All Bopped Out…(?)

It’s been a great run here at Bop and Beyond but after three years on-line and over a decade on-air, I’ve decided to temporarily hang up my jazz cap and take a well-earned sabbatical.

Before I do though, I’d like to thank all the people who supported Bop and Beyond over the years, including the various radio stations that supported the program since its inception, particularly CJLO in Montreal where the show got its start; WRHO for temporarily hosting the program when it had no home; and WPIR where it lived its best life in terms of content and listenership. Thanks to all my loyal listeners all over the world, particularly Milo. I’d also like to thank WordPress for hosting this blog where Bop and Beyond found new life after going off the air and to all the people who read and commented on posts, spread the word, and linked to posts. Thank you!

Also, thanks to all the musicians, authors, and record label people who were so helpful to me over the years, particularly Scott Wenzel of Mosaic Records, Neal Sugarman of Daptone Records,  Sharon Jones (thanks for singing to me over the phone, babe!), Richard Davis, Ben Ratliff, Joseph Perez,  Robin D.G. Kelly (whose book on Thelonious Monk is the best jazz book I’ve ever read), and everyone at WKCR for answering my questions and exposing the world to such tremendous jazz.

Lastly, thanks to all the musicians everywhere who’ve made such timeless music. Jazz will never die even if it is time for Bop and Beyond to say goodbye. I’ll certainly miss doing the Crime Jazz Month features…

Speaking of which, those of you who’ll miss my writing, I’m still going to write crime (and other) film reviews for Movie Feast.

Michael Cuscuna to speak at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem (This Thurs, 07/29/10 at 6:30pm, Free)

Famed jazz writer, producer, discographer, and Mosaic Records honcho, Michael Cuscuna will be giving a free lecture at The National Jazz Museum in Harlem, this Thursday at 7pm. The event is free and open to the public.

A Format Change?

Since I am planning evaluating over 100 jazz albums in my collection, most of which I intend to review, I think a change in format is in order. The haphazard Jazz Reviews section needs an overhaul. I am unsure exactly on how to proceed. Whether I should keep a separate hyper-linked archive or else just make all future reviews a regular blog post searchable via categories, tags, and the search bar. If I keep a separate section, it will definitely need to be better organized. That said, given the amount of reviewing I plan to do, a separate section might prove cumbersome. Integrating (and rewriting some of the lesser) old reviews might be the way forward.

Readers! Thoughts?

Carmell Jones – Willow Weep For Me (Riverside Records, 1965)

Carmell Jones – trumpet; Barry Harris – piano; George Tucker – bass; Roger Humphries – drums / Riverside Records, 1965

Carmell Jones was a supremely underrated West Coast trumpeter, whose sideman work with Harold Land, Booker Ervin, and Horace Silver went largely unnoticed in his era. The Mosaic Records Select three-disc box set did a lot to remedy this. Not included was Jay Hawk Talk, a Riverside Date that I believe is Jones’s only gig as a leader. It is magnificent — funky where it needs to be, tender as well. His reading of “Willow Weep For Me” above is hauntingly beautiful, one of my favorite renditions.

Today would’ve been Carmell Jones’s 74th birthday. He died in 1996, a near total unknown. Many dazzling trumpeters from his era somehow never managed to break through, which is a shame really. I’d take Carmell Jones and Tommy Turrentine and Dupree Bolton and Louis Smith over many of their more famous peers and colleagues.

Acquiring Albums Just To Have Them…

So I’ve made myself a vow. I am no longer going to acquire a jazz album just to have it. If I purchase or download an album, I have to listen to it, deeply and attentively, to be sure I want to keep it. To ensure that it is up to my level of enjoyment and not just kept in order to fill in a discography or earn eventual listening. Redundancy is an issue too. As my Lee Morgan posts of earlier this spring attest to, I can only handle so much playing in the same style. It was a revelation to go back and see that Lee had more of a dynamic than I had previously credited him but it also made me realize that while I enjoy the finest of his output in different styles, I only need so many of his blowing sessions — not almost all of them.

The fleeting rush of acquisition is a tantalizing drug. I have often fallen victim to it. To the delerium, the mania of constantly seeking new records, new knowledge, hearing how a player developed, who he played with, what sessions are available, what is rare and worth seeking. The greater the difficulty, the better the challenge, the greater the rush of attainment.

But where is the true satisfaction?

I love Don Byas to death. He is one of my all-time favorite tenor players. And when I realized this, I rushed out and got my hands on at least ten different sessions at once. I listen to them all casually for awhile but really only dedicated my ears to the Jazz In Paris series. Now I find myself wanting something new to hear from him when I have seven or eight good sessions sitting on  my hard drive that I’ve only ever listened to once or twice. Why aren’t they enough?

As I go through and listen and review these records that have sat unloved in my collection, I will grapple with these questions and see if I cannot tame the impulse to constantly collect, to still the mania, and dampen the diminishing returns that keep me constantly seeking for more.