Jazz for aficionados

For whats its worth, I can listen longer to Turrentine , Sunny Stittt , and Elaine Elias longer than any other jazz players .
Worse part of jazz is the who can play the loudest contests .

O-10 
 Ammons had a ton of talent etc,etc ,but nothing I personally would care to listen to all day .

Rest assured Dave, I am fully aware of my own many faults and foibles. And others reactions to them .
If you bothered to read what I said, that Ammons has a ton of talent but is not someone I would want to listen to all day , no reasonable person would consider that a put down hard or otherwise . Or come to the conclusion,from those few words., that I am oblivious to anything .
My conclusion on O-10 is the result of a thousand comments of that nature.and worse, by O-10. Often to people whose only goal is to help him .

I never make  a comment to anyone to hurt them but in the hope they will come to their senses , unlikely as that may be . I always pay attention and always have done so .

I actually like Gene Ammons myself , esp. when he dips into r&b much of what I consider folk music . Just not all day.


Telling a story is the heart and soul of jazz and as any great storyteller
will tell you , the only story you really have is your own .
The audience is moved by emotion and a player that has to think of what
he is doing technically may tell a story but it won’t be his own.

One of the biggest"A-ha" moments in my life took place at a Bob Hope Show in Vietnam . As a Platoon Sgt. I was one of the few allowed to carry
a weapon so I had to attend and keep the boys in line .
The usual parade of lame jokes and half-naked Hollywood starlets etc grinding it out etc went on for about 90 minutes to semi-obscene calls, grunts and clapping from the 5.000 troops in the audience .
Last act was a B-List Standards singer named Jack Jones, an established singer, but I’m sure not 50 people there had ever heard of him or the standards he sang .
He came out on stage and simply said, Hi, Fellas, I’m Jack Jones and I’d
like to sing a few songs for you .
He sang 3 standards , I don’t remember which, and as he walked off the stage 5, 000 troops sprang to their feet and as one gave him a TREMENDOUS roar , 3 times that any starlet got and it continued for a good 5 minutes !
This was well into the war and most of those troops were dredged out of the ghetto’s, rural south , Puerto Rico etc ,were poorly educated and drug use(hash)was epidemic .

Yet these lowest of the low knew what all humans instinctually know,
there is no substitute for authenticity .
Goes double in music as that is also instinctual .

Thanks all for the threads and links to "Caravan"
It was written one year after I was born and for years after hardly a day
went by when I didn't hear it on the radio and be enchanted by it !
I'll wager 90% of the American public was familiar with "Caravan" by 
the start of WW 11 as it was in every big bands rep .  
I'd also guess that not 1% are today. Progress ?

There is a very smoky jazz club type of it on You Tube by Cassandra Wilson with a quintet . The great percussionist Lelank Babaalula alone is worth watching it for . She's not Ella but a good horse for that course .

Thanks, O-10.
A little older Cassandra does another "Caravan" that runs 9.50m at 32nd Jazz de Vitoria Fest, an outstanding video where her sidemen put on a master-class on improvisation !

WOW, nothing like a big band !
For those who might not know SWR stands for South West Radio in German , English too come to think of it .One thing that puzzles me about Jazz recordings is they seldom list the arranger, who often is the major element in the recording .
Frogman , I’d be surprised if Kenny D had not played a bit of Bach in his time, what a great player ! I’m going to hit Amazon for him .

Frogman, I just watched you link to Kenny D Jr playing Back and "Stella in Starlight " .
I was immediately shocked at how sick he was and that the venue was the School of Music at the U of MN .
You could tell where his heart was when he slid into "Stella" a most noble
effort by a great musician  just months away from his death.

The School has about 600 students who all have to give recitals , they all all free and 4.7 miles from me !
Even in Summer , in next 5 days there will be 3 major concerts , Brahms Requiem , Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante and a recital from the Baroque
Instrumental Group as part of the 2 week Mpls. Early Music Festival.
School has 2 big bands and 6-7 small jazz ensembles , all this is in
Ted Mann Hall, 1200 seat venue with world-class acoustics .

They don’t call Mpls. the "minni apple" for nothing !

Amen, O-10 and Ghosthouse .
One of the very first  jazz LP's I ever bought was a Wes Montgomery.
Alerted me to the fact jazz is serious music .

Frogman , serious question .
I’ve listened to your link to Kenny D Jr 6 times , partly for the sheer beauty of it and partly trying to see how he does those chords .
But most of all because the way these 3 play together is meta-physical , almost seems impossible to do .
Is this more from sheer shed time or because these guys have perfected the art of listening to each other, just know each other inside out , all of the above ?
One a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate this trio on improv to the extent its playing off the others ?
Assuming they are .

So very kind of you to give such a thoughtful and complete answer to my question Frogman , answer must be valuable to all on here not a pro musician .

It’s all pretty much what I thought , but is VERY helpful to know one is not
on the wrong track aka totally nuts. Something like if you studied hard for a final exam, took same and never got graded .
I had them as a 9 but I know I tend to get freaky on great talent previously unknown to me . To this simple listener to be so together at such a tempo will always be nothing short of a miracle .

What kind of headphones do all you You Tube link addicts use to listen to them ?
I ’m using Sennheiser HD 545 because the AQ Dragonfly you drove me to buy to bypass my "puter soundcard with won’t really drive my Senn 650 or AKG 701 very well . 545 does OK though .

The only way a bass can  really carry a melody is to be bowed .
Spalding perhaps?
There are any number of Paul Hindemith’s" Sonata For Double- Bass " (with Pn.)
on You Tube for a modern approach .

A fine one is Matthew McDonald , a principle bassist, acc, by a very fine pianist, Tomoko Takahashi .

Believe it or not, the most commonly used "holy grail" reference recording used by 
Classical violin players is in mono .

Well played violins ? Apart from the fact they are not even violins, I doubt
these women could get a job in any orchestra in the world .

Beyond any doubt Pettiford was a great player and did a great job on "Stardust" .
For a bass . "Stardust " is one one of the most melodic of all the great American standards .  It’s not unknown to be played by Symphonic
Orchestras and played for what it is , a true masterpiece .
But if Pettifords version of it was the only version of it , it would not be a standard .

O-10 actually I have written reviews in German Mags, of course 
that was twenty years and several strokes ago .

It would be very helpful to your system to attend a half-dozen or so live Symphonic Concerts if possible , even if you hate them .Especially if you hate them .
Cheers 

O-10 
If I could do it I would do it .
I'm old and sick with the proverbial one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel .
Having 4 mini strokes makes learning many small things impossible .

Why not try something old but different , Richard Galliano who often plays with Wynton Marsalis ?

Amen to 'dat czarivery .

 chromatic button accordion can combine both even and odd harmonics 
from the fundamental to the 6th .A one man band , which is why so often used in folk-music.
Damn Lawrence Welk gave it a bad name .

1\

Cool, I always thought he was good . I had a chance to see him practice once , after Brubeck, with a pianist who was a cousin of my girlfriend .

Bennett has the hold he has on us because he is an authentic 
human being and people instinctively  respond to that.
Perhaps that was amplified by the fact most of his peers were phonies .

Frogperson,
If you would like to hear Jancek  perfection , try his Qt 2 over on Classical
Afficiondos .

You suspect wrong .

Re, "Laura" .
        The Great American Songbook  would be a lot poorer without 
Johnny Mercer's lyrics . Had a lovely voice as well .
         

Frogman , it’s on last page under Schubert - "Pure Genius ’ .At spots it lifted me off my chair !
A miracle that this is not a Quartet , only one I ever saw before was the lady who was Principal with the SPCO
for a while and lives in Mpls .  #2 volin is Prof at Oberlin , Viola is Belgian born soloist  .# 1 kid is a winner of something .

Thanks guys , the  last few posts on "handing off " have been very 
interesting, to me trying to "catch" it is one of the real fun things in jazz.
Lot easier for a non-expert like me to see it from your links  of course .

Amen

Clark Terry is so musical it seems like he has no instrument .

Thanks. Frogman.
The miracle to me is they were a pick-up group .
IMO Janacek is not as popular as he should be because he combines all the parts of music in a manner few  seem to understand .

If you don’t know, read the back story of " Intimate Letters" and it’s relation to his death .

I really wanted to say Clark sounded like he was a song .
Hard to really make the case with Bald Mountain, but there was one second where I heard Smith sound like Terry.If my life depended on it I would put them very close if not equal .
The religious element in the Times article is spot on and something I have known for decades .

Buy a Grado 90$  Mono Cartridge  !Much of jazz and other music sounds better in Mono than Stereo .

He is Risen !

I couldn’t agree with inna more .
I firmly believe ,as someone who has seen a LOT of docs, that as a GENERAL proposition women are better docs for the reasons stated .
It’s a simple fact that in general women are better listeners than men and the clue to a good diagnose often comes out of the patient’s mouth .

Yup, I complimented 0-10 on his clarity of thought and the National Socialist
Party censor thought that too much . Really bad group .

Yes  mary jo  but that was only 15 years ago , might see otherwise when you are older.

I heard the  Bickersons 369 times . Was VERY popular in late 40's.
I don't think it was on in Yugoslavia .

This legend who wrote the words and some of the music for MANY of the "standards " also had a good voice and left a record of how we should act in present day .

https://youtu.be/f3jdbFOidds?t=3

Not that I will .

https://youtu.be/Xk7aYSUI3kI?t=3
Paul Bley said virtually what frogman did .
He gave me this album with he and Lee, I treasure it .Both went their own ways but were so skilled in their craft that they played beautifully together .Two giants , may they rest in peace .

THE greatest and most beautiful guitar player in the World  !!!
https://youtu.be/ee0azRhL9yY

Encore , Encore  !!!


https://youtu.be/9CDT0cwGKxY?t=2

Perhaps the greatest rare "musician’s song" that came out of that era .Just great music , played by great musicians .

https://youtu.be/B2FZnhYO7cI?t=1

If only everyone could have the sound of Capitol Records in 50’s
the world be be a better place !

https://youtu.be/M2-u2V14RtE?t=8

es la musica  mas sofisticade de esta big band .

n80,Pure class !A guy who wrote the lyrics for so many jazz standards that probably
would not be "standards’ without them is jazz .
A true American treasure .

One of his songs played and sung by a leading jazz diva and pianist .
https://youtu.be/TdQj_oqVK7A?t=9
 Very few jazz artists have not played it .

Who ever was the rhythm man in Heaven will have to move other,
new sheriff in town .

https://youtu.be/LVhlRJ8BCDs?t=1

Wagner's did . He wrote twice as many anti-Semitic published diatribes as music when he was the best known person in Germany and which made hate speech
in the German middle and upper classes acceptable in public discourse .
And words DO matter !

I studied history in Germany for 4 years in the top-rated German university for same and every single Professor drew a straight line from Wagner to Hitler .
Adolf didn't idolize him for his music .

You'd have to be very far from life to think that Billy was doing anything but dying a slow death before you very eyes on stage . And through NO fault of her own, a national treasure thrown on the garbage dump .

"Haiti has  no culture " .
 More like you are testing God .

Well, at least Mozart gave credit to Haydn, to the best of my knowledge that's more than Stravinsky ever gave Scarlatti .

They are a lot of very good jazzmen here in Twin Cities that just don’t want to live in NYC , Chicago, or LA .
 Not a matter of talent just a lack of wanting to run in the rat race .

acman3,
Same way that great artists in every genre have become great in prisons, whore houses , utter poverty etc etc etc etc, by putting your mind , body and
soul into your music .
Simple logic determines with 8 billion folks on this planet we have no idea who is the best and if such a thing even exists .

I thought Blossom Dearie was a joke the first time I heard her.
Third time I heard her I knew she was not .