TT 473: Last Post of 2024

and a new policy: the comments are open

Thanks to all who read the posts, came to the gigs, listened to the streams…and did anything, anywhere, to support esoteric music made by anybody.

Some say that social media is on the wane, especially in the wake of the toxic election. For now, my accounts at Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook will stay open, partly because promoters demand such outputs.

However, “proper blogging” at Substack does show tentative signs of overtaking “micro blogging” on social media, at least in the world of the arts.

Going forth, I’m taking down the paywall and making comments open to all. This is partly to help grow Transitional Technology, but also partly because some of my readers simply make great comments, like this one by Mike Flatnine from a recent post:

I heard Kenny Barron with his great trio last night. I was jammed in the one bar seat against the Village Vanguard's back wall which isn't actually at the bar, but between the last barstool and the banquette.

An older woman, smartly dressed with a friendly manner, sat down at the last banquette seat. In a very funny and old school Brooklyn way, she was annoyed with herself because she walked west at the hospital on 7th ave instead of South, and was almost late. She said "I've been coming here for a hundred years! My husband used to play here!"

Turns out, I was seated next to Cedar Walton's wife. She'd avoided the Vanguard, particularly this time of year. Cedar used to play Christmas week. She was a riot.

Kenny was a riot too. How is that man 81 years old? Kiyoshi is a harmonic rock and took some very beautiful solos. Johnathan Blake's drumming had so much variety, from swing to latin to real dirty funkiness at times.

They played a tune called "Canadian Sunset" by Eddie Heywood. I'd never heard it. It's lovely! What a tune! I'm transcribing it so that I can annoy my bandmates at a future jam with demands to play it.

Apologies those who have emailed me comments or questions related to a previous post and gotten no reply back. Sometimes email just defeats me. Now that comments are open, please share further future insights in the public square.

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2024 photos

Tim Leopold, Hiroko Sasaki, me, Mirand Cuckson a few nights ago, the premiere of Playfair Sonatas and more at Mezzrow (photo by Tim)

Len Lyons came to one of my gigs this past month! Lyons is the author of THE GREAT JAZZ PIANISTS, an essential collection of interviews. I first read the book about when it came out in 1989 and it has been my constant companion ever since. It was truly unexpected and delightful to meet Mr. Lyons in person.

with Sarah, taken by Mark Padmore

Mark Padmore before his concert at Zankel

paparazzi shot of Sarah interrogating a goose

The A-Team: Rob Schwimmer, Vinnie Sperrazza, Martin Porter

crime and punishment (as beloved entertainment): Lawrence Block and Vince Keenan

swing: Rodney Green and Kush Abadey

lineage: Eric McPherson and Billy Hart

88 keys: Luis Perdomo and Brad Mehldau

Fred Hersch, Joe Dyson, and Thomas Morgan after their first set at the Village Vanguard

with Tony Creamer at Roulette listening to Guy Klucevsek

art 1: Guillermo Resto after a performance of Symphony of Rats with the Wooster Group

art 2: Shannon Cronin with a Frida Kalho skateboard by Guillermo Resto

art 3: Shannon Cronin’s watercolor for the package of TECHNICALLY ACCEPTABLE

it was a big deal when Kurt Rosenwinkel played the Vanguard with his old band of Mark Turner, Ben Street, and Jeff Ballard

drummer Peter Erskine in L.A.

violinist Christine Wu in Santa Monica

pianist Micah Thomas in Sienna

at Langnau jazz workshop: Reuben Rogers, Sara Serpa, Greg Ward, Kendrick Scott, Gilad Hekselman, Aaron Goldberg

Jonathan Finlayson, Jacob Garchik, Sam Newsome, Melissa Aldana at SMOKE

w. Sam Newsome and Peter Washington (photo by Finlayson)

Peter Washington, Peter Erskine, and Jeff Watts at Birdland (photo by Peter Erskine)

The MMDG Look of Love band at BAM: Simón Willson, me, Vinnie Sperrazza, Jonathan Finlayson, Marcy Harriell, Blaire Perrin, Clinton Curtis

with MMDG dancers Karlie Budge and Courtney Lopes

with Julie Worden and her daughter Kieran. The first time I played BAM with MMDG, Julie was dancing onstage. (That was June 1998, and there was a NY Times review by Anna Kisselgoff)

seeing The Rolling Stones at Lincoln Field with very old friends Tim Harmston and Wilson Hall

backstage at SF Jazz: Robert Hurst, Gerald Cleaver, Reuben Rogers, and Mark Whitfield, Jr.

bassist Steve Swallow at home

with concert pianist Awadagin Pratt, who wore an Ornette Coleman T-shirt for a duo recital with Simone Dinnerstein at Miller Theater (photo by Hiroko Sasaki)

a 1916 Avery Steam Traction Engine and Mark Stryker at the Henry Ford museum in Detroit

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Three historical photos

The passing of Roy Haynes in late 2024 takes away one of our few remaining links to the bebop era. (The last person still with us from the 1958 “Great Day in Harlem” photo is Sonny Rollins.)

Bob Parent’s famous shot of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and Roy Haynes at the Open Door in 1953 has an ineffable and immortal charisma.

My next article for The Nation will be about Slugs’ Saloon and late 60s’ jazz, pegged to the recent archival release Forces of Nature with Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Henry Grimes, and Jack DeJohnette. Trumpeter/composer Steve Lampert (who was an important source for my article) showed me this photo of Hank Mobley listening to something Lee Morgan is telling him at Slugs’. According to guitarist Peter Leitch, “This photograph was taken by Dutch pianist Rein De Graaf in August 1967. I printed this in the darkroom, from Rein's negative, in 1999.”

The Billy Hart memoir is moving rapidly to the finish line. Jabali has a wonderful collection of historical photos, we will use as many as we can. This shot below is undated and uncredited, it is probably from the late 1960s.