Making Moves with Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra

A Happy Birthday to Dizzy Gillespie!

Show description for Sunday 10/23/2011 @ 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

This afternoon we will focus on the contributions of the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Orchestra. As part of these efforts, we will also explore the music recorded by Charlie Parker as featured soloist with Machito & His Orchestra, including Mango Mangue, as well as Okidoke. In bringing attention to this period, the great composer, arranger Tadd Dameron will also be featured, including his earliest efforts with Harlan Leonard, the small groups featuring Fats Navarro, and the neglected masterwork, The Magic Touch, recorded for Riverside. Along the way we will hear poetry from Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Claude McKay, Margaret Walker, Sterling Brown, and Langston Hughes. (Pictured at right, Harriet Tubman)

Runagate Runagate

by Robert Hayden

I.

Runs falls rises stumbles on from darkness into darkness

and the darkness thicketed with shapes of terror

and the hunters pursuing and the hounds pursuing

and the night cold and the night long and the river

to cross and the jack-muh-lanterns beckoning beckoning

and blackness ahead and when shall I reach that somewhere

morning and keep on going and never turn back and keep on going

Runagate

Runagate

Runagate

Many thousands rise and go

many thousands crossing over

O mythic North

O star-shaped yonder Bible city

Some go weeping and some rejoicing

some in coffins and some in carriages

some in silks and some in shackles

Rise and go or fare you well

No more auction block for me

no more driver’s lash for me

If you see my Pompey, 30 yrs of age,

new breeches, plain stockings, negro shoes;

if you see my Anna, likely young mulatto

branded E on the right cheek, R on the left,

catch them if you can and notify subscriber.

Catch them if you can, but it won’t be easy.

They’ll dart underground when you try to catch them,

plunge into quicksand, whirlpools, mazes,

turn into scorpions when you try to catch them.

And before I’ll be a slave

I’ll be buried in my grave

North star and bonanza gold

I’m bound for the freedom, freedom-bound

and oh Susyanna don’t you cry for me

Runagate

Runagate

II.

Rises from their anguish and their power,

Harriet Tubman,

woman of earth, whipscarred,

a summoning, a shining

Mean to be free

And this was the way of it, brethren brethren,

way we journeyed from Can’t to Can.

Moon so bright and no place to hide,

the cry up and the patterollers riding,

hound dogs belling in bladed air.

And fear starts a-murbling, Never make it,

we’ll never make it. Hush that now,

and she’s turned upon us, levelled pistol

glinting in the moonlight:

Dead folks can’t jaybird-talk, she says;

you keep on going now or die, she says.

Wanted Harriet Tubman alias The General

alias Moses Stealer of Slaves

In league with Garrison Alcott Emerson

Garrett Douglas Thoreau John Brown

Armed and known to be Dangerous

Wanted Reward Dead or Alive

Tell me, Ezekiel, oh tell me do you see

mailed Jehovah coming to deliver me?

Hoot-owl calling in the ghosted air,

five times calling to the hants in the air.

Shadow of a face in the scary leaves,

shadow of a voice in the talking leaves:

Come ride-a my train

Oh that train, ghost-story train

through swamp and savanna movering movering,

over trestles of dew, through caves of the wish,

Midnight Special on a sabre track movering movering,

first stop Mercy and the last Hallelujah.

Come ride-a my train

Mean mean mean to be free.

MP3 Stream 192kpbs, broadband
MP3 Stream 32kpbs, broadband

View Past Shows

	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Countee Cullen	Heritage	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Dizzy Gillespie featuring Chano Pozo	Minor Walk	Dizzy Gillespie Vol. 1/2	RCA - France
	Dizzy Gillespie featuring Chano Pozo	Cubana Be Cubana Bop	Dizzy Gillespie Vol. 1/2	RCA - France
	Machito & His Orchestra featuring Charlie Parker	Mango Mangue	Afro-Cuban Jazz	Verve
	Langston Hughes	the Negro Speaks of Rivers	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Langston Hughes	I, Too	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	James Moody	Cu-Ba	James Moody & His Modernists	Blue Note
	Tadd Dameron Septet	Jahbero	Tadd Dameron Septet	Blue Note
	Bud Powell Trio	Un Poco Loco	The Amazing Bud Powell	Blue Note
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Margaret Walker	For My People	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra	Things to Come	Bebop	New World Records
	Kenny Clarke & His 52nd St. Boys	Royal Roost	Jazz In Revolution	New World Records
	Machito & His Orchestra featuring Charlie Parker	Okidoke	Afro-Cuban Jazz	Verve
	Dizzy Gillespie featuring Chano Pozo	Algo Bueno (Woody'n You)	Dizzy Gillespie Vol. 1/2	RCA - France
	Modern Jazz Quartet	Woody'n You	Nica's Dream	New World Records
	Gwendolyn Brooks	The Preacher Ruminates	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Gwendolyn Brooks	The Children of the Poor	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Charles Mingus	Ysabels' Table Dance	Tijuana Moods	RCA
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Woody Herman & His Orchestra	Lemon Drop	Bebop	New World Records
	Elliott Lawrence	Elevation	Jazz In Revolution	New World Records
	Dizzy Gillespie featuring Kenny Hagood	Ool Ya Koo	Dizzy Gillespie Vol. 1/2	RCA - France
	James Moody	Tropicana	James Moody & His Modernists	Blue Note
	Tadd Dameron	On A Misty Night	The Magic Touch	Riverside
	Sarah Vaughn	A Ship Without A Sail	Great Songs From Hit Shows Volume 2	Mercury
	Sarah Vaughn	He's Only Wonderful	Great Songs From Hit Shows Volume 2	Mercury
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Dizzy Gillespie	Groovin' High	In The Beginning	Prestige
	Tadd Dameron featuring Barbara Winfield	If You Could See Me Now	The Magic Touch	Riverside
	Sterling Brown	Long Gone	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Dodo Marmarosa Trio	Mellow Mood	Jazz In Revolution	New World Records
	Charlie Parker	Relaxin' at Camarillo	Bebop	New World Records
	Dexter Gordon - Wardell Gray Quintet	The Chase Part 1 & 2	Jazz In Revolution	New World Records
	Claude McKay	St. Issac's Church	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Claude McKay	The Tropics in New York	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Claude McKay	Intro / If We Must Die	Anthology of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Randy Weston	Con Alma	African Nite	Inner City
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Harlan Leonard & His Rockets	A-La-Bridges	Jazz In Revolution	New World Records
	Dizzy Gillespie featuring Chano Pozo	Good Bait	Dizzy Gillespie Vol. 1/2	RCA - France
	Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker	Hot House	In the Beginning	Prestige
	Tadd Dameron	Dial B for Beauty	The Arranger's Touch	Prestige
	Tadd Dameron	You're A Joy	The Magic Touch	Riverside
	Tadd Dameron	Swift as the Wind	The Magic Touch	Riverside
	Dizzy Gillespie featuring Joe Carroll	Jump-Did-Le-Ba	Dizzy Gillespie Vol. 1/2	RCA - France
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Sarah Vaughn	Embraceable You	Sarah Vaughn	Emarcy

Margaret Walker, Lee Morgan, and those blues in the night . . .

Paulene Myers, actress (with back to camera), Raymond Patterson, poet, Margaret Walker, Paula Giddings's afro towering over Margaret Walker, Herbert Martin (center), Gwendolyn Etter-Lewis, critic, unidentified woman,Lorenzo Thomas, poet.

Show description for Sunday 7/10/2011 @ 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Lee Morgan , one of the greatest trumpet players in the history of jazz, is celebrated today on New Day Jazz, along with the life and poetry of Margaret Walker.

"Margaret Walker is of the great creators and teachers of literature." - Amiri Baraka

Missed the Show?

MP3 Stream 192kpbs, broadband
MP3 Stream 32kpbs, broadband

View Past Shows

	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Margaret Walker	Kissie Lee	Anthology Of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Ella Fitzgerald	Blues In The Night	Sings The Harold Arlen Songbook	Verve
	Ella Fitzgerald	Let's Fall In Love	Sings The Harold Arlen Songbook	Verve
	Ella Fitzgerald	Stormy Weather	Sings The Harold Arlen Songbook	Verve
	Margaret Walker (read by Gloria Foster)	We Have Been Believers	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers	Roots & Herbs	Roots & Herbs	Blue Note
	Lee Morgan	Short Count	The Sixth Sense	Blue Note
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Shirley Horn	Travelin' Light	Travelin' Light	ABC-Paramount
	Shirley Horn	Sunday In New York	Travelin' Light	ABC-Paramount
	Shirley Horn	I Could Have Told You	Travelin' Light	ABC-Paramount
	Lee Morgan	You're Mine You	City Lights	Blue Note
	Lee Morgan	City Lights	City Lights	Blue Note
	Margaret Walker	Old Molly Means	Anthology Of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Grachan Moncur III	Monk In Wonderland	Evolution	Blue Note
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Margaret Walker	For My People	Anthology Of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers	Sakeena's Vision	The Big Beat	Blue Note
	Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers	Calling Miss Khadija	Indestructible!	Blue Note
	Margaret Walker	Stackalee	Anthology Of Negro Poets	Folkways
	Lee Morgan	Since I Fell For You	Candy	Blue Note
	Louis Armstrong	Stardust	Louis Armstrong Favorites Vol. 4	Columbia
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Lee Konitz	I Remember You	Motion	Verve

Klook! Telling it like it is, and like it ought to be!

Show description for Sunday 1/9/2011 @ 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Happy Birthday, to one of the great fathers of modern jazz percussion, Kenny Clarke!

Missed the Show?

MP3 Stream 192kpbs, broadband
MP3 Stream 32kpbs, broadband

	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Miles Davis	Solar	Walkin'	Prestige
	Kenny Clarke	Cotton Tail	Jazz Men Detroit	Savoy
	Jayne Cortez & Richard Davis	Making It	Celebrations & Solitudes	Strata-East
	Jayne Cortez & Richard Davis	So Long	Celebrations & Solitudes	Strata-East
	Kenny Dorham featuring Ernie Henry	Noose Bloos	2 Horns / 2 Rhythm	Riverside
	Sylvia Tropp	Poem to Ernie Henry	New Jazz Poets	Broadside
	Tommy Flanagan	Ugly Beauty	Thelonica	Enja
	Herbie Nichols	Riff Primatiff	The Third World	Blue Note
	Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland	Volcano	Live at Ronnie Scott's	BASF
	Linton Kwesi Johnson	Di Great Insohrekshan	An Evening of International Poetry	New Alliance Records
	Modern Jazz Quartet	La Ronde (For Drums)	MJQ	Prestige
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Bing Crosby	Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?	Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?	New World Records
	Deane Janis	Boulevard of Broken Dreams	Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?	New World Records
	Jane Harvey with Benny Goodman	Only Another Boy & Girl	Haven't We Met Before?	New World Records
	Billie Holiday	I Can't Get Started	When Malindy Sings	New World Records
	Count Basie & His Orchestra	Every Tub	Jazz In Revolution	New World Records
	Leo Watson	It's the Tune That Counts	When Malindy Sings	New World Records
	Louis Prima	In A Little Gypsy Tea Room	Louis Prima	Capitol
	Cab Calloway featuring Milt Hinton	Ebony Silhouette	The World of Swing	Columbia-Legacy
	Lionel Hampton featuring Charles Mingus	Mingus Fingers	Jazz In Revolution	New World Records
	Duke Ellington & Jimmy Blanton	Pitter Panther Patter	Duke Ellington: The Blanton-Webster Band	RCA-Bluebird
	Duke Ellington	The Clothed Woman	Monologue	CBS-France
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Jayne Cortez (read by Justin Desmangles)	No Simple Explanations	Coagulations	Bola Press
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Coleman Hawkins	Body & Soul	Jazz In Revolution	New World Records
	Thelonious Monk	Ruby, My Dear	The Genius of Thelonious Monk	Blue Note
	Tommy Flanagan	North of the Sunset	Thelonica	Enja
	Bennie Green featuring Bab Gonzalez	Soul Stirrin'	Soul Stirrin'	Blue Note - Japan
	Miles Davis All-Stars	Blue 'N Boogie	Walkin'	Prestige
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Charles Mingus	Folk Forms No. 1	Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus	Candid
	Okot P'Bitek	Song of the Prisoner	An Evening of International Poetry	New Alliance Records
	Johnny Griffin	Cherokee	The Other Side of Blue Note 1500 Series	Blue Note - Japan
	Cecil Rajendra	The Animals & Insects Act	An Evening of International Poetry	New Alliance Records
	Helen Merrill & Dick Katz	Day Dream	The Feeling is Mutual	Riverside
	Helen Merrill & Dick Katz	Deep In A Dream	The Feeling is Mutual	Riverside
	Myron O'Higgins	To A Young Poet	A Hand is on the Gate	Verve-Folkways
	James Vaughn	from Four Questions	A Hand is on the Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Owen Dodson	Counterpoint	A Hand is on the Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Kenny Dorham featuring Ernie Henry	Is It True What They Say About Dixie?	2 Horns/2 Rhythm	Riverside
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Nas	One Love	Illmatic	CBS-Sony

Ted Joans Birthday Celebrations with Robin D.G. Kelley

Show description for Sunday 7/4/2010 @ 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Robin D.G. Kelley returns to New Day Jazz this Sunday in the four o'clock hour to discuss Black Brown & Beige: Surrealist Writings From Africa & the Diaspora, co-edited with the late Franklin Rosemont. Also this afternoon, we will be celebrating the birthday of the great Black, Beat, Surrealist, Poet, Painter, Filmmaker, TED JOANS.

New Day Jazz

Justin Desmangles

Jazz music for lovers and the lonely.

Genre

Jazz

Missed the Show?

MP3 Stream 192kpbs, broadband
MP3 Stream 32kpbs, broadband

View Past Shows

View Upcoming Shows

Track	Artist	Song	Album	Label	Comments
	Thelonious Monk	Let's Cool One	The Complete Blue Note Recordings	Mosaic
	Charlie Parker	Orinthology	The Complete Dial Recordings	Warner Brothers
	Dizzy Gillespie	Dizzy Atomosphere	In The Begining	Savoy
	Charles Mingus	Lock'em Up	The Complete Candid Recordings	Mosaic
	Calvin C. Hernton	Jitterbugging In The Streets	New Jazz Poets	Broadside
	Ted Joans (Read By Justin Desmangles)	Poem Why	A Black Manifesto In Jazz Poetry & Prose
	Ted Joans (Read By Justin Desmangles)	Pygmy Stay Away From My Door	All Of Ted Joans & No More
	Thelonious Monk	April In Paris	The Complete Blue Note Recordings	Mosaic
	Thelonious Monk	Off Minor	The Complete Blue Note Recordings	Mosaic
	Charles Mingus	Reincarnation of a Lovebird	The Complete Candid Recordings	Mosaic
	Charlie Parker	Bird Of Paradise	The Complete Dial Recordings	Warner Brothers
	Ted Joans (Read By Justin Desmangles)	Jazz Me Surreally Do	Double Trouble
	Ted Joans (Read By Justin Desmangles)	Poet Key World Today	Double Trouble
	Sonny Rollins	Reflections	Sonny Rollins Volume Two	Blue Note
	Robin D.G. Kelley interviewed by Justin Desmangles
	Joe Henderson	Carribean Fire Dance	Mode For Joe	Blue Note

Ugly Beauty

New Day Jazz Justin Desmangles Jazz music for lovers and the lonely Genre Jazz Miss the Show? MP3 Stream (128kbps, broadband) MP3 Stream (32kbps, dial-up)

Track	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants	The Man I Love	Miles Davis and the Modern Giants	Prestige
	Thelonious Monk	The Man I Love	The Man I Love	Black Lion
	Thelonious Monk	Brilliant Corners	Brilliant Corners	Riverside
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Steve Lacy	Criss Cross	The Straight Horn of Steve Lacy	Candid
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Steve Lacy	Humpf	Only Monk	Soul Note
	Thelonious Monk	Humpf	The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk	Mosaic
	Thelonious Monk	Off Minor	The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk	Mosaic
	Thelonious Monk	Straight, No Chaser (excerpt)	The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Thelonious Monk	Mosaic
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Tommy Flanagan	Ugly Beauty	Thelonica	Enja
	Sonny Rollins featuring Thelonious Monk	Reflections	Sonny Rollins Volume 2	Blue Note - Japan
	Sonny Rollins featuring Thelonious Monk	Misterioso (excerpt)	Sonny Rollins Volume 2	Blue Note - Japan
	Interview with Robin D.G. Kelley By Justin Desmangles
	Thelonious Monk	Trinkle Tinkle	Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane	Jazzland

Matthew Shipp / Justin Desmangles exchange on Bud Powell

Happy birthday bud-
even amoung jazz pianists I don’t think the knowledge of how transendent a poetic genius bud was has sunk in. beautiful poem by ismeal reed and while looking down the page I did not realize that anita oday had died.
anyway I put my new solo cdr in mail other day-be on lookout-release date is in january but we are looking to get some really early buzz.
thanks
matt

............................

I have a hard time understanding the lack of understanding about Bud, I mean this guy was it! You know that solo session for Verve, 1951? Oblivion, Dusk At Sandi &c. O U T ! Or the 1961 concert in West Germany with Pettiford and Clark, man that brother is just beyond beyond . . . I have yet to hear, on records that is, anything resembling the level of intensity on Cleopatra's Dream. Those compositions on the last two dates before leaving for Paris, The Scene Changes & Time Waits are ecstatic. I mean is the guy just too mercurial? You know that story Francis Paudras tells about how he and Bud are visiting New York, this is 63, 64 as I recall, and Ornette drops by after several attempts to reach them, and tells Bud that all his music is based on the 7th's in his left hand. Dance Of The Infidels.
Justin

.................................


To answer your question about how bud gets lost in the discourse-in jazz
piano now everybody views things through a post miles prism which means
piano is viewed through the -keith-chick and herbie prism with people seeing
bill evens as the father of that.other than that now it is hip to view monk
as a weird genius-and the marketing of that idea is easy because the
name-and the persona all fit together in a way where that idea can be
marketed. So bud just becomes a bebop pianist in a lot of people's minds and
to make matters worst when people think of bebop they think of bird and diz
who are the salesman of the idea of bebop and who most people think of the
founders of it. That is a paradox considering bud was the heaviest of all of
them.
thanks
matthew shipp

.............................................

I think a lot of Bud's neglect has to do with how starkly his life story reflects the institutional injustices and systemic violence of racism in the United States and it's defining role in the historical panorama of jazz in particular. It's vivid illustrations of the role psychiatry, and so-called medicine, has played in destroying human beings, creative people in general but black men and women in particular, does little to harmonize what I call the "celebrity jazz" exemplified by the post miles prism you spoke of.

Also he, Bud, may also be quite literally too deep for the type of vulgar feeble minded revisions exemplified by say a Jarrett Trio on ECM. Too deep in it's reflection of waters, still and unstill, in the sacred wound that was so often the wellspring of his improvising, composing, joy, pains, satisfactions, refusals, acceptances. Certainly Bud's music is far too black for say a Ken Burns, who scorches and torches everything til it becomes a blanched cinder, burns jazz, burns Jack Johnson &c.

Then there are those chords! Those right hand single note runs! Defying all means of categorization, all means of ordered recognition, "these into those into these, to this and finally that" NO!

Evans once said that Bud was the only musician he heard that gave him the same sense of the profound that he recieved while listeniong to Bach. It's on the CD that came with Randi Hultin's book of a few years back.

There is also Bud's humanity, which I think also frightens people, the sense of vulnerability which refuses to enclose itself in solipsism.
Justin

............................................

I agree wholeheartedly
matt
Ps-these are the real deep reasons-I gave you more the musician type reasons

Happy Birthday Bud Powell

"Lake Bud"

Lake Merritt is Bud Powell's piano
The sun tingles its waters
Snuff-jawed pelicans descend tumbling over each other like
Bud's hands playing Tea For Two
or Two For Tea
Big Mac Containers, tortilla chip, Baby Ruth
wrappers, bloated dead cats, milkshake
cups, and automobile tires
float on its surface
Seeing Lake Merritt this way is
like being unable to hear Bud Powell at Birdland
Because people are talking
Clinking glasses of whiskey and
shouting
"Hey, waiter"

Ishmael Reed

Ask Your Mama!

Show Description for Sunday 09/06/2009 This week on the four o'clock hour we continue our explorations of the great poet, playwright, essayist and author, Langston Hughes. Featured this hour will be a very scarce recording of Mr. Hughes narrating, The Story of Jazz. This unusual recording was made for Folkways as a companion to Mr. Hughes book for children, The First Book of Jazz, published by Ecco and still widely available. Throughout the program we will also listen in on Mr. Hughes reading from his masterwork, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. Please join me in this special broadcast honoring one of the true masters of American art.

Track	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	King Pleasure	Diaper Pin (That Old Black Magic)	Mr. Jazz	United Artists
	Wynton Kelly	Keep It Moving	Kelly Blue	Riverside
	Red Garland	On Green Dolphin Street	Bright & Breezy	Jazzland
	Sarah Vaughn	You're Not The Kind	Sarah Vaughn	Emarcy
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Mabel Mercer	Delovely	Sings Cole Porter	Atlantic
	Lee Morgan	Candy	Candy	Blue Note
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Langston Hughes	Ask Your Mama	The Black Verse	Buddha
	Sarah Vaughn	Summertime	After Hours	Columbia
	Sarah Vaughn	Street of Dreams	After Hours	Columbia
	Duke Ellington	New York City Blues	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington	Rock Skippin' At The Blue Note	Monologue	CBS - France
	Duke Ellington featuring Lil Greenwood	Walkin' & Singin' The Blues	Primpin for the Prom	CBS-France
	Langston Hughes	Bird In Orbit	The Black Verse	Buddha
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Langston Hughes	The Story of Jazz	The Story of Jazz	Folkways
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Charles Mingus	Ysabel's Table Dance	Tijuana Moods	RCA
	Abbey Lincoln	When Malindy Sings	Straight Ahead	Candid
	Ernestine Anderson	Sunny	Sunshine	Concord
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Mabel Mercer	Experiment	Sings Cole Porter	Atlantic

Poetry, and all that jazz . . . KDVS

New Day Jazz Justin Desmangles Jazz music for lovers and the lonely. Genre Jazz Miss the Show? MP3 Stream (128kbps, broadband) MP3 Stream (32kbps, dial-up) [View Past Shows] [View Upcoming Shows]

Track	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Lee Morgan	All At Once You Love Her	Candy	Blue Note
	Charles Mingus	Bugs	The Complete Candid Recordings of Charles Mingus	Mosaic
	Bruce Wright (read by Moses Gunn)	Journey To A Parallel	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	LeRoi Jones (read by Ellen Holly)	The End Of Man Is His Beauty	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Bud Powell	Blue Pearl	Bud! (The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 3)	Blue Note
	Bud Powell	John's Abbey	Time Waits	Blue Note
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Charles Mingus	Lock'em Up	The Jazz Life	Candid
	Johnny Griffin	The Way You Look Tonight	Johnny Griffin	Blue Note
	Herbie Nichols	Argumentative Variation	The Third World	Blue Note
	Sterling Brown (read by James Earl Jones & Moses Gunn)	Ol' Lem	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Helene Johnson (read by Josephine Premice)	Sonnet To A Negro In Harlem	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Arna Bontemp (read by Leon Bibb)	Southern Mansion	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Langston Hughes (read by Ellen Holly)	Mother To Son	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Thad Jones & Kenny Burrell	Something To Remember You By	The Otherside Of Blue Note 1500 Series	Blue Note Japan
	Kenny Burrell	My Heart Stood Still	Kenny Burrell	Blue Note
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Newport Rebels	Me & You	Newport Rebels	Candid
	Louis Smith	Au Privave	Smithville	Blue Note
	Lou Donaldson	After You've Gone	Lou Donaldson	Blue Note
	Richard Wright (read by James Earl Jones)	Between The World & Me	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Jonathon Brooks (read by Leon Bibb)	My Angel	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Newport Rebels	Mysterious Blues	Newport Rebels	Candid
	Julian "Cannoball" Adderley	Alison's Uncle	Somethin' Else	Blue Note
	Paul Chambers	Untitled Bebop Blues Original	Bass On Top	Blue Note
	Myron O'Higgins (read by Gloria Foster)	To A Young Poet	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	James Vaughn (read by Roscoe Lee Browne)	from Four Questions	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Owen Dodson (read by Leon Bibb)	Counterpoint	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Jutta Hipp	These Foolish Things	The Otherside Of Blue Note 1500 Series	Blue Note Japan
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Bennie Green featuring Babs Gonzalez	Soul Stirrin'	Soul Stirrin'	Blue Note
	James Emanuel (read by Cicley Tyson)	Get Up, Blues	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Mari Evans (read by Cicely Tyson)	The Rebel	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Calvin Hernton (read by Roscoe Lee Browne)	Distant Drum	A Hand Is On The Gate	Verve-Folkways
	Charles Mingus	Fables Of Faubus	Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus	Candid

Bob's Bird

Chasing The Bird

The sun sets unevenly and the people
go to bed.

The night has a thousand eyes.
The clouds are low, overhead.

Every night it is a little bit
more difficult, a little

harder. My mind
to me a mangle is.





- Robert Creeley

A taste of Candy from Lee Morgan

The great pianist Sonny Clark, heir to Bud Powell, once said that he enjoyed accompanying improvisations as much as performing them himself. Nowhere is this pleasure so evident than on the Lee Morgan date Candy. In fact, Candy is distinguished in a number of respects, not the least of which is the fact that it is Morgan's only album on which he appears as the sole horn at the session. The selection of material is also unusually satisfying, inclusive and original. For fans of Morgan it is likely the ballads, Since I Fell For You and All The Way, that really stand out. The simple grandeur of Morgan's treatment of Since I Fell For You lifts the tune to a romantic plateau few jazzmen have scaled. So thoughtful and honest in its blues, it'll bring you, if not to tears, than to the memory of the last time you cried them. Clark's introduction is absolutely heartbreaking and it sets the tone. All The Way is no less romantic in its perfection. Made famous by Frank Sinatra sometime prior to this recording, Morgan builds this tale of heartfelt commitment into a rhapsody. So profound are the emotions imparted that one cannot escape a sense of urgent beauty in its call to embrace your lover, all the way. The title track, Candy, contains some of Clark's best work in this period and demonstrates that this album really is as much his as it is Morgans. In fact, Clark's storytelling ability has never been so fully on display. Just within the space of this album alone, Clark seems to impart a vast array of human experience and, of course, a heaping amount of the blues. For Clark always puts a little blues, not unlike the aforementioned Powell, on just about everything he plays. The A side concludes with what was at the time a recent composition by the great, and too little recognized composer-saxman, Jimmy Heath, brother of drummer, Albert, and bassist, Percy. The tune, C.T.A. had been recorded a few years earlier by Miles Davis and, according to Davis, the title takes its name from the initials of a young Chinese-American woman Heath was dating at the time. It's a real rouser and clocks in as the most uptempo piece at the session. Ardent fans of Morgan's famed pyrotechnics will not be let down with this one, it is pregnant with the spiritual mysteries of classic bebop. Also included in this set are Irving Berlin's Who Do You Love, I Hope and the evergreen Personality. Both display what are to my ears some of the very finest examples to be heard anywhere of modern jazz trumpet improvisation. Morgan is more than on top of his game, he is on top of the world, climbing higher and taking us with him! The power and control with which he approaches the theme laid out by Berlin is nothing short of astounding. As in the best of the jazz tradition, Morgan takes a relatively obscure work and breathes a new and exciting life into it, resurrecting the creative forces that gave it birth while simultaneously charting a new course. Personality has been for many the stand out track. The wit and humor of a sly, even cryptic, lyricism makes itself known here through contributions from each member of the band (Art Taylor, drums & Doug Watkins, bass.) Taken at a medium tempo there is plenty of room to stretch out, and that room is exploited to the fullest in some of Morgan's most unique phrasing on records. While long valued as a collectors item, because of it's originally small release and limited distribution, Candy is now reissued on both CD and vinyl, audiophile and standard.

Bird's Ecstasy Part Two

And so it was then, the man and the message that rewired America and thus the world. The joy and the ferocious wonder of it all that surrounds. I could hear this now. Ah, Bird was an ecstatic! This really being the key revelation that opened up the musics many worlds. And quickly I began to understand that his improvisation was a much a response to the architecture of a given composition as it was, and perhaps more especially, the total environment. The man and his times, our times, times changing, those changes, too. And with this "serious fun," this humor that laughs to keep from lies, hews cries and sighs, always the buoyant and propulsive swing. And of course among the many musical personae projected from the bell of his horn came the masks retained of African ancestors. Indeed, the complex poly-rhythms which served as vehicles of his imaginative export were inherited directly through Africans in the New World. So Bird's joy was also one of memory and as it must be with us, "a memory that will not sleep." Once I began to hear this, just as suddenly, it was everywhere. Thousands of other musics, not all jazz, became enlivened with these insights. What it is, what it ain't, what it ought to be. Looking forward looking back, Now Is The Time.

Bird's Ecstasy Part One

For many years I listened to Bird without, I believe, really hearing him. Like a lot of us I began with the recordings on Dial. The Eastwood film had recently been released and there were a slew of reissues. Warner had put out a modest double record set including the full session that produced Yardbird Suite. Included was a booklet that reproduced a number of paintings for Bird. Among these were works by Romare Bearden, Larry Rivers and Raymond Saunders. I was intrigued and deeply moved by the inspiration the music had offered these artists. Still, it wasn't until a few years later that I had the glorious encounter that was, for me, hearing Bird for the first time. I remember it well. I had been living in Seattle for a only a few months when I happened upon a record store that stocked a wall of jazz vinyl. There under his leader card was the Savoy long player, Charlie Parker Memorial record. You know the one, with the introduction from Al Collins? I would gaze at the record each time I came in. There he was, The Bird, in Glen plaid and a bow tie, blowing above a teal blue background. In flight. Finally after a few more months of saving, I had enough to buy this scarce collectors item. Nothing could have prepared me for what I heard that day. A strange mercurial light seemed to emanate from his horn, illuminating the world around me in strange and beguiling ways. Koko!