TT 293: Birthdays and Gigs

Grouped in a bunch: Wayne Shorter, Lester Young, Charlie Parker

Wayne Shorter would have been 90 two days ago, August 25; Lester Young would have been 113 today, August 27; Charlie Parker would have been 102 in two days, August 29.

Not sure what all that means but it’s certainly some kind of argument for astrology! You can also sort of see the decades of innovation: Pres, Bird, Wayne.

My commentary includes

Interview with Wayne Shorter

Lester Young Centennial

Charlie Parker Centennial (with contributions from Charles McPherson, Steve Coleman, John Scofield, Mark Turner, Tom Harrell, Bertha Hope, and Mark Stryker)

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I’ve gone out a fair amount recently and seen a lot of great music. The highlight was Shakti at NJPAC with Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan, Ganesh Rajagopalan, V. Selvaganesh, and John McLaughlin. Is the greatest fusion band currently touring? Is this the greatest fusion band ever?

Shakti offered 2.5 hours of tight odd-meter brilliance. The vocalist Shankar Mahadevan sang the ludicrous lines perfectly in unison with Ganesh Rajagopalan’s violin and McLaughlin’s guitar. Hussain and Selvaganesh swung so hard with their hands on the membranes. (Hussain had one tiny cymbal he could play with a hand also.)

It was incredibly groovy. Everyone stayed seated in the lotus position throughout the concert.

Last night I checked in with Linda May Han Oh and Melissa Aldana duo at the Stone. The set list was mostly exploratory standards: “Alone Together,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” “Just In Time,” Powell’s “Hallucinations,” Rivers’s “Cyclic Episode,” and a new untitled original from Linda. The only previous tenor/bass duos I know are Houston Person/Ron Carter and one tune with Don Byas/Slam Stewart. I really dug the concert, I hope Linda and Melissa do this more. The uptempo moments a la Byas/Stewart “I Got Rhythm” were fabulous.

Bill Frisell had three consecutive weeks at the Village Vanguard, first at part of the Andrew Cyrille quartet with David Virelles and Ben Street, then two of his own groups, Four with Greg Tardy, Gerald Clayton, and Jonathan Blake, then Five with Thomas Morgan, Tony Scherr, Rudy Royston and Kenny Wollesen.

Cyrille’s band has evolved into one of the hippest groups in the music; it is song-based but also delivers the most esoteric improvised textures. I didn’t make Four but enjoyed Five, with Wollesen on mallets as well as drums. When Frisell turns up the volume, rips some rock/blues lines, and follows the apex with an atonal sequencer fade out it is just the best. Bill and the great Thomas Morgan:

Ricky Riccardi played me rare Louis Armstrong in the archives of the new Center (across the street from the Armstrong House Museum). Yes, Ricky is holding up the very chart of "Hello, Dolly" Pops used for tracking.

My next major article for The Nation on the topic of Armstrong and the Armstrong Center. Here I am in Pops’s bright blue kitchen with my extraordinary editor, Shuja Haider:

I have my own little gig tomorrow at Mezzrow with Ben Street and Eric McPherson…

… and this past month I played fun local hits with guitarist Craig Brann at Mezzrow and bassist Jeong Lim Yang at Bay Bayeux. So: I’m available, although my stipulation is that I can’t have a separate rehearsal for new music, I can only just show up and play familiar pieces and read the very easiest originals — in other words, just like the jazz tradition in NYC 1945-1995. I am particularly available until the end of the year (2024 is looking comparatively busy).