Star Eyes differently

Walking to work the other day, the Nano came up with some saxophone playing that stretched the possibilities of "Star Eyes," and even wrung some new possibilities from it, with a sound lighter than Sonny Rollins but heavier than Ornette Coleman and an approach somewhere between the two, kind of Michael Breckerish. The cut came from Larry Schneider's "Jazz," SteepleChase, and the description could pretty much cover the rest of the disk, the ballads, like "Old Folks," included.

The rhythm section is nice as well, Andy LaVerne on piano, Steve LaSpina on bass and Matt Wilson (becoming one of those guys I use as a sign that a disk I'm thinking of buying is probably worthwhile) on drums. They tend not to venture as far as Schneider, which is OK because I think it helps anchor what the saxophonist does and makes this an approachable CD for anyone from jazz neocons to avant-garde acolytes and that's saying something. LaVerne contributes a couple compositions. I really liked "Portrait of Dorian Mode." It almost sounds like it has Chinese music underlying it.

Man of steel, his guitar anyway

I'm thinking I'll have to spin Richard Leo Johnson's "The Legend of Vernon McAlister," Cuneiform Records, again because I'm sitting here, just having played it for the first time, wondering if I really heard what I think I heard, which is a man get pretty much a whole orchestra out of an old National steel-body guitar his neighbor gave him.

Not a lot of jazz on this stunning CD, but there is quite a bit of the old timey, country blues I like, and a bunch of other stuff, and if you appreciate music in general I think it would be hard not to be a little amazed by it overall.

Jazz from a small island

British pianist Stan Tracey, whose trio nicely backs Sonny Rollins on "Live in London," is pretty Monkian (check out "A.M. Mayhem") on "Jazz Suite Under Milk Wood" with Bobby Wellins on tenor sax in the Charlie Rouse role. He actually sounds like Rouse (listen to "Llareggub") in places, but more like Stan Getz in others. Tracey wrote the songs based on a Dylan Thomas play and I think it's music as advanced as anything anybody was doing in 1965, including Miles Davis' second great quintet. I actually ordered this awhile back from the Bebop Shop in Britain and I'm not sorry I parted with the coin to do it.

Birthday greetings

Miles Davis would have been 80 today and if he was I probably wouldn't be wondering who's ever going to resolve jazz and hip-hop.

Pretty as a painting

Italian saxophonist Tino Tracanna stuck out for me on John Tchicai's "Big Chief Dreaming," a disk that stuck out for me in general, so I ordered Tracanna's well-thought-of "292," Splasc(h) Records. Overall, I came away thinking of the CD as a jazz soundscape. I think parts of it are informed by towering classical orchestral (and operatic) pieces, kind of like Bob Belden's "Black Dahlia" but with a lot fewer instruments and yet as sonically impressive. In "Argomenti Persuasivi" I hear Italian or Mediterranean influences and African forms presented, at least partially, as aural abstract art. And "aural abstract art" fits the title track in particular as a description. Elsewhere, the blues are in the mix as well, along with chamber music, and conventional, albeit modern, jazz. Consistently interesting and likely to be next time I listen.

An apple a day

"Scrapple from the Apple" with Charlie Parker leading Miles Davis and Max Roach, priceless. From the fourth disk of "Charlie Parker: A Studio Chronicle 1940-1948," JSP Records, which really is a fabulous set. Brian Priestley calls this Parker's great quintet (Duke Jordan on Piano and Tommy Potter on bass are the other guys) in "Chasin' the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker" and I'm inclined to agree.

Kullhammar shoots, he scores, again

For purposes of my pocketbook I'm afraid Swedish saxophonist Jonas Kullhammar is going to become my next James Carter. He puts out a CD. I buy it. The latest, "Son of a Drummer," Moserobie Music, presents his quartet alone, minus the accompanying big band on "Snake City North," also Moserobie, a powerful disk that was one of my favorite purchases last year.

From my ear's perspective, the wallet can go lightly. "Hitman" sounds like Coltrane with the Jazz Messengers, and '60s Coltrane at that, which is an interesting mix. (I still hear Sonny Rollins and David Murray in Kullhammar's playing as well.) The whole group is good. Of the two Torbjörns, Gulz, the bassist, really sets the pace (see "The Rise and Fall of Sour T") and Zetterberg, the pianist, is an ear-catching second soloist who's McCoy Tynerish. And yes, I think there's a bit of Art Blakey in drummer Jonas Holgersson, although he probably appreciates the saxophonist's modernist, avant-garde leanings in a way Blakey wouldn't have. Kullhammar, not yet 28, wrote all the songs except for one and even the exception's a Swedish production, so I don't hear a bunch of tunes I've heard several times before. I'd really like to see these guys live.

The Davis crib (kind of)

Miles house,
originally uploaded by mrgreg.

On my foray to Alton, IL, to attend Miles Davis' 80th birthday party Sunday I also took the opportunity to drop by the address where his birth certificate, on display at the event, said he was born.

I'm not sure it's the same house, doesn't look like it, although it could have been retrofitted over the years since Davis was born at 5 a.m. May 26, 1926. The family moved down the Mississippi to East St. Louis the next year in any event.

Hawk bops

"The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History" by Scott DeVeaux, University of California Press, was a little heavy on the musicological for me but the book also looks at the social, especially racism, and economic forces that drove the advent of bebop and it doesn't stint on the personalities involved, focusing in particular on Dizzy Gillespie while including some leaders in the movement who haven't received as much attention, such as Howard "Maggie" McGhee.

What I found especially interesting was Coleman Hawkins' facilitation of bebop by showing that small group concert, versus dance, jazz could be lucrative for black musicians, as well as by his incorporation of bop into his own music. I can hear it in "Bean and the Boys," Prestige, which has Hawkins in three octets and a quartet including Monk and modernists like Fats Navarro, Max Roach, J.J. Johnson, and Hank Jones, among others. The first set, he's transitioning from big band swing. The second and third, he's bopping, man. On the final set, from 1959, he's adapted soul jazz. But he's always Coleman Hawkins. It's hard to mistake that Hawkins sound, indelibly etched in my mind from "Body and Soul." In addition, all except seven of the 22 tracks on "Coleman Hawkins 1945" from the French Classics Records label are by Hawkins small groups with McGhee and much of the music is bop leaning. Personally, I think Hawk is talkin' trash to Charlie Parker on "Rifftide" and "Stuffy."

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."