Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site bonnie.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!wjh
From: wjh@bonnie.UUCP (Bill Hery)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Dewars Festival: Jazz in the Park
Message-ID: <551@bonnie.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Sep-85 09:57:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: bonnie.551
Posted: Thu Sep  5 09:57:59 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Sep-85 04:50:51 EDT
References: <407@mhuxr.UUCP> <546@bonnie.UUCP> <413@mhuxr.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany NJ
Lines: 77

> > > .............................Getz is the greatest living tenor
> > > saxophonist, with only Wayne Shorter his equal......
> > >
> > ........................--surely Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon 
> > are at least his equal.  
> > 
> 
> Gordon has recorded little interesting music in the last 7-8 years.
> 
Was his Manhattan Suite lp within that time fram?  There was a beautiful
version of As Time Goes By on the lp, and the whole album is superb. Also, 
about 5 years ago I went to a Philharmonic Hall consert with Stan and Dex each
leading their groups.  At that time, I went mainly for Stan, and for a first
live listening to Dex.  Stan was a major disappointment-he had an electric
bassist, electirc guitar player, and (I think) an electric piano player--all
of whom seemed to be below even Sonny Rollins standards for sidemen.  
I don't know what he was trying to acheive, but it was a dismal failure.
The band did not come close to captuting the fire of his quasi electronic
group on Captain Marvel, but instead sounded like a jazz musician (Stan)
accidently playing with an instrumental rock group derived from the 
Jimmy Hendricks via Cream (and not even doing that well).  Neither 
semmed to understand the other, and neither did their own thing very well.
Dex, on the other hand, played a superb set with his regular quartet--Beautiful
ballads mixed with some dirving bebop derived pieces, and Dex's fantastic
audience rapport.  He won me over, and I've had the pleasure of seeing
him live a few times since then.  My only complaint about Dex is that
what he is doing now is pretty much the same as what he was doing
twenty years ago. But then, I wasn't listening to him twenty years ago

> ...................................................However, Rollins recent
> *solo* concert at MOMA was only so-so (my immediate impression, I hope the LP
> will dispell it) Also, the Milestone Jazzstars tour of 1977, with McCoy Tyner, Ron
> Carter and Al Foster, all surely Rollins' peers, is also not up
> to the level of, say, SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS or MORE FROM THE VANGUARD.

Did you get in to see it?  I'd like to see a review of the concert on the
net.  I tried to get in, arriving 1.5 hours before concert time (it
was free, and there were no advance tickets), but the line was three
blocks long already, and I couldn't get in.

Re: Milestones lp--admittedly, it is not up to the level of some previous
lps, but I still think it is one of his finest.  One interesting aspect to
me is that this lp shows an (early0 Coltrane influence more than any of
his others.  

> 
> .......................This is based on the four occasions I have seen
> Stan Getz in the last year and 1/2. I am sure Bill will agree that mastering
> the ballad form is the truest test of mainstream playing. I just
> don't think anyone can match Getz's depth of expression there.
> 

I wouldn't agree that it is the TRUEST test. One could also argue that 
handling hard driving pieces (say, Cherokee) is the turest test. I
think a great musician should be well rounded and be able to play
both.  In a live preformance, an hour of all ballads or all cookers
might get a bit dull--even Art Blakey mixes in a few ballads.  Of 
course, Stan can do a great job with the cookers as well--listen
to some of his old Verve lp's from the mid fifties.

I will agree that Stan CAN reach a 'depth of expressin' that few
can match (recently demonstrated in his great duo lp with Albert
Daley), but most of what I have heard from Stan recently hasn't done
that.  In addition to the concert mentioned above, I saw him in another
concert about 2 years ago.  By then he was back into a ballad mode,
but his playig that night was dull and mawkish.  Maybe it was just an
off night (that's the problem with judging musicians on the basis of
live performance--just like us, they can have off nights).


> 
> Besides, it's more fun to argue, isn't it?
> 
Of course.  Isn't that why you made the initial posting?  Now, about
jazz trumpet players who start playing mediocre rock.....

Bill Hery