On The Road

A preview of an upcoming 'big' post; taking requests; and some links.

Source: freepik.com

This past weekend I was back on the road, this time to Richmond, VA with the Mark Morris Dance Group-Mark Morris Music Ensemble, playing The Look Of Love. The Look Of Love is an evening of Mr. Morris’s choreography set to Burt Bacharach’s music arranged by Ethan Iverson. In the band is Marcy Harriell singing lead, Blaire Reinhard and Clinton Curtis on background vocals, Ethan Iverson on piano, Simon Wilson on bass, and Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet. This is a great band, I love the music, and I love working with dancers.

It’s a busy season, with more MMDG concerts coming up, both with The Look Of Love and Pepperland. In March, I’ll be traveling with my co-op group Ember to the West Coast, then with the dance group Dance Heginbotham, and I’ll have a new album out with Ethan Iverson and Michael Formanek. It’s a joy, thrill, and honor to be a part of these projects, to be traveling, bringing the music to audiences; it is a privilege to be with music.

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What I didn’t anticipate was how this would cut into my work here on Substack.

I’m currently hard at work on what has turned out to be a truly massive project: surveying the work of Mr. Jim Black from July 1990 to March 2000, a period in which he was a part of (by my count) nine discreet bands, who between them released forty-five (!!!) albums.

This is a much bigger project than I anticipated— the original idea was simply to listen and research a few Jim Black AlasNoAxis albums, report back to you what I’d found, and make some noise for Jim. But I realized that it was impossible to talk about Mr. Black without talking about the tightly-knit community of musicians of which he was a part.

Taken together, these forty-five (give or take) recordings tell a story of a brilliant drummer and collaborator, who, as part of a scene of players, made a huge contribution to jazz, certainly, but really, the entire contemporary music world. Jazz education, the Young Lions, European jazz, the rise of the Internet and the independent jazz musician, electronic music, post-rock— all of these elements are part of the music, part of that moment, part of the story.

To help me understand what Jim Black was doing, musically, I’ve prepared a chart, a list, and a timeline, showing Jim’s various bands, his work as a bandleader, and his work as a sideman in this period. I’ve included a detailed discography listing personnel and recording location, which I use as a guide when composing the essay.

To give further context, I also interviewed the great Mr. Mark Guiliana about Jim Black. Mark has generously shared his memories and impressions of Jim, his music, and the impact Jim had on Mark as a player. It’s a fun and great interview, really conveying a sense of the immediacy and excitement of those days in NYC.

And it goes nicely with the chart and essay— I’m hard at work on this, and hope to publish, at least part of it, in the next ten days.

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Which brings me to my next point:

I’m going to be turning on the Paid Subscriber feature on Wednesday, February 15, 2023.

The first items available to paid subscribers will be:

• A transcript of my interview with Mark Guiliana

• My chart of Jim Black’s bands and recordings July 1990- March 2000

In the future, free subscribers will have complete access to all previously published essays, but new essays will have features for paid subscribers only. This is pretty exciting— I owe it all to the readers, and to the music! So, as a way of showing my gratitude…..

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………I’m taking requests¹. I want to hear it from you: what topics are you interested in? What eras of music or drumming do you want to read about?

My experience on Substack has been so wonderful, connecting me to a community of like-minded music enthusiasts who, in the comments section, often provide the missing juice for the essays.

I’m thinking of the comments on Joey Baron the generous clinician in Canada, the Ralph Peterson fans who loved how he would SMASH the ride cymbal on beat ONE.. and then get really soft…the incredible discussions from the Pete LaRoca² and Paul Motian pieces; the outpouring of support and understanding for my personal essay regarding Mr. Luqman Brown; the support for Victor Lewis; the shared enthusiasm for Tony's Play Or Die…..Really, it’s been incredible.

So I have my interests— but what do you want to hear about? This is a community, and I want to hear from you.

In the comments section, feel free to chime in, and share your interests. Let it rip— I want to hear it!

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In the meantime, here are some links to things I’ve been digging while traveling— hope you enjoy!

• Jo Jones was on the Ed Sullivan Show with Illinois Jacquet in 1949. As far as I can tell, this a live performance, with live sound. Here’s Flying Home, and here’s a blues. This is the best….

• I’m currently reading the original ‘scroll’ version of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road; Jack Kerouac and Neal Casady would probably have loved Illinois Jacquet and Jo Jones. I hadn’t thought about Jack Kerouac since I was a teenager, but Ted Gioia’s essay in two parts got me interested in him again.

• Jack Kerouac recorded some of his poetry with Steve Allen on piano. Here’s a little bit of what they filmed.

• Brad Mehldau’s Elegiac Cycle from 1999 had a tune dedicated to Kerouac’s compatriots William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. I heard Mr. Mehldau’s gig at the Village Vanguard last week, with Mr. Joe Farnsworth on drums, and loved every second of it.

• Mr. Farnsworth’s wonderful labor of love for Max Roach was a soul-nourisher during the NYC lockdown.

• This is some powerful, deeply inspiring stuff: the Max Roach and M’Boom in 1973.

• The late Mr. Harold Mabern taught hundreds of us over the years at William Paterson, including Joe Farnsworth. Here’s a great early Harold track featuring Idris Muhammad, Buster Williams, Lee Morgan, and George Coleman.

• While we’re on the subject, I was able to see Idris Muhammad a few times at the Village Vanguard with Joe Lovano in the late Nineties. Here’s a track from Joe Lovano’s Friendly Fire, recorded in that era, with Idris, Cameron Brown, Jason Moran, and Greg Osby.

• Speaking of the Vanguard, Mark Guiliana’s Quartet knocked me out last year when I heard them there. If you haven’t yet, check them out on Mark’s tune Jersey.

• And speaking of Jersey, here’s original New Jersey jazz master Count Basie with Gus Johnson in 1950.

That’s what I have for now. I’m playing a few shows this week— with Mike McGinnis +9 at Barbes, and with Ethan Iverson at the Jazz Gallery— but otherwise I’ll be working on the Jim Black essay and reading your suggestions.

1. I couldn’t find a good image of someone getting a request. Enjoy the album cover!

2. I would testify in a court of law that the out-head after La Roca’s solo on “Minor Apprehension” was not spliced in, but I talked to several musicians who disagree with me! Fantastic! This is what it’s all about— real discussions.