TT 370: Subscriber Update
plus a bit about FUNKY SKULL and a hello to Yegor Shevtsov
Thanks to everyone coming out to the trio gigs with Thomas Morgan and Kush Abadey. We are really having a great time!
Tonight we are at Fasching, home of great jazz in Stockholm for many years. I was slightly disappointed to discover they had remodeled, for the entryway used to feature a big photo of someone no-one recognized.
A book in the club has the image:
Billy Hart’s memoir (in progress) explains further:
For a minute around 1969 I was in Eddie Harris’s band with Jodie Christian and Melvin Jackson…Melvin Jackson is not a very famous bass player, but for some reason a huge photo of Melvin -- really more like a mural -- graced the entryway of Fasching, a top jazz club in Stockholm. Melvin made only one album, Funky Skull, where you can hear me playing in a true pop style, as if I was back at the Spa doing 40 on and 20 off for the dancers. (For the jazz historians, that LP is also a rare example of AACM people like Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, and Leo Smith on a commercial dance record.) From the records with Eddie Harris, “Movin' On Out” on High Voltage gives a sense of his working quartet, where the band plays in support of electronic effects from Eddie’s Varitone saxophone.
Indeed, “Bold and Black” features Jabali, Lester Bowie, and Roscoe Mitchell. If you know the personnel in advance, their contributions are recognizable.
It was great to see pianist Yegor Shevtsov last night in Oslo. Yegor is my friend, teacher, and inspiration. My Piano Sonata is dedicated to him, for — as I say in the liner notes — Yegor has helped me become more “Technically Acceptable.”
I’ve hit 250 paid subscribers, so, as promised, I will try to start reviewing new(ish) classical and jazz records, maybe two a month or so. I certainly appreciate all the people who are reading Transitional Technology! (It’s leap year day, and the numbers are somewhat lining up: Post #370, 7000 subscribers, 250 paid subscribers.)
