I used an hour and a half of the fifteen-and-a-half hours of daylight on this first day of summer for a morning ride on the Bianchi.The bike took me (with a little help) up a series of hills, past the golf courses and expensive housing developments that are pushing farms farther out from town and up the western slopes of the valley. Never fear, however; there are plenty of orchards left. If what I saw this morning is an indication, the world can expect an abundance of Washington applesnext fall, regardless of competition from China and New Zealand. By the time I got onto the roads out in orchard country, what passes for rush hour traffic around here was down to a car every four or five minutes. It was a peaceful place to start the day.

A recent reimmersion in things Tristano led to the mini-review of the Warne Marsh book in the latest batch of Doug’s Picks (right-hand column). It included several viewings of a video of Lennie Tristano’s quintet at the Half Note in 1964. The picture quality may have been fine originally, but it appears to have been through several generations of dubs. No matter; the sound is reasonably good. Through the murk you get a tour of the beloved Half Note in the days when folks dressed to go out in the evening. Those strips of cloth you will see on the mens’ shirtfronts were called neckties.
In this ten-minute clip, the bartender we glimpse now and then is Mike Canterino. He and his brother Sonny manned the bar. Their father may have had a formal name but his family and the customers called him Pop. He and Mamma took care of the kitchen. The word pasta never crossed Pop’s lips; it was spaghetti. The uncomplicated menu gave jazz club food a good name, a major accomplishment. Mike’s wife Judi and Sonny’s wife Tita helped out. Judi became a singer after James Moody recruited her one night to sing the Blossom Dearie bridge on “Moody’s Mood For Love.” Al the waiter completed the staff. In its original incarnation, the Half Note was among the warehouses and garages of lower Manhattan. In the seventies, the club moved uptown, lost its soul and died.
Tristano often played at the Half Note. To see and hear him, Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Sonny Dallas and Nick Stabulas, click here. The piece they’re playing is “312 E. 32nd,” Tristano’s reimagination of “Out of Nowhere.”
For a lovely remembrance of the Half Note by Dave Frishberg, who often played there, go here. Dave paints splendid pictures of Al the waiter and of Mr. George, a dedicated customer for whom Al Cohn named a tune. For Mike Canterino’s story of the night Judy Garland came in, go here.

Please visit Doug’s Picks in the right-hand column for recommendations of two CDs, two DVDs and a book. Thanks for your patience; these have been a long time coming.

Alerting the Rifftides staff to this combination, Bill Kirchner wrote, “Yes, you read that right.” There may have been less likely tenor saxophone encounters, but I doubt if they were captured on camera. The third tenor player–the one we see but don’t hear–is Lew Tabackin.
The house of the good old blues in F has many mansions. Here’s proof. YouTube doesn’t disclose the year, but from the youthful appearance of the principals, I’d guess this was a good two decades ago.

Most customers, by the time the musicians reach the second set, are to some extent inebriated. They don’t care what you play anyway.–Charles Mingus
The boppers flat their fifths. We consume ours.–Eddie Condon
I’m all in favor of getting grants for musicians. Or any other good brand of Scotch.–Pepper Adams

As you may have surmised from the paucity of substantial postings the past few days, I am still working my way through an accumulation of professional obligations, some connected with music, some not. Nonetheless, I try to give you items that I hope will keep you coming back to Rifftides.
So, here is a link to a rarity–video of the sublime singer Carol Sloane. It was made in New Orleans in 1979. Sloane was in town with her friend Jimmy Rowles, who was the pianist in Ella Fitzgerald’s trio. Keter Betts was the bassist, Bobby Durham the drummer. Ella had the night off from her engagement at the Blue Room of the Fairmont Hotel, so Sloane borrowed her rhythm section and accepted the invitation of the talented director John Beyer to tape a show at WYES-TV, the public station. I’m hoping to track down the entire program. For now, all that is to be found is a clip on YouTube. Ignore the faulty credit blurb; the year was 1979, not 1984. It is probably unlikely that Ella knew Carol was using her musical support staff. All of the above information is courtesy of the gracious Ms. Sloane, who says, “Knowing Ella, I doubt she’d have been upset in the least.” Especially if she could have heard the result.
To see and hear a memorable Carol Sloane ballad performance, click here. I suggest listening to it at least twice, once concentrating on the riches of Rowles’ accompaniment to “My Ship.”
Don’t forget to visit Sloane’s blog. It’s terrific. It is linked in the Other Places section of the right column, but this direct link will take you there. No extra charge.

On his blog Pop Musicology, Michael J. West discloses that he has joined the ranks of reviewers for Jazz Times. He was recommended by Nat Hentoff, a fine way to be launched. In the Other Places department, I am adding a link to Pop Musicology.
The subtitle of Mr. West’s blog is:

Popular music treated seriously. Damnedest thing, ain’t it?

It is.

I asked bassist Bill Crow what he remembered about the Gerry Mulligan Sextet concert that is the subject of the next exhibit, posted yesterday. Here is his response:

I was delighted to see and hear the sextet again. That was such a good band. I had forgotten about the large orchestra behind us. I think it was a concert, but it could also have been a TV show. We went over on the Andrea Doria (the year before it sank) to Naples, then played Rome, Milan, Bologna, and Genoa, and then a small Mercedes-Benz bus took us to Paris, where we were one of the acts on the bill at the Olympia Theatre for three weeks. On our off nights they ran us out to Lyons, Rouen and Roubaix for concerts in movie theaters. We returned home on one of the Queens, and the sextet finished the album we had begun before we left, played a couple of more nightclubs on the circuit, and then Gerry and I had a disagreement in Providence and I left the band.
He called me again later when he formed the quartet with Art Farmer, and I left that group when they went to California. I rejoined when the Concert Jazz Band came back from Europe and Conte (Candoli) and Buddy Clark left to go home to California. Stayed with the quartet with Brookmeyer until I left after another disagreement with Gerry in Chicago, and that was the end of my time with Mulligan groups. It was a great experience, and I was glad to go on and do some other things.

You will find a link to Mr. Crow’s web site in the Other Places section of the right-hand column. It is always worth a visit.

As noted in this Rifftides post last November, Gerry Mulligan remarked more than once that of all his achievements, the sextet he led from 1955 to 1958 gave him the greatest satisfaction. No wonder. His sidemen in the front line were tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims, valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and trumpeter Jon Eardley. The rhythm section was Bill Crow on bass and Dave Bailey on drums.
If it was generally known that film existed of the sextet, the fact eluded me until about a week ago. As if from out of nowhere, three videos of the Mulligan Sextet popped up on YouTube. They were filmed in Rome in 1956. We see the sextet in front of a sizeable orchestra complete with strings. The orchestra is not identified and does not play; its members are an appreciative audience.
In most appearances, on at least one tune Mulligan played piano in his engagingly rustic style, as he does here in “Ontet.” Click on the following links to see and hear living documents of a remarkable band:
Bernie’s Tune
Ontet
Walkin’ Shoes
After being too long out of circulation, all of the audio recordings of the Mulligan sextet are available in a boxed CD set. To find it, go here. The set is also available here. It is called The Fabulous Gerry Mulligan Sextet. The hyperbole is justified.

We are pleased to report that Rifftides has been nominated in the 2007 Jazz Journalists Association awards program as Best Website Concentrating on Jazz.