Archive for the 'Jazz' Category

The Passing of an Innovative Jazz Pianist & Poet Cecil Taylor – RIP

Thursday, April 5th, 2018
  • 1aaCecilTaylor

    Guardian obit – Cecil Taylor was 89. (Excellent coverage)


    Cecil Taylor: a visionary pianist
    who breathed fire and life into jazz -John Fordham.

    NYtimes obit

    Cecil Taylor (March 25, 1929-2018)

    was an American pianist and poet.[1][2] Classically trained, Taylor was generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and intricate polyrhythms. His piano technique has been likened to percussion, for example described as “eighty-eight tuned drums” (referring to the number of keys on a standard piano).[3] He has also been described as “like Art Tatum with contemporary-classical leanings”

  • Rhythm is the life of space of time danced through. – Cecil Taylor.


  • (Thx to Jeff O’Connell)

  • His music meant so much to me, the dancing on the keys, the huge chordings/speeds/oceanic, then pointillist, the intensity, the uncompromising musics…

    Alan Sondheim

  • Hugh Masekela – South African Warrior Musician Left us at 78

    Wednesday, January 24th, 2018
  • Hugh 1aaafmasekelazebra
    Via

    As a warrior artist I like to feature art by other warrior artist or pieces of art that inspire warrior artists, and these two tracks by South African horn player Hugh Masekela are just that. Born April 4, 1939 music found Masekela at a young age. He took up trumpet at 14, and after quickly mastering it went on to lead several jazz ensembles. Growing up in apartheid South Africa, his music has always been a reflection and form of protest against the system that enslaved his people.

  • What Hugh Masekela meant to South Africa’s Freedom Fighter.

    Many people have paid tribute to the musical genius of Hugh Masekela, known as the father of South African jazz. But he was not just known for his musicianship. The artist, who died on Tuesday at age 78, used his public platform to speak out against apartheid and substance abuse.

  • On this day Aug 29, Birthday of Bird & Dinah W. + Sad Goodbye to Gene Wilder

    Monday, August 29th, 2016
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    Sad news – Gene Wilder passed away.

    Prison scene from Stir Crazy (youtube)

    Interview – Gene Wilder getting personal (youtube)

  • Cary Grant stopping Gene Wilder to talk about Silver Streak – (via Sheila’s Variation)

    Oh, Mr. Wilder! … Mr. Wilder!” I turned and saw Cary Grant stepping out of the taxi. My heart started pounding a little faster, but I didn’t throw up this time, as I did when I met Simone Signoret.
    Cary took his daughter to see Silver Streak.. and he saw the film again.
    Tell me something, will you?”
    “Of course.”
    “Was your film in any way inspired by North by Northwest?”
    “Absolutely! Collin Higgins, who wrote the film, loved North by Northwest. It was one of his favorites. I think he was trying to do his version of it.”
    “I thought so,” Mr. Grant said. “It never fails! You take an ordinary chap like you or me … (An ordinary chap like you or me? Didn’t he ever see a Cary Grant movie?) … put him in trouble way over his head, and then watch him try to squirm out of it. Never fails!”

  • 1acharliePD

    Aug 29 – birthday of Charlie Parker and Dinah Washington
    Photo by Herman Leonard
    1949 for charlie 1955 for Dinah

    Round Midnight Photo Exhibit of Cy Twombly, Dexter, Bertrand, Ella, Marilyn & Paul Mazursky

    Monday, April 25th, 2016
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    Photograph of Cy Twombly by Robert Rauschenberg
    Cy Twombly with Relics
    Cy Twombly birthday April 25, 1928.

  • Dexter & Bertrand 1aBertDexter
    Happy birthday Bertrand Tavernier. (Bertrand Tavernier update, Journey of French Cinema-2018)

  • Ella and Marilyn 1aEllaMarilyn
    Ella Jane Fitzgerald, April 25, 1917 (birthday)

    During the ‘50s, one of the most popular venues was Mocambo in Hollywood. Frank Sinatra made his Los Angeles debut at Mocambo in 1943, and it was frequented by the likes of Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Lana Turner.

    Fitzgerald was not allowed to play at Mocambo because of her race. Then, one of her biggest fans made a telephone call that quite possibly changed the path of her career for good. Here, she tells the story of how Marilyn Monroe changed her life:

  • Paul Mazursky 1ePaulMazurskyr his birthday was also April 25.

  • Missing You – Blue Mitchell – (March 13, 1930 — May 21, 1979)

    Sunday, March 13th, 2016
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  • BLUE Mitchell 1aBlueMitchell
    March 13, 1930 — May 21, 1979

    “I think Blue Mitchell was one of the most melodic players of his generation”

    –Jimmy Heath

    Blue Mitchell played with Horace Silver for seven years.

    Goodbye Ornette Coleman & Memory of Ornette & Derrida

    Thursday, June 11th, 2015
  • NYtimes obit

  • Derrida and 1aColemanDerrida_Ornette

    Derrida Interviews Ornette – The Others Langauge (Three of Being)

    Philosopher Jacques Derrida Interviews Jazz Legend Ornette Coleman: Talk Improvisation, Language & Racism (1997)

    One more lengthy article on Ornette Coleman and Derrida

    previous post (see videos – Chappaqua suite & Naked Lunch)

    John Lurie – June 11 2015 via FB

    When I first started playing saxophone and discovered Ornette Coleman he freed me up. He put me on a path that made sense for me to follow.
    I would search the Worcester Public Library for anything about jazz and found a book about him and Cecil Taylor. For some reason the line that stayed with me that Ornette said was, “I knew I was on to something when I found I could make mistakes.” That hit me so profoundly. Yeah, that is exactly right, even if no one but you knows, you are on to something if you can make mistakes.
    I managed to see him play often. When he took his solo at the end of Skies in America at Carnegie Hall, Bill Noel turned to me and said, “he just stopped time.”
    Which was also exactly right.
    Later, when the Lounge Lizards started he was remarkably supportive and helpful to the young band leader following in his footsteps.
    And much much later, when I had found my musical voice, I had some of the guys in my band that he used to hire, but was having a really rough time with them.
    So I called Ornette and we had an amazing two hour conversation
    about running a band.
    Ornette’s passing hit me really hard. He meant something to me and not because of all the musical innovations that he made, which are many but because of the sweetness in him. Almost like an angel.

    Adios Señor Horace Silver – (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014)

    Wednesday, June 18th, 2014
  • LAtimes obit

    “He was not only prolific, he was a unique composer,” said Phil Pastras, editor of Silver’s 2006 book, “Let’s Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver.” “Even an ordinary 12-bar blues in his hands turned into something magical.”

    Horace dies at 85.. (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014)

    NYtimes obit – Master of Earthy Art

  • Last year Dec Horace Silver Update... (click to see large)

  • Funky and Humorous –

  • Miles Davis and Horace Silver
    With Miles here.. Adios Señor Horace Silver.
    (06 Mar 1954, Hackensack, New Jersey, USA — Musicians Miles Davis (left) and Horace Silver
    work on the piano during a recording session for the Miles Davis Quartet. — Image by © Mosaic Images/CORBIS © Corbis. All Rights Reserved.)

    Senor Horace Silver Update

    Tuesday, December 17th, 2013
  • Update: news of his death was unconfirmed.. He is still alive.. may you live forever.

  • I’ve got to B natural and have faith what comes through me..I’ve got to B major in positivity and B minor in negativity..I must not B flat and allow the light of my enthusiasm to fade.” ~excerpt from a poem by Horace Silver

  • <> <> <> Horace Silver

    Funky and humorous (Many good links to his compositions)

    Horace Silver – Funky and Humorous

    Monday, September 2nd, 2013

    Nutville

    Filthy McNasty

    Sister Sadie

    Doodlin (Sarah Vaughan vocal)

    The Skunky Funky Blues

  • Happy birthday Horace Silver Horace Silver
    (visit his homepage and check out his autobiography.)

  • Song for my father – previous post

    Silver with gold fingers

    Ornette Coleman at 82

    Friday, March 9th, 2012

    <> <> <>
    Photo of Ornette Coleman by Andrew Pothecary

    Chappaqua suite was not used in the film.

    See Chappaqua (full film) here on youtube.

  • Ornette is 82

    Happy birthday Ornette Coleman!


  • Naked Lunch soundtrack

    To Steve Signed by Ornette

    He’s a friend of my friend Abigail, who knows everyone, and used to show up occasionally at various events. I gave Ornette a ride home from a dinner at Abigail’s place, probably mid 80s. He had an entire 5 story tall primary school on the Lower East Side at the time. He had bought it from the city and was way behind in paying for it and fixing it up and the city was trying to take it back, which eventually they did. I dropped him there and he gave me the record, or maybe autographed a copy that Abigail had at her house. I think I had offered to help him work it out with the city, I was pretty good at that back in the day, but he never followed up with me. Steven Schwartz

    Last Date – Eric Dolphy

    Sunday, June 20th, 2010

    Eric DolphyEric Dolphy Last Date

    Eric Allan Dolphy (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964)

    Trying to play dolphy

    With Mingus <> <> <> Gazelloni

    You don’t know what Love is

    Young Saint EricFlut with a horn
    (Image via)

    Jazz needs Eric Dolphy more than ever. A virtuoso on saxophone, clarinet and flute, his work bridges the two sides of a debate that dogs jazz fans and performers today. To oversimplify, the neoconservatives argue that jazz must be profoundly grounded in tradition, that new developments are little more than a gloss, and that history stops with Miles Davis and modal jazz in the middle ’60s, with bare whispers of Ornette Coleman and nothing from swingless radicals like Cecil Taylor. The rebels (most now older than the neocons) counter that jazz loses its essence by going backward, that the titans revered by the neocons were fearless innovators, and that the whole reactionary movement reduces jazz to a museum music with a self-righteous fence around it. Dolphy could have listened to both sides, picked up his horn, and showed the way out in a dozen choruses. But he died in 1964, barely 36, struck down by complications stemming from undiagnosed diabetes. (Salon Young Saint with a horn )

    Google logo 2010 fathersday2010-hp

    Happy Father’s day!Charles LeDray
    Necktie Skirt by Charles LeDray