Programming Note and Links

Posting will be light in August. I've got a few extra things on my plate at the moment that require most of my time, but I'll pop in from time to time and get back up to speed in September. Here are a few things to check out today while you're trying to escape the heat.

• It's Newport time again, and NPR is streaming some of today's performances, including Matt Wilson, Dave Douglas' Brass Ecstasy, John Faddis, and the Wynton Marsalis-Dave Brubeck collaboration. Yesterday's action included Fly, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, and the JD Allen Trio.
• Also at NPR this week, Patrick J. nerds out to some Guillemo Klein. Great stuff.
• Fred Kaplan discusses the recent onslaught of audiophile pressings of classic Blue Note albums in the New York Times today.
• Finally, Andrew Durkin shares a choice quote about technique and improvisation. Spot on.
• Finally, George Wein spoke to Mark Myers recently about the 1960 Newport Rebel Festival, which spawned an unlikely collaboration on record featuring Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Eric Dolphy, Jo Jones, and Roy Eldridge, among others.

Photo: JD Allen at Newport via NPR

And We're Back

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Moving to jazzhothouse.com.

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Will return momentarily.

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Adjust your bookmarks.

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UPDATE: New rss feed

Hiatus

Esperanza Spaulding performs at Newport with Joe Lovano's UsFive (Wiqan Ang via A Blog Supreme)

I'm off on vacation through next Friday. I'll be back with you shortly thereafter. In the meantime, below are this month's links.

• Jazz.com remembers Don Ellis (part 1/part 2).
• Miles Davis skateboards!!1!1
• destination: OUT is rerunning some old favorites this month, be sure to check that out.
• The new Dave Holland site has some free bonus tracks from Pass it On.
• The Newport Jazz Festival was last weekend. NPR's A Blog Supreme has photos (1, 2, 3), as does Nate Chinen. NPR Music has full coverage, plus archived performances, here.
• The Bad Plus' Ethan Iverson on his vinyl collection.
• Longtime jazz writer Chris Albertson has a new blog, Stomp Off in C... (h/t jazz.com).
  

I'll see you when I get back.

Out of Office

I'm off to Miami for Thanksgiving weekend. Enjoy your holiday, here are some links...

• Jazz Lives posted a copy of a letter Sonny Rollins sent to Coleman Hawkins in 1962.
• On Rifftides, Doug Ramsey unearthed a great YouTube clip of the Bill Evans Trio in a 1966 Swedish television program. Bill speaks about the groups approach to improvisation, and the trio follows with a wonderful performance of "Emily."
• The New Yorker briefly covers a lecture on cell biology, evolution, and cancer by Harold Varmus, which is accompanied by a jazz quintet led by his son Jacob Varmus. Perhaps next time he could arrange for the Giant Steps robot to open...
• Over on Do The Math, The Bad Plus posted some choice photos from the Life Magazine collection newly hosted on Google. Here's one of my favorites after browsing the collection briefly: Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie on stage at the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival.

• NPR's All Songs Considered takes a look at the Beatles' White Album, which was released forty years ago this week. Host Bob Boilen interviews Beatles scholar Bruce Spizer, and shares some wonderful demos of songs from the album recorded in May of 1968 at George Harrison's house. Though they were not a jazz group, they were certainly influenced by jazz and left a sizable influence on jazz (would there have been fusion without the Beatles? Probably, but it would have been different, I think).
• Again at Rifftides, here's a retelling of Paul Desmond's final birthday in 1976, which fell on Thanksgiving. He spent it with Jim Hall at Hall's daughter's apartment in New York City. After dinner, the two went to see Thelonious Monk at the Village Vanguard, later hanging out with Monk in the Vanguard's kitchen. I am a sucker for jazz-legends-as-regular-dudes stories like this, they make Desmond and Hall seem like Jerry and George meeting Kramer at the coffee shop...
  
• Sharing a birthday with Desmond on Tuesday was Willie "The Lion" Smith (1897-1973). Here he is in Germany in 1966:

Heads Up

I was linked once again at jazz.com. Thanks for the attention, it is much appreciated. I'll be posting again this weekend, in the meantime, here's Medeski Martin & Wood...

Fun Fact

What do Dizzy Gillespie and actor Rainn Wilson (who plays Dwight on The Office) have in common?

If you answered, "They are both followers of the Bahá'í Faith," then twenty points goes to you.

Program Note: I have decided to make Friday Album Cover an occasional feature. The reason is simple: I've run out of album covers that I wanted to write about, and I don't have the time right now to search for a new one every week. I could just pick random covers and write, but that isn't as interesting to me...

Onto some links...

• Jazz.com recently interviewed saxophonist and fellow Miami-transplant Marcus Strickland.
• Amazon.com is offering a free download of an ECM sampler on their mp3 site. The sampler features tracks from Pat Metheny Group, Charles Lloyd, Bill Frisell, and Chick Corea, among others. Get it while it is available.
• Nice Kenny Garrett interview at All About Jazz.
• The National Endowment for the Arts held their annual Jazz Masters ceremony, bestowing the title upon Lee Konitz, Jimmy Cobb, and Rucy Van Gelder, among others.
• R.I.P. to Neal Hefti, whose Basie charts were a favorite to play in my high school jazz band.
  
• Someone pointed out Heliocentric Worlds to me the other day, where I saw this awesome video of Charles Lloyd with Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee, and Jack DeJohnette from the late sixties:

Coming Attractions

While not watching the stock market implode this week, I've been working on a post on Happy Apple. It will be up sometime this weekend. In the meantime, check out a video of the group.

Here are a few links that have been piquing my interest as of late:

• Destination: OUT has been posting an impressive amount of Anthony Braxton material this month.
• Over at jazz.com, Walter Kolosky reviews a selection from his imaginary CD collection.
• On FindingDulcinea, Rachel Balik lists her top 5 essential trumpet solos, which may be a topic I'd like to explore in the future.
• All About Jazz interviews Dave Holland.

Today is Thelonious Monk's birthday. Here is a video:

And, apropos of nothing, here is the Giant Steps robot:

Sorry

No new content in a week, but it was a busy week, so sorry. I'll have something up soon, in the meantime, listen to The Bad Plus...

I am linked, therefore I exist.

While scanning over my hit stats on Sitemeter the other day, I noticed that a few people were coming to the site from a link at jazz.com. From there I discovered that a post from a few weeks ago (on the best working groups in jazz) was included on their links page. So thanks to jazz.com for the support (it figures that the one week I don't visit the site is the week I get linked). For those of you new to the site, feel free to stay awhile...

Update and Links

My posting has been a bit erratic (or absent) lately, and I will be back up to speed starting tomorrow with a Friday Album Cover.

In the meantime, check out Vintage Vanguard (h/t Dial M for Musicology). It is a Japanese site with a bunch of hi-res scans of Blue Note album covers, along with scans of the liner notes on the back of the cover. You could easily waste hours staring at all these covers and reading the notes. What a great find...Also, while it's still up, listen to two great cuts of avant-garde supergroup Air on Destination: OUT.