Time for some new jazz stamps!!!

With each postage increase, the previous set of commemorative stamps becomes obsolete. It was way back in 1995 when the stamps you see at the left were released. Other honorees over the years have included Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday.

There’s criteria that an honoree must meet to grace a stamp. For one thing, unless they’re a former president, they must be dead at least ten years. Here are the complete rules. (Anyone know somebody on the selection committee?)

If I were to choose the next series, I would pick (in alphabetical order):

Sidney Bechet (1897-1959)
Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931)
Art Blakey (1919-1990)
Miles Davis (1926-1991)
Stan Getz (1927-1991)
Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993)
Dexter Gordon (1923-1990)
Woody Herman (1913-1987)
Earl Hines (1903-1983)
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1935-1977)
Lee Morgan (1938-1972)
Sun Ra (1914-1993)
Lester Young (1909-1959)

Any thoughts on this out there? (How cool would a Sun Ra stamp be?)

Stephane Grappelli

One of the best features on the iPod is the shuffle function. I have almost 12,000 songs on mine, and it can lead to some interesting transitions. It can be a little jarring to go from Bessie Smith to Anthony Braxton. But still, it makes for some interesting listening.

A couple of days ago, three songs in a row by the Quintet of the Hot Club of France played sequentially. Besides guitarist Django Reinhardt (1910-1953), the group featured violinist Stephane Grappelli (1908-1997).

I had the pleasure of seeing Grappelli in the mid-90s at the Hollywood Bowl. I saw him taken backstage in his wheelchair before the concert. He looked extremely frail and weak and I had serious doubts that this concert would be worthwhile. I got him to sign my book (reproduced above). I even got to talk to him a little bit. His English wasn’t very good, but it was better than my French!

When it came time for his concert segment, Grappelli was walked very slowly to his seat by his nephew. The entire Bowl was silent at the sight of this man who looked like he should be in a hospital instead of center stage. He picked up his bow and started the first number. It was as if we all had been transported back 60 years! Miraculously, Grappelli had lost nothing of his technique – there were no blurred runs, no intonation problems - nothing. It was as if the music had the power to melt the years from him. I know it sounds odd, but at the start of the first number, you could hear the entire audience smile.

What's new on my 'turntable'

Like Saxophones? Well, Max Roach alumnus Odean Pope has a group with 9 of them teamed with a rhythm section. If that weren’t enough, he adds 3 guest tenor saxophonists – Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano and James Carter! This is great Coltrane influenced music. It’s called Locked and Loaded: Live at the Blue Note and is on the Artist label. (Ornette Coleman provides liner notes. Saxophones aplenty!)



For the collectors, a classic Charles Mingus recording is released on CD for the first time. It was recorded at UCLA (my alma mater). I own the limited edition LP version that was released in the mid-80s. (I could have made a lot of money if I had sold it on eBay!). It’s called Music written for Monterey 1965, played in its entirety at UCLA. Quite a mouthful, but it’s a typical Mingus statement. One of the compositions on the album is called "Once Upon a Time, There Was a Holding Corporation Called Old America" which was later known as "The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive-ass Slippers"!

Happy Birthday, John Coltrane!!!!

On this date 80 years ago, John Coltrane was born. Sadly, he made just a little over half of that time. But he accomplished so much in such a short time – stints with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk before leading a quartet that redefined small group improvisation.




For those who are looking for a place to start listening to his music, I would recommend the 2 –disc set on Rhino appropriately entitled The Last Giant. It starts with a homemade recording as a 19 year old in the Navy and covers his development up until his Impulse! Records stint. (The Impulse! recordings can be the most daunting to the uninitiated.)


For the musicians out there:

There are 25 John Coltrane solos available at http://www.saxsolos.com/ The cool thing about this website is that you can place your order via email and they’re emailed back to you as a pdf file. Very fast! (He has a current catalog of over 800 transcriptions, ranging from Sidney Bechet to David Sanborn. He also does transcriptions by commission.)

Andrew White has transcribed EVERY John Coltrane solo ever recorded! (He also has a large library of Charlie Parker and Eric Dolphy solos available.) I’ve bought several of his transcriptions over the years. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to play Transition or Ogunde, but I had to buy them just to see what the performances looked like! I can’t remember how much his catalog costs, but you can write to him at: Andrew’s Music, 4830 South Dakota Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20017.

Jazz and The Simpsons

Great Simpsons episode last night!

In order to calm Bart’s antisocial tendancies, he’s given a drum set. Much to hard core jazz fan Lisa’s chagrin, Bart has a natural affinity for jazz drumming. (In an episode a few years ago, Bart thought the animation was American’s greatest art form – he didn’t count jazz "because it sucks.") But what galled Lisa the most was that Bart was given a jazz nickname ("Tick Tock" Simpson – for his steady time). To quiet her, the musicians give her the name "Downbeat" Simpson since she’s such a downer. (Personally, I think all the cool jazz nicknames are already taken.)

Lots of cool jazz references. One of my favorites was the sign outside the for the "8 hour jazz benefit – 2 songs will be played!"

Ornette is back !!!!

At the end of 2004, we saw the Ornette Coleman Quartet at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. It was one of the most memorable concerts I’ve ever seen. About the only people who didn’t think so were the blue-haired subscribers who left in droves after the first number.

Yesterday, Ornette released a new live album called Sound Grammar with the same quartet we saw two years ago – Ornette on alto, trumpet and violin, his son Denardo on drums and two basses played by Tony Falanga and Greg Cohen. It’s his first album in ten years.

The idea of two basses apparently goes back to Duke Ellington, who started using that configuration back in the mid-1930s and used it off and on until the end of his career. But there is not that much similarity in how the two composers use this set up. Ornette uses one bass playing counter melodies, primarily arco (with bow) and the other bassist in a more tradition, pizzicato (plucked) role.

It’s great music and is another great addition to my Ornette collection. While it probably won’t get much play on the radio, I’d highly recommend it. The album comes full circle (pun intended) by featuring a new version of Turnaround, a composition he featured on his 1959 Contemporary album Tomorrow is the Question! (Hey, as a 47 year old, that wasn’t that long ago!)

9/11 - New York and Sonny Rollins

After a long absence, I’m back with another entry...

Work has been really keeping me busy lately and has also entailed more travel than usual. One of the places I got to go was New York City. It was the first time I had ever been. As a native of the Los Angeles area, I’ve tended to take all of the New York propaganda with a grain of salt, but once I was there, I can see why they feel the way they do about their city.

I was given a car tour of the city and one of the places we stopped was the hole that used to be the World Trade Center. The footprint of the area was smaller than what I would have expected. However, the height is where the center had its area. Amongst all the tall buildings nearby, it was hard to imagine them being dwarfed by what was no longer there.

Shortly after the attacks in 2001, Sonny Rollins played a concert in New York City. It was recorded and released in 2004 as “Without A Song: The 9/11 Concert.” Great playing by one of the legends of the tenor saxophone. If you don’t have it, get it. It’ll help you put things in perspective. (As a side note, there’s some video of Sonny at www. sonny Rollins.com/birthday.php)

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt

JATP Video

After a long absense....
Hey! A friend told me about a Jazz at the Philharmonic video that's available for viewing. It features Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Lester Young and many others.
Check it out at http://www.dailymotion.com/alternativa/video/53031

Jackie McLean [1932-2006]

Alto sax great Jackie McLean passed away last week at the age of 73. Unfortunately, I only had one opportunity to see him play in person. It was in the mid-80s at the famous San Francisco club called the Keystone Corner. The pictures are on the dark side because, like most clubs, they didn't allow flash photography. (One of my favorite albums of all time, Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s Bright Moments was recorded live at the Keystone.)

On this particular occasion, McLean co-led a quintet with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. This quintet alternated with another quintet led by tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, featuring trumpeter Woody Shaw. What a double bill!

Johnny Griffin

After a two month absence, another entry!!!

I saw Johnny Griffin at a now defunct Marina del Rey jazz club called Hop Singh’s in the mid- 80’s. Nice place, and it didn’t last very long, but it did manage to have groups like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Orchestra.
Griffin was featured last week in the Los Angeles Times on expatriate musicians. Griffin didn’t play in the US very often and his visit to the West Coast was a very rare event. [The autograph reads ‘John Griffin III.’]