mark weber / jazz for mostly

Dottie Grossman (1937-2012)

Monsieur K. — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:57:47 +0000

Michael Vlatkovich & Dottie Grossman @ Studio 725, Albuquerque | April 28, 2004 | Photo by Mark Weber

DOTTIE GROSSMAN (1934-2012)

Michael called last night to say that Dottie was gone,
in the wind,
over the Pacific,
died on a Sunday in the same room Richard had expired
so many years ago . . . . . .

Dottie (Dorothea) was a contemplative. She must have spent many hours staring out over the rooftops of Pico Boulevard on the ocean side of Los Angeles, the very real non-fantasy view of telephone poles and palm trees and air conditioners and billboards.

She had a very large window that faced the Pacific Ocean only a few short miles away. You could not see the ocean but you could feel it — the light bouncing off the sea at dusk as the sun went down.

Michael and I had just taken her to lunch at her favorite restaurant, The Spitfire Grill, five days before and she was jovial as ever, quite animated, always solicitous and engaging, smoked a couple of her Marlboro 100’s (red) and had an ice coffee that was delivered with a slice of lemon attached to the lip of the tall glass, (ice coffee looks like ice tea and between the waiter and the kitchen things take on another life), and when the waiter said she’d exchange it, Dottie said, “Oh, that’s alright, why not,” in the spirit of trying something new.

Michael had a garden burger (w/jack cheese & avocado) and lemonade unlimited refills. I merely had a turkey sandwich and my ever-present Earl Grey. I even took a few snapshots with my Olympus rangefinder (they’re being developed presently — check back at this web page next week to see the shots). Regarding her love of the Spitfire, “It’s nothing special, so I don’t have exaggerated expectations,” a typically pithy assessment, with a smile. I suspect a touch of nostalgia for the Sunday afternoons her and Richard would visit old Southern California neighborhood airports which always have very interesting diners (I’ve done a bit of this type of exploring myself). We sat at the outside sidewalk tables in full view of Santa Monica Airport. Dottie had the “Ultra Light” omelet. (All the dishes were named after aircraft and air flight terminology.) And in this way we wiled away a few hours, Michael with his refills, and me with my tea, talking about everything from Marshall McLuhan to Henry Miller (we wonder’d why nobody ever talks about Henry Miller anymore?) to what a great audio engineer Wayne Peet is, just around the corner.

Michael Vlatkovich & Dottie Grossman @ Studio 725, Albuquerque | April 28, 2004 | Photo by Mark Weber

I always called her Dotski. Riffing on the Bukowski thing. Not that she had much in common with his poetry. Dottie was unusual as a poet in that she didn’t hang around the poetry scene, she hung out with jazz musicians, so the poets in American do not really know her work. She still submitted her poems to dinosaurs like POETRY and KENYON REVIEW, although, I did nudge her to submit to PEARL magazine in Long Beach and she became a regular there in those pages.

Michael had went to pick her up Sunday evening for a function in Eagle Rock and as was their custom Michael would pull up in front of her apartment on Barrington (near Pico) and she would come down with her walker. He had the landlady let him in when she didn’t show, and they found her at 6:15.

Michael Vlatkovich & Dottie Grossman @ Studio 725, Albuquerque | April 28, 2004 | Photo by Mark Weber

So, the girl from Philadelphia who shook Coltrane’s hand and joked how she didn’t wash it for a week is gone. I will miss her. She is the author of many or most of the song titles to Richard’s piano music. They arrived in Los Angeles in 1978.

Dorothea Grossman —- August 27, 1937 – May 6, 2012
Richard Grossman —- 1937 – October 1992 (lung cancer)

Michael Vlatkovich & Dottie Grossman @ Studio 725, Albuquerque | April 28, 2004 | Photo by Mark Weber

Here are some poems she would send me that I believe are unpublished — I have a large batch of her unpublished work.

Metaphor

In August,
nothing presented itself
as art waiting to happen,
until my right-handed friend
decided, just for the hell of it,
to use her left hand exclusively
through Labor Day.

8/06 [August 2006]

Brautigan-type Poem

Time is a very old bastard
who skulks around the alleys
playing solitaire;
sometimes he looks at his watch.

8/09

“You have to have time to feel sorry for yourself if you want
to be a good abstract expressionist.” — Robert Rauschenberg

She read her long poem that listed
just about everything in the world.
Afterwards, I told her,
“Thanks, you saved me the trouble.”

And, talking about poetry,
Billy Collins (our ex-Poet Laureate) says,
“… how will it ever end?
Unless the day finally arrives
when we have compared everything in the world
to everything else in the world.”

My sentiments, exactly.

10/09

AND after one of her many trips to Portland, Oregon, she sent this one:

Not Exactly Haiku

Gray monster of a ship
on the horizon –
you would have said,
“Look at that!”

Red maple trees
in the fog,
and two widows
on their gray-haired walk.

10/06

AND after one of my trips to NYC she had responded:

[ untitled ]

I want to talk
to a New Yorker,
somebody who knows
a thing or two,
who’s been around
the block,
if you know
what I mean,
somebody who won’t
pull any punches,
who really
knows the score,
somebody with dirty fingernails,
and who spits
when I mention Los Angeles.

10/10

[ untitled ]

The tall men cough importantly
into their leather jackets.
They are always
getting something
out of their cars.
Their big, rough hands
are ready for anything.
Winter is such a manly season.

2/10

The Cities of the World

The high temperature in Mecca
yesterday
was 90 degrees
and sunny,
unlike Rio de Janeiro,
which was 84
with thunderstorms.
But Winnipeg was minus 6
and partly cloudy.
Edinburgh was 45
with rain storms,
London was also rainy
and 37,
Los Angeles was 70
and optimistic.

12/09

When he got an invitation
to the Global Warming Summit,
Henny Youngman volunteered
to bring the salad.

12/09

AND this one from the booklet to Alex Cline’s 1999 compact disk SPARKS FLY UPWARD (Cryptogramophone):

Pieces of a Mirror

All day,
at the window,
I sit next to the weather,
studying shadows,
like an indoor cat,
until dusk,
when the sky
walks me home.

Dottie & Michael, Cafe 322, Sierra Madre, California | July 6, 2007 | Photo by Mark Weber | @ Bobby Bradford Mo’tet gig

Download listen to Dottie Grossman | Map of the United States

Dottie Grossman | April 30, 2012 | Photo by Mark Weber

Dottie Grossman & Michael Vlatkovich | April 30, 2o12 | Spitfire Grill, Santa Monica | Photo by Mark Weber | click the image to see another version…

Dorothea Grossman | 4 poems

Monsieur K. — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:54:00 +0000

My grandmother,
who could never be called lovable,
did teach me something useful –
a terse, Yiddish fashion appraisal:
“It suits you
like earrings
on a kangaroo.”

Two Reasons Why I Like Men

(1) The vulnerability of their legs
in shorts,
(2) The innocence of their bare chests
in August.

Ernest Hemingway and Soren Kierkegaard
liked to write standing up at a podium.
I hear you ask, “Why?”
I do not know for sure,
but it must have been uncomfortable
after, say, 15 minutes,
which might explain
the darkness in their work,
or even why
nobody cares about them
anymore.

Thanksgiving, 2009

All over the country,
at this moment,
people are making history
by telling little stories about their lives
to one or two interested listeners.

KUNM Jazz Radio Show May 10, 2012

Monsieur K. — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:42:09 +0000

Jack Manno and pianist John Rangel, April 10, 2o11 | Photo by Mark Weber

May 10, 2o12

83 minutes of jazz @ Noon every Thursday
Host MARK WEBER

KUNM Albuquerque, USA
89.9 FM (Mountain Standard Time)
also streaming on the web > KUNM.org

Current time zone offset: UTC*/GMT -6hours
(*Coordinated Universal Time)/Greenwich Mean Time)

Today our guest will be Jack Manno, pianist, arranger, vocal coach, composer, jazz choir director, and resident of Santa Fe. We will be looking into jazz vocal groups of which Jack knows more about than anybody I know. It will be wall-to-wall vinyl from his personal collection.

Well-known to New Mexico audiences as the director/conductor/arranger for his Southwest Jazz Orchestra (2004-2010). “Our first performance was October of 2004 and our last was March 2010 at the Outpost.”

Before that Jack was on the road with the Ray Charles Singers (1962); Perry Como TV show out of NYC (1963); Radio City Music Hall with the Lang-Manno Singers (eight guys, including his musical co-hort Art Lang)(summer 1965); three albums of Irving Berlin music with his Jack Manno Singers (1968); and then an all-star band plus JM Singers, one album of Walter Donaldson music (1973) which we will listen to a little taste on this show. We will also listen to the work his Jack Manno Singers did in collaboration with Duke Pearson (1969), of which, “Cristo Redentor” has been a favorite of mine for years. He free-lanced on the New York scene 1962-1974.

Jack Manno and pianist John Rangel, April 10, 2o11 | Photo by Mark Weber

Born October 3, 1939, Upper Darby, PA (suburb of Philadelphia) — graduate of Penn State (Class of 1961) — no jazz curriculum existed in the music department those years so Jack contented himself with refining his piano chops, “I listened to a lot of Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk, strangely enough those two disparate musicians are my biggest influence on piano.”

As well, he joined the Penn State Jazz Club and “sometime around 1959 or 1960 the club brought Willie the Lion Smith, and it just blew me away.”

“Marty Paich was the first arranger I really listened to. And Russ Garcia.”

Jack Manno & drummer Cal Haines, April 10, 2o11, Santa Fe, New Mexico | Photo by Mark Weber

His long-standing trio (15 years at this writing) with Rick Fairbanks, bass, and Arlen Asher, woodwinds, is still active, calling themselves Crosscurrent. Jack moved to Albuquerque in Fall of 1987, relocated to Santa Fe in 1994, which brought him closer to work with the famed Santa Fe Desert Chorale which he joined in 1988 and was a member for “more than ten years,” singing in the bass section. As well, he produced the “jazz cameo” series every year from 1994-1997 utilizing a vocal quartet from the Chorale.

We’ll begin our survey in the 1950s, “That’s when I started listening, when I was in high school, that’s what I know about.”
Hi-Lo’s
Double Six of Paris
Swingle Singers
The Four Freshmen
Manhattan Transfer
The New York Voices
and
Mel Torme & the Mel-Tones

4-part harmony, 5-part harmony, 8-part harmony. Harmony in chorale. Open harmony, close harmony, block harmony.

http://jackmannomusic.wordpress.com/abou…

*All quotations are from telephone conversation May 6, 2012 with Mark Weber

Jack Manno & drummer Cal Haines, April 10, 2o11, Santa Fe, New Mexico | Photo by Mark Weber

Horace Tapscott & The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | The scene at I.U.C.C.

Monsieur K. — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:06:03 +0000

Immanuel United Church of Christ, 85th & Holmes, Los Angeles | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra was at Immanuel United Church of Christ for nine years(1). The last concert at this location was August 30, 1981. The first time I ever attended was January 30, 1977 — my field notes say the Arkestra was 17 musicians that day. (I have a private recording from that afternoon.) The origins of the tradition of Last Sunday of the Month free community concerts goes back to the U.G.M.A. days of the 1960s. These at I.U.C.C. commenced at 4pm located in south-central Los Angeles at 85th & Holmes.

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra with George Goldsmith on traps | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

“Pro-active” would be the word we would use today to describe Horace’s work in the 1970s. I’m not sure the term pro-active was in vogue back then. In those days the word was “self-determination”(2). In other words: Horace made things happen.

Michael Session? soprano; Ufahamu Uweizi, alto; Fundi LeJohn, Fr.horn; Herbert Callies, alto clarinet;
Sabir Mateen, tenor & conducting | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Horace was a lot like Duke Ellington, in that, he celebrated Black American life. And he was devoted to Los Angeles which he pronounced Los Angle-eez, in the manner of the older generation.

Horace Tapscott | April 26, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

Horace’s scene always seemed slightly subversive. Certainly, it was underground, as we used to say, and under the radar, even for the Black community. Horace was dealing in very strong statements. Inequalities to be reconciled — he seemed to have been born with a very strong social awareness, and strong commitments. He loved the history of jazz in Los Angeles and knew the entire scope and ramifications. He was politicized — the first time I ever heard the word “Reagonomics” was when Horace invoked it.

JuJeGr watches Horace Tapscott | April 28, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

It was certainly subversive in terms of the status quo and the pervasive conformity that has always kept Southern California in a vice grip.

Linda Hill | September 23, 1984 | Photo by Mark Weber | click the image to see another version…

I keep hoping Linda Hill’s notebooks will surface someday. I heard that they disappeared after her death. Linda in a lot of ways was co-leader of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. At least, during the years I was around. (Horace lists as a member of UGMAA in his autobiography.) She kept very precise, careful, notes of concerts and listed every musician who participated at every performance, rehearsal, recording session, and social gathering. A treasure of information. You’d see her sitting beside the stage with her notebook (spiral bound lined 8×10″) writing in her beautiful flowing cursive script.

The extraordinary drummer from Detroit was staying in Los Angeles that year — George Goldsmith — he’s on Horace’s Sextet CD from the Lighthouse in October 1979 and I believe he stayed through the summer of 1980 — he was at Horace & Cecelia’s place many times that I dropped by and we’d all sit for hours in Horace’s den listening to tape recordings of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. I have always wondered when these tapes are going to become available. Horace had a lot of recordings of his bands. George had lost a son recently in gang activity in Detroit and had come to the coast to weather out his grief. And now he’s recently departed. Horace was legendary as a good person to be next to when the weight of the world was upon you. Horace had a lot of charisma.

George Goldsmith | July 5, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

For the longest time I always thought Sabir Mateen’s name was Sabia. He might have changed it somewhere along the line. In the days of these photographs he would make his own incense sticks and sell them on the street and at concerts. Sabir moved off to NYC in 1989 and has made a name for himself in jazz.

Sabir Mateen | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

When Horace & Cecelia were visiting Albuquerque they spent the day here (February 15, 1998) at 725 — my wife Janet, and Roberto Miranda, and Cecelia, went shopping and Horace and I sat around the house talking (that’s Horace playing my piano in the photo on Vol.9 solo session on Nimbus West Records). He was so pleased to see my file cabinets full of P.A.P.A. photographs all kept safe — which are now housed at UCLA special collections. Horace also left an empty pack of Viceroys (cigarettes) on one of my LP shelves, which I left there as a talisman still to this day, but about 3 months after his visit I happened to turn the pack over and unsurprisingly found a roach he had saved inside the cellophane! [ Roach: the end of a marijuana joint.] Horace was in New Mexico for a few concerts — at Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque, and also in Santa Fe.

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | June 28, 1981 | Horace Tapscott (leader/piano), Fundi LeJohn (Fr-h), Ufahamu Uweizi (as), Lous Spears (cello), David Bryant (b), Fritz Wise (d), Gary Bias (as), Sabir Mateen (ts), Arthur Wells (ts & fl), Herbert Callies (alto cl.), Adele Sebastian (fl), Linda Hill & Cortnee & JuGeGr (vocals), Oises Obligicion (conga), Dr James “Jimmy” Benson (ts– glasses, beard, & Berkenstock sandals), Ernie Roberts (b-cl). My field notes say that Lester Robertson was there that day but didn’t play, and that Robert Crowley (p) sat in | Photo by Mark Weber

Horace Tapscott & his mother @ I.U.C.C. | April 28, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

Horace Tapscott & his mother @ I.U.C.C. | April 28, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

Horace Tapscott’s mother, Reverend Edwards, Marla Gibbs | April 28, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

Michael Session? soprano; Ufahamu Uweizi, alto; Fundi LeJohn, Fr.horn; Herbert Callies, alto clarinet;
Sabir Mateen, tenor & conducting | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Linda Hill, piano; David Bryant, bass; JuGeGr & children choir | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Linda Hill, piano; David Bryant, bass; JuGeGr & children choir | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Fritz Wise, drums; Gary Bias, alto sax; Ufahamu Uweizi, flute; Linda Hill, vocal | April 28, 1981 |
Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra — Immanual United Church of Crist, Watts | April 26, 1981 | Fritz Wise, drums; Gary Bias, alto sax; Ufahamu Uweizi (sitting) alto sax; Funi LeJohn, French horn; JuJeGr, vocals | Photo by Mark Weber

Kamau Daaood (center) | 1980 | I.U.C.C. | Photo by Mark Weber

Left to Right: David Bryant, Horace, Billy Hinton, JuGeGr, Linda, Kamau, Ufahamu, Sabir, Fundi | 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Linda Hill | 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and film crew | 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Fundi LeJohn, French horn, Herbert Callies, alto clarinet; Horace; Ufahamu, alto sax | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Aubrey Hart, flute; George Goldsmith, drums; Sabir Mateen, tenor saxophone | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

George Goldsmith | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

George Goldsmith & Billy Hinton | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | w/ drummers Billy Hinton & George Goldsmith | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Ufahamu, Fundi, and Sabir | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Fundi LeJohn, flugelhorn | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Herbert Callies | July 27, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Nate Morgan sits in with the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra — Linda on piano; David & Al on basses; Fritz on drums; “Sabia” on soprano; and that looks like the Reverend Edgar Edwards in the pew far left, “He was a hip old man,” say Horace in autobiography, page 167 — this was his church | January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

Nate Morgan switches off on piano with Horace Tapscott | January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

The magnificent Nate Morgan sits in on piano with P.A.P.A. w/ David Bryant & Al Hines, drums; Fritz Wise, drums |January 25, 1981 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | Horace Tapscott, piano; David Bryant & Al Hines, basses; Adele Sebastian, flute, Fritz Wise, drums; Gary Bias, alto; Ufahamu, alto, Fundi, French horn |November 30, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra | November 30, 1980 | Photo by Mark Weber

Harbor Freeway & Los Angeles smog | August 31, 1979 | view from Bonaventure Hotel | that’s the freeway you take from downtown Los Angeles to I.U.C.C. It shows the scene and area | Photo by Mark Weber

1. SONGS OF THE UNSUNG, Horace Tapscott/Steven Isoardi (Duke Univ. Press, 2001) pp 165-167
2. See Bobby Bradford interview in my essay The Early LP’s Of The Free Jazz Scene in Los Angeles (September 2009)

Mark Weber | April 20, 2012

Horace Tapscott | Live at Lobero

Monsieur K. — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:20:21 +0000