Tuesday and Wednesday this week Reid Anderson debuts his first solo project since the forming of The Bad Plus, The Rough Mixes, in St. Paul. It is an evening-length work for three classical strings, Jeff Ballard, and Reid on electronics. Read Pamela Espeland's nice piece in the Star Tribune. We all wish Reid the very best for what is a seriously momentous occasion! I'm looking forward to hearing it, hopefully live in NYC as soon as possible.

---

I will be escorting Billy Hart to the JJA award ceremony on Wednesday. Billy is their drummer of the year, DTM is nominated for blog of the year. While I have the utmost respect for all working jazz critics I somehow have never been to this important annual event before. I suspect Billy and I may make it over to the Village Vanguard afterwards, where Mark Turner is playing all week with his new working band starring Avishai Cohen, Joe Martin, and Marcus Gilmore.

---

Just back from Ojai Festival and Ojai North! with Mark Morris, his dancers, his musicians and an incredibly generous serving of American classical music.

The Alastair Macaulay NY Times review of Spring, Spring, Spring is positive but more guarded about the dance than the music. More than one critic has been stumped by Mark's drastic recasting of Stravinsky's basic emotion: rather than torment, Mark gives us joy. Why not? At any rate, The Bad Plus found his fresh perspective to be wonderfully freeing. We are recording it next week, and Mark's dance will help us to remember to keep our teeth unclenched even in the most intense sections.  (We never liked killing virgins, anyway.) 

---

It was fascinating to hear so much John Cage, Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, and John Luther Adams live during two weeks. I enjoyed playing Cage's Four Walls, 45 minutes of white notes, rests, and an unaccompanied vocal. Maile Okamura made costumes for me and Yulia Van Doren:

(photo by MMDG company manager Sarah Horne)

Our admittedly over-the-top performance was received well by audiences but not by LA Times critic Mark Swed, who gave me the worst review I ever remember getting. Swed is an expert on Cage, so he knows what he's talking about, but, just to clarify, I wasn't making fun of the piece.  My choices were intended to protect Cage by presenting a compelling performance. After all, Cage was a genius and must have known that Four Walls was not piano recital music like Beethoven and Chopin. I certainly observed Cage's dynamics, which include many long sections repeatedly marked fff, fffz, or even the rather ludicrous ffff, all of which basically means "as loud as possible." The "light, focused" touch that Swed asks for is correct for the opening pages and a few other places, but once it gets going...I dunno. For me, it needs to rage. Several people told me they were unsettled by Four Walls, and that was entirely the intention.

---

Through Mark, I had heard much of the major Harrison and Cowell pieces before, but somehow Harrison's Piano Concerto with Javenese Gamelan was brand new to me. I was astonished, and after one hearing consider it one of Harrison's greatest pieces. As good as the (relatively) conventional Harrison Piano Concerto is, the Gamelan one is even better, with a slow movement that has one of the most purely gorgeous melodies classical music has produced in recent memory. Ojai director Tom Morris told me that the piano started getting tuned to the Gamelan a full month before the performances by Colin Fowler and Gamelan Sari Raras. Extraordinary sounds! CD or Mp3s here. (Stay away from YouTube versions, which are underwhelming.)

I'm less close to Cowell than Harrison, especially his work for larger forces. Still, it was nice to hear so much extremely rare music live. For me, though, the greatest Cowell is the CD of his own piano performances, where guttural rhythm, fecund idea, and precise gesture align perfectly. Everyone should own that essential recording of American originality. ("Anger Dance" from that disc is the soundtrack for Mark's dance with Muppets for Sesame Street.)

John Luther Adams is very much in the grain of American mavericks. Mark exposed me to his hour-long meditation for string orchestra, string quartet, and two pianos For Lou Harrison a few years ago. Live the greatness of piece became even clearer to me, in part because I could tell what a struggle it was to navigate the canvas of 4:5:6:7 polyrhythm.  (I heard talk about how some of the orchestra complained.)  In addition to whatever travails the orchestra went through, much of the audience didn't like it and grew noticeably restive. Someone even jeered "play it again" at the end at both performances. It didn't matter. For Lou Harrison was invulnerable and intoxicating even in adverse conditions.

It is not hard to listen to if you know what to listen for. There are only two sections, and while it may seem like there is nothing but repetition, in fact there is no harmonic repetition.

The problem I occasionally have with minimalism, post-minimalism, and even with forebears like Cowell and Harrison  is a certain inelegance in the harmony.

Not here. Luther Adams exhibits marvelous harmonic control in For Lou Harrison. Each change in the slow-moving chord progression is unexpected yet absolutely correct. At last we have Bruckner-level chorales for the new style! The recording by Stephen Drury and The Callithumpian Consort is wonderful and includes extensive and helpful notes by Peter Garland.

---

The California weather was terrific for two solid weeks. TBP took Hwy 1 instead of the freeway for the first part of the trip from Ojai to Berkeley, and I got a nice shot of Dave King.

06/17/2013

I found some obscure treasures this past week. A few of them were from Rasputin's on Telegraph Avenue (just down the street where we've been working with MMDG at Cal Performances) and the rest were from Down Home Music, a really wonderful store that Aaron Greenwald drove me to yesterday.

Starting with the obvious, some late Hawes that for some reason I don't have anymore. Neither of these made much impression previously, but I may be wrong. Nice humble liner note by Hawes on High in the Sky.

I like the score to Sunset Boulevard (who doesn't?) so I'll give Waxman's "jazz" a try. Never owned a Buddy Colette record, but know he was important to Mingus and Dolphy. These are apparently jazz treatments of film music, could be interesting.

Slide Hampton is someone I need to know more about, the repertoire is solid and the rhythm section is A+: Albert Dailey, Ray Drummond, Leroy Williams. McPherson has Williams too along with Ron Carter and Barry Harris (the production on those Mainstream discs are usually disappointing, though). I believe Sam Most died the day I purchased Flute Flight, one of the few albums with Donald Bailey I've never heard.

The Sweets has Tootie Heath on drums! I'm sure that's going to be great. I had no idea that Lonnie Liston Smith made a piano trio record with Cecil McBee and Al Foster. And Norman Simmons has a great cast for some bop blues. Al Harewood just turned 90, by the way. He's not playing that much anymore but his health is reportedly excellent.

The Joe Sullivan was kind of expensive but I'm quite curious to hear it. From 1953, as far as I know unavailable on CD despite being on Riverside. Eubie Blake's discography is hard to find your way around in, but this 1971 one has "Dicty's on 7th Ave." and a few other rags written using the Schillinger System. (I'm available for research and liner notes if Blake's estate wants to finally produce a definitive box set of his best.) I haven't heard any Freddie Slack in years! I think he's pretty good, actually, I know Hampton Hawes liked him.

And finally, four LPs of pianists on Euphonic Sound Recordings. Larry Kart just recently told me about Paul Lingle, a major talent. There's only one CD, split between Lingle and Burt Bales (who's also good) called They Tore My Playhouse Down. I was very impressed, and am looking forward to hearing these hard-to-find LPs. Don't know much about Euphonic, but it seems to me that they deserve a proper reissue box, too. 

06/15/2013

I spoke with Jed Eisenman this morning and confirmed the passing of Michael "Mickey" Fletcher, the legendary bartender of the Village Vanguard. Mickey actually split about a month ago, but a WBGO "The Checkout" tweet from yesterday was the first time many of us had heard.

If you didn't know him, Mickey was a bit scary: large, intense, deaf, and disdainful of complicated cocktails. But if you made it to the late night hang he was actually a gentle teddy bear, and always gave plenty of free drinks to the musicians.

He loved to tell the story of Thelonious Monk playing the Vanguard to a mostly empty house. While Paul Jeffery was soloing, Monk danced by, locked eyes with Mickey (then a young waiter), and said, "Look at all the invisible motherfuckers here tonight." 

Mickey said it took him about twenty years to realize that Monk may have not just been talking about the empty tables, but perhaps also about all the ghosts of musicians who had been in that club at some point.

As far as I know, Mickey wasn't a musician, but he did have an instrument, the Vanguard cash register. While no one could work it without making at least a little bit of noise, Mickey was undeniably the most skilled at generating a catastrophic amount of sound from the metal box, especially during a ballad or a bass solo.

I was there the night before the new digital cash register came in May 2010, and at 2 AM took a photo of the champion in final repose:

Thanks, Mickey, for the good times, the drinks, and the living history lesson. We all hope the register you are riffing with now upstairs is an adequately maintained and full-throated instrument.

Photo of Mickey copyright by John Rogers. Thanks, John, for letting me use it on DTM. (johnrogersnyc.com) Update: Ravi Coltrane actually took this photo, that's John himself in the shot as well.

06/13/2013

For Dave King's birthday (June 8), I backed his Kickstarter, which effectively greenlighted it. However you can still go over there and get rewards including the gold tooth.

---

The Mark Morris-curated Ojai Festival has been thrilling. Among other surprises, I spent much of today hanging out with Lisa Kaplan, the brilliant pianist in Eighth Blackbird. We met onstage for Terry Riley's In C.  The rehearsal was OK, but the performance was frankly astonishing! It was one of the most purely fun things I can recall doing in "classical" music. The score is online: everyone should try it out.

Kudos to Dustin Donahue of red fish blue fish for leading us and providing a rock-solid pulse of "Cs." Even though all 30 of us were professionals, we wanted to rush when we got loud and drag when we got soft. Dustin kept us in line! He (and two other "pulsers" whose names I didn't catch) played the beat evenly for over an hour. Lisa's toy piano touches were perfect as well. 

06/08/2013

The Ojai Music Festival has shown up once before on DTM, on a 1962 program by Gunther Schuller where Eric Dolphy played Varèse.

Over the years it has grown into one of America's most respected classical musical festivals.  The current artistic director is Thomas W. Morris, and this year the music director is Mark Morris. 

Mark is my former boss and mentor. (This old Terry Teachout NY Times profile explains further.) One day I'll write a proper essay about everything I've learned from Mark Morris. That will be a long essay. The first TBP/Mark Morris Dance Group collaboration was Violet Cavern in 2004. Reid, Dave, and I are thrilled about his next premiere, Spring, Spring, Spring.

Ojai has never focused on American composers before, but since Mark has choreographed Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Henry Partch, John Harbison, Kyle Gann, and especially Lou Harrison, it only makes sense for the Morris-curated year to invite Californian classical music lovers to discover who lives in their neighborhood. My own first exposures to Cowell and Harrison were through Mark:  I can't wait to see the new dance Jenn and Spencer set to Cowell's unjustly obscure but utterly delightful neo-baroque Suite for Violin and Piano.

The full program for the Ojai Festival includes not just MMDG in flight and important concert music by Cowell, Harrison, and Ives, but also generous servings of John Cage and John Luther Adams, plus glimpses of Samuel Barber, William Bolcom, Carl Ruggles, Vincent Persichetti, and even Terry Riley's In C.  At least some of TBP is planning to join in the latter...

Other TBP engagements include a "concert" version of our Rite of Spring alongside original music, a (relatively) spontaneous score to the legendary Charles Bryant/Alla Nazimova film Salomé and an open mic night (!) led by Mark.

With Yulia Van Doren I'll be playing Four Walls by John Cage. This early work is long but easy on the ear.  Apparently it was the first major Cage/Cunningham collaboration from the mid-40s.  As always, Cage gave himself some strict rules. All white notes: two metronome markings: extreme dynamics: a surprise easter egg (the vocal in the middle). It's my first time working on Cage. I'm planning to be pretty theatrical with it, especially since Yulia and I won't have dancers. At least I will have a "Four Walls Costume" made by Maile Okamura. 

The following week we all travel up to Berkeley for Ojai North! and the premiere of Mark Morris's dance to the Rite of Spring. I hope I'm not letting a cat of the bag here: Mark told me years ago that the Rite was "unchoreographable." (Apparently that was Balanchine's ruling.) Of course, it is famous as a ballet, but I understood what Mark meant after I saw assorted terrible Rite dances over the years.

I'm glad Mark has changed his mind. Reid and I played through our version with MMDG last week. To see all of Stravinsky's complex yet clear, frankly prog rock mixed meter rhythms translated precisely and perfectly to Mark's brilliant company was heart-stopping. We expect Spring, Spring, Spring to be a hit.

 TBP/Salomé and Four Walls reprise in Berkeley, too. 

---

LA Times preview of Mark Morris at Ojai.

NPR: Why Jazz Musicians Love The Rite of Spring.

DTM: Mixed Meter Mysterium.

Rite 100. Thanks to Will Robin for a whole year of valuable essays by both Robin and many interesting guests. My own contribution was a celebration of Serhiy Salov's transcription. One of Robin's concluding pieces, "What Stravinsky Would Have Wanted," is relevant to Salov, TBP, or anyone working with Spring.

06/02/2013

RIP Mulgrew Miller. Excellent NY Times obit by Nate Chinen, many video links by knowledgeable Peter Hum, valid thoughts by Paul Wells.

Despite my immense tiredness due to jet lag, I'm unable to sleep, partly due to musing about the vast void Miller's death leaves in the scene.

Miller at 57! Kenny Kirkland passed at 43. James Williams went at 53. Stay healthy, Orrin Evans, Geoff Keezer, Robert Glasper, George Colligan, Joey Calderazzo, everyone else...I want all you firebreathers around a long time, making me practice every day!

The little bit I've written so far about Miller on DTM is mostly in old essays connected to Wynton Marsalis, "Young Lion Jazz of the 1980's" and "Current Perceptions."  Not enough. More to come.

--- 

RIP Ed Shaughnessy. While best known for a somewhat dubious distinction -- the lamb chops, medallions, and goggles behind double bass drums in a populist TV big band --Shaughnessy used to be a valued member of the serious NYC scene back in the 50's and 60's, heard in contexts like the avant garde trio of Teddy Charles and Hall Overton or many large ensemble dates curated by Oliver Nelson.

Shaughnessy's drumming for the Tonight Show band lacked mystery, or at least that was always my very casual impression. Not to say that his occasionally pointlessly flamboyant style didn't have its place:  Certainly Lamb Chops, Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, and others were the precursors of Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, John Bonham, etc. 

Somewhere there's a wonderful clip of Pete Barbutti doing bad "magic" with Shaughnessy mis-timing the stings perfectly. I'm being a little snarky about the Tonight Show here, but, my god, they must have had some good times all out there in the LA sunshine together!

---

RIP Don Shirley. (Good NY Times obit by Bruce Weber.)  Shirley's gentle but virtuosic attitude toward the piano gained him a cult following in the late 50's. He wasn't an improvisor, but a transcriber and composer of ornate confections. His most famous track, "Water Boy," begins with a cello cry before settling into gospel musings with some serious groove.  

I place Shirley somewhere in the Leopold Godowsky -- Cy Walter -- Roger Williams lineage. Shirley was more sincere than most of that breed, and I regret never tracking him down while he was alive: rumor has it that he lived above Carnegie Hall. As far as I know, he didn't play in NYC in my time here during the last 20 years, and I can't remember ever discussing him with another pianist. I hope Shirley isn't going to be forgotten. At the least, he deserves a new reissue CD box of his best work with informed historical notes.

05/30/2013

I've seen a few attempts at transcribing "Honky Tonk Train Blues" over the years. Nothing ever seemed that accurate, so I'm working on it myself.

The following isn't that great, either. I'm posting it "in progress" with the comments open in case the hive mind has any sage advice. 

The performance itself is mysterious enough; the early recording quality makes it even harder to hear. Every time Lux played this it was great, but the first version remains the most bewildering. 

01 Honky Tonk Train Blues 1

A lot to debate here. A couple of specific queries:

1. The first melodic phrase (bar 2) is not right. He doesn't play that! But it looks right. I can't tell what he really plays.

2. The behind-the-beat blues shouts in bars 87 and 89 are  just my best guess. It could be something else. 

Anyway, if you've never heard this virtuoso masterpiece, you are in for a treat. Note that it is often quite literally the sound of the railroad, with whistles, crossing guard, and slowing up for a station.

---

Meade "Lux" Lewis biography by Joel Simpson.

7 Comments | 05/25/2013

New DTM: Hampton Hawes and the Low Blues.

At the end of the month are two days of Charlie Haden tribute at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival.

05/16/2013

I've been on Soundcheck many times; the first was with the New York Tango trio in...what...1995? There was something for the Mark Morris Dance Group with Yo-Yo Ma, then several occasions with TBP. Certainly Reid and I met the members of Interpol at the WNYC studio, that's when we told them we had arranged "Narc." One time I was solo opposite Imani Winds...did I play "Life on Mars?" Could be true.

However, as far as I know, last week was the first time my name was said by  John Schaefer without me being there. Classical pianist Anthony de Mare is at the helm of Liasions, a far-reaching project where composers of every discipline arrange or recompose the songs of Stephen Sondheim.

Go here to listen to Anthony play the submissions of Nico Muhly, Steve Reich, and myself on Soundcheck. While I admit it is rather eerie to hear someone else play an Iversonian deconstuction of a familiar tune -- in this case, "Send In the Clowns" --  I'm still very impressed with Anthony's pianism and overall musicality.

I enjoyed the Muhly and Reich arrangements, too. Looking forward to the record! If you feel so moved, "like" the Liasions Facebook page. 

05/11/2013

"Friends and Neighbors, That's Where It's At"

Destination: OUT! has had some valuable Ornette-related posts lately: a memorial for the great Jayne Cortez, and an overview of O.C.'s "White House." That Curlew track is some Prime Time-esque stuff for sure. Interesting to hear Denardo as a sideman with someone other than his dad in both these posts...

Dave King has a Kickstarter with lots of remarkable benefits. The video is very funny.

Sarah Deming is becoming a regular reporter for Stiff Jab. See "Local Boxers  Chase Their Dreams in Queens" and "Brooklyn Boxing:  Danny Garcia and Peter Quillin Win, Zab Judah Stands Tall in Defeat."

According the Jazz Journalists Association, Billy Hart is drummer of the year. (He's got my vote, of course.)

---

It was Ron Carter's birthday on May 4th. Mr. RC got some nice twitter love from me and others. Nicholas Payton rapped about how instrumental Carter was in giving the Miles Davis band some mystery, and as proof offered a photo of the original chart of "Dolores." (Note: pitches are Bb, changes are concert.)

In related news, recently I became aware of this fascinating interview and transcription of Herbie Hancock on "Nefertiti" by Hiroshi Okamoto in 1990. 

---

(In case there is a point in posting about Doctor Who on this jazz blog) I just anted up a fair-sized piece of change to Philip Sandifer's Kickstarter. I am always learning something from Sandifer. Just last week he reached the new series with a major essay on "Rose." My mind was blown by this paragraph:

This also marks the first appearance, musically, of what Russell T Davies and Phil Collinson cheekily refer to as “Flavia’s Theme.” It’s the musical cue with the single female vocalist oohing around on it that they use whenever Time Lord stuff comes up - that is, when the show gets a bit poncey in its sense of mysticism. Embedded in this is a fascinating double-edged joke: on the one hand the mysticism is named via a reference to a dense and fannish continuity point - Chancellor Flavia is in fact most notable for becoming Lord President of Gallifrey in The Five Doctors and then never appearing or being mentioned ever again. But there’s also an embrace of the camp here - Flavia is given an exceedingly stoic performance by Dinah Sheridan that makes her an immediate camp sensation destined to be loved by the sizable contingent of gay Doctor Who fans. It’s not just that mysticism and fannishness are twinned here, but that the slightly cheesy music trotted out when the mysticism gets a bit excessive is itself a self-conscious celebration of camp excess within the program.

While I don't like the new Who music that much in general (I searched out and called the older master Dudley Simpson when on tour in Sidney), I really don't like the "oohing" bits. But now I realize I just didn't understand the context. It's gay camp! Ah, now I understand much better. Thank you.

In fits and starts with the current season...actually, I thought "Cold War" and "Hide" were really quite good, if I was young again I'm sure I'd love 'em.

05/07/2013

Photo by Ruth Cameron: King, Haden, Redman, Ballard, Anderson, Grenadier, Iverson, Mehldau.

Review by Chris Barton.

05/06/2013

(Post-gig photo)

Nice hit last night in Eugene. Rest of tour:

May 2013

Santa Barbara is co-bill with Brad Mehldau, Larry Grenadier, and Jeff Ballard. The next day in LA it's the same co-bill except Josh Redman will join TBP.

---

Speaking of Brad, did I ever mention on DTM that I wrote extensive liner notes for The Art of the Trio box set? That was a fun project, I interviewed Brad, Larry, and Jorge Rossy for it. I was there when that trio first tore apart NYC, what a great moment.

Out now is the Paul Motian box on ECM with another long essay from me, including fresh quotes from Charles Brackeen, Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell, Ed Schuller, and Manfred Eicher. A lot of great photos in there, too.

And Christopher O'Riley has a superb new Liszt 2-CD just about to come out on Oxingale. In those notes, I interview Chris and riff on why Liszt is so great, which he is, especially when a powerhouse like Chris is in the driver's seat. The Berlioz-Liszt-O'Riley Symphonie Fantastique is just too much.

---

Two regrettably essential YouTubes:

The Beach Boys, avatars of glorious ensemble and euphonious harmony, digging deep into that beat as well

Helpful Japanese guide to getting mugged

---

Forumesque 13 is an opportunity to weigh in on recent posts and anything in the contents. Factual corrections are welcomed;  general questions are fine too.  I'll close the forum Sunday morning before heading home from LA.

22 Comments | 04/28/2013

Over the last few days I helped Levi Stahl look though the late Donald E. Westlake's attic. 

While I'll leave it to Levi to announce what he can use of marvelous goodies unearthed for his forthcoming Westlake anthology, there's a few details that I can share from our trip.

 I can't deny the fanboy chill I felt when I discovered the shelf of homemade research books.

As I've written before, I consider The Ax to be a masterpiece, and here was Westlake's own large compilation of relevant New Yorker cartoons and NY Times articles.

There was a spooky visitation while spending over an hour running photocopies for Levi at Staples. Sarah and I kept wondering when I'd run out of paper. The machine finally did...right after completing the first full copy of the most significant document, and with the copy count right at 1234.

Also in the attic were reams of correspondence with carbons of his typewritten responses. Long after the advent of word processing, Westlake still wrote his books on his beloved Smith-Coronas. From the last decade, I was amused by plantive letters from young publishing underlings requesting Word docs or PDFs. Westlake curtly refused, of course. They would get only big boxes of neat Courier typescript from him!

In several interviews, Westlake said he didn't outline, but I did see a few page-long notes on plot. Indeed, there was one reference page that had the whole outline of the last two Parkers, Ask the Parrot and Dirty Money. (Talk about fanboy gold...)

Much more frequent than outlines were single-spaced, unparagraphed, sloppy first drafts of chapters running all over both sides of a page. My guess is that when inspiration struck, he just turned up the gas and didn't stop for anything. Then the second draft was a fair copy with very few mistakes and even fewer edits.

I opened up the box of Dirty Money to look at the famous last line.  Wow! There was indeed a later edit: the last two words were eventually taken out, making it even stronger.

Westlake was a worker.  He'd write anything he thought was interesting or had a chance to survive. Levi and I didn't find any other novels,  but we did find about two file drawers of finished, forever unproduced film and television scripts. This isn't exactly a surprise, but according to the contracts, it is indeed true that submitting unused ideas for a James Bond film pays ten times the advance for a completed novel.

My heart was warmed looking at the "contract" for the major essay on Peter Rabe Westlake wrote for Murder Off the Rack.  No advance, and future royalties split between all ten of the anthology's contributors. It's safe to say that Westlake never made a dime from it. He wrote the essay because he thought it was important to do...and he was right. We know so much more about Rabe thanks to Westlake.

Barring unforseen hurdles, the Rabe piece will be in Levi's anthology, along with a few things hardcore Westlakians have already seen and a lot that nobody has seen. It's going to be a great book.

Very special thanks to Abby Westlake for letting us look though the collection, and for her generous hospitality besides. 

04/26/2013

Recently Mark Morris has been exposing everyone within earshot to Ivor Cutler, culminating in the recent dance A Wooden Tree starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, reviewed well by Joan Acocella in The New Yorker.

Last week one of Mark's composition assignments at the Dartington choreographer/composer retreat was "Women of the World." My hasty transcription reflects the duet with Linda Hirst more than Cutler's solo version.

---

H'mm! Generous review of the Vortex gig by John Fordham.

At the masterclass I met Sebastian Scotney. (I can't believe LondonJazzNews wasn't on my blogroll before.) Another vital voice of the jazz internet, Ronan Guilfoyle, was there too. (Trio dialogue: Michelle Mercer, George Colligan, Ronan.)

I played terrible at the masterclass, which is one reason I give them, of course. Put up or shut up! I'm still learning "the art of solo piano" for sure...

---

I joked at the Vortex that if there wasn't anybody at the masterclass the next morning  I would just go around the corner from the Royal Academy of Music to the Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street. I love A. Conan Doyle, I've been to that museum before.

Afterwards, on the way home, I made the mistake of watching 10 minutes of the American Airlines-supplied Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, which managed the rather miraculous feat of being much, much worse than I could have imagined. 

Holmes as anonymous action hero is bad enough. Moriarty killing a bitchy Irene Adler is unforgivable. How dare Guy Ritchie and his minions dare sully one of the few feminist icons from an almost all-male milieu? Irene Adler is "The Woman" because she casually bested Holmes in a political showdown. To reduce her to a drab pawn is an insult to women everywhere.

04/22/2013

I'm enjoying my time at Dartington with Mark Morris, Mark Baldwin, Richard Alston, Paul Hoskins, Joce Giles, and everyone else at the Rambert Dance workshop this week.  It's very pretty here.

Reminder for Londoners:

April 20 London Vortex with Sam Lasserson and Jeff Williams This will be kind of like "Do the Math Live."  I used to play with Jeff a bit, he's really, really great. Sam was Jeff's recommendation. The three of us will meet right before and rummage through standard repertoire.

I'm sure there will be an audience for the gig. The next morning is more of a question mark:

April 21 Free Masterclasss/Comedy Hour at Royal Academy 

Ethan Iverson Open Masterclass at the Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5HT.

Nearest Tube stations are Baker Street or Regents Park.

11.00am to 1:30 pm - in the "Concert Room" at the Academy

Mainly for pianists, but if you play something else and really want to come by, that's OK, too. 

Extra credit for any student that wants to drive me to Heathrow right after: my flight is at 5.

(Even the cows at Dartington are skeptical of anyone getting up this Sunday morning and going to listen me talk about jazz)

04/18/2013