In Conversation with Dave Liebman

David Liebman was featured in the October 11, 1973 issue of Down Beat. This is from right around the time he recorded Lookout Farm for ECM. Liebman has a vast discography and I find he overdoes the tribute album thing, so I tend to pick and choose what albums of his I purchase. As I was wrapping up this post I reached for his duo album with Marc Copland, Bookends (HatOlogy) and listened to "Blue In Green." They make a fine duo and this piece hit the spot - Copland has a warm touch and great sense of harmony, and Liebman displays his more mellow side.

And while we're on the subject of duos.... back in June I picked up The Fallout of Dreams (Rogue Art) from the Downtown Music Gallery. During August I finally got around to giving it a few listens. It features Liebman on soprano/tenor/flute/piano/drums alongside poet Steve Dalachinsky (with pianist Richie Beirach joining them on a couple of tracks). If you are interested in jazz/improvised music with spoken word, The Fallout of Dreams is definitely worth a close listen.

Click on the image to view PDF of the full article. More vintage magazine articles are available here.

Evan Parker: The Breath & Breadth of the Saxophone

Paul Keegan's feature article on Evan Parker for the April 1987 issue of Down Beat magazine. Click on the image to view PDF of the full article. More vintage magazine articles are available here.

The Witty Paul Desmond - Down Beat 1965

From the September 9, 1965 issue of Down Beat, here is Dan Morgenstern's feature on Paul Desmond. Click on the image to view PDF of the full article. More vintage magazine articles are available here.

Steve Coleman Interview - Cadence Magazine 1986

This interview from August 1986 issue of Cadence features a fairly young Steve Coleman. This is the earliest interview I have found so far, but I may just need to dig a little deeper. Click on the image to view full interview as a PDF (This was the best quality I could get on my phone). More vintage magazine articles can be found here.

Jan Garbarek: Jazz Forum Interview 1984

Over the past couple of years I have finally managed to give Jan Garbarek more than just a passing listen - mostly his work from the 70s and a couple of albums from the 80s. Recently, Folk Songs (with Egberto Gismonti and Charlie Haden) has been getting a spin along with StAR (with Miroslav Vitous and Peter Erskine) and yesterday Keith Jarrett's Belonging was accompanying me as I put together this post and got a few things organized (it has been a little crazy here lately). Even though Garbarek had taken up the soprano only two or three years earlier, he had developed a very distinctive sound - check out the sole soprano track from Belonging, "The Windup." The influence of Ornette Coleman seems a little more apparent on his soprano playing than it does on tenor (and on this track he even quotes from the melody of "Lonely Woman").

This interview comes from Jazz Forum (issue 1 from 1984). Click on the image to view full article. Eventually I will get around to uploading a few more Jazz Forum articles from the 70s and 80s. More vintage magazine articles can be found here.

Bobby Bradford Coda Magazine 1977

A couple of months ago I was browsing Coda Magazine and I came across some articles by my friend Mark Weber. First up is an interview with Bobby Bradford for the October 1977 issue. Be sure to check out Mark's website. Click on the image to view PDF of the full article. More vintage magazine articles are available here.

A Long Look At Stan Getz (part 2)

Part Two of Don DeMicheal's feature on Stan Getz from Down Beat (June 2, 1966). Part One is here. Click on the image to view PDF of full article. More vintage magazine articles can be found here.

A Long Look At Stan Getz (part 1)

Part one of Don DeMicheal's feature on Stan Getz from Down Beat (May 19, 1966). Stay tuned for Part Two. Click on the image to view PDF of full article. More vintage magazine articles can be found here.

Yusef Lateef: Music As Color - Down Beat

This month I have been listening to a few albums by Yusef Lateef (Jazz Moods, Before Dawn, Into Something, Eastern Sounds and 1984 have all had airtime) so I thought it was fitting to post this article by Pete Welding from the May 20, 1965 issue of Down Beat. Click on the image to view PDF of full article. More vintage magazine articles can be found here.

Mike Nock Interview: Cadence July 1992

As a youngster just getting into jazz, Mike Nock (b. Sept 27, 1940) was the first New Zealand jazz musician I was aware of who had "made it." As I await the arrival of his latest album (Two-Out - a duo with Roger Manins released on Mike's label FWM Records) I've been listening to his 1978 solo recording Talisman and right now I'm downloading Kindred from Bandcamp. Earlier in the week he was interviewed by Eva Radich on Radio New Zealand's Upbeat program (you can download the audio here). While we are at it, here's an interview with Mike from the July 1992 issue of Cadence Magazine (click on image to open the full interview as a PDF).

More magazine articles can be found here. Happy Birthday Mike!

Max Roach WKCR Interview Transcript

This is Ted Panken's transcription of Ed Scarvalone's interview with Max Roach on WKCR-FM from January 22, 1979. The discussion focuses on Lennie Tristano, who died the previous November. An accident prevented Roach from performing at the Lennie Tristano Memorial Concert the week following the interview but he contributed a solo piece to the live concert recording at a later stage (available on Jazz Records Inc.). Be sure to check out Ted Panken's blog too.
Click on the image to view full transcript as PDF (16 pages).

Ornette Coleman: From The Heart

Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 - June 11, 2015). His music made quite an impact on me in high school after picking up The Shape of Jazz to Come and the then newly released Tone Dialing. Over the last couple of years I have been revisiting Ornette's recordings as well as checking out albums that are new to me. It was a blast hearing him live at the Wellington Festival of the Arts a few years ago, and I will take some time out today to listen to Ornette.  

Dan Morgenstern wrote this feature on Ornette shortly after his return to performing following a two-year hiatus. It appeared in the April 8, 1965 issue of Down Beat Magazine. Click on the image to view PDF of full article. More vintage magazine articles (including five on Ornette) can be found here.

Gary Smulyan Interview - Cadence Magazine 1992

I came across this interview with Gary Smulyan and immediately thought of a baritone playing friend back in New Zealand. Whenever I saw him a record of Smulyan was never far away. This one is for you John. Click on image to view PDF of full interview. More vintage magazine articles can be found here.

Nineteen + Conversations with Jazz Musicians NYC 1964-65

Nineteen + Conversations with Jazz Musicians: New York City 1964 1965 by Garth W. Caylor Jr. arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. The author shopped the manuscript to publishers in the 60s to no avail and it wan't until late last year that these interviews saw the light of day.

Nineteen + covers a nice mix of musicians from both the mainstream and the 60s avant-garde: Jaki Byard, Roger Kellaway, Jerome Richardson, Zoot Sims & Al Cohn, Herbie Hancock, Jim Hall, Art Farmer, Steve Swallow, Milford Graves, Bill Evans, Frank Foster, John Tchicai, Jimmy Giuffre, Ornette Coleman, Lee Konitz, Sunny Murray, Archie Shepp, Paul & Carla Bley, and Steve Lacy (I believe this is only interview to have been previously published - see Jason Weiss' Steve Lacy: Conversations - an excellent read).

The interviews took place in the artists' homes and there is a casual intimacy that I find very appealing. While none of the interviews are particularly in depth, each touches on different subjects and provide insights to their day-to-day lives, aesthetics, politics, art and the jazz scene and U.S. during the mid-sixties.

Several chapters end with a "+" - excerpts from the writings of Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartok, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Ralph Ellison, Maurice Ravel, D.T. Suzuki, Hermann Scherchen and Bruno Munari (among others) and photos from the author as well as prints of artworks from the likes of Georges Braque, Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning and Jasper Johns appear throughout.

A nice compact book (4x7 inches - 248 pages), easy reading and informative. I will be giving this repeated reads - highly recommended.

Lennie Tristano Down Beat Feature 1958

In this feature from October 30, 1958, Lennie Tristano (b. March 19, 1919) discusses his return to live performances and plans to open a jazz club as well as his thoughts on the scene in general. Never one to hold back his thoughts, interviews with Tristano make good reading and always make me think about things in a different light.
Click in the image to view PDF of full article. More vintage magazine articles can be found here.

The Persistent Challenge of Cecil Taylor: Down Beat 1965

From the February 25, 1965 issue of Down Beat comes Nat Hentoff's feature on Cecil Taylor (b.March 15, 1929). The two cover topics including Bill Evans, recording techniques, Taylor's interest in poetry and dance, the October Revolution and the economics of the avant garde. Click on the image to view full article PDF. You can find more vintage magazine articles here.

Sonny Stitt & Stan Getz in Down Beat

I thought a double-header was appropriate on the birthday of these two saxophonists - Sonny Stitt (b.1924) and Stan Getz (b.1927). The Stitt feature (Down Beat, May 14, 1959) covers the influence of Bird, his favourite saxophonists, rock'n'roll, European audiences and touring as single. In the Blindfold Test (Down Beat, February 27, 1964) Getz listens to John Coltrane, Tubby Hays, Sal Nistico, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Yound and Al & Zoot.
(Click on the picture to view full article as pdf). More vintage magazine articles can be found here.

Podcast: A Noise From The Deep

A while back I was searching for interviews with John Zorn and I stumbled across Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music podcast series entitled “A Noise From The Deep.”

There’s plenty of interesting musicians featured and the list is pretty heavy on saxophone players including, Henry Threadgill, Jon Irabagon, JD Allen, John O’Gallagher, Miguel Zenon, Greg Osby, Lenny Pickett [fun website], Ingrid Laubrock and Mark Turner.

Jeremiah Cymerman Podcasts

Clarinetist Jeremiah Cymerman has some great podcasts on his website - 5049 Records. Earlier in the week I had a listen to him chatting with bassist Trevor Dunn.

Among the saxophonists interviewed are Ellery Eskelin, Jon Irabagon, Darius Jones, Ingrid Laubrock, Steve Lehman and Chris Speed. There's plenty of others too - Jim Black, Anthony Coleman, James Falzone, Mary Halvorson,  Joe Morris,  Eivind Opsvik, William Parker and Matthew Shipp among others.

Edit: 26 Jan 2015 - the podcast series wrapped up today with the final instalment featuring the microphone turned on Cymerman himself. I listened to Episode 82 the other day - it was great hearing Andrea Parkins fondly recalling her time studying with Harvey Diamond. It's been a great series and hopefully someone picks up Cymerman left off.

We Thought We Could Change The World

Peter Brotzmann - We Thought We Could Change The World: Conversations with Gerard Rouy  (Wolke Verlag Hofheim, 2014)

While Brotzmann's music is not really my cup of tea (although the one time I've heard him live I was glad I attended), I have enjoyed reading interviews with him. A fascinating musician that I am somehow drawn to - it's bit of a mystery.

The first 110 pages of this book are a collection of conversations between Peter Brotzmann and Gerard Rouy that were left out of the of the documentary Solider Of The Road. They cover Brotzmann's career and talk about his discovery of music, his instruments, artwork, his collaborators and the future of the music. The remaining 80-odd pages contain 58 photographs (mostly black and white) from throughout his career (in performance, candid shots and at home in his studio), 18 artworks reproduced in colour (I'm a fan of his artwork and enjoyed the exhibition at Corbett vs Dempsey last year - in fact the book's cover is from a work - "Clarinet Bells" - from this exhibition) a discography and an epilogue from Brotzmann. I am yet to watch the documentary but having read this book I've added it to my list.

I thought I'd round things out with Brotzmann's final statement in the interview section: "When I go somewhere, I meet people, I work with them, so I'm right into their shit, I see their way of life, their kinds of problems and in the end I get to learn from all of it. What I've learnt so far is that people are the same everywhere; they have the same sorrows, the same fun, and the same blues. They may look and sound a little different but all human beings are more or less the same."