I have only a glancing acquaintance with the group Oregon, although some of its members, like Ralph Towner are known to me.  I suppose I’ve heard enough to be interested if not convinced.  I invite Oregon fans to post to this blog entry and voice your thoughts about the group.  My own initial impression is that the group had some interesting musical ideas, the overall result was a bit pallid and airless.  Nevertheless, when I came across the Oregon LP “Together” (Vanguard, 1976) in a recent used LP foray, I was intrigued by the match up of master jazz drummer, Elvin Jones, with the group.  If  Oregon seemed pallid, Elvin was anything but,  typically offering an explosion of power and drive.  This, I thought, was a match up that was either a disaster or something special.  Read the rest of this entry »

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There has always been a relative paucity of male jazz singers.  This is one area of jazz where women dominate.  The only male jazz singer today who commands my respect, if not always my appreciation, is Kurt Elling.  His “Man in the Air” is masterful, and leagues above what any other male jazz singer is doing.  Elling’s respect to Mark Murphy is admirable; his infatuations with Jon Hendricks is less well-advised.  But Elling is generally adenturesome and often fearless, and for that, he is worthy of respect and attention.  Most others are to busy trying to channel Sinatra.  In any event, this blog post is about another master jazz vocalist, Oscar Brown Jr.  Brown died a few years ago, and I am afraid may already be slipping into relative obscurity.  Not for lack of talent; more likely for an abundance of political consciousness.  Read the rest of this entry »

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…then I took another trip to the New York/ New Jersey area last weekend and found myself thinking that WBGO should advise listeners who are driving to keep their windows rolled down for fresh air lest the programming lull them to sleep while they are behind the wheel. OK, I’m being snarky.   In previous responses to my blogs on WBGO, I was told to give the station more of a listen than I had time to do on my last trip, which I thought was fair, so I kept the station locked in until I couldn’t stand it any more.  But this was initially going to be a blog about about baseball and jazz, so let me tell you about that first. Read the rest of this entry »

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“FUSION LIVES!” trumpets the cover of August 2008 Jazz Times.  “They’re Back!” screams the August 2008 cover of Downbeat.  Two cover stories in the same month in the main jazz monthlies.  What’s going on here?  Well, for one thing, the hype machine is in Full Hot Air Mode.  For another, the PR-driven, editorially compromised character of the primary jazz mags stands nakedly revealed.  The Big Sell is on.  Are you buying? Read the rest of this entry »

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I eagerly anticipated the CD release of Bill Dixon’s “17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur,” recorded live at Vision Festival XII in New York in 2007, so I eager that I bought one of the first copies of the CD at this year’s Vision Festival XIII, right out of  the box, before it even hit the stores or online sites.  Maybe there was to much anticipation on my part.  Having given it a first listen, I find myself discomfited and vaguely disappointed with Mr. Dixon’s composition and the CD itself.   Read the rest of this entry »

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There’s a small group of musicians who occupy that difficult space between journeyman and artist.   They have all the tools and skills of the fully-fledged journeyman but also touches of true artistic power.  George Adams is one of these musicians; a tenor saxophonist of admirable skill, insight and authority, with an ability to project a unique musical lexicon.  It’s unfortunate he has been largely overlooked and his legacy obscured since his passing 15 years ago.  These musings on George Adams were produced by a recent trip through the aisles of Princeton Record Exchange (a plug?  yes, but they deserve it). Read the rest of this entry »

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In my blog last week I commented upon the bland, pasteurized and altogether uninteresting jazz music programming I encountered on WBGO (Newark) while visiting the New York area for the Vision Festival.   I noted how I had always enjoyed listening to WBGO on previous trips to New York (I was born and grew up in New York City and still visit from time to time for special events and to visit family, so am up there a fair amount).  I thought, possibly, that the yawn inducing music on the radio might have just been the result of a contrast with the white-hot intensity of the Vision Festival, which made WBGO’s programming seem so banal.  Then I received a very polite response to my post from Cephas Bowles, WBGO’s General Manager, which shocked me! Read the rest of this entry »

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A few stray thoughts, dear Readers, fueled by potent antibiotics to treat a nasty case of bronchitis, following the epic Vision Festival XIII in New York City, which I blogged about last week.  To wit:  Is the Free Jazz aesthetic in need of a makeover?  Is jazz radio WBGO (Newark) in need of a makeover?  Click the link and read on.  Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m still somewhat agog over the recent Vision Festival XIII in New York City, produced by Arts for Art, Inc.   If one word could sum it up, it would be:  Intensity.  The music, the playing, the heat, the marathon hours.  They all contributed to feelings equal part rapture and exhaustion.  Being somewhat new to the free jazz scene, I did not know what to expect, but came away feeling deeply moved.  Driving away from the festival site on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a lot of the music on the radio felt pallid and tired and derivative.  To borrow a phrase that was all the rage about five years ago, the festival produced a sense of shock and awe.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Literally just back from the Vision Festival in New York City by way of Princeton, NJ,  and our host, Princeton Record Exchange, where I spent several hours and several hundred dollars on jazz LPs and CDs.   I mention that in extenuation of not getting a full-scale blog post done earlier today.   I’m late getting this blog posted, but wanted to post a quick entry, for you, dear blog Readers, and for our exacting Blogmaster.  What can I say about Vision Festival XIII? Fantastic.  Involving.  Sublime.  Raucous.  Loud.  Surprising.  Challenging.  Necessary.  Were you there?  I will blog more about the festival later this week , but if you attended, I invite you to post your thoughts and  comments on this blog entry and open up the discussion.    

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In his famous essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent,”  poet and critic T.S. Eliot famously stated, “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone.  His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists.  You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.”  I listened recently to three albums that seem to me to seek to place the individual artist in the tradition, while simultaneously moving beyond that tradition, an act both necessary and presumptive.  An act that says, “I am here now, I am alive and new, and, by implication, “That was then, the past, which I am replacing.”  Yet at the same time, all three albums also acknowledge the importance of the past, of the tradition.   The three albums I want to consider are:  “Ellington & Coltrane (1962);” Archie Shepp’s “Four for Trane” (1964); and, Marion Brown’s “Three for Shepp” (1966), all on Impulse Records.    Read the rest of this entry »

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Last week I blogged (I suppose one can’t say ‘wrote’ anymore) about some of my jazz faves.  Yawn, right?  Anyway, continuing the theme, this week I’ll blog about some of my –well, what is the opposite of “favorites” anyway?  Whatever it is, these musicians are it.  Some pretty famous names are on this list of those that I just don’t dig.  For one reason or another, these folks are either underperformers, overrated, or artistically stale. You listening, Wynton?  Read the rest of this entry »

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Memorial Day Weekend, great weather, friends and relatives visiting, and an ongoing home rehab project that requires hauling boxes of books and records to the storage locker (the best argument for downloads), work against any deep-thinking blog post today, so I thought it would be fun (and easy) to list some of my jazz faves.  Like New York City thin pizza, Chicagohot dogs and Italian beef, KC barbeque, Rita’s gelato, and Chen’s crispy beef, these jazzers make me happy and keep me coming back for more; they are my musical comfort food.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Still somewhat smitten by my exposure to Sonny Rollins (see my post from last Sunday), I’m borrowing the title from one of his lesser known (and lesser) efforts, “Falling in Love with Jazz,” to sound the theme of this week’s blog.  Do you remember your first love?  Do you remember your first jazz love?  Do you remember how it was, or why it was, or, more likely, who it was, that first opened your ears to jazz?  Read the rest of this entry »

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On Friday, April 18, 2008, I had the supreme pleasure of hearing Sonny Rollins in concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.  I’m almost ashamed to say that this was the first time I’ve seen Sonny in concert.   It has been the case that when Sonny performed, I was not able to attend; when I was able to attend, Sonny wasn’t performing.  The closest I had come to Sonny in concert was through his famed Blue Note recording, “Live at the Village Vanguard.”   I was intent on correcting that deficiency.   Almost as soon as tickets were made available, I was on the phone with the nice folks at the KC Box Office (they really are nice).  It’s a good thing they are nice folks.  It wasn’t their fault after all that, while I was traveling for my job,  my wife shredded  the newly-arrived ticket when she deemed the envelope contained only junk mail.  Read the rest of this entry »

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I read three books recently that had me musing on the business of jazz.  As listeners, most of us probably focus on the artistic aspects, or at least the entertainment aspects, of jazz.  After reading these three books, you’ll find yourself thinking about the business too.  First up is George Wein’s “Myself Among Others:  A Life in Music,” co-written with Nate Chinen.  You probably know Wein best as the producer of the Newport Jazz Festival, the start of a jaz festival empire that eventually mushroomed into a seeming endless series of jazz festivals around the country, and into Europe and Japan.  In this 546pp narrative, one learns, in ample detail, a lot about the hassles that accompany trying to start or run a festival.  Why did George bother?  Couldn’t be for the money, as he repeatedly tells us that he usually lost money, or maybe occasionally broke even.  After a while, I felt like I was listening in to an IRS audit:  “No, really sir, not a dollar; yes, I know, there were 10,000 people there, yes, all paid, but, what with all the costs, didn’t make a nickel, I swear it.”   They use that same accounting in Hollywood on $200 million grossing films.  The man doth protest too much.  Read the rest of this entry »

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For many, Albert Ayler has always been the poster child for “out” jazz; far-out at that.  Yet is is clear that Ayler remains a potent force in jazz, marked by the landmark Revenant box, the film, “My Name is Albery Ayler,” and such efforts as Marc Ribot’s “Spiritual Unity” and Vinny Golia’s “Healing Force:  The Songs of Albert Ayler,”  the latter the subject of this post. Read the rest of this entry »

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