Discourse Day
gigs, memorials, and links
Next month: the Ethan Iverson Sextet plays three nights at JazzCultural, the new NYC club on 46th street. With Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Sam Newsome (soprano sax), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Peter Washington (bass), and Kush Abadey (drums).
August 7, 8, 9 — Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Even sooner: on Friday this week I’m playing duo with Walter Smith III at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge. Walter is something of an evil genius at social media and his hilarious Instagram post apparently sold out the concert overnight. The next morning (Saturday) Walter and I join Ben Street as members of the Billy Hart quartet at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island.
RIP Patrick Gleeson, the synthesizer pioneer best known to the jazz community for his participation on the early ‘70s Herbie Hancock classics Crossings and Sextant. My understanding is that Gleeson was then on the road with the group, that the sextet posterity now calls Mwandishi was even billed “Herbie Hancock Septet” at many venues. Gleeson was slightly older than almost everyone else, and at 91 is the first of the legendary ensemble to pass on. (Eddie Henderson, Bennie Maupin, Julian Priester, Buster Williams, Billy Hart, and Hancock himself all are still here.)
Gleeson obituary at the Bob Moog Foundation.
RIP Plas Johnson, the big-toned tenor saxophonist who took the unforgettable star turn on the original record of Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther.” Johnson would spend most of his life as a consummate studio musician, although there are also a few records where he happily fulfills the role of serious jazz soloist. Bill Milkowski reports further on a storied career and includes liner notes to a feel-good session with Red Holloway.
Milkowski also has a memorial for the great drummer Rodney Holmes, who had several high-profile associations in the world of fusion and electric jazz.
FWIW, I enjoyed Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, and am looking forward to seeing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. There’s a lot of internet chatter about how these movies are really good or really bad. Does everyone need to have a hot take about a summer popcorn movie? Maybe they are just summer movies?
A bit of a lukewarm take: This past spring Sarah and I watched Spielberg’s Jurassic Park for the first time, and we both found it quite disappointing. By any standard Disclosure Day is way better than Jurassic Park.
(In terms of historical epics related to The Odyssey, my firm recommendation is Hail, Caesar! by the Coen brothers.)
A belated welcome to Emily Springer here on Substack.
Jeremy Denk on the Schumann Piano Quartet.
Eugene Holley on George Russell.
Phil Freeman on Ornette Coleman’s two “piano records with Geri Allen” Sound Museum
Sam Kriss: “Everyone Loves Hitler.”
Will Leitch on Catherine Russell and Perfect Crime.
Re: the passing of Patrick Gleeson, I was hanging with Joe Henderson in the mid-70s when he took me to Patrick's place. They were working on horn parts; the lesson that day was that adding a live horn to synth horns gave it a more natural feel. Being in his home studio in the early days of synths was like being in a wizard's lair.
The somewhat controversial You-tube celebrity high school teacher Professor Jiang has some interesting videos on the Odyssey and then how the Romans enlisted Virgil as a sort of anti-Homer to poison the masses with propaganda, which is why Dante put Virgil in hell. One of those things you can’t unsee.