Passing Notes

1/24/14

PN 240 - Rob Palmer - Mr PC: The Life and Music of Paul Chambers

This week we speak with Rob Palmer, the author of Mr PC: The Life and Music of Paul Chambers. For those who might not know, Chambers was a gifted bassist who played on many essential jazz recordings of the late 50s and early 60s -- including (to name but a few) Kind of Blue, Blue Train, Brilliant Corners, and The Blues and the Abstract Truth. As a bonus today, we've got three videos of Chambers -- two of his playing with John Coltrane as part of the Wynton Kelly Trio, and another with Miles Davis as part of the musical world of Kind of Blue.

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Publisher's site for Mr PC

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1/23/14

Kickstarter Note - Ear Buds: The Podcasting Documentary

The last time I mentioned a Kickstarter campaign here on Passing Notes, it was to help fund a memorial to the great Harvey Pekar at one of the Cleveland Public Libraries. We even got to talk to Pekar's widow, Joyce Brabner, to help raise awareness for that one. This time around, it's a project even more near and dear to my heart, a documentary on podcasting, Ear Buds, produced in association with Comedy Film Nerds. One of the interviewees on Ear Buds will be Marc Maron, a podcasting pioneer whose been kind enough to appear on Passing Notes.

Donations can be as low as $1 through Kickstarter, so visit the Ear Buds fundraising site now!

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Video Jukebox - John Medeski

Medeski, Martin, and Wood have been making great music for two decades now, and of late, although MMW hasn't broken up by any means, the musicians in the band have found more time for their own and collaborative side projects. The Wood Brothers' groove-blues-Americana is well-loved, and Billy Martin's Wicked Knee made folks sit up and take notice. John Medeski's also been a busy collaborator -- as shown in the selections for this week's Video Jukebox -- appearing as he does with John Zorn, Dave Fiuczynski and Rudresh Mahanthappa, Skerik, Todd Clouser, and many more. Medeski will be speaking with me on this upcoming Sunday's Segment3 feature on the Time Warp about his recent solo project, A Different Time.

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1/22/14

Road Notes - The Mississippi Blues Trail

I've been on the road for the week taking care of family business, which often means that my little family is piled in the van and rambling over one or another Mississippi country road. With cotton fields and country churches passing by, I always think about the places I need to visit on The Mississippi Blues Trail. I've been through West Point (Howlin' Wolf country) many times, done my visit to Clarksdale and other places, yesterday our business took me through Winona -- where Pops Staples of the Staples Singers was born. I liked that, as I think was in need of some gospel music yesterday.

Visit the website for The Mississippi Blues Trail.

And here's the Staples Singers from 1956 with "Uncloudy Day."

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1/20/14

Sunday Time Warp - Playlist 1/19/14

Song, Artist, Album

Freedom Jazz Dance, Eddie Harris, recording of live performance Denmark 1986

I’m Hip, Blossom Dearie, Live At Ronnie Scott’s

Won’t You Please B Nice, Nellie McKay, Get Away From Me

Elevator Ride, Alan Hampton, Whim

Blue in Green, Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

Juju, Wayne Shorter, Juju

Footprints, Wayne Shorter, Adam’s Apple

A Woman Or The Blues, Curtis Salgado, Soul Shot

Middle Aged Blues Boogie, Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women, The Uppity Blues Women

Senior Blues, Horace Silver, Six Pieces of Silver

Juju, Gretchen Parlato, Live in NYC

Butterfly, Gretchen Parlato, Live in NYC

All That I Can Say, Live In NYC

Butterfly, Herbie Hancock, Thrust

Tin Min, Gilfema, audio rip from video

Giant Steps, Joe Pass, Virtuoso 2

1/19/14

Segment3 - Gretchen Parlato

Vocalist Gretchen Parlato documents where she's at after a decade of work with her first live recording, Live in NYC.

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Gretchen Parlato

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1/18/14

Library of Congress Interview - Gretchen Parlato and Gerald Clayton

Tomorrow's Sunday Time Warp is ready to go, which means my interview and feature with vocalist Gretchen Parlato has been written and mixed. Here's hoping you'll tune in from 1-3 pm tomorrow on 88.9 FM in South Florida or online at WDNA.org. I thought folks might enjoy the usually excellent work from Larry Applebaum of the Music Division at the Library of Congress. Larry has a fine blog, Let's Cool One, and here, he interviews two standouts among the younger musicians working in jazz -- Parlato and pianist Gerald Clayton. Enjoy.

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1/17/14

PN 239 - Stanley Crouch - 'Kansas City Lightning'

The eminent critic and writer Stanley Crouch discusses his long-awaited biography of Charlie Parker in the early years, Kansas City Lightning.

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Stanley Crouch

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1/16/14

Video Jukebox - Gretchen Parlato

After a decade in New York and three highly-regarded studio albums, near the end of 2013 Gretchen Parlato released her fourth album, Live in NYC. Coming up this weekend, Parlato is the featured guest on Segment3 during the Sunday Time Warp on 88.9 FM WDNA. For now, you'll just have to make due with this collection of performances from the past few years, with Parlato and a couple of configurations of her bands, as well as collaborations with Alan Hampton, Lionel Loueke, and Esperanza Spalding.

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1/15/14

Action Figure Theater - Episode 1 - The King Annoys The Dark Knight

WDNA Jazz Encounters - 1/17 with the Christian Howes Quartet

For more information, visit WDNA.org

Performing Friday, 1/17 at 8:00 pm

at the WDNA Jazz Gallery, 2921 Coral Way

Christian Howes, violin

Chuck Bergeron, bass

John Yarling, drums

Brian Murphy, piano

In 2013, Christian Howes was voted among the top three violinists in JazzTimes' "2012 Expanded Critics Poll". In August 2011, Christian was ranked as the #1 "Rising Star" violinist in the Downbeat Critics Poll. He was a nominee for the Jazz Journalists Association's "Violinist Of The Year" in 2011. In 2012, he received the Residency Partnership from Chamber Music America for his work in outreach with orchestral education programs. He regularly tours throughout Asia, Europe, and the U.S. as a leader of his own groups and a soloist with orchestras. Says All About Jazz, "as a jazz violinist he has no peer." The Minneapolis Tribune called Christian "arguably the most intriguing young violinist in jazz." According to the Chicago Reader, "Not since Jean Luc Ponty has a violinist ranged from pure classical to fuzz-tone rock to convincing jazz with such authority."

Young musicians are invited to play in an informal setting with the common purpose of establishing relationships around music. Nicole Yarling leads the session. It's a great deal of fun, so bring your instruments and be ready to play.

Listener's Notes - Lenny for Gayageum (or Guitar)

Luna Lee plays the traditional Korean stringed instrument the gayageum, and she's come to feature her playing by releasing a series of videos of her covering all different manner of music -- including her versions of notable works for guitar. Jimi Hendrix is a favorite of hers, but I'll share her version of a Stevie Ray Vaughan classic, "Lenny." I've also included an early performance of the tune from SRV himself, in case you want to compare the different senses of melody, phrasing, harmony, and time. Happy listening!

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1/14/14

Reader's Notes - By The Numbers

Accept my apologies if you've seen these websites before, but in my recent wanderings around the Internet, I came across a few sites that struck me as cool. I'm trusting that if you follow Passing Notes, you might find them fun as well.

For music lovers in particular, we have Setlist.fm, which keeps track of the songs played by particular musical artists in live settings over the years. Can't remember which song Phish played to close out its December 30, 1993 show in Portland, Maine? That would be Led Zeppelin's "Good Times, Bad Times." Want to know which song Medeski Martin and Wood are most likely to play in concert? That would be Chubb Sub. As a crowdsouced site, it's not perfect and it's not complete, but you can certainly learn a lot from checking out, say, how Miles Davis evolved as a live performer over the years. Go to Setlist.fm.

In the much bigger picture, you can observe real time numbers of real world statistics at Worldometers, which tracks numbers like population, government and economics, society and media, the environment, food and water, and many other totals. Some numbers move fast, some move slow. By the time you read this blog entry, for instance, it will be one of almost 3 million posted for today alone. Sigh. Go to Worldometers.info.

And finally, for those of you who are so Internet savvy as to have your own domain name, you can check out the value of the domain name itself at 13review.com. The value of the domain name most people use to get to this website, markehayes.net, registers at the bottom of the barrel with a value of $8.95, about what I pay to have it registered every year. So I have that. Milesdavis.com is worth $480. Money.com is a whopping $138 million. Who knows what you or your stuff is worth in the world of domain names? Go to 13review.com.

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1/13/14

Listener's Notes - 2014 NEA Jazz Masters Awards and Concert

We have just a few moments to spare here, but if you've got a few hours this evening and some free ears, you might enjoy the 2014 NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony and Concert -- streaming right over the old-fashioned internet. Follow this link!

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Sunday Time Warp - Playlist 1/12/14

Song, Artist, Album

Long Day Blues, Jack McDuff, Another Real Good'Un

Future Fun, Mark Lettieri, Future Fun

Sand Steppin', Martin Brew, The Document II

Proceed II,The Roots with Roy Ayers, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool

Binky, Snarky Puppy, audio rip from groundUP performance

Neutron Star, Ben Allison, The Stars Look Very Different Today

Swiss Cheese D,Ben Allison, The Stars Look Very Different Today

DAVE, Ben Allison, The Stars Look Very Different Today

Dr Zaius, Ben Allison, The Stars Look Very Different Today

TV Blues, James Blood Ulmer, Music from the New York Underground

When The World Gets Small, Gov't Mule with Steve Winwood, Shout!

I Ain't Drunk (I'm Just Drinking), Albert Collins, Cold Snap

The Wicked Messenger, The Black Keys, I'm Not There (music from the motion picture)

Evil (Is Goin' On), Howlin' Wolf, The Best of Howlin Wolf

Power Patriot, Garage A Trois, Power Patriot

Mojuba, The Souljazz Orchestra, Freedom No Go Die

Chili Mac, Preston Love, Preston Love's Omaha Bar-B-Q

Lemon Meringue, Fishbone, Give A Monkey Brain And He'll Swear He's The Center Of The Universe

Freedom Jazz Dance, String Cheese Incident, audio rip from live performance

1/12/14

Segment3 - Ben Allison - 'The Stars Look Very Different Today'

We speak with bassist and composer Ben Allison about how he fuses his interest in science, technology, and movie soundtracks on his latest release, 'The Stars Look Very Different Today.'

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Ben Allison

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12/23/13

Sunday Time Warp - A Very Zappa XMas - 11/22/13

Santa Claus Got Stuck in My Chimney, Ella Fitzgerald, Yule Be Miserable

O Tannenbaum, Cyrus Chestnutt and Friends , A Charlie Brown Christmas

Zat You, Santa Clause?, Louis Armstrong , Yule Be Miserable

Linus and Lucy, Cyrus Chestnut and Friends, A Charlie Brown Christmas

Nuttin for Christmas, Spike Jones, Yule Be Miserable

King Kong Variations, Frank Zappa, Uncle Meat (2012 Remaster)

I Am The Walrus, Frank Zappa, Live 1988 Barcelona Spain

Waka/Jawaka, The Ed Palermo Big Band, Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa

Jazz From Hell, Frank Zappa, Jazz From Hell

St. Etienne, Frank Zappa, Jazz From Hell

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Jimmy Smith, Christmas Cookin'

Click Clack, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, The Spotlight Kid

How Many More Years, Howlin' Wolf, 1966 Performance

A Real Mother For Ya, Johnny Guitar Watson, A Real Mother For Ya

Christmas, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, The Alligator Records Christmas Collection

My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Weasels Ripped My Flesh

The Black Page, Frank Zappa, Live 1988 Barcelona Spain

Inca Roads, Frank Zappa, Live 1979 Manchester England
Freedom Jazz Dance, Jimmy Carl Black, Freedom Jazz Dance

12/16/13

13 Albums for 2013

These lists come with the territory of programming (and occasionally reviewing) music. I don’t pretend to call these the best releases of the year – only the ones I liked. They are offered to you in no other order but alphabetical, by artist.

Ben Allison, The Stars Look Very Different Today

Terri Lyn Carrington, Money Jungle

Marc Cary Focus Trio, Four Directions

Chick Corea, The Vigil

Dave Douglas Quintet, Time Travel

Kneebody, The Line

John Hollenbeck, Songs I Like A Lot

Rudresh Mahanthappa, Gamak

Billy Martin’s Wicked Knee, Heels Over Head

Linda Oh, Sun Pictures

Prism, Prism

Kendrick Scott Oracle, Conviction

Wayne Shorter Quartet, Without A Net

Sunday Time Warp - Playlist 12/15/13

Song, Album, Artist

Ramblin', Ornette Coleman, Change of the Century

Illuminations, McCoy Tyner, Illuminations

The Line, Kneebody, The Line

Double Dagger, CACAW, Stellar Power

Nu Nu, Avishai Cohen, Continuo

Lounge Mode, DJ Smash, Recollection

Better Get A Jump On It, Greyboy Allstars, Inland Emperor

Rooftop Jam Session, ArtOfficial, Audio rip from YouTube

Pappy Check, Medseski Martin and Wood, Uninvisible

Made It Up The Mountain, The Wood Brothers, Smoke Ring Halo

You Don't Love Me Baby, Junior Wells with Buddy Guy, Hoodoo Man Blues

Nextdoor Neighbor Blues, Gary Clark Jr, Audio rip from YouTube

The Thrill Is Gone, BB King, Martin Scorcese Presents the Blues

I'm Tore Down, Freddy King, The Very Best Of

Crosscut Saw, Albert King, The Very Best Of

Backwater Blues, Kenny Wayne Shepard Band, How I Go

Manenberg (Revisited), Abdullah Ibrahim, Water From An Ancient Well

Border Crossing, Hall - Lovano - Mraz - Nash, Grand Slam

Amazing Grade, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, The Warner Brothers Collection

Bring Him Back Home, Hugh Masekela, Tomorrow

12/15/13

Sunday Time Warp - Playlist 12/1/13

I let this one slip through the cracks.

Song, Artist, Album

M Trane, The Headhunters, Platinum
Blue Pepper, The Baboons, Global Gumbo
Mawenzi, Shaolin Afronauts, bonus track from Flight of the Ancients
Nutty, Blue Mitchell, Stratosonic Nuances
Creep, Richard Cheese, The Sunny Side of the Moon
Oh John, Rene Marie, I Wanna Be Evil
Little Birdie, Vince Guaraldi, The Lost Cues
On The One, Galactic, Coolin' Off
Snoopy's Search/Red Baron, Billy Cobham, Spectrum
Born To Be Blue, Bob DeVos, Shadow Box
When My Left Eye Jumps, Buddy Guy, The Very Best Of
Poisoned Well, Four On The Floor, Maron
Diamonds At Her Feet, Muddy Waters, His Best - 1956 to 1964
Highway King, Studebaker John and the Hawks, Self-Made Man
Blues Before Sunrise, Champion Jack Dupree, Truckin' On Down
My Next Ex-Wife, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Night Vision
Green's Greenery, Joshua Breakstone, Remembering Grant Green
Gravel Rash, Cookin on 3 Burners, Baked Broiled and Fried
Cut That Line, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings,Dap-Dippin'
Pass the Peas, The JB's, Pass the Peas: The Best of the JB's
Left and Right, Mr President, Number One
Freedom Jazz Dance, Gege Telesforo, Groovin On The Swing of Things

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