heard but whose music I had/have not really checked out. The discussion ranged from Frank Wright to Jean Claude Vannier to Soft Machine.
During the span of the call he told me about this excellent blog, but also about how he was recording an album with Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls and that the recently split-up Sleater-Kinney girls were coming over to get high.
When I finally figured out who the guy was, I was congratulated by the Underwater Culprit and told that DJ Negative One had also beek punk'd earlier.
Thanks guys! Mighty entertaining!
I was hipped to this blog at 1:30 in the morning by a drunken member of the Dreadnots (the one who usually spits the rhymes and plays with various manipulation boxes), a Pittsburgh nerdcore experimental hip-hop band. They are three white dudes who have so much musical knowledge between them that it boggles my mind as why & how the hell they're still in Pittsburgh!
He dialed me arouund 1 AM with his number blocked and told me first he was Jonathan Winters, whom I googled and found was the famous the character actor. Then he started dropping knowledge on me at alarming rates about the Sun City Girls, the Sublime Frequencies series, The Residents, and various other psych bands whose names I had heard but whose music I had/have not really checked out. The discussion ranged from Frank Wright to Jean Claude Vannier to Soft Machine.
During the span of the call he told me about this excellent blog, but also about how he was recording an album with Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls and that the recently split-up Sleater-Kinney girls were coming over to get high.
When I finally figured out who the guy was, I was congratulated by the Underwater Culprit and told that DJ Negative One had also beek punk'd earlier.
Thanks guys! Mighty entertaining!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
JVC Jazz Fest Honors Lorraine Gordon; Car Troubles Come to an End
Well, the last time I blogged for you I had come back from NY and I was reeling from seeing some amazing music. Well...the fun continued on the following Monday (June 19) with a trip up to New York again to A) volunteer for the Jazz Journalists Association Awards (JJA Awards) & B) to see another free show at Carnegie Hall - this one a celebration of the continued work of Lorraine Gordon, the proprietor and manager of the legendary Village Vanguard which her late husband Max Gordon, a German Jewish immigrant started in the 1930s as a haven for artists of all kinds (it was originally conceived as a meeting ground for poets and other literary figures but the jazz is the thing that eventually stuck).
JJA Awards
The Jazz Awards were fun but rather tiring and made me pretty nervous about not having enough energy or stamina to see the show that night and also get back to Philly. However, by volunteering I got free admission. I also got to meet Jason Moran and his Bandwagon (referred to in my last entry), Gerald Wilson, Joe Lovano, a lot of label people from Blue Note and Mack Avenue Records, journalists I've grown up reading in Downbeat and JazzTimes, as well as legendary festival producer George Wein, and record producer George Avakian. I also saw a whole bunch of people I already knew from the radio world like Linda Yohn from WEMU, Tatsuya K from Dreyfus Records, Terry Coen from Palmetto, and Tom Mallison from South Carolina Public Radio.
The Concert: Sweet Lorraine
To a much more enthusiastic audience than Ornette had (I think a lot of people went to that show just to be able to say they had gone to see Ornette Coleman), Carnegie Hall and the JVC Jazz Festival transformed the Vanguard into a much larger Uptown space for one night (with horrible sound). How did the transform Carnegie Hall into a bigger Village Vanguard? The festival producers had the good sense to book five distinct acts that Lorraine & Max Gordon nurtured over the years with consistent bookings. Many of these bands developed their sound and some of their mystique from their gigs at the Vanguard. After all, as the evening's emcee rightly put it, the Vanguard is a connundrum. It is hallowed ground. Yet every 20-30 minutes the 7th Ave express rumbles loudly beneath the clubs flimsy wooden plank floor. The club has not been renovated or altered once throughout its history. The only thing that has changed over the years have been the number jazz icons hanging on the club's walls often with signatures.
On to the music: the lineup was stellar. Dr. Michael White and His Original Liberty Jazz Band playing "trad jazz" - i.e. the music of N'awlinz. Dr. White's band were one of two all-black acts that evening, the other being the Roy Hargrove Quintet feat. Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. Second came Paul Motian's Trio 2000 + One w/ guest vocalist Rebecca Martin (who knocked my socks off) and the bands regular: Larry Grenadier on bass, and Chris Potter on tenor sax. They played a mix of rarer standards and slithering, free Motian tunes. Potter played in a totally interesting free yet lyrical, even singable manner.
Then came Hargrove's band who breezed through a varies set of straight hard-bop a la Cannonball Adderley Quintet. His sidemen were his regular touring band of Justin Robinson on alto, Ronnie Matthews on piano, bassist James Genus, and drummer Willie Jones III. The special guest, whom no one in the hall could hear, was legendary vibist Bobby Hutcherson. There was one Latin flavored tune from their new record Nothing Serious that really got to my heart as well as a ballad whose melody modulated upwards by step four times each time they played the head, giving the listener a feeling of being on different planes.
A 15 minute intermission followed.
Then came The Bad Plus, who played a sublime set of new compositions and one cover. Refer to Ben Ratliff's review for the way they played. It pretty much captured anything I could say here.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Last, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra performed w/ guest soloist and band alumnus tenor saxist Joe Lovano. I left the hall before they started to secure a position to hand out flyers of the winners from the JJA awards from earlier in the evening, but I heard parts of their set from the lobby and they sounded in top shape as usual. Rich Perry killed on tenor as always and I heard a bit of a Terell Stafford trumpet solo which was swingin as hell.
....fast forward to today.....many poker games later (yes the cards bug has bitten me once again; helped by my new roommates passion for the game - but I'M UP folks!!!)
As many of my readers know, recently my car has been giving me some trouble. In May when helping a friend make I movie, I managed to basically disable the driver's side door. Long story short, I now drive an otherwise champagne-colored '96 Ford Crown Victoria with a BLUE door. Yeah, I know. No one is going to steal this car.... At least I can be sure of that much. So today, it went in for another $300 of work. But the point of this story is that I got a new reliable guy in Philly. His name is Larry and he works here at the Shell station. He is a real pro and a gentleman. If you're in the Philly area, I highly recommend him - not quite as highly as Tony's Garage which is here back in Pittsburgh on Mellon St.
Aight....more to come...
In the meantime, check out REGINA SPEKTOR, the singer.
JJA Awards
The Jazz Awards were fun but rather tiring and made me pretty nervous about not having enough energy or stamina to see the show that night and also get back to Philly. However, by volunteering I got free admission. I also got to meet Jason Moran and his Bandwagon (referred to in my last entry), Gerald Wilson, Joe Lovano, a lot of label people from Blue Note and Mack Avenue Records, journalists I've grown up reading in Downbeat and JazzTimes, as well as legendary festival producer George Wein, and record producer George Avakian. I also saw a whole bunch of people I already knew from the radio world like Linda Yohn from WEMU, Tatsuya K from Dreyfus Records, Terry Coen from Palmetto, and Tom Mallison from South Carolina Public Radio.
The Concert: Sweet Lorraine
To a much more enthusiastic audience than Ornette had (I think a lot of people went to that show just to be able to say they had gone to see Ornette Coleman), Carnegie Hall and the JVC Jazz Festival transformed the Vanguard into a much larger Uptown space for one night (with horrible sound). How did the transform Carnegie Hall into a bigger Village Vanguard? The festival producers had the good sense to book five distinct acts that Lorraine & Max Gordon nurtured over the years with consistent bookings. Many of these bands developed their sound and some of their mystique from their gigs at the Vanguard. After all, as the evening's emcee rightly put it, the Vanguard is a connundrum. It is hallowed ground. Yet every 20-30 minutes the 7th Ave express rumbles loudly beneath the clubs flimsy wooden plank floor. The club has not been renovated or altered once throughout its history. The only thing that has changed over the years have been the number jazz icons hanging on the club's walls often with signatures.
On to the music: the lineup was stellar. Dr. Michael White and His Original Liberty Jazz Band playing "trad jazz" - i.e. the music of N'awlinz. Dr. White's band were one of two all-black acts that evening, the other being the Roy Hargrove Quintet feat. Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. Second came Paul Motian's Trio 2000 + One w/ guest vocalist Rebecca Martin (who knocked my socks off) and the bands regular: Larry Grenadier on bass, and Chris Potter on tenor sax. They played a mix of rarer standards and slithering, free Motian tunes. Potter played in a totally interesting free yet lyrical, even singable manner.
Then came Hargrove's band who breezed through a varies set of straight hard-bop a la Cannonball Adderley Quintet. His sidemen were his regular touring band of Justin Robinson on alto, Ronnie Matthews on piano, bassist James Genus, and drummer Willie Jones III. The special guest, whom no one in the hall could hear, was legendary vibist Bobby Hutcherson. There was one Latin flavored tune from their new record Nothing Serious that really got to my heart as well as a ballad whose melody modulated upwards by step four times each time they played the head, giving the listener a feeling of being on different planes.
A 15 minute intermission followed.
Then came The Bad Plus, who played a sublime set of new compositions and one cover. Refer to Ben Ratliff's review for the way they played. It pretty much captured anything I could say here.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Last, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra performed w/ guest soloist and band alumnus tenor saxist Joe Lovano. I left the hall before they started to secure a position to hand out flyers of the winners from the JJA awards from earlier in the evening, but I heard parts of their set from the lobby and they sounded in top shape as usual. Rich Perry killed on tenor as always and I heard a bit of a Terell Stafford trumpet solo which was swingin as hell.
....fast forward to today.....many poker games later (yes the cards bug has bitten me once again; helped by my new roommates passion for the game - but I'M UP folks!!!)
As many of my readers know, recently my car has been giving me some trouble. In May when helping a friend make I movie, I managed to basically disable the driver's side door. Long story short, I now drive an otherwise champagne-colored '96 Ford Crown Victoria with a BLUE door. Yeah, I know. No one is going to steal this car.... At least I can be sure of that much. So today, it went in for another $300 of work. But the point of this story is that I got a new reliable guy in Philly. His name is Larry and he works here at the Shell station. He is a real pro and a gentleman. If you're in the Philly area, I highly recommend him - not quite as highly as Tony's Garage which is here back in Pittsburgh on Mellon St.
Aight....more to come...
In the meantime, check out REGINA SPEKTOR, the singer.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Friday Night 06/16/06 in NY
So, I told you I'd update after the Ornette Coleman show:
Ornette at Carnegie Hall was actually not that impressive to me. Sure, I got to see him in his blue suit, pink shirt, yellow cravate and pork pie hat playing his wailing yet absolutely squeak-free altissimo and other high notes on his white alto (occaisonally switching to trumpet), but the music lacked enough pep to keep me interested all the time. All the tunes sounded like Ornette Tunes - all outside, but ending in Copeland-like "American" consonance. In the end, hearing Ornette live with a typically strange instrumentation (Greg Cohen on upright - plucking, Tony Falanga on upright - arco, and Al McDowell on electric bass, Denardo Coleman on drum set) is better than recording. But I felt that the sound was not very good and you lost a lot of what they were doing to the size of the hall. And it's freakin' hard to hear what three bassists are doing when playing on top of each other.
Attendance was particularly good -- not too surprising considering Ornette basically created the genre we now know as "free jazz".
I'd estimate there were about 1500 people out of a possible 2800 in the hall.
Brad dug the hell out of it (he was rocking back and forth the whole time).
Some perks of being with Brad: I got to meet Ben Ratliff of the New York Times and Ashley Kahn, author of several jazz books profiling Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and most recently a volume chronicling the story of the Impulse label entitled The House That Trane Built. The encore was Ornette's Lonely Woman - a personal highlight for me.
After we left the hall, while chatting with jazz writer David Adler (another stellar writer for All About Jazz-New York, Jazztimes, and The New Republic Online, Signal to Noise, etc) we found out that Chris Potter was at the 55 Bar. So we headed straight downtown by cab. Before getting in the cab, I stopped at an ATM to get cash for a night of spending. After searching through my wallet, I found I had lost one of my ATM check cards, so I used the other and while riding downtown called to cancel the card. It turned up in my backpack 10 minutes later while waiting in line on Christopher Street!
Also while waiting in the line (did I mention it was a long-ass line) to see Chris at the 55, we read in All About Jazz-New York that one of our clients, Jason Moran (and his band, The Bandwagon - bassist Tarus Mateen & drummer Nasheet Waits) were backing up baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett at Sweet Rhythm a couple blocks away. Since I'd been left wanting more after hearing Bluiett at The Five Spot a week earlier with David Murray, and we were taking a chance at the back of the line for the Potter show, we made an split-second decision to go over there hoping to enter for free through our connection to Jason.
It worked out and the band was stellar. They played originals and standards including Misty. It was great to hear the chemistry of The Bandwagon, a band that's been together for at least 4 years. With Bluiett, it was doubly sweet. For those not in the know, Bluiett is the king of wailing altissimo on bari. However, his low end packs an equal if not greater punch. Waits was killin'. He is totally one of my favorite drummers.
At Sweet Rhythm we met up with Ted Panken (writer for Downbeat, Jazziz, and radio host for WKCR FM at Columbia University). He told us he was going to see the late late show by Chris at the 55. So we left the Bluiett gig around 11:30 to see Potter.
After waiting in line again in front of the 55 for at least a half-hour, we were treated to an amazingly intimate set of music ranging from Joni Mitchell to a Middle-Eastern tune to Big Top (which is one Potter's latest disc, Underground)
and a song called Boots. The band was Potter on tenor and keyboard (no Taborn cuz of the Vision Festival), Nate Smith on drums, Adam Rogers on guitar, and Joe Martin on bass. I won't gush. It was fucking amazing. No words can describe what went on.
Now listening to: Robin Eubanks' podcast on iTunes.
Ornette at Carnegie Hall was actually not that impressive to me. Sure, I got to see him in his blue suit, pink shirt, yellow cravate and pork pie hat playing his wailing yet absolutely squeak-free altissimo and other high notes on his white alto (occaisonally switching to trumpet), but the music lacked enough pep to keep me interested all the time. All the tunes sounded like Ornette Tunes - all outside, but ending in Copeland-like "American" consonance. In the end, hearing Ornette live with a typically strange instrumentation (Greg Cohen on upright - plucking, Tony Falanga on upright - arco, and Al McDowell on electric bass, Denardo Coleman on drum set) is better than recording. But I felt that the sound was not very good and you lost a lot of what they were doing to the size of the hall. And it's freakin' hard to hear what three bassists are doing when playing on top of each other.
Attendance was particularly good -- not too surprising considering Ornette basically created the genre we now know as "free jazz".
I'd estimate there were about 1500 people out of a possible 2800 in the hall.
Brad dug the hell out of it (he was rocking back and forth the whole time).
Some perks of being with Brad: I got to meet Ben Ratliff of the New York Times and Ashley Kahn, author of several jazz books profiling Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and most recently a volume chronicling the story of the Impulse label entitled The House That Trane Built. The encore was Ornette's Lonely Woman - a personal highlight for me.
After we left the hall, while chatting with jazz writer David Adler (another stellar writer for All About Jazz-New York, Jazztimes, and The New Republic Online, Signal to Noise, etc) we found out that Chris Potter was at the 55 Bar. So we headed straight downtown by cab. Before getting in the cab, I stopped at an ATM to get cash for a night of spending. After searching through my wallet, I found I had lost one of my ATM check cards, so I used the other and while riding downtown called to cancel the card. It turned up in my backpack 10 minutes later while waiting in line on Christopher Street!
Also while waiting in the line (did I mention it was a long-ass line) to see Chris at the 55, we read in All About Jazz-New York that one of our clients, Jason Moran (and his band, The Bandwagon - bassist Tarus Mateen & drummer Nasheet Waits) were backing up baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett at Sweet Rhythm a couple blocks away. Since I'd been left wanting more after hearing Bluiett at The Five Spot a week earlier with David Murray, and we were taking a chance at the back of the line for the Potter show, we made an split-second decision to go over there hoping to enter for free through our connection to Jason.
It worked out and the band was stellar. They played originals and standards including Misty. It was great to hear the chemistry of The Bandwagon, a band that's been together for at least 4 years. With Bluiett, it was doubly sweet. For those not in the know, Bluiett is the king of wailing altissimo on bari. However, his low end packs an equal if not greater punch. Waits was killin'. He is totally one of my favorite drummers.
At Sweet Rhythm we met up with Ted Panken (writer for Downbeat, Jazziz, and radio host for WKCR FM at Columbia University). He told us he was going to see the late late show by Chris at the 55. So we left the Bluiett gig around 11:30 to see Potter.
After waiting in line again in front of the 55 for at least a half-hour, we were treated to an amazingly intimate set of music ranging from Joni Mitchell to a Middle-Eastern tune to Big Top (which is one Potter's latest disc, Underground)
and a song called Boots. The band was Potter on tenor and keyboard (no Taborn cuz of the Vision Festival), Nate Smith on drums, Adam Rogers on guitar, and Joe Martin on bass. I won't gush. It was fucking amazing. No words can describe what went on.
Now listening to: Robin Eubanks' podcast on iTunes.
Friday, June 16, 2006
New Digs; WPRB - First Show; Trip to NY
Wow. It's been a while and a half since I blogged. Where shall I begin?
Well first off I am now living in Philadelphia just inside the city line about 2 miles from my main job at DL Media (www.jazzpublicity.com). I am having a blast at work. Probably too much. My first project has been tour publicity for this bassist who's been with Paul Simon since the Graceland days named Bakithi Kumalo. I've been pitching his CD to the cities where Paul Simon's Surprise tour is taking him this summer. This past two weeks was focused on the Ohio dates between June 28 - July 2. I also covered some of the national media as far as bass publications were concerned. Looks like we may get some coverage in Bassics magazine and even Bass Player too since the editors of both dig Bakithi. Also trying to convince my office to go on Skype to do conference calls and the like for free rather than paying long distance all the time.
Aside from work, which is still jazz-related and offered me mounds of free CDs and other stuff, I've seen a couple concerts in Philly:
1) David Murray & Hamiett Bluiett of the World Saxophone Quartet performed a very terrific show w/ electric bassist Jamaladeen Tacuma, drummer Lee Pearson (Erykah Badu, Lauren Hill, Snoop Dogg), and Murray's son Mingus. This show was very well attended despite being on a Thursday night and put together with very short notice for press, of which there was virtually none. I would call it avant blues funk w/ squeaking! And no one can squeak like Murray and Bluiett.
2) Ken Vandermark/Paul Lytton/Phillip Wachsmann & Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher played the latest Ars Nova show (actually the first night of a 2-night European improvisers mini-festival at UPenn). It was my second time seeing Vandermark and this trio (called Cinc - no significance in the name....I asked) was sublime. Ken did a lot of circular breathing and as my co-worker and friend Brad said, "It's all about a transfer of energy." That was it. Everybody was intensely listening to each other so intensely yet gently and sensitively that when they hit the last note of a section, they all knew it was time to end. It was cool to see their level of aural communication as opposed to visual cues. The second group, also a trio, from Amsterdam was much more structured but still very free. The pianist and default leader Michael Braam was like a stride-playing avant-gardist. He had a definite penchant for sounding like he was playing a rag while entirely freely improvised. The bassist DeJoode was good - excellent plucking - INTENSE facial expressions, but the drummer who reminded me of the facial and bodily movements of Ari Hoenig was a bit annoying and didn't really fit with what Braam was doing much of the time.
Visit www.arsnovaworkshop.com for some other great improvised music coming up in the Philadelphia area including Henry Grimes & Oluyemi Thomas, Charles Gayle, Han Bennink/Peter Brotzmann, and many others!
Today, after working really late at the office last night (for no overtime pay) and talking at length with my boss' son about the best restaurants in Philly to hit up for cheesesteaks, sandwiches, and Japanese, I drove to Princeton, NJ for my first official radio show at WPRB Princeton. WRPB is Princeton University's student & community radio station where I have my new radio home. On my first show, I had guest bassist Reuben Rogers in the studio with me to discuss his new record. I played several albums by cats in his musical circle including saxophonist John Ellis, and pianist Aaron Goldberg, with whom he's going to Europe with for a couple weeks very soon with guest saxophonist Chris Potter. I wish I could see that band in the states. Reuben also played a couple of his favorite tracks (Wayne Shorter, The Poll Winners, and something else) that either inspired him early on or inspired cuts on his new album - Things That I Am, his first as a leader. I also played the latest Blue Note albums by Greg Osby (Channel Three), Terence Blanchard (Flow), and Joe Lovano (Streams of Expression - in stores August 1) as well as the new Liberty Ellman on Pi Recordings. I saw Liberty a couple months ago in Philly when I first came to meet with my current boss and talk about what I could do for his business. He was in Henry Threadgill's Zooid band.
After the radio show, I picked up Brad and we drove to NYC, where I am right now. After much confusion and several moving violations in NJ we got into the city, parked for a lot of money and went to a great little Brazilian place at 48th St and 8th Ave called Brazil Grill. We both had amazing seaford dishes. We are now vegetating in Starbucks at 51st and Broadway writing, checking email (well, at least I am) and waiting to do what we came here to do - SEE ORNETTE COLEMAN FOR FREE @ Carnegie Hall. This will be my first Ornette show and my first time at Carnegie Hall. Will post an update after Ornette!
Now digging: John Ellis - By a Thread as well as Brian Lynch's new ArtistShare project which I will be working on later this summer. Also look out for a new Monk/Coltrane "Complete 1957 Riverside Sessions" double-CD from Concord.
Jazz Journalist Awards are on Monday which I will be back to work and then see another Carnegie Hall show quadruple bill honoring Lorraine Gordon, proprietor of the Village Vanguard featuring The Bad Plus, Roy Hargrove's Quintet w/ Bobby Hutcherson, Paul Motian's Trio 2000 + One w/ Chris Potter, Larry Grenadier, and Rebecca Martin (vocals), Joe Lovano w/ The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Dr. Michael White's Original Liberty Jazz Band - for my job - for FREE! Living the jazz life....
Peace, bitches....
Well first off I am now living in Philadelphia just inside the city line about 2 miles from my main job at DL Media (www.jazzpublicity.com). I am having a blast at work. Probably too much. My first project has been tour publicity for this bassist who's been with Paul Simon since the Graceland days named Bakithi Kumalo. I've been pitching his CD to the cities where Paul Simon's Surprise tour is taking him this summer. This past two weeks was focused on the Ohio dates between June 28 - July 2. I also covered some of the national media as far as bass publications were concerned. Looks like we may get some coverage in Bassics magazine and even Bass Player too since the editors of both dig Bakithi. Also trying to convince my office to go on Skype to do conference calls and the like for free rather than paying long distance all the time.
Aside from work, which is still jazz-related and offered me mounds of free CDs and other stuff, I've seen a couple concerts in Philly:
1) David Murray & Hamiett Bluiett of the World Saxophone Quartet performed a very terrific show w/ electric bassist Jamaladeen Tacuma, drummer Lee Pearson (Erykah Badu, Lauren Hill, Snoop Dogg), and Murray's son Mingus. This show was very well attended despite being on a Thursday night and put together with very short notice for press, of which there was virtually none. I would call it avant blues funk w/ squeaking! And no one can squeak like Murray and Bluiett.
2) Ken Vandermark/Paul Lytton/Phillip Wachsmann & Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher played the latest Ars Nova show (actually the first night of a 2-night European improvisers mini-festival at UPenn). It was my second time seeing Vandermark and this trio (called Cinc - no significance in the name....I asked) was sublime. Ken did a lot of circular breathing and as my co-worker and friend Brad said, "It's all about a transfer of energy." That was it. Everybody was intensely listening to each other so intensely yet gently and sensitively that when they hit the last note of a section, they all knew it was time to end. It was cool to see their level of aural communication as opposed to visual cues. The second group, also a trio, from Amsterdam was much more structured but still very free. The pianist and default leader Michael Braam was like a stride-playing avant-gardist. He had a definite penchant for sounding like he was playing a rag while entirely freely improvised. The bassist DeJoode was good - excellent plucking - INTENSE facial expressions, but the drummer who reminded me of the facial and bodily movements of Ari Hoenig was a bit annoying and didn't really fit with what Braam was doing much of the time.
Visit www.arsnovaworkshop.com for some other great improvised music coming up in the Philadelphia area including Henry Grimes & Oluyemi Thomas, Charles Gayle, Han Bennink/Peter Brotzmann, and many others!
Today, after working really late at the office last night (for no overtime pay) and talking at length with my boss' son about the best restaurants in Philly to hit up for cheesesteaks, sandwiches, and Japanese, I drove to Princeton, NJ for my first official radio show at WPRB Princeton. WRPB is Princeton University's student & community radio station where I have my new radio home. On my first show, I had guest bassist Reuben Rogers in the studio with me to discuss his new record. I played several albums by cats in his musical circle including saxophonist John Ellis, and pianist Aaron Goldberg, with whom he's going to Europe with for a couple weeks very soon with guest saxophonist Chris Potter. I wish I could see that band in the states. Reuben also played a couple of his favorite tracks (Wayne Shorter, The Poll Winners, and something else) that either inspired him early on or inspired cuts on his new album - Things That I Am, his first as a leader. I also played the latest Blue Note albums by Greg Osby (Channel Three), Terence Blanchard (Flow), and Joe Lovano (Streams of Expression - in stores August 1) as well as the new Liberty Ellman on Pi Recordings. I saw Liberty a couple months ago in Philly when I first came to meet with my current boss and talk about what I could do for his business. He was in Henry Threadgill's Zooid band.
After the radio show, I picked up Brad and we drove to NYC, where I am right now. After much confusion and several moving violations in NJ we got into the city, parked for a lot of money and went to a great little Brazilian place at 48th St and 8th Ave called Brazil Grill. We both had amazing seaford dishes. We are now vegetating in Starbucks at 51st and Broadway writing, checking email (well, at least I am) and waiting to do what we came here to do - SEE ORNETTE COLEMAN FOR FREE @ Carnegie Hall. This will be my first Ornette show and my first time at Carnegie Hall. Will post an update after Ornette!
Now digging: John Ellis - By a Thread as well as Brian Lynch's new ArtistShare project which I will be working on later this summer. Also look out for a new Monk/Coltrane "Complete 1957 Riverside Sessions" double-CD from Concord.
Jazz Journalist Awards are on Monday which I will be back to work and then see another Carnegie Hall show quadruple bill honoring Lorraine Gordon, proprietor of the Village Vanguard featuring The Bad Plus, Roy Hargrove's Quintet w/ Bobby Hutcherson, Paul Motian's Trio 2000 + One w/ Chris Potter, Larry Grenadier, and Rebecca Martin (vocals), Joe Lovano w/ The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Dr. Michael White's Original Liberty Jazz Band - for my job - for FREE! Living the jazz life....
Peace, bitches....
Monday, May 08, 2006
Friday, May 05, 2006
Sunburned Hand of the Man dry-humps a skeleton
Tonight I went to a great Edgar Um production featuring Seattle punk rockers Shoplifting, local quirksters Natura Nasa and punk-funkers Centipede E'est, and Sunburned Hand of the Man, a Boston hippie "freak folk" black metal jam band. The performances were held at a hole-in-the-wall venue without front windows called Paint & Body.
The space is supposedly also an art gallery but I'd never seen such a sketchtronic gallery. How can you entice people to come in and see your work if the windows have been replaced by wooden boards? Anyways, this space is in Wilkinsburg, PA - just beyond the Pittsburgh city line. The street had the all-too-familiar tension between drunk white hipsters catching a "deep" show and the black residents of the locale walking back and forth along the sidewalk wondering what these strangers to their neighborhood are doing - and what the hell they're "listening to."
Tonight's scene represents the utter disconnect between whites and blacks in America. But in this case it's an even greater divide - one group listens to WRCT; the other to the much more mainstream commercial WAMO. The blacks, whose neighborhood we were in, gawked in their inability to comprehend or relate to the goings-on. And the white kids and young adults there to see a freaky show to add to their hipster cred, all the while, awkwardly avoided uncomfortable confrontations on the sidewalks with the stereotypical black beggars, drunks, and plain-old confused teens.
How can these two demographic groups who operate with grossly disparate world views, coexist in neighborhoods where they share common spaces. Is it fair to say that we, the white kids, were in their neighborhood. Or do the white youth have as much a right to call this space their own by virtue of their own poverty. Today in America, this uncomfortable mix does not exist just in Pittsburgh, but all over our cities and suburbs, as whites and blacks sharing similar economic circumstances, for whatever reasons, must share these streets and corners.
Anyways, I'm just throwing that out there.
So I got there in the middle of Shoplifting's rawkus punk set. Eastridge was there when I walked in, but soon disappeared. Ess Boyle was lurking outside on the sidewalk. All the regular faces were present. Paul's CDs regulars. WRCT-type music heads and all the people who showed up to the avant-garde shows I put on at CMU this year. Pittsburgh is very much a small community when it comes to the avant-garde. Or maybe its just an East End thing. Who knows?
The space is supposedly also an art gallery but I'd never seen such a sketchtronic gallery. How can you entice people to come in and see your work if the windows have been replaced by wooden boards? Anyways, this space is in Wilkinsburg, PA - just beyond the Pittsburgh city line. The street had the all-too-familiar tension between drunk white hipsters catching a "deep" show and the black residents of the locale walking back and forth along the sidewalk wondering what these strangers to their neighborhood are doing - and what the hell they're "listening to."
Tonight's scene represents the utter disconnect between whites and blacks in America. But in this case it's an even greater divide - one group listens to WRCT; the other to the much more mainstream commercial WAMO. The blacks, whose neighborhood we were in, gawked in their inability to comprehend or relate to the goings-on. And the white kids and young adults there to see a freaky show to add to their hipster cred, all the while, awkwardly avoided uncomfortable confrontations on the sidewalks with the stereotypical black beggars, drunks, and plain-old confused teens.
How can these two demographic groups who operate with grossly disparate world views, coexist in neighborhoods where they share common spaces. Is it fair to say that we, the white kids, were in their neighborhood. Or do the white youth have as much a right to call this space their own by virtue of their own poverty. Today in America, this uncomfortable mix does not exist just in Pittsburgh, but all over our cities and suburbs, as whites and blacks sharing similar economic circumstances, for whatever reasons, must share these streets and corners.
Anyways, I'm just throwing that out there.
So I got there in the middle of Shoplifting's rawkus punk set. Eastridge was there when I walked in, but soon disappeared. Ess Boyle was lurking outside on the sidewalk. All the regular faces were present. Paul's CDs regulars. WRCT-type music heads and all the people who showed up to the avant-garde shows I put on at CMU this year. Pittsburgh is very much a small community when it comes to the avant-garde. Or maybe its just an East End thing. Who knows?
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Past few days + a good movie
It's really weird. Some days I wake up at 7:30 after having gone to bed at 3 AM and its enough sleep. Others, I sleep til noon or after and it's just not enough. I will sleep for eight hours, wake up, check some emails, and then go back to sleep. I'm gonna have to snap out of this real soon with reality coming to hit me in the face in a couple months.
Anyways, yesterday was a 'sleep the whole day' day and it ended in me missing an important test and not being able to meet with my group members as planned to get together and complete the group assignment for shitty OID. Well its now Tuesday night, and not only haven't I studied for the test I missed, I am not done with the assignment - and it's due tomorrow at 5 pm.
In my perennial quest to do as much wrong as possible before actually knuckling down and getting some work done, I decided I would watch this movie I got from Netflix with Nicholas Cage and Michael Caine about a guy who is an unhappy weather man on TV. This is a really good movie. It is kind of a reflection on a lot of the things I think about often: where will I be when I'm 40? Who will I be? Will I be defined by my failures or by my successes? Will I have any successes? The cover is pictured to the right.
This movie really gets at life in general in an enlightening yet very dark way, much like American Psycho did. I think I like this move equally well. Perhaps more, because of the lack of brutal murdering - which I am not a fan of (but could tolerate because it was all so tongue-in-cheek.
Anyways, you should check it out. I was truly impressed by Caine's character, and tormented, which one should be, by Cage's.
Over and out....oh shit I'm cooking pasta......
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Horse & Burro Adoption
Well, it's 12:30 AM Sunday April 9, 2006. At the station. Cuz where else do I go after Underground shows than the ole station.
We just got finished with the post-gig hangout, which was decidedly short since everyone in the band was mad tired from last night.
What did we do last night, you ask? We practiced for tonight live on the air on WRCT.
But anyways, thanks to the massive email blasts which Horse/Knuckles, Hell, and H/K's friend Reuben Quintero sent out. Loads of people came. I really should have booked more student bands this year. Only now I realize it's the only way to get people out to a show (CMU students, at least).
After Reuben's band Vegemite Monster opened for us with some Blink 182-esque pop punk, East directed us to slowly go on stage one by one. We prefaced the entrance with a pow-wow style screaming session between East and myself in the back corner of the Underground.
On stage, Buckyballs started us with the laptop electronics, followed by Hell on clarinet, then Abacus Finch on clarinet, then me on my soprano sax (I entered the stage walking backwards. When I got up front I kept having these feelings of vertigo like the Earth was shifting and I was really dizzy, but when I stopped blowing so hard into my sop, and turned frontwards, the feeling went away.), and H/K followed me. I think I followed up the soprano playing by heading over to the extra snare drum (with the snare off), beating away while complementing H/K's drums. At times we were in tandem with each other. At times we were off, but that is the intention in free music.
That would make for not much fun. Insanity followed by restraint, followed by more insanity is the best way to go about making freely improvised music. We rocked out in that configuration for a couple minutes....and then we switched instruments....somehow that all went on for like and hour and forty-five minutes. If I were to try to tell you what happened between those first 5 minutes and the end.
Some highlights:
- yelling obscenities at the audience; completely uninhibited by the FCC
- Horse/Knuckles Knuckles/Horse on the floor with the electric guitar, sweating profusely, hair completely gone hay-wire
- Buckyball dropping the electric guitar on stage
- Denton breaking drum sticks for the hell of it
- me lying down on stage playing the soprano sax into the mic (also screaming "
- East aka Hell pouring water into one end of his sax and attempting to play it while tipping it the other way so that water ran into his mouth and out the open holes throughout the bore of the horn
- all of us yelling "HORSE......AND.......BURRO!!!!" at various times during the performance
- the Underground staff joining in.....
Wow. Good times were had by all....except the trapped freshmen.
We just got finished with the post-gig hangout, which was decidedly short since everyone in the band was mad tired from last night.
What did we do last night, you ask? We practiced for tonight live on the air on WRCT.
But anyways, thanks to the massive email blasts which Horse/Knuckles, Hell, and H/K's friend Reuben Quintero sent out. Loads of people came. I really should have booked more student bands this year. Only now I realize it's the only way to get people out to a show (CMU students, at least).
After Reuben's band Vegemite Monster opened for us with some Blink 182-esque pop punk, East directed us to slowly go on stage one by one. We prefaced the entrance with a pow-wow style screaming session between East and myself in the back corner of the Underground.
On stage, Buckyballs started us with the laptop electronics, followed by Hell on clarinet, then Abacus Finch on clarinet, then me on my soprano sax (I entered the stage walking backwards. When I got up front I kept having these feelings of vertigo like the Earth was shifting and I was really dizzy, but when I stopped blowing so hard into my sop, and turned frontwards, the feeling went away.), and H/K followed me. I think I followed up the soprano playing by heading over to the extra snare drum (with the snare off), beating away while complementing H/K's drums. At times we were in tandem with each other. At times we were off, but that is the intention in free music.
That would make for not much fun. Insanity followed by restraint, followed by more insanity is the best way to go about making freely improvised music. We rocked out in that configuration for a couple minutes....and then we switched instruments....somehow that all went on for like and hour and forty-five minutes. If I were to try to tell you what happened between those first 5 minutes and the end.
Some highlights:
- yelling obscenities at the audience; completely uninhibited by the FCC
- Horse/Knuckles Knuckles/Horse on the floor with the electric guitar, sweating profusely, hair completely gone hay-wire
- Buckyball dropping the electric guitar on stage
- Denton breaking drum sticks for the hell of it
- me lying down on stage playing the soprano sax into the mic (also screaming "
- East aka Hell pouring water into one end of his sax and attempting to play it while tipping it the other way so that water ran into his mouth and out the open holes throughout the bore of the horn
- all of us yelling "HORSE......AND.......BURRO!!!!" at various times during the performance
- the Underground staff joining in.....
Wow. Good times were had by all....except the trapped freshmen.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
ICP Orchestra a Hit in Pittsburgh
Wow. Weer Is Een Daag Voorbij!
"Another Day Has Come and Gone," the translation of the exclamation above, is actually the name of the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra's latest self-released album on ICP Records, but also it's a pretty accurate description of today's activities - except that today has come and gone in Pittsburgh with an amazing and historic performance captured in our hearts and our minds.
Luckily my day started around 11 AM. I knew I had to (and could) sleep in today, in order to have the energy to do all the shopping, lifting, carrying, ordering of food, hosting, setting-up, tearing-down, and other general stuff associated with putting on a show of this size and nature.
What size and nature, you ask? Well let's just say that the ingredients in play were Manny Theiner, an ensemble of 10 rambunctious Dutch & American musicians (including Han Bennink - known for his stage antics - which tonight included hitting the drum set with metal poles, hitting certain metal poles on other metal poles, using his chair as a drum stick of sorts, and whooping up and down like a seagull who has just zeroed in on a good meal), a 300-person hall, and finally a motley audience of Pittsburgh intellectuals, students, punks, and bums - all of whom got in for free (no thanks to Amy Stabenow, Concert Manager for the school of music).
Big thanks go to Manny Theiner for telling me about ICP's availability, doing all publicity/postering as well as writing the excellent article for CP (also thanks to Aaron Jentzen for publishing said article), Dave Pellow for booking the room and providing the bass amp, Liz Vaughan for doing all the contracting and logistical work she is so grand at, the percussion department (Paul Evans, Mikey L, Mikey P, and the red-haired dude whose name I always screw up), DJ for his sweet bass, Harold Walls and Riccardo Schulz (and their man Eric) for the sound equipment and expert help in Kresge, Chris from AB Tech for sound-checking and setting up the stage, and Spencer and Dan from AB Coffeehouse for the extra flow to make this show happen.
It was a crazy day with all the running around, finding drums, bass, amps, and getting the musicians fed before the show, but a beautiful performance ensued nevertheless. And the people surely came out! The concert included both pre-composed and "instantly composed" music; a variety of timbres from cacophonous to mellow. I definately heard Ellington and Tizol's "Caravan," Ellington's "Solitude" (with a beautiful free Johnny Hodges-esque alto feature by Michael Moore), and Monk's "Criss Cross" in the program. They did almost all the possible combinations of players on different tunes, with various group members often wandering the stage and backstage aimlessly. But I was particularly taken with Walter Wierbos (the trombonist), who changed his shirt twice on stage and often walked around with camera in-hand taking pictures of other members of the band as well as the audience while the music was going on.
Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink, the ICP's two remaining co-founders (the other Willem Breuker departed the ensemble long ago), did two duos. The latter one happened to be the second encore which ended the concert. The two men, arm-in-arm sang a heart warming vocal duo (Misha humming and growling with his signature boll-weevol growl).
Misha, Mary, Tristan, Ernst, Thomas, Han, Walter, Toby, Ab, Michael, and Susanna (their tour manager and booking agent) are probably all in bed now, but my head is still spinning from tonight's performance. Over 200 people were there! That's a big deal for a friggin improvised music show in any city, let alone Pittsburgh.
P.S. I really still have that Henry Threadgill concert w/ Zooid in my mind (from when I was in Philly) and I look forward to working with Mark Christman and Ars Nova in the coming months when I move to Philly - I learned tonight from Susanna that they will be there during next year's US tour.
Ok, g'night.
Now listening to: ICP Orchestra - Kneushoorn (from BospaaDJe Konijnehol II)
"Another Day Has Come and Gone," the translation of the exclamation above, is actually the name of the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra's latest self-released album on ICP Records, but also it's a pretty accurate description of today's activities - except that today has come and gone in Pittsburgh with an amazing and historic performance captured in our hearts and our minds.
Luckily my day started around 11 AM. I knew I had to (and could) sleep in today, in order to have the energy to do all the shopping, lifting, carrying, ordering of food, hosting, setting-up, tearing-down, and other general stuff associated with putting on a show of this size and nature.
What size and nature, you ask? Well let's just say that the ingredients in play were Manny Theiner, an ensemble of 10 rambunctious Dutch & American musicians (including Han Bennink - known for his stage antics - which tonight included hitting the drum set with metal poles, hitting certain metal poles on other metal poles, using his chair as a drum stick of sorts, and whooping up and down like a seagull who has just zeroed in on a good meal), a 300-person hall, and finally a motley audience of Pittsburgh intellectuals, students, punks, and bums - all of whom got in for free (no thanks to Amy Stabenow, Concert Manager for the school of music).
Big thanks go to Manny Theiner for telling me about ICP's availability, doing all publicity/postering as well as writing the excellent article for CP (also thanks to Aaron Jentzen for publishing said article), Dave Pellow for booking the room and providing the bass amp, Liz Vaughan for doing all the contracting and logistical work she is so grand at, the percussion department (Paul Evans, Mikey L, Mikey P, and the red-haired dude whose name I always screw up), DJ for his sweet bass, Harold Walls and Riccardo Schulz (and their man Eric) for the sound equipment and expert help in Kresge, Chris from AB Tech for sound-checking and setting up the stage, and Spencer and Dan from AB Coffeehouse for the extra flow to make this show happen.
It was a crazy day with all the running around, finding drums, bass, amps, and getting the musicians fed before the show, but a beautiful performance ensued nevertheless. And the people surely came out! The concert included both pre-composed and "instantly composed" music; a variety of timbres from cacophonous to mellow. I definately heard Ellington and Tizol's "Caravan," Ellington's "Solitude" (with a beautiful free Johnny Hodges-esque alto feature by Michael Moore), and Monk's "Criss Cross" in the program. They did almost all the possible combinations of players on different tunes, with various group members often wandering the stage and backstage aimlessly. But I was particularly taken with Walter Wierbos (the trombonist), who changed his shirt twice on stage and often walked around with camera in-hand taking pictures of other members of the band as well as the audience while the music was going on.
Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink, the ICP's two remaining co-founders (the other Willem Breuker departed the ensemble long ago), did two duos. The latter one happened to be the second encore which ended the concert. The two men, arm-in-arm sang a heart warming vocal duo (Misha humming and growling with his signature boll-weevol growl).
Misha, Mary, Tristan, Ernst, Thomas, Han, Walter, Toby, Ab, Michael, and Susanna (their tour manager and booking agent) are probably all in bed now, but my head is still spinning from tonight's performance. Over 200 people were there! That's a big deal for a friggin improvised music show in any city, let alone Pittsburgh.
P.S. I really still have that Henry Threadgill concert w/ Zooid in my mind (from when I was in Philly) and I look forward to working with Mark Christman and Ars Nova in the coming months when I move to Philly - I learned tonight from Susanna that they will be there during next year's US tour.
Ok, g'night.
Now listening to: ICP Orchestra - Kneushoorn (from BospaaDJe Konijnehol II)
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Death
Uncle Abrascha (Albert) Lotters died last Wednesday. He was born in the Ukraine in 1910, fled the Bolshevik Revolution at 7 with his parents, went to university at Ghent, later fleed the Nazis to Paris, then Spain, then the Dominican Republic. He was a civil engineer who worked on irrigation projects in the jungle of Hispaniola before a fortuitous eye injury allowed him to come live in the US. There he lived and worked in New York, working on projects including the Chrysler building, and the 1964 World's Fair grounds at Flushing Meadows. When his first wife passed in 1968 he was soon introduced to Joyce Stern and soon they were married. They were married 36 years. He died March 8, 2006 in Port Washington, NY. He was 95.
Burial is a strange thing - a very scary thing. It's hard not to picture the body inside the coffin pleading not to be covered with dirt. At Jewish burials it is customary for the bereaved to cover the coffin with the initial layer of dirt. Said layer must cover the coffin completely so that it is no longer visible. This is supposedly supposed to ensure that animals and other things don't get into it and for the family members' peace of mind.
Jews mourn for seven days. It's called "sitting shiva." Shiva means seven. It is sad but you get to eat a lot of food and pray quickly compared to most other services. I hope Aunt Joyce eventually lets the tears flow. It was very strange to see her not cry.
Also, Tony Soprano died tonight on the Sopranos. More on that later....
Now Listening to: Junior by Aceyalone w/ RJD2
Burial is a strange thing - a very scary thing. It's hard not to picture the body inside the coffin pleading not to be covered with dirt. At Jewish burials it is customary for the bereaved to cover the coffin with the initial layer of dirt. Said layer must cover the coffin completely so that it is no longer visible. This is supposedly supposed to ensure that animals and other things don't get into it and for the family members' peace of mind.
Jews mourn for seven days. It's called "sitting shiva." Shiva means seven. It is sad but you get to eat a lot of food and pray quickly compared to most other services. I hope Aunt Joyce eventually lets the tears flow. It was very strange to see her not cry.
Also, Tony Soprano died tonight on the Sopranos. More on that later....
Now Listening to: Junior by Aceyalone w/ RJD2
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Prefuse 73 is following me; Chris Potter on WRCT
So last night I saw Prefuse 73 again - second time in two months. Truth be told, I knew he was coming and helped promote the show through wrct but it seems like all of a sudden I see this dude in DC and then he comes to Pittsburgh. it was good. my impressions are basically the same except this show, I had earplugs and I'm not sure if they enhanced or took away from the experience.
he is a sound artist and what he is doing is basically sonic collages out of any given order, w/ hip hop beats to root the crowd every once in a while. to call Prefuse 73 a hip-hop DJ is like calling Venetian Snares a jazz artist cuz he uses samples of Billie Holiday.
Anyways, some really cool news - tomorrow on The Return of the Jazz Clinic, you can tune in to hear me interview Chris Potter on the air at 5 PM. The show is from 2-6 PM. Listen online here.
Some sweet records I got into rotation this week:
Hank Mobley - Workout (Blue Note)
Maria Schneider - Days of Wine & Roses (artistshare)
Paul Shapiro - It's in the Twilight (Tzadik)
Alex Sipiagin - Equilibrium (Criss Cross)
Manuel Valera - Melancolia (self-released)
I will post my playlist here tomorrow after my show and I'll try to post a transcription of the Chris Potter interview as soon as possible.
Now listening to: Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin' (Blue Note)
he is a sound artist and what he is doing is basically sonic collages out of any given order, w/ hip hop beats to root the crowd every once in a while. to call Prefuse 73 a hip-hop DJ is like calling Venetian Snares a jazz artist cuz he uses samples of Billie Holiday.
Anyways, some really cool news - tomorrow on The Return of the Jazz Clinic, you can tune in to hear me interview Chris Potter on the air at 5 PM. The show is from 2-6 PM. Listen online here.
Some sweet records I got into rotation this week:
Hank Mobley - Workout (Blue Note)
Maria Schneider - Days of Wine & Roses (artistshare)
Paul Shapiro - It's in the Twilight (Tzadik)
Alex Sipiagin - Equilibrium (Criss Cross)
Manuel Valera - Melancolia (self-released)
I will post my playlist here tomorrow after my show and I'll try to post a transcription of the Chris Potter interview as soon as possible.
Now listening to: Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin' (Blue Note)
Thursday, February 02, 2006
2nd/3rd days of jazz madness
I lost this document on my friend's computer back in NY and didn't retreive it from him til about 30 min ago. This was written on the 14th of January.
Well, today started for me at 12:47. After listening to my friend’s new album with him and giving him comments on what he might change before releasing it, we shared a cab to Manhattan. He got off Downtown. I was going to Midtown for more jazz hedonism. Cab cost $30 without tip!
Went straight into the Sheraton Hotel and realized I had forgotten my badge in Brooklyn. No problem, I walked into the Jason Moran Blindfold Test hosted by jazz journalist Dan Ouellette without being checked for it. I arrived late but the tunes I was there for included Abdullah Ibrahim from an album called African something (ENJA 2002), Keith Jarrett from Radiance (ECM 2005), Medeski Martin & Wood from It’s A Jungle In Here (Gramaphone 1992), Jaki Byard from Live at Maybeck Hall Vol 17 (Concord 1992), The Bad Plus from their latest – Suspicious Activity? (Columbia 2005), and Harry Connick ,Jr. w/ Branford Marsalis from Occaison (Marsalis Music 2005). Jason offered very deep, heartfelt commentary on each tune. He got Abdullah Ibrahim, Keith Jarrett, MMW (only by chance – before finding out for sure who it was he gave it 2 stars. He said that he knows John Medeski’s playing both on organ and piano have improved immensely since then – that he has had more life experiences now), Jaki Byard (he got very emotional answering this one since Byard was his teacher and mentor), and The Bad Plus, He didn’t get the Harry Connick Jr. w/ Branford.
Now I am listening to the WDR Big Band with Paquito D’Rivera play the Sheraton Ballroom. Getting a little restless.
I will try to blog about yesterday below thought I have almost forgotten the day since so much good shit happened to me. My day started around 8:30 when I woke up, quickly dressed and took the subway in to the conference. I caught the JJA panel “Who Asked You Anyways” where I was very pleased to sit down and talk with JazzTimes and DownBeat columnist (now author too) Nate Chinen who is a friend of my good friend Randy Wong (from their days growing up together in Hawaii). Nate gave me some tips on how to further my career as a journalist if I want to go that route. I think I need to start really trying to actively make deadlines and such so I can write for the City Paper and other alternative print media that might pay me something. This requires sitting on partially-fleshed-out articles/stores sometimes before you get a bite from an editor to publish it. This was very informative.
Then I happened to be sitting there in the same seat and who should walk right in but DON LUCOFF. I know he sounds like a Mafioso but he is not. He is the KING of jazz public relations and promotions. His clients include Marsalis Music, Blue Note Records, and many many others including all the major concerts at IAJE (controlling the press and arranging seating stuff). By sitting in on this informal session of jazz publicists including Jason Byrne, Jana La Sorte, some people from Jazz @ Lincoln Center’s public relations department, and the people from Don’s company DL Media, I impressed a lot of people with my savvy of blogs, myspace, facebook, and bulletin boards as grassroots means of publicity that are increasingly important for the changing generation of music listeners. I spent most of the day hanging with musicians whom I had written articles about including trumpeter Ray Vega.
I also attended an excellent session on big bands and how the successful ones are doing what they do. These included Maria Schneider, John Clayton, Charles Tolliver, Gordon Goodwin, and Arturo O’Farrill. The moderator was John Clayton’s manager and big band/vocalist specialist Gail Boyd, a very talented lawyer and jazz advocate. They discussed issues as far ranging as the semantics of ‘big band’ versus ‘jazz orchestra’, and government financing of big bands, to how to start your first big band and union rates for musicians and whether they are still appropriate and whether these band leaders use that kind of scale or one that is more realistic for their monetary limits and one that cats are still willing to work with.
At night, the National Endowment for the Arts presented their annual Jazz Masters awards. The two featured big bands of the night were the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra and the Count Basie ghost band feat. Nnenna Freelon (who really got under my skin with her wit, personality, and spontaneity on stage). Walt Weiskopf took a killer solo with Faddis’ band on Coltrane’s Countdown arranged by Slide Hampton. Then after all the awards to Ray Barretto, Chick Corea, John Levy, Buddy DeFranco, Freddie Hubbard, and Bob Brookmeyer were handed out with a video montage for each chronicling their careers, the two bands played again. They invited old Jazz Masters in the room to come up on stage and jam on Count Basie’s “One O’Clock Jump.” As Slide Hampton, Paquito D’Rivera made their way on stage and Chick Corea followed, this tiny boy approached the stage with his trumpet in hand. Apparently he considered himself a jazz master and accordingly wanted to jam on the blues. The audience meanwhile was anxiously murmuring, wonderding whether this kid was for real or not. But when they let him play, he played HIS ASS OFF. The crowd roared for him. At the end, Jon Faddis announced “that was 10-year old Tyler Lindsay.” Wow. That was the highlight to close a great night and day of history, discussion of the present, and promise for the future.
After a day in the hotels, I headed into the “field” to see Mulgrew Miller w/ Vincent Herring on alto, Eddie Henderson & Maurice Brown on trumpets, guest saxophonist Wayne Escoffery (who had just come from blowing the crowds away with the Mingus Big Band/Dynasty/Orchestra (one of my top 10 picks of 2005), Ruben Rogers on bass, Lenny White on drums,
Back to today:
Now, it’s already 5:00 PM and I am gonna head over to a session called Major Indies – a discussion of indie jazz labels that are leading the crowd of people trying to present recorded jazz to the masses without corporate support.
Catch y’all later. Tonight is gonna be an insane night of shows.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)