Party down

Miles birth certificate,
originally uploaded by mrgreg.

From the Mother Jones Monument in Mt. Olive, IL, on my way back from Alton, where I attended Miles Davis' 80th birthday party this afternoon. Miles wasn't there, of course, and he wouldn't actually have been 80 until Friday. But they had a nice local quintet, fronted by Tim Jarden, director of the jazz program at Lewis and Clark Community College, playing Davis music and songs associated with him like "Four," "Someday My Prince Will Come," and "My Funny Valentine." Alton tenor sax legend Herb Hutchinson was fun to hear and trumpeter Kerry Waller did a good job filling in for Miles, who was born at home in Alton May 26, 1926, at 5 a.m. according to his birth certificate, which was on display. The cake was good, too. The folks at the Alton Museum of History and Art hope to make it an annual event that grows and I hope they succeed.

What he said

Here's a piece by Stanley Crouch on John Hicks and one from the Hartford Courant remembering Jackie McLean.

Some people don't like Stanley Crouch and consider him a neocon didact, but I could listen to Crouch and Nat Hentoff talk jazz all day. I certainly have an interest in the academic and musicological aspects of jazz. However, after the music itself, with its wonderful diversity and oft-wondrous instrumental manipulation, I think I am most attracted by the personalities who pepper its history (he said as he works his way through Brian Priestley's "Chasin' the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker"). You learn plenty from reading them, but Crouch and Hentoff tend to be people focused as well so I get a good story, too. Says Crouch is working on a biography of Parker, which I will surely buy.

So far, no demons, and no disco

If I were the guys at MacAddict, I'd be rating Pandora "spiffy." Sonny Rollins Radio is shaping up as the place to hear tenor sax (and some alto and soprano). Songs from the man himself, Coltrane, David "Fathead" Newman, Michael Carvin, Stan Getz, Joe Lovano, Sonny Stitt and Hal McKusick are among the recent tunes to roll through. I'd never heard of McKusick, which means Pandora's stated purpose, teaching me about some new music, is working. Charlie Parker Radio is shaping up as my bop station, naturally, and Duke Ellington Radio is for big bands. I just created Ornette Coleman Radio for the avant-garde. The collection could be bigger, I get a repeat now and then, but they say it grows every day. Besides, it's free, so why complain? What I really like the idea of is that I could travel, access the Web-based service and hear my stations anywhere. Like I said, spiffy.

More Frank Hewitt

I have a favorite Stephen King tale, "The Breathing Method", that includes a scene where the narrator begins to read some books off the library shelves of a strange gentlemen's club (the kind where they drink brandy and play snooker, not a strip joint) central to the story. He decides they're among the greatest American novels, but he's never heard of the author and can't find anything else by him, nor can he locate the publisher. It's like the books came from nowhere, or from a parallel universe. (Hey, it is Stephen King.)

I feel a little bit like that listening to "Four Hundred Saturdays" from Smalls Records, the second CD from the late Frank Hewitt I've purchased recently, this one in a quintet with two saxophonists as opposed to a trio setting. The guy is simply one of the finer jazz pianists I've heard and the sax, bass and drums work on this from Chris Byars (tenor), Mike Mullins (alto), Ari Roland and Jimmy Lovelace are outstanding to boot. Four songs, recorded live (and well), all clocking in near 15 minutes, with lots of stellar improvising. Their version of Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca" is fantastic. I don't think Monk ever played it. But you can get an idea of what he'd of sounded like listening to Hewitt.

I enjoyed Luke Kaven's liner notes excoriating the music industry for ignoring Hewitt when he was alive, and I'm glad Kaven and Smalls went so far as to create a record label to make sure he's finally heard by me and other folks. He should be.

Box open

I read about Pandora today and have been giving it a try this evening and I have to say it's something I might even pay for if I had to, which I don't, as long as I can live with some ads.

I created, in effect, my own Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington Web radio stations. They don't actually play only Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. They play some, and a lot of other stuff like Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. It's a pretty diverse mix, including some fairly obscure stuff. You can thumbs up or thumbs down things to refine what you get. There also are links explaining why you're getting a song, which helps in the refining process, and links to buy songs from iTunes and CDs from Amazon as well. Nicely done.

Knows how to throw a party

Regina Carter can certainly play classical violin (the Italians let her have at Paganini's "Cannon" after all). She's got more than a little Stuff Smith in her as well, and she can do Latin jazz as in "Mojito," one of my favorite songs on her CD "Rhythms of the Heart." And I have to think she could get as avant-garde as Jenny Scheinman, need be. But her thing is getting Motown funky. No surprise then that Carter fit right in with Christian McBride and the jazzed funk fest he put on at the concert I attended in Chicago's Orchestra Hall Friday night.

In addition to Carter, McBride's other special guest was Fred Wesley. I had no idea who Fred Wesley was before the concert. After, I found out he was trombonist of choice and musical director for James Brown. So you know he had no problem contributing plenty of funky licks. In fact, Mr. Wesley, older gentleman and the only guy in a suit though he was, kept right up with the youngsters, including DJ Logic. (McBride joked that Logic was probably the first "turntablist" to play Orchestra Hall, and I imagine that's right.)

I'd like to know more about Christian McBride's bass, which had the dings and dents of a bad boxer's face and looked like it had about 50 layers of shellac covering it. Something tells me it's a classic. He made it sound like it anyway. Dude played a mean electric bass guitar in the bargain. Geoffrey Keezer on piano and electronic keyboards and Terreon Gully, who's from East St. Louis, on drums also were great. Gully is just an impressively skilled drummer, powerful but capable of being subtle, too. I was reading a review Sunday that called him one of the most promising drummers to emerge in a decade.

You could see where Christian McBride was headed on his own CD "A Family Affair" and on "The Philadelphia Experiment," Ropeadope Records, which I gave another listen over the weekend and should pull out more often, because frankly everything on it is good. The duet McBride and pianist Uri Caine do of Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" is priceless. McBride's doing his own thing, but some of it also reminds me of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, Weather Report and, of course, Miles Davis' electric music. I liked him before I went to the concert, but I came away a fan. "Live at Tonic," Ropeadope, his most recent CD, captures the kind of stuff that happened at Orchestra Hall pretty well.

Working on it

"I'm not sure what my usual kind of things are. I'm still getting together my usual kind of things." From an interview with Sonny Rollins on "Live in London."

I think he still is still getting together his usual things, and that's one reason he's so darn interesting at 75. The guy has never stopped searching musically. New CD due June 30 and I can't wait. Plus, yesterday I ordered my ticket to his concert here in September and I can't wait for that either.

John Hicks and Mary Lou

You wanna hear joy, check out "The Lord Says" on John Hicks' "Impressions of Mary Lou," High Note, a gospel romp that's part of a piece Mary Lou Williams wrote for the Catholic Church.

This CD, a mix of Williams compositions and songs Hicks composed in her honor, really shows what an accomplished and versatile pianist he was; sure, he could play blues, stride, bebop, hard bop, but he would have been right at home in a concert hall or a church (and sometimes was in the case of the latter as I understand it).

I bought the disk Friday, after Hicks, a favorite of mine, passed on last week and because I admire the music and life story of Mary Lou Williams. Hicks did a series of these tributes to great jazz pianists and composers. I have the Earl Hines one as well, and like it a lot. I should probably pick up the Kenny Clark, Erroll Garner and Billy Strayhorn sets because the music on the first two is excellent and they're outstanding showcases for Hicks, whom I'm going to miss. All but the Hines CD are available on emusic.

Can't touch this...

I'm getting ready to write some more about the funk-ee Christian McBride concert I went to Friday night. Meanwhile, this afternoon it's the fourth disk of "Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970."

The funk you say, try "Honky Tonk" and "What I Say" and catch that Michael Henderson bass and those Jack DeJohnette drums. Gary Bartz sounds like he's auditioning for the J.B.'s or maybe the Family Stone.

What MC Hammer said.

Burning

"Forrest Fire," Prestige, is the Jimmy Forrest classic equivalent of Ron Blake's "Lest We Forget," with a just-out-of-his-teens Larry Young on organ, before Larry went all Coltrane. I love the versions of "Bag's Groove" and "When Your Lover Has Gone." I'm kind of amazed how good this sounds. I actually downloaded it from emusic and burned it to disk some time ago, before emusic even upped its bit rate. High-end audio fanatics who claim they can hear a difference in MP3s slay me. Likewise LP nuts who say records sound "warmer," whatever that means.

Good ride McBride

This morning I'm listening to "'Lest We Forget," Mack Avenue Records, from saxophonist Ron Blake, who was one of numerous great things about the ultra-funky Christian McBride concert at Chicago's Orchestra Hall last night. I even had a seat front row center. "Lest" is Blake's homage to organ jazz greats past and he's paired with Joey DeFrancesco, along with McBride, an even more super bassist in person than on record. Trumpeter Rashawn Ross gets in some good licks, too. Blake doesn't venture as far as, say, my man James Carter on "Out of Nowhere," Carter's recent organ jazz CD. But he loses nothing in a comparison with guys like Jimmy Forrest or Stanley Turrentine. For me, the attractive thing about organ jazz is its funky joyousness and this disk is all that. Fab version of "More Today Than Yesterday."

Two Christian

Two enjoyable CDs from Christian McBride as I head out to hear the
bassist and band at Chicago's Orchestra Hall this evening. "Gettin' to
It," Verve, modern hard bop with Joshua Redman on sax, trumpeter Roy
Hargrove and trombonist Steve Turre along. McBride's solo "Night Train"
is precious. Some great playing from Redman. "A Family Affair," Verve,
McBride makes jazz with the funk, R&B and soul forms he listened to
growing up in Philly. If disco had sounded like this it might not be a
thing I'm trying to forget. Charles Craig on electric piano and
saxophonist Tim Warfield are memorable. Some interludes are almost
avant-garde.

Mr. Rollins goes to London

The sound is unbalanced in spots, but "Sonny Rollins Live in London" from British Harkit Records, which captures Mr. Rollins at Ronnie Scott's in January 1965, is a good look at him in what I think of as his coming-to-terms-with-the-avant-garde phase. He does some interesting exploring over an 18-minute medley including "Autumn Nocturne," "April in Paris," "Three Little Words" and "I'll Be Seeing You." As always, he impresses me with how he can take diversions and yet never stray out of range of the straight rendering of a song, like "My One and Only Love," a favorite sad ballad of mine, or Miles Davis' "Four" and Charlie Parker's "Now's the Time." He never goes as far as the Coltrane of the period or an Archie Shepp. However, it sure ain't bop either. Pianist Stan Tracey, a U.K. jazz legend, and his trio are compatible accompanists and nice to listen to as well. Personally, I'll take all the live Sonny Rollins I can get.

So long John Hicks

Not long ago I wrote that pianist John Hicks seemed to be great no matter what context you placed him in, with violinist Billy Bang in that case.

Looking today, I see I've mentioned Hicks a half dozen times since I started this jazz journal last year, with James Carter, Chico Freeman, and Jimmy Ponder as well as Bang. I really liked a duet CD featuring Hicks and bassist Richard Davis (who's kind of like the Hicks of the bass). I also enjoyed seeing him dueting live with Frank Morgan in LA last year.

Hicks, who died yesterday, led many of his own sessions, too. I'm partial to "Fatha's Day: An Earl Hines Songbook" from High Note. He may not have been a big name outside of the circle of musicians he played with so well, but I think the guy was an unsung jazz giant.

Fats and Tad

Eight of the 11 Sonny Rollins and Fats Navarro cuts on "The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume One" are on the two-disk "The Complete Blue Note and Capitol Recordings of Fats Navarro and Tad Dameron" as well. I don't regret buying both because the Navarro-Dameron sets include 28 other pieces in a bop or prebop mode that also approximate Miles Davis' "Birth of the Cool." (See "Lady Bird.") Even the alternate takes, which normally don't do much for me, are interesting because of the radical tempo shifting that takes place from take to take. Navarro is every bit of Dizzy Gillespie and the lineup of sax gods showing Charlie Parker-like licks, besides Mr. Rollins, is extensive, Charlie Rouse, Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray for three. Really, every song includes an all-star collection of bop pioneers. I should listen to this more.

Bopping Sonny

Getting to hear Sonny Rollins play straight bebop is one of the cool things about the Rudy Van Gelder Edition reissue of Blue Note's "The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume One." The 19-year-old Mr. Rollins, on 11 cuts from 1949, was quite good at bop. He plays with some Charlie Parkeresque flashes, on the tenor no less, and gives Powell and Fats Navarro plenty to think about.

Blue Bird

The last two cuts on Disk A of "Charlie Parker: A Studio Chronicle 1940-1948," JSP Records, have Parker in a band backing singer Rubberlegs Williams on a couple down-and-dirty blues in 1941. Other band members include one Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet and Don Byas on tenor sax. Weird. And fascinating. I don't think the bebop guys were meant for straight blues, but they still sound good.

The early Bird

"The Kansas City of the 1920s and 1930s had many of the elements of medieval Florence. A wealthy Italian city state, Florence reveled in its independence and in the creative abilities of its artists. Botticelli, Leonardo and Michelangelo all lived and worked there."

Cool passage from the liner notes of "Charlie Parker: A Studio Chronicle 1940-1948," an English JSP Records compilation I got today, which starts with Parker in Jay McShann's Orchestra (if Basie is Leonardo and Charlie Parker is Michelangelo, Jay McShann can be Botticelli or maybe Brunelleschi). Some people hear bebop in the 1941 version of "Hootie Blues" on this. I hear Charlie Parker ascendent in "The Jumpin' Blues" and "My Heart Tells Me," among other places. Great sound restoration for the most part. I'm really excited about this boxed set, a bargain at $25.98 for the five CDs on Amazon. The four recordings of the Kansas City Band, Parker in a trio with guitar and drums, from 1941 are an especially interesting way to hear where he stands at this point. The version of "Body and Soul" isn't Coleman Hawkins, but it sure points the way to Parker's later sound. He's in New York with the Tiny Grimes Quintet by the end of the first disk and showing the stuff that got everybody so excited.

The annoy me state

On the road home from Lawrence, Kansas, and a visit with my great
friends the Dewars. Billboard-festooned, porn-store laced Interstate 70
through Missouri is one ugly stretch of road, but hey, at least it's
long. Glad I had Tab Benoit's "Fever for the Bayou," Telarc, to help me
get across. Excellent driving music. Also, "Whiskey is My Habit, Good
Women is All I Crave: The Best of Leroy Carr," Columbia, is perfect
starting-out music for a cloudy, hungover Sunday morning with an
eight-hour drive in the offing. Don't bother with the Music Outlet at
Warrenton, Mo., unless you're a big old-time country music fan or you
really love Elvis Christmas music. The jazz and blues pickings are slim.

Belgium for chocolate...

And Sweden for jazz. I'm adding the great trumpeter Rolf Ericson to my list of favorite Swedish jazz musicians, which is getting pretty big. On "Stockholm Sweetnin'," Dragon, he makes me think of Art Farmer with his lyrical, understated, but clearly very skilled playing. I hear elements of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, too. He does Thad Jones' "Bird Call" up appropriately boppy and includes a number of clever quotes Charlie Parker (whom Ericson actually accompanied on a Swedish concert tour at one point) would have appreciated.

The title track is, in fact, a sweet ballad while the unmuted up-tempo approach to "If I Were a Bell," a Miles favorite, is an interesting contrast to Davis' renditions. Pianists Göran Lindberg and Claes Croona are quite good on this. (Check out "Just Squeeze Me" and "Evelyn".) I'd like to hear more of saxophonist Nils Sandström, who mostly comps but has a nice Coltrane-like tone. Listened to the CD after a busy day writing the first draft of a work project on human research subjects and it made me feel better.