I just think novelty for its own sake is a most superficial aesthetic. Lotta blues artists continue to do amazing things with 3 chords.

And the other thing that's happening that might make a huge difference is that the virtuosity of musicians is at an extraordinarily high level, and it may be that the playing can pull things out of compositions that we've never heard before. If Hillary Hahn can make Schoenberg a big seller, than who knows what else can happen.

this show is great. the sound quality on the vid is excellent too

billy martin is just amazing.

You jazz nutz might be interested in Marc Myers' 5-part interview series with Rudy Van Gelder, the self-made recording engineer so responsible for the sound of jazz recordings in the 2nd half of the 20th century.

early in the 1st entry in the series, Van Gelder credits a visit to the WCAU studios in Philadelphia for his fascination with sound recording and engineering.

hes a genius, thanks for that.

"unprofessional" though nice shots of the interior of Rudy's Englewood Cliffs studio

Here's 1:

FTN wrote:

Thanks for posting FTN. I've become a fan of Kurt due to an earlier post of yours!

I'm a bit of a follower of versions of Giant Steps, which in Jazz circles is sort of this bench-mark of your manhood... "can you play Giant Steps" "let's see how he handles Giant Steps" --

The tempo was medium fast, not blazing and it swung ok. The sax guy was struggling to get his lines to connect, the piano solo was stronger but she didn't have the sheer chops to take total control, Kurt got off to a slow start and then heated up with some nice lines and phrasing as it got deeper in. I'll post some examples of Giant Steps that I think show more command ...

I remember once meeting the alto-sax player Bobby Watson at some small show at La Salle in Phila. And we were talking to him and giving him props and he was very humble and kept saying "thanks man thanks man you make me feel good" but then he said "but really, George Coleman - that's the guy man... he can play Giant Steps in all 12 keys!" :- )

This is one the baddest-a** of the bad ever filmed on Giant Steps. There's about a 3 1/2 minute free-form intro alluding to the core tune, then Gonzalo's break-neck solo is around minute 7 or so - then they trade 8's after that...tempo is sick...

This is sick and few on planet earth could approach it. Sad that he has aged and had some health issues and can't play like this anymore. As well, this was recorded in 96, and for sheer virtuosity he peaked in 77-78 period but I don't know any recordings of him doing Giant Steps in that time period? Maybe someone has a recording that will emerge some day. I've also heard him do some other tunes of Coltrane from similar period or that were on seminal recordings like Giant Steps, Blue Train - he's been doing Moment's Notice for decades and I've seen him do Lazy Bird at break-need speed live it gave me chills...

I've always found this fascinating... robot plays a transcription of Coltrane's solo from Giant Steps record from 1961

And one more - since you had guitarist -- here's Joe Pass doing a sick solo version

Philly the Kid wrote:And one more - since you had guitarist -- here's Joe Pass doing a sick solo version

make that two more:

ill!

Philly the Kid wrote:

FTN wrote:

Thanks for posting FTN. I've become a fan of Kurt due to an earlier post of yours!

I'm a bit of a follower of versions of Giant Steps, which in Jazz circles is sort of this bench-mark of your manhood... "can you play Giant Steps" "let's see how he handles Giant Steps" --

The tempo was medium fast, not blazing and it swung ok. The sax guy was struggling to get his lines to connect, the piano solo was stronger but she didn't have the sheer chops to take total control, Kurt got off to a slow start and then heated up with some nice lines and phrasing as it got deeper in. I'll post some examples of Giant Steps that I think show more command ...

I remember once meeting the alto-sax player Bobby Watson at some small show at La Salle in Phila. And we were talking to him and giving him props and he was very humble and kept saying "thanks man thanks man you make me feel good" but then he said "but really, George Coleman - that's the guy man... he can play Giant Steps in all 12 keys!" :- )

love your story about Watson, Kid, and looking forward to digging in to your Giant Steps examples

Among the things I enjoy about jazz is its human scale; the opportunity to actually tell performers you enjoy what they do without going all that far out of your way to do so, hear firsthand what they think about things other than their music, help them get refreshments, what have you.

really love







wheres sly is one of my favorite things ever.

I saw Chucho Valdes and his group on Monday night as part of SF Jazz - and it was exquisite.

drawing on a plethora of genres blended with taste and nuance it weaved from Bach n Bolero to African call n response to 40's pre-bop to shades of McCoy and always tinged with latin the encore kickn up some salsa mud...bravo!

Kid, given previous conversations about the presence/absence/relevance of "new" developments in the music, I thought you especially might be interested in this 3/10 item in Marc Myers' Jazzwax blog. He references Nicolas Payton recently making a point of saying he planned to refer to his music as Black American Music rather than jazz (he apparently excised "the j word" from his vocabulary for 90 days, ending last Wednesday). Herewith a quote from Myers' post:

....Throughout jazz history, new jazz styles have always been slow bloomers. Then, without warning, they explode, breaking free to become dominant forms. This cycle was as true of bebop as it was of jazz-rock fusion. Now jazz is shifting again after decades of relative stagnancy. It would seem that we're in the "emerging quietly" phase. How long this period lasts is anyone's guess....

...The bigger, unspoken point that I think Payton was making is that black musicians today are increasingly being disenfranchised from jazz. From the perspective of many black jazz artists, white tastes and corporate power have subsumed the genre, compelling musicians to repeatedly record tribute albums and Songbook fare. Many of these artists have had little choice, since many labels have rigid visions of what sells. Musicians have to eat, after all.

Piece also references Myers' 2-part interview with Robert Glasper from earlier in the week, which was also good stuff. As appealing as musician Glasper is, conversationalist Glasper is also a hoot.

The article includes a link to a 40 minute interview with Payton - I've listened to about 3/4 of it, good stuff, I'm not familiar with the interviewer but he does a fine job of drawing Payton out. He also salutes Temple's Terell Stafford at about 30 minutes.

drsmooth wrote:Kid, given previous conversations about the presence/absence/relevance of "new" developments in the music, I thought you especially might be interested in this 3/10 item in Marc Myers' Jazzwax blog. He references Nicolas Payton recently making a point of saying he planned to refer to his music as Black American Music rather than jazz (he apparently excised "the j word" from his vocabulary for 90 days, ending last Wednesday). Herewith a quote from Myers' post:

....Throughout jazz history, new jazz styles have always been slow bloomers. Then, without warning, they explode, breaking free to become dominant forms. This cycle was as true of bebop as it was of jazz-rock fusion. Now jazz is shifting again after decades of relative stagnancy. It would seem that we're in the "emerging quietly" phase. How long this period lasts is anyone's guess....

...The bigger, unspoken point that I think Payton was making is that black musicians today are increasingly being disenfranchised from jazz. From the perspective of many black jazz artists, white tastes and corporate power have subsumed the genre, compelling musicians to repeatedly record tribute albums and Songbook fare. Many of these artists have had little choice, since many labels have rigid visions of what sells. Musicians have to eat, after all.

Piece also references Myers' 2-part interview with Robert Glasper from earlier in the week, which was also good stuff. As appealing as musician Glasper is, conversationalist Glasper is also a hoot.

The article includes a link to a 40 minute interview with Payton - I've listened to about 3/4 of it, good stuff, I'm not familiar with the interviewer but he does a fine job of drawing Payton out. He also salutes Temple's Terell Stafford at about 30 minutes.

Thanks, I'll check it out. I was in a thread on FB with some people about Payton and some of his remarks a couple months ago...

Marc Myers is on a roll: start of a multipart interview today with Philadelphia-born jazz photographer Herb Snitzer