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Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

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Ron Crotty, Still Up

Nearly four years ago, Rifftides reminded you of the bassist Ron Crotty, whose brief season of renown came in the early 1950s. Andrew Gilbert, a free lance writer and critic in the San Francisco Bay area, sought out Crotty recently and published an update in The Monthly, an East Bay magazine. Here’s an early paragraph from Andy’s article.

Crotty’s autumnal creative resurgence would be heartening in any context, reminding us that it’s never too late to make a mark, but his lion-in-winter renaissance feels particularly inspiring given his precocious rise and numerous stumbles. In 1949, before turning 20, he had already seized a piece of musical immortality as a founding member of the Dave Brubeck Trio, a group that also featured drummer Cal Tjader. (Tjader, who died on the road in 1982, earned fame several years after leaving Brubeck as a vibraphonist and pioneering Latin jazz bandleader).

To read all of the piece, click here.

For the April, 2009, Rifftides post on Crotty and associates, with video of a performance, go here.

The BBC Remembers Graham Collier

If you missed last night’s BBC concert commemorating the late composer, arranger and bandleader Graham Collier, you can still hear it online. The concert at the BBC studios in London featured the British premiere of The Blue Suite, one of Collier’s final works. His partner John Gill describes the program as containing “a selection of his and the musicians’ personal favourties from the Collier canon.” The 90-minute broadcast has Collier stalwart Geoff Warren conducting the BBC Radio Big Band with Roger Dean, John Marshall, Ed Speight, Art Themen and a number of former Collier collaborators including Roy Babbinton, Graeme Blevins and Andy Grappy.

BBC Radio 3 will keep the concert online for six more days. To hear it, click here.

For a Rifftides piece on Collier’s passing in 2011, a few thoughts about his importance and links to further information about him and his work, go here. The post contains a 15-minute video of Collier rehearsing a band and talking about his work.

It’s Nat Adderley’s Birthday, Too

Among those who shared November 25 as a birthday was Nat Adderley. The cornetist was born in 1931 in Tampa, Florida. His distinguished career included two extended periods in his brother Cannonball’s quintet. He also played in the big bands of Woody Herman and Lionel Hampton and in trombonist J.J. Johnson’s combo. Adderley formed his own quintet after Cannonball died in 1975.

For the 1987 Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland, He led an all-star sextet. His former boss, Johnson, joined Adderley, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Roy McCurdy. Here are three of the pieces they played in Bern, “What is This Thing Called Love,” “My Funny Valentine” and “Bud’s Blues.”

To see two more segments of the Adderley sextet’s Bern performance, go here and here. Nat died in early 2000.

Current Lee

The flurry of comments, reminiscences and stories stimulated by the Konitz And Kenton post in the previous exhibit leads me to suspect that there may be considerable interest in Konitz’s current work. Jim Brown’s comment about that item described the effect on him of Konitz’s new quartet with a rhythm section of young European musicians who, in Jim’s words, spur Konitz to “new heights of creativity.”

Since the Rifftides staff is on the eve of a vacation of at least several days and blogging will be infrequent, if at all, we’re going to leave you with an hour-long video of Konitz and a band of colleagues who are decades younger—chronologically. He turned 85 on October 13. The pianist is Florian Weber, the bassist Jeff Denson, the drummer Ziv Ravitz. Someone who identifies himself as doriangrey27 uploaded the video to YouTube. He (or, who knows? she) has our gratitude.

The concert was at the Internationale Jazzwoche in Burghausen, Wackerhalle, Germany, on March 15th of this year. Konitz has played the pieces in this program for years, always managing to find in them ways to surprise his audiences and himself. At the beginning, we are treated to his style as MC and raconteur.

doriangrey 27’s YouTube channel has several hundred interesting concert videos.

Konitz And Kenton

Following up on the piece in the next exhibit, below is a poster for an edition of Stan Kenton’s Festival of Modern Jazz that played in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 7, 1954. Kenton was a busy fella in the fifties and put together concert packages that included a variety of artists in the days when jazz was a major factor in popular music. Except for Kenton’s band and Candido, the lineup seems considerably different from the one reader Jon Foley mentioned—in yesterday’s comments—that he heard in Worcester, Massachusetts, in February of ’54. In the early part of 1954, the Kenton saxophone section included the alto sax triumvirate of Charlie Mariano, Davey Schildkraut and Lee Konitz, all influenced by Charlie Parker. From the beginning of his professional career, Konitz managed to absorb the lessons of Parker’s style without being ruled by it. (Pictured, Konitz and Parker on tour.) He was, and remains, one of the instrument’s great individualists. Konitz toured with Kenton as a featured soloist in 1952 and ’53. In March of ’54 he recorded “Lover Man” and “In Lighter Vein” with the band. The pieces, arranged by Bill Holman, were parts of nearly every concert Kenton played during the period Konitz was with him.

(Thanks to Joe Mosbrook’s Jazzed In Cleveland website for “loaning” Rifftides the Kenton poster)

When June Met Bird And Diz

Through the 1950s, touring jazz package concerts filled huge auditoriums. This picture from Jet Magazine’s September 4, 1952, issue shows three stars of a Stan Kenton package that combined Kenton’s band and an array of guest artists.

If Gillespie, Christy and Parker recorded together on that tour or at any other time, I’d be glad to know about it. Until such a recording surfaces, we’ll have to settle for Gillespie and Parker with Thelonious Monk, Curly Russell and Buddy Rich playing “Bloomdido.”

That is from the Bird and Diz album recorded in June, 1950. It has been reissued many times. No wonder.

Thanks to blogger and frequent Rifftides commenter Bruno Leicht for alerting us to the photo from Jet.

Jazz Blogs: The Future

When Rifftides launched in the dark ages of jazz blogging, 2005, a handful of us, if that many, pursued this hybrid form of communication. Now, jazz blogs have proliferated to the point where it is probably impossible to keep tabs on the expansion. This evening, Howard Mandel, president of the Jazz Journalists Association, conducted a webinar (web seminar) with four young bloggers. Howard’s selection of his guests indicates his regard for their work or, at least, for their potential.

All relatively new to web logging, they discussed the attractions, possibilities, values and obligations of this hybrid form of communication. They did not agree on everything, but at the end they uniformly rejected the argument that jazz is dead or dying. That prognostication raises its head about once a year, most recently in a piece by Benjamin Schwarz in the November issue of The Atlantic. Dressed as a review of Ted Gioia’s new book, Schwarz’s tolling of the bell is called “The End of Jazz.”

The JJA webinar bloggers emphasized that they would not have taken up the craft if they thought it had no future. When the discussion ended, I visited each of their blogs and read them with interest. I’m adding them to the Rifftides blogroll at the end of the right-hand column. (Yeah, I know the list needs tending.) The guests (with links) were:

Alex Rodriguez of Lubricity

 

 

 

Veronica Grandison of Roots, Rhythm and Rhyme

 

 

Angelika Beener of Alternate Takes

 

 

 

and Jonathan Wertheim, who calls himself, with cause, The Disgruntled Jazz Critic.

 

 

Pay them a visit, see what you think, and comment to them on their blog pages or to Rifftides.

Salt Peanuts In The Hinterlands

As he was about to leave for three weeks of gigs in Japan, to be followed by a week in Prague, peripatetic trumpeter Bobby Shew forwarded a succinct message and a video link from Cal Haines:

Here is “Salt Peanuts” on tube. The band was swinging and solos were very good.

There are accomplished jazz players almost everywhere, including Albuquerque. In that city in the American southwest there is a band called SuperSax New Mexico. It specializes in arrangements of Charlie Parker solos recorded by the original Supersax, a Parker tribute band founded in Los Angeles 40 years ago by alto saxophonist Med Flory and bassist Buddy Clark. Supersax had several of L.A.’s leading saxophonists, a rhythm section often made up of Clark or Monty Budwig on bass, pianist Lou Levy, and Jake Hanna or Larance Marable on drums. Trumpeter Conte Candoli and trombonists Frank Rosolino or Carl Fontana frequently soloed.

Shew transplanted himself from L.A. back to his Albuquerque home area several years ago. Recently, he has been SSNM’s featured trumpet soloist, as he is here. The alto sax solo is by Sam Reid. Full band credits run at the end of piece.

For the story of SuperSax New Mexico, go here, and to leader Cal Haines’s website for photographs and an essay.

Weekend Extra: Jive At Five

Why? Because it’s been too long since you’ve heard it.

What, you’ve never heard it? Good. I envy your coming to it for the first time. Here’s Count Basie from The Complete Decca Recordings. February 4, 1939. Harry Edison wrote the tune. He has the trumpet solo. Jack Washington is the baritone saxophonist. We get Lester Young (pictured) twice. His eight bars following Edison’s solo launched a thousand tenor saxophonists.

Now, you’re bound to have a happy weekend.

From The Archive: Thoughts On Change

Much of the post-election analysis overflowing the airwaves, newspapers and internet has to do with how the demographics of the United States have shifted. The change away from decisive political dominance by white people was underway long before the first Obama election in 2008. Since, it has accelerated. All signs are that the change will continue. Still, it is hard for many to accept, as a fact of evolving democracy, the shifting makeup of the population in our free land of immigrants and their descendants. I thought about that as I read, watched and listened to the news and the pundits and remembered an anecdote posted on Rifftides four years ago. It may still have relevance. I wish that it had less.

After The Election
November 5, 2008 By Doug Ramsey

When I was in college and involved in the jazz community in Seattle, I helped to arrange a concert in my home town. Some of the musicians who traveled to the interior of the state to perform in that conservative agricultural community were black. One of my closest childhood friends came to the concert. Afterward, I took him to a party for the musicians. In the course of the socializing, I danced with a newer friend, the pianist Patti Bown. When I returned to the table, my old buddy told me, with considerable heat, that he was ashamed I had touched a black woman, although that was not the term he used to describe her.

I had not thought about that evening in decades. It came back to me last night as I listened to the next president of the United States speak to the world. I hope that my friend was watching, too.

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Memo, or tweet, to Ben Ratliff:

I owe you one.

Somehow, I managed never to have heard of Cécile McLorin Salvant until Mack Avenue, a record company, sent a message announcing that it has signed her. The announcement included a link to a Sunday New York Times story by Mr. Ratliff. In a long article packed with praise from him and others, he wrote:

Her voice clamps into each song, performing careful variations on pitch, stretching words but generally not scatting; her face conveys meaning, representing sorrow or serenity like a silent-movie actor.

…”uh-oh, and hm! and what?” I thought, quoting Mr. Ratfliff intepreting one of her facial expressions; “I’d better look into this.” To read all of his article, go here.

The next step was to see if I could find a sample of her singing. I found this, recorded four years ago somewhere in France, with bassist Alain Guiraud and guitaritst Renaud Maret. The videographer was shooting through a glass darkly, but the audiographer, if that’s a term, was up close and Ms. McLorin Salvant, singing a great song, was personal.

This YouTube page and two following it, have a few dozen clips of Ms. McLorin Salvant, including an eccentric, cliff-hanging version of “I Only Have Eyes For You.” It’s going to take a while to catch up with her.

Addendum: The Times piece online includes an embedded video of Ms. McLorin Salvant performing “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” with Aaron Diehl’s trio.

Elliott Carter, 1908-2012

Elliott Carter went his own way writing music that was often difficult to play and, for many audiences, difficult to hear. Eventually, he captured listeners and became one of the most honored American composers. Carter died yesterday in New York at 103 in the Greenwich Village apartment where he had lived since the 1940s. In an interview a few years ago, he said:

As a young man, I harbored the populist idea of writing for the public. I learned that the public didn’t care. So I decided to write for myself. Since then, people have gotten interested.

They became so interested that he won two Pulitzer Prizes and, virtually until the end, was in demand by orchestras who commissioned his compositions. Although he did not compose for jazz musicians, Carter was an influence on many, particularly those who also tended toward Charles Ives, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartok and other iconoclastic 20th Century composers. For a comprehensive Carter obituary, go here.

Let’s listen in its entirety to Carter’s String Quartet No. 2, which in 1960 brought him his first Pulitzer Prize.

This recording by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic has superb performances of Carter’s Concerto For Orchestra and three pieces by Carter’s mentor, Charles Ives.

To see and hear Carter discuss his early years in music, click here for an interview he gave when he turned 100 and here for his recent encounter with Alisa Weilertstein when she consulted with him as she prepared to record his Cello Concerto.

When we were quite young, my wife and I attended a New York Philharmonic concert of the Concerto For Orchestra. At its conclusion, Bernstein brought Carter onstage for a bow and a standing ovation. How splendid he looked, we said, for a man his age. He was 66. What a break for listeners that he had 37 more productive years.

Other Places: NYC Jazz After Sandy

If you have been wondering how New York City’s jazz clubs are faring following the onslaught of of Tropical Storm Sandy, Nat Chinen reports in The New York Times on several of them.

Clubs form the core infrastructure of jazz in New York, and many of the leading showcases or incubators — the Blue Note, the Village Vanguard, the Jazz Standard, the Jazz Gallery, Cornelia Street Café, Smalls, the Zinc Bar, the 55 Bar — are in the part of Manhattan that recently came to be known as the dead zone. Jazz fans regard these rooms as an always-on utility, so their closing was felt even in a city confronting more pressing concerns. The power failure downtown meant canceled bookings and many thousands of dollars in lost revenue, a serious hit in a business of slim margins.

To read the details, click here.

Up North, They’re Celebrating Ed Bickert

Ed Bickert will observe his 80th birthday on November 29, but some of his admirers are starting the celebration early. They will honor the guitarist, one of Canada’s foremost jazz artists, Tuesday evening, November 6, at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. Among the celebrants will be members of the music’s Canadian elite; Don Thompson, Lorne Lofsky, Mike Murley, Neil Swainson, Terry Clarke, Steve Wallace and many others. Veteran CBC jazz broadcaster Katie Malloch will host the event. The network will record the festivities and broadcast them nationwide on Bickert’s birthday.

Bickert’s decades of work with Moe Koffman, Rob McConnell, Phil Nimmons and as one of Canada’s most reliable studio musicians earned him great admiration. In the 1970s Paul Desmond—at the urging of his longtime guitar colleague Jim Hall—began using Bickert as a sideman and recording with him. The guitarist moved into the international spotlight as a member of what Desmond enjoyed calling “The Canadian Quartet,” which also included Don Thompson on bass and Terry Clarke or Jerry Fuller on drums. In his liner notes for The Paul Desmond Quartet Live, recorded at Bourbon Street in Toronto, here’s what Desmond wrote about Bickert:

When I work with Ed, I find myself turning around several times a night to count the strings on his guitar… how does he get to play chorus after chorus of chord sequences which could not possibly sound better on a keyboard? Or, in some cases, written for orchestra? This all becomes more impressive when I play a tape of Ed’s for a guitar player and suddenly realize, between the hypnotized gaze of fascination and the flicker of disbelief, that what I had cherished as a musical phrase is also totally impossible to play on guitar.

When I was writing Take Five: The Public and Private Live of Paul Desmond, I talked with Bickert about the experience from his viewpoint. He and Thompson used the same adjectives, “loose,” “easy-going.”

“We sort of jelled right away and it felt really good,” Bickert said. “The music that Paul played was always melodic and pleasant, as opposed to the angry fireworks kind of things that a lot of people were doing. That suited me just fine. Paul was such an easy-going person, and it was contagious for the rest of us going along that route.”

Bickert retired a few years ago, but not before he made this European festival appearance with bassist Dave Young and drummer Terry Clarke.

While we’re at it, here’s another beautiful Bickert performance, with Don Thompson, bass, and Claude Ranger, drums. Thanks to Ted O’Reilly for alerting me to this. The video quality is a bit dodgy. The sound and the playing are not.

For more about Desmond, Bickert, The Canadian Quartet and a strange recording episode, go here, then here. Finally, Bickert’s colleague Steve Wallace has a heartfelt tribute—with videos—on the CBC website.

Woods And Geller: In The Altosphere


This is a busy week for birthdays of major jazz artists: On Tuesday it was Clifford Brown’s. Today belongs to two musicians who have been in the vanguard of the legion of alto saxophonists—often called Bird’s children—who were inspired in the 1940s by Charlie Parker. One of the children, Herb Geller (pictured right) turns 84. The other, Phil Woods (pictured left), is 81 today. Both are traveling the world and performing regularly. Mr. Geller plays tomorrow night at Birdland in Hamburg, Germany, where he lives. Here he is about a year ago with pianist Pedro Guedes at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon as part of the Dose Dupla concerts.

Three months ago, Phil Woods appeared with his quintet at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in New York City. His colleagues are Bill Mays, piano; Bryan Lynch, trumpet; Steve Gilmore, bass; Bill Goodwin, drums. The piece is a beautifully crafted Mays arrangement of “The Very Thought of You.”

Happy birthday, Herb. Happy birthday, Phil.
Avanti

Autumn Leaves, 2012

I wanted to show you the maple tree on the west side of the house at its peak of fall glory. The question was, whose version of “Autumn Leaves” should accompany it? I considered those by Miles Davis, Eva Cassidy, Eddie Higgins, Doris Day, Cannonball Adderley, Sarah Vaughan, Nat Cole—including one of Cole singing the song in Japanese—and a couple of dozen others. In the end it came down to Bill Evans, from Portrait In Jazz, recorded on December 28, 1959, with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian.

Homage To Clifford—In Transit

Alto saxophonist Jeff Chang responded to yesterday’s Clifford Brown item with this message:

I don’t know if you’ve heard this guy Dominick Farinacci. He is quite a trumpet player, and you may find this clip fun to watch.

Oh, I’ve heard of Farinacci. The clip of him flawlessly spinning out a Clifford solo is, indeed, fun to watch—unless you’re a trumpeter who has struggled trying to play it. This is the preamble to the video, which was posted on YouTube today.

Amidst an 18 city tour with vibraphonist Christian Tamburr, Dominick performs Clifford Brown’s classic solo from “Jordu” on the tour bus traveling to Hilton Head, SC. Clifford’s birthday was yesterday, Oct. 30th, and was one of the greatest trumpet players of all time.

If Farinacci hadn’t done that so well, I would not follow it with the original by Brown-Roach, Inc. The personnel are listed on the album cover.

For three Rifftides archive posts about Dominick Farinacci, go here.

Clifford Brown, 1930-1956

Today is the 82nd anniversary of Clifford Brown’s birth. Here is what I wrote in Rifftides on June 26, 2006, half a century following his death.

Fifty years ago today at The Seattle Times, as I ripped copy from the wire machines my eye went to a story in the latest Associated Press national split. A young trumpeter named Clifford Brown had been killed early that morning in a car crash. My heart stopped for a beat or two. My stomach churned. I felt ill. I was attempting to master the trumpet and, like virtually all aspiring trumpet players, idolized Brown. The life of a majestically inventive musician had ended violently on a rainy highway in Pennsylvania. He was four months short of his twenty-sixth birthday. When I think about his loss, I still feel ill.

There has never been a jazz musician who worked harder, lived cleaner, and accomplished or promised more in so short a lifetime. His practice routine encompassed taping himself as he worked out on trumpet and piano. I have listened to some of those tapes. It is moving to hear Brown pursue–and achieve–perfection as he brings complex ideas to fruition through the persistent application of his technical mastery, to hear him sing a phrase and then play it repeatedly until he has polished it nearly to his satisfaction. Like most first-rank artists, he was never truly satisfied with his performance. To listeners, however, Brown’s solos are among the glories of twentieth century music. To trumpet players, his work remains an inspiration. His passion, power, lyricism and flaweless execution constitute a model whose pursuit is bound to bring improvement.

In Today’s Washington Post, Matt Schudel summarizes Brown’s life and contributions. For a fuller account, read Nick Catalano’s biography of Brown. Fortunately, Brown recorded copiously during his few years of playing. Most of his work remains in print. This album captures him at his peak with the group he and drummer Max Roach co-led. This box set covers highlights from his recordings for several labels. If you don’t know Clifford Brown’s work, I suggest that you move immediately toward the nearest CD shop or website.

The television comic Soupy Sales loved jazz, knew its history and many of its leading players. Early in his career, when he had a local show in Detroit, he frequently presented jazz stars as guests. After Sales died on October 22 at the age of 83, many obituaries mentioned that the only known video of Clifford Brown performing is from a kinescope recording of the Sales show. For decades, it was assumed lost, but Sales found the film in his garage in the mid-1990s. Here is the trumpeter in February, 1956, five months before that fatal auto crash, playing “Lady Be Good” and “Memories of You.”

Study in Brown, mentioned by Clifford in the interview, is one of the important albums by the quintet he led with drummer Max Roach. The Dinah Washington jam session with Brown, Roach, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry and Herb Geller–among others–is another basic repertoire item for serious jazz listeners.

Jazz Archeology: Mulligan’s “Yardbird Suite”

Readers familiar with Jeff Sultanof’s essays for Rifftides on Pete Rugolo and Russ Garcia know the depth of his knowledge and wisdom about arranging and composing. Professionals in many areas of music admire him for his analyses and editing of scores and for his teaching about major figures including Robert Farnon, Miles Davis and Gerald Wilson. With some excitement, Jeff recently told me about discovering a score from the days when Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, Lee Konitz and others were expanding on an approach to music that grew out of bop but also drew on elements as diverse as French impressionism and Johann Sebastian Bach. Mulligan was then better known in jazz as an arranger and composer than as a baritone saxophonist. He was a key figure in what came to be labeled the cool school. He made his initial mark writing for big bands at the end of the swing era. Jeff’s story concerns a Mulligan arrangement for one of Charlie Parker’s most celebrated projects, an arrangement that never made it to records. His piece will appear in two installments. He begins with background about preservation of big band scores.

MULLIGAN AND “YARDBIRD SUITE”
Part 1
By Jeff Sultanof

Back in 1972, I first realized that a great deal of the music of the big band era was worth saving, playing and studying, so it needed to be available in edited, accurate editions; my models were modern editions of Bach and Beethoven. After all, many composers whom I considered important wrote the bulk of their music for saxophones, brass and rhythm sections. Several big band libraries were still in private hands, and many people considered revisiting that music as an act of nostalgia. This changed some years later, when major donations were made to universities, libraries, the Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS), the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution, and new ‘repertory’ ensembles began to appear. Since this was such a new area of musicology, only a handful of scholars was really interested at the time, but many others photocopied original parts and sold them underground; some simply stole whatever they could get.

I wrote out my first edited score in 1974 and continued to write out scores of anything I could acquire so I could study them for a textbook I wanted to write. I had one rule: this music would be properly published with creators paid; I refused to copy or trade the scores. Eventually, I prepared a collection of over 300 scores of music from the 1900s through to the 1980s. Along the way, composers found out about what I was doing and asked me to work on their music. Robert Farnon gave permission to create definitive editions of his music with his active participation. These scores also sat while I tried to get them published. I tested out my editions when I was assistant professor at Five Towns College and led the jazz orchestra. The students couldn’t get enough of this music, having never heard much of it before.

Publishers weren’t interested. My bosses at Warner Bros. Publications back in the 1980s didn’t think anybody had heard of Gil Evans, Fletcher Henderson, and Tadd Dameron, and besides, teachers in high schools and universities weren’t asking for this music anyway. Odd attempts to make available such libraries as the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra failed, perhaps partly because either copies of original parts in poor condition were being sold, or new parts were prepared but were filled with errors and poor notation.

Eventually Bob Curnow started issuing important pieces from the Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson libraries; he now has a sizable catalog of great diversity. Jazz at Lincoln Center issued Ellington, Andy Kirk and music from many other important bands, but these are mostly transcriptions. It took Rob DuBoff to really jump in the deep water and pursue music from many eras and bands. Rob was a former client of mine when I worked at Hal Leonard Corporation, and was as determined as I was that this important music be available to everyone, sourced from the original scores and/or parts. My scores came out of the basement and many were published. Thanks to his persistence, I have prepared Eddie Sauter’s “Focus,” Mary Lou Williams’ “Zodiac Suite,” Benny Carter’s “Central City Sketches,” and Oliver Nelson’s “Blues and the Abstract Truth” for publication. Jazz Lines Publications now has more than 300 titles in print, and Rob has made agreements with the estates of Frank Sinatra, Duke Pearson, Tadd Dameron, Oliver Nelson, Rob McConnell and many other important composer/arrangers.

I also work on the rediscovery of perfectly good music that was never recorded. “The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else” arranged by Tadd Dameron for Jimmie Lunceford was well loved by the band, yet had somehow escaped any recorded performances, in studio or live. This one score tells us more than anything about what Dameron knew in 1942 and where he wanted to go in his music better than prose.

And sometimes I get to finish something that only needs some details added so that it can finally be heard and played. Such a project involved Gerry Mulligan.

Back in 1995, I worked with Gerry to prepare a play-along book/CD package. The customer buys the book filled with lead sheets of the tunes, and plays the music with the accompaniment recorded on the CD, which I produced. Gerry and I spent much of the summer working on this project, and he grew to trust my judgment. He was ill, but our meetings energized him, and he shared a great deal with me about his music and his life. He had had bad experiences with publishers, but knew that there was a demand for his music, and I spoke to him about publishing the music of the tentet and the Concert Jazz Band. He warned me that he changed a great many things in the CJB book, but he said, “Look, you know what I want musically, and I trust you. If you want to get my music out, do whatever you think is best.” I was flattered beyond words. As it turned out, Gerry’s widow Franca’s wish has always been to get as much of Gerry’s music available as possible. Gerry died in 1996.

©2012, Jeff Sultanof

Jeff concludes his story in the next exhibit.