Kathleen Loves Music

 
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Earle Warren & Phil Schaap, Columbia University, 1985; Photography by Nancy Miller Elliott

Phil Schaap’s obsessive nature has made him an invaluable resource in the world of jazz (and plagued many of his relationships he’s had that I’ve witnessed). And he’s become such a fixture in the New York radio community that the editor of The New Yorker has devoted an extensive profile of Phil this week that I’d recommend to anyone who loves Charlie Parker.

Anyone who knows Phil (he and I were in college radio in the early 70s; he still broadcasts on the station today) can argue pro and con for slightly less long than his description of a, say, 1947 Count Basie recording session, but I found his philosophy of jazz incredibly refreshing when he told me about it at a bar in 1999, and is recounted in the profile:

“The school system is creating six thousand unemployable musicians a year—from the Berklee College of Music, Rutgers, Mannes, Manhattan, Juilliard, plus all the high schools,” he said. “There are more and more musicians, and no gigs, no one to listen. So what happens to these kids? They work their way back to the educational system and help create more unemployable musicians. My rant is this: I’m not trying to teach you to play the alto sax. No. I’m trying to get you to learn how to listen to Charlie Parker.”

Phil Schaap by Risko

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Willis Jackson
with Pat Martino
Single Action

Produced by Fred Seibert

1. Evergreen
2. Bolita
3. Makin’ Whoopee
4. You Are My Sunshine
5. Hittin’ The Numbers
6. Single Action
7. Evergreen (outtake)

Willis Jackson: tenor saxophone
Pat Martino: guitar
Carl Wilson: organ
Jimmy Lewis: bass
Yusef Ali: drums
Ralph Dorsey: percussion

Willis Jackson single handedly pulled me away from the avant garde and towards the soulful, bluesy expression of jazz that was popular in the African American neighborhoods of mid-century America. He didn’t mean to, he didn’t want to, it was just that he was so damn good.

Less a producer than actually a recording supervisor (my credit on this album) I arrived at our first session together with virtually no information on what we were recording or who was playing. Willis was tough and a little paranoid so this situation played out during the three or four sessions we did together. I’d never heard any of his music (it wasn’t cool enough within the jazzbo circles I [Read more…]

Friends > Marc Cohen, John Abercrombie, Clint Houston, Jeff Williams

Produced by Marc Cohen & Fred Seibert

[Note: Marc Cohen now performs on piano as Marc Copeland]

Original LP. Click the titles to play.
1. 5/8 Tune †
2. Black Vibrations *
3. Nursery Rhyme
4. Loose Tune ††
…:::UPDATE, Feb 08: These MP3s are CD quality, 320kpbs:::…

Marc Cohen: electric alto sax, ††add tenor sax
Jeff Williams: drums
Clint Houston: fretted bass, †acoustic bass
John Abercrombie: 6 string guitar, *12 string guitar, ††no guitar

Click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera.
…..
Friends
Oblivion Records
OD-3 (1973)

Click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera.

CREDITS, from the original LP cover:

Recorded December 1972, by successful exploitation of Columbia University’s WKCR. To everyone who has ever been there, thanks folks.

Produced by Marc Cohen and Fred Seibert
Engineering: Fred Seibert
Brains behind the engineering: Don Zimmerman
Microphones behind the brains: Marc Seiden
Pal: David Reitman
Graphics: the Oblivionettes co-starring Sue DeLaney
Photography: Trebor Trepla, Fred Seibert, and Robert Alpert (Mark Focus Jr.)
Advice: Don [Read more…]

Joe Lee Wilson
Livin’ High Off Nickels and Dimes

1. The Theme/Aquarian Melody
2. It’s You Or No One
3. Strollin’
4. Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ But Soul
5. God Bless The Child
6. You Make Me Want To Dance

Arranged by Joe Lee Wilson

The selections on this record are excerpted from a live radio concert on Columbia University’s WKCR.FM.NYC.
Recorded on July 16, 1972.

Joe Lee Wilson. Vocals
Ray McKinley. Piano
Bob Ralston. Tenor saxophone
Stafford James. Bass
Napoleon Revels. Drums
…..
Click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera.

Original LP credits and liner notes
Oblivion Records OD-5

Joe Lee Wilson
Livin’ High Off Nickels and Dimes

Joe Lee Wilson. Vocals, Ray McKinley. Piano, Bob Ralston. Tenor saxophone, Stafford James. Bass, Napoleon Revels. Drums

Produced by Fred Seibert

Production Consultant. Honest Tom Pomposello
Advice and Consent. Richard H. Pennington, Jr.
Engineering. Don Zimmerman
Editing. Fred Seibert
Rerecording. Bob Blank. 3.26.74
Mastering. John Bittner
Pressing. Wakefield Manufacturing

Cover design. Susan Rivoir
Graphics. the Oblivionettes
Photography. Bridget Deale, Fred Seibert, and Enea Cairati
Confucius, Nick Moy and Sherry Wolf*
*courtesy of Bonitza Melodies

Should this disk [Read more…]

Hank Jones
Groovin’ High

Produced by Fred Seibert

1. Algo Bueno
2. Anthropology
3. Sippin’ at Bells
4. Blue Monk
5. Groovin’ High
6. I Mean You
7. Jackie-Ing

Hank Jones: Piano
Sam Jones: Bass
Mickey Roker: Drums
Thad Jones: Cornet
Charlie Rouse: Tenor Saxophone

As soon as we saw the incredible reaction to our first release with Hank Jones, Bop Redux , in 1977 it was clear to Muse Records’ founder Joe Fields and me we needed to record a sequel. Hank’s absence from the scene for 25 years (in the CBS Orchestra) had only made him better, and the yearning for the emotion and craft of originators of bebop was burning a hole in the hearts of 70s jazz fans. We moved recording from my base at CI Recording in Manhattan (the former Mercury Records studios) to Rudy Van Gelder’s in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the most famous studio for jazz in the world.

The moment of discord with Hank came when I insisted he replace [Read more…]

The CD reissue from 2000

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Front cover, The Cecil Taylor Unit, Spring of Two Blue-J’s.

I can’t imagine any regular readers of this blog liking this album, but Googling will turn up quite a few passionate listeners, since this outstanding record has been out of print for over thirty years. Since I engineered and produced the original recording, I thought it might be time fans had access to it. I’ll try and update this post as I get more materials and information, so you could consider it the definitive current release.

Cecil Taylor Unit > Spring of Two Blue-J’s
This is a vinyl transfer to MP3 from 2009

1. Part 1 16:19

2. Part 2 21:29

Cecil Taylor is one of the three acknowledged leaders of the progressive, free jazz movement of mid-20th century America. To a lot of folks he just plays noise and they find it hard to believe this music is composed, no less played. Me, I’ve always found it exhilarating, tonic [Read more…]

Lester Bowie > Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag

What I completely missed when I stopped listening to the avant-garde in jazz in the late 70s was Lester Bowie’s sense of humor. And the fact that as members of the same generation we probably liked the same breadth of music (after all, he was married at one time to Fontella Bass).

So when Lester died several years ago and I heard this track on the radio I was bowled over and went out and bought every one of Lester’s solo CDs. I already had a lot of his Art Ensemble of Chicago recordings, but I chased these like they were the Holy Grail. Sure he’s progressive, but he’s also funky, he’s funny, he’s serious.
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