dancingarchitect

[dancingarchitect]

Barry Harris, the Bebop Crusader, Has Left Us at 91

Barry Harris, perhaps one of the last of the authentic exponents of the early bebop style and language of the 1940s, has just died. Critic Gary Giddins, who once called him "the key conservator" of this style, also neatly summarized his performance aesthetic:

Barry Harris [was] one of those gloriously stubborn figures who saw the “second coming” in Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk and has remained true to that vision while developing his own way of pursuing it. He has a lyrical, understated, beautiful sound on the piano.

Harris learned the style in his teens in Detroit by imitating the brash modernists - most especially Bud Powell - directly from recordings. While in hearing Harris play a Powell tune as above ("Oblivion") there is no mistaking his influence, Harris also demonstrates an extraordinary fluency and intensity within this language to find his own shading on this style. Also, his careful study and masterful performance of Monk's work made him as much a part of this niche orbit as anyone could who obviously would not have played with him. So much so that he was called upon to be a part of a tribute concert to Monk at Columbia University (one of two such concerts) in the wake of his death. Though there is a group of legends involved in this concert, it is nonetheless decided to lead this second concert with Barry Harris doing a poignant solo version of "Ruby, My Dear" (see below). Mark Stryker, in his thorough and excellent obituary for npr.org describes his performance of this very kind of composition in glowing terms: "On romantic ballads his ear for harmonic color and the eloquent movement of one chord to another lent his performances the lyric glow of a Shelley ode." That certainly feels right here.

But then, it is his long track record as a jazz educator that may be just as important. His deep, studied understanding of bebop - as well as the roots of it in earlier jazz and classic popular song - was always on display in his countless lessons and masterclasses. I found his masterclass I saw in Montreal to have shifted how I looked at constructing jazz melody and I have only caught up to the fundamentals of it in recent years. He was also a community educator and bandleader, putting on concerts involving choirs and ensembles largely as outreach. For all of this, he remains a hero. If you're looking for recordings to get started, I would recommend any or all of these trio recordings - Magnificent!, Barry Harris at the Jazz Workshop, and Barry Harris Plays Tadd Dameron.

[dancingarchitect]

SEPTEMBER 29, 1998

Do you remember when album releases--at least in pop culture--were still meaningful events? It's not that a release means nothing now but given that albums sales are all but gone on a mass scale, it doesn't mean what it used to.

In my last post I mentioned Nirvana's Nevermind release. Many think this is the most important record release date of the modern era given the other releases from that day: A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik The Pixies’ Trompe le Monde Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger Some of you may be less familiar with the post-punk of The Pixies, but this is a very influential group. The other three albums are obviously massive hits and all seminal. Nearing the end of this old model of the recording industry with large-scale sales, in its last phase in the digital CD era, we also have a final release day - Sep 29, 1998. There are few dates in hip-hop history with as many notable hip-hop releases: Outkast’s Aquemini Jay-Z’s Vol 2 … Hard Knock Life Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s Black Star A Tribe Called Quest’s The Love Movement There's an entertaining dialogue at The Ringer about whether this is, in fact, the greatest record release date in hip hop history. (This is in addition to a massively popular Sheryl Crow album released that day.) A bygone era, to me though...

[dancingarchitect]

Nirvana released Nevermind 30 years ago today. The night before the release they played a show promoted by Boston radio station WRNZ at a club called Axis. Footage of this concert has emerged.

2 bands opened (one of which was Smashing Pumpkins). Nirvana led with a blistering b-side, “Aneurism.” Eventually, they played “Drain You” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” among their first four songs which are all on this clip. It is so visceral and immediate. They are not famous yet, but these fans know what is going on - and are caught up in all of it. Rock and roll might never mean so much ever again as during this period.

[dancingarchitect]

HEAVY ROTATION

What I'm checking out lately...

Dan Fortin - The Latest Tech (2021)

One of Toronto's great young instrumentalists, bassist Dan Fortin, has released a solo bass release called The Latest Tech. You can buy a digital copy or stream it on bandcamp as well as stream using your Spotifies and Apple Musics. Solo bass albums are obviously rare. (Bad) jokes abound about the instrument holding the attention of audiences. And yet, Dan I think defies any conventional thinking on this. The pieces are quite brief--all but one are under 5 minutes, and the shortest is under two--and each is typically tightly wound around a few closely related motivic ideas made salient sometimes by at various times either propulsiveness or, at other times, their forebording starkness.

Highly recommended.

Peter Gabriel - So (1986)

I know. Not exactly a discovery. It's the album that brought Gabriel to the real mainstream - becoming a genuine superstar for a time. But I keep coming back these days - there's so much richness in this album. It is a rare blend of songwriting that includes top-notch lyrics with production and arranging that has textural sophistication and the highest musicianship. Gabriel, along with collaborators producer Daniel Lanois and guitarist David Rhodes, manage to blend then cutting-edge digital technology and synthesizers with musicians from across the world. Speaking of musicianship - to take just one example, I noticed recently how indelible bassist Tony Levin's contribution is in key places - particularly the chorus of "In Your Eyes" on fretless bass. It's a part which may not be a flashy but his nuances, particularly his use of scoops, make a big difference. There's subtleties like that all over the album. https://youtu.be/kU8OJAOMbPg And there isn't really a weak track.

[dancingarchitect]

There are many cultural touchstones of note in Journey’s song “Faithfully” and its video, released as a single in 1983 from the album Frontiers. In this case, I will succumb to a common blog custom - the list:  1. Over time, this song became a very well-known hit for Journey though initially it only made it to #12 on the US Billboard Pop charts. 2.  While it soon became a favourite of many Journey fans, it took on greater pop culture reach in recent years due to its use of the song in the 2006 movie Talladega Nights in this incredible scene with Amy Adams and Will Ferrell.

(Granted, Ferrell's character references another video from Whitesnake.) Beyond this, though there is another reason that I think the DNA of this song creeps into nearly everyone’s pop music unconscious (see #7).

3. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain claims he wrote this song in 30 minutes. He claimed divine inspiration - that he was “anointed” and that it was “supernatural.” It has 3 chords (yes 4, if you count the one that has a different bass note - let’s not fight).

4. Pop culture scribe Chuck Klosterman has a great essay “That 70′s Cruise” about going on a Classic Rock-themed cruise that has Journey as a headliner.  Klosterman mentions meeting a 45-year old mechanic contractor Larry Zuccari who saw the band 31 times. Larry told Klosterman that he insisted to he wife that his wedding song be “Faithfully.” BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DID. (However, the wife didn’t accompany Larry on this cruise.)

5. This video is supposed to be “innovative” for its time for cutting from shots of performances to the “reality” of a band on the road. (It’s supposed to be taken from documentary footage of a film about Journey - but given that, even by 1983′s standards, this ain’t great.) It is true - this became an oft-utilized framework for the videos of numerous hard rock and metal bands in this era from Bon Jovi to Poison to those wacky boys from Germany...

Yeah, a lot of that hasn't aged great, Scorps. 6. But wait! Before you think the "Faithfully" video may be lacking a compelling narrative, know that there is a dramatic twist in the second act when... [SPOILER ALERT]... ...Steve Perry shaves his moustache part way through.

The tone in this is weird. It’s hard to say whether this was there for laughs? Or is it really a serious part of a "story" in this video? If the latter, the result to me is a screenplay that tries to reach for setting up an Act III transformation in its arc that never quite lands. Also, it's creepy. 7. And then there’s the connection of this song to Prince's most famous anthem. For a lot of casual Prince fans, it may not be well-understood that Journey - the band’s guitarist Neil Schon especially - was a huge influence on some of his songwriting and especially his guitar style. In fact, after 70s funk artists, it’s possible that glam rock and especially Journey was the next most important part of his stylistic pallete. Nowhere is this more evident than on “Purple Rain.” In fact, Prince was so concerned about the similarities to "Faithfully" that he actually called the band to get a go-ahead just in case - he was prepared to make adjustments if necessary. Journey gave him the go-ahead and the rest is history. Check out these guitar solos from their respective codas: Neil Schon: https://youtu.be/rj__jhmPMgI?t=201 And then 25-30 seconds into Prince’s coda boy his sound, his approach is very similar: https://youtu.be/S6Y1gohk5-A?t=281 He’s not quoting him directly but it’s there. But beyond that, the whole song’s chord structure and some of its melodic contour is definitely inspired by it. So there’s that. 8. Plus, Steve Perry has very wet hair when performing. Can that really all be sweat? Does he get hosed down just prior to performing? In any case, while you may look down upon their majesterial rock (which I grant I can't listen to often), I stand by that he is one of the greatest rock tenors of all time. That's all for today folks! Maybe next time it'll be free jazz...who knows?

[dancingarchitect]

A find from Twitter... rare to find an exciting, uncompromising, and still somehow accessible contemporary classical music piece - in this case for cello and piano. Plus it’s short! Check it.

[dancingarchitect]

Charlie “Bird” Parker is obviously the central figure in the shift to modern jazz - or what is usually called “bebop.” (Though that word always feels like it isn’t giving it enough weight to me.) Ethan Iverson is probably right in intimating that Bird is not for the faint of heart, and that they are many critical jazz musicians before and after him that make better gateways to new jazz listeners. Iverson actually makes this comparison - “we should treat Bird like an Einstein or [composer Arnold] Schoenberg. That would help place him correctly with the uninitiated. ‘You won't get it at first, but you will eventually.’” However, it’s in key live recordings like this one  - a heated rendition of Parker’s own “Confirmation” from February 1950 in New York - that his legacy truly comes alive, as he plays with a ferocity and complexity both in melody and rhythm. All of this, to me, remains shocking. And yet, with all that, with Parker you can always still hear the blues and the grease. There is only one. I hadn’t heard this solo until a few days ago, and if it’s your first time I hope you are ready.

[dancingarchitect]

Michael Lucke is doing extraordinary work transcribing in complete detail recordings of some of the greatest pianists - often choosing the most daunting performances. This transcription of Bill Evans’ legendary multi-tracked solo version of “Love Theme From Spartacus” from Conversations With Myself (1963) is obviously very revealing of Evans’ innovative approach, but the transcription seems almost as miraculous.

[dancingarchitect]

HEAVY ROTATION: THE RETURN

Long time no see, Tumblr... you ain’t dead yet I see.

Here’s some of what I’ve been listening to... 1. Glenn Gould’s Consort Of Musicke By William Byrde And Orlando Gibbons  > Pianist Ethan Iverson provides considered, enthusiastic commentary as well as embedded sheet music. “For a jazz musician like me, exploring early music has a familiar kind of atmosphere. The sources are incomplete, supported and thwarted by oral tradition, kept together out of love and duty. The titles are remarkably inconsistent, let alone the notes. When you get to ornamentation, all bets are off. Play it how you want to play it.” 

2. Eddie Henderson - Realization  Sample: “Scorpio-Libra” > For me, could there be a better title for an album? I’ve been researching some of the Mwandishi-era early 1970s Herbie Hancock as well for a future history presentation, and came across this astounding album. This is effectively Hancock’s septet minus trombonist Julian Priester but with Lenny White added to Billy Hart to make it a 2-drummer band. But with trumpeter (and physician!) Henderson as the leader, this often leans more toward a funkier take on skronky Bitches Brew jazz-rock...uh yeah sign me up.

3. Thelonious Monk - “Don’t Blame Me” > “So if I become a nuisance it's all your fault!”  > Monk on an older popular standard is always astonishing and revealing of his whole approach.

4. **LATE BREAKING** Free Nationals - “Apartment”

> … The nouveau smooth. > “Got all you need as a single man…”

_

[dancingarchitect]

Retitling “Little Women” to Entice Men to Go See It, By Bruce Handy

As Published in the New Yorker... Speaking to demographic issues with audiences for the film... “I don’t think that [men] came to the screenings in droves, let me put it that way.” —Amy Pascal, a producer of “Little Women,” in Vanity Fair “The ‘Little Women’ problem with men is very real.” —Janet Maslin, on Twitter Handy suggests the following titles to entice male viewership: “Into the Marchverse” “Game of Settees” “The Meg Identity” “The Jo Supremacy” “Star Wars, Episode X: The Rise of Amy” “Killing Beth” “The Marmee Ultimatum” “Pretty Much ‘Good Boys’ but with Gals” “So Many Actresses Margot Robbie Must Be in It” “Set in an Old House, Could Be an ‘Annabelle’ Movie?” “You Liked ‘Hustlers’ and That Starred Four Women” “Christian Bale Was in an Earlier One So How Bad Could It Be?” “Four Girls, One Teacup” “Another Movie Where a Schlubby Guy* Lands an Amazing Wife” “Shorter Than a Whole Season of ‘Fleabag’ ” “Seriously, Some Civil War Shit!” “Little Women: Ragnarok” “John Wick 5”

[dancingarchitect]

Dutch singer Benny Sings is a new revelation to me. AV Club: “This stuff knocks, like Steely Dan had they come up on beat tapes.” Yup, that sure sounds like my jam.

[dancingarchitect]

A superbly cogent and precise summary of various famed male songwriters’ contrasting perspectives re: women.

[dancingarchitect]

THIS is an award ceremony performance. You can have your Bradley Coop-coop and Lady Ga-GA. (Skip to the 3min mark.)

[dancingarchitect]

First entry in awhile...a 2015 joint I somehow missed - it’s RnB non conformist Bilal slinking along until a guest verse comes from MC of the moment himself, Kendrick Lamar. It’s brief but great.

[dancingarchitect]

I also refer to a response from acclaimed jazz pianist Richie Beirach:

http://jazznewsyoucanuse.com/2018/08/the-end-of-jazz-the-weekly-standard-richie-beirach-response/ – Sigh. Another piece decrying jazz’ apocalypse is makin’ the rounds. This one, admittedly, has more detail and higher prose, but it’s still all a bit much.  There are bits and pieces of evocative (if fanciful) description in Dominic Green’s around Coltrane. Some details are questionable. However, it’s mostly the larger point about jazz I’d argue that’s missing. To start with, it’s really telling how much Green keeps coming back to the details of European harmony and composers in reference to Coltrane and others. While Western harmony and sometimes classical music is an influence, is this truly what is at the forefront of jazz tradition? To that end, while I appreciate Beirach’s enthusiasm and well-informed commentary in his response - he largely focuses on correcting musical details in Green’s piece. However, I’d argue that he isn’t really addressing the core problem with Green, and many others like him. Neither of them addresses where jazz truly comes from and continues to inform its tradition. Jazz doesn’t simply emerge and rapidly change due to “modernism” (in some general sense). Nor can you readily fit all of jazz within any specific set of musical characteristics. Rather, jazz emerges from the particular social and cultural realities in America - in particular the realities for African Americans who contributed most to its origins. The musical traditions that African Americans that were a direct result of interacting, often quite subversively, with these realities which included to inherited music of the dominant culture. One of the most obvious examples that predates jazz is the spiritual - which retains the Christian message while indicating messages of cultural difference and freedom of oppression through musical and textual practices. (This kind of interaction is sometimes called “Signifyin’” - a term that comes from literary scholar, Henry Louis Gates.) None of this is controversial - in fact, all of it is essential to understanding the music. By the early 20th century, the aesthetics and eventual practices of jazz are difficult to pin down in part because they arise from several existing musical traditions and this time of (very) partial liberation. To me, jazz was an extremely sophisticated way for African Americans to interact and play with everything around them in a fluid way. The inspiration for interaction often included popular songs (their melodies, forms, and texts), other African American-rooted folk and popular music (blues, gospel, in addition to later genres) as well as with each other - that is, the other musicians as well as their audiences. This self-conscious fluid interaction in performance, much of it improvised, is largely foreign to European norms of performance. Like Green did, I’ll use Coltrane as a later example. While I’m not suggesting that Coltrane plays “My Favorite Things” the way he did to make an overt “point” about musical theatre, he also didn’t do it as a way of evoking "orientalism" as Green so offensively puts it. Rather, he loved the original song (he’s on the record about that) but he and his group were also having a conversation with the song and its associations. By extension, the audience of jazz listeners understands this conscious “defamiliarization” of the familiar; in this case the musicians are defamiliarizing not just a popular song but also how jazz practice works itself. Indeed, in this way, jazz musicians utilize interactive practices that emerge from African American culture. (There’s a highly influential article about this very recording and Signifyin’ by Ingrid Monson that I recommend.)

The example of Trane’s “My Favorite Things” exemplifies how jazz changes as it interacts with the people and history around it. Moreover, jazz practices become highly personal and complex because…it’s art! Green may not like some of these practices for his own preferences, but this doesn’t mean they result in any “death” of an entire tradition. He doesn’t have his finger on the pulse, in this sense; I’m afraid Green doesn’t get to make this diagnosis. In any case, I’d argue that all of us participating in jazz tradition inherit all of this cultural and social history, and I’d argue we should conscious of it. This doesn’t mean musicians and critics are always making overt social points in music or writing, but rather we should maintain an awareness and respect - that, to me, it is what is lacking in this piece. To that end, it is telling that Green does not use the words “interaction” or “conversation” in his piece, nor does he address these ideas anywhere. Though this a strong statement - I’d argue this is because he misses the point about  Coltrane and, to an extent, jazz tradition itself.

[dancingarchitect]

“Endpoint” - Harley Card Quintet. What Harley calls a “blues with a twist.” Which, it may be the twist but it is probably, in a sense, just like he did last summer (see Chubby Checker’s discography for reference). It Everything about this performance is great, but David French's first chorus (4:10) on his solo is so perfect - and it sets the table for his outstanding statement. I yelped to no one in my apartment after that dirty first chorus. Any jazz improviser wanting to know about how to begin a statement on a blues should carefully pay attention. Also, the magic of drummer Ethan Ardelli and French entering together like that - those moments of surprising coalescence are so much of what carries this music forward. Buy or check out the album, The Greatest Invention at https://harleycard1.bandcamp.com/