Jazz At Half Moments

Photo by Mark Weber

ABOUT THESE PHOTOGRAPHS

It seems like something that
has always been here, but
it hasn’t, it resides in
the future and we only glimpse
it’s full meaning in fleeting
intervals, a coiled arpeggiated
chord, a horn like the distant
freight train across town, a saxophonist
passing through whose name you
didn’t catch, played the
jazz that relaxed the clock, where
“future” is actually the deep present, sitting
in lotus remembering all
the years in-between, and
all the different realities,
and everything
that has led us to this moment
right here.

Cal Haines studio in Santa Fe -- note the printer off to Cal's left that we used -- you can see Art Pepper with clarinet on the screen -- May 27, 2013 -- photo by Victoria Rogers

Cal Haines studio in Santa Fe — note the printer off to Cal’s left that we used — you can see Art Pepper with clarinet on the screen — May 27, 2013 — photo by Victoria Rogers

Cal & Mark working on the show -- we had several sessions of printing toward eventuality -- Note my regulation Zoot Sims white teeshirt -- May 27, 2013 -- photo by Victoria Rogers

Cal & Mark working on the show — we had several sessions of printing toward eventuality — Note my regulation Zoot Sims white teeshirt — May 27, 2013 — photo by Victoria Rogers

When I'm doing a photo sitting or portraiture I sometimes bring along examples of old photos I would like to approximate -- the photo of TG3 in this exhibit is an example of that approach -- I love those 1920s jazz band publicity stills -- This one of a Civil War drummer was in a recent issue of The New Yorker and I showed it to Cal and so we re-imagined this shot one afternoon in Santa Fe (May 20, 2o13) -- Cal added the gilded frame -- photo by Mark Weber When I'm doing a photo sitting or portraiture I sometimes bring along examples of old photos I would like to approximate -- the photo of TG3 in this exhibit is an example of that approach -- I love those 1920s jazz band publicity stills -- This one of a Civil War drummer was in a recent issue of The New Yorker and I showed it to Cal and so we re-imagined this shot one afternoon in Santa Fe (May 20, 2o13) -- Cal added the gilded frame -- photo by Mark Weber

When I’m doing a photo sitting or portraiture I sometimes bring along examples of old photos I would like to approximate — the photo of TG3 in this exhibit is an example of that approach — I love those 1920s jazz band publicity stills — This one of a Civil War drummer was in a recent issue of The New Yorker and I showed it to Cal and so we re-imagined this shot one afternoon in Santa Fe (May 20, 2o13) — Cal added the gilded frame — photo by Mark Weber

I hope you can come to see my pictures at the Outpost. I am curious to know to know what effect that they have.

90% of those in the exhibit have never been seen before. Most of them laid around in boxes for the last thirty years. Some of them are new. Even though all my prints & slides were donated to UCLA in January 2005 I kept the negatives. So, over the last two years Cal Haines and I have been meticulously working our way through the archive and scanning & digitizing & cataloging them — we’re up to 26,000 presently and only about halfway done. It’s been a big job.

The shots displayed here on this page are not in the show, they are counterpart companions to the 81 photographs that we put on the walls.

Over this same period I have been thinking a lot about the idea of mythology. What is it? What were the circumstances that humans developed this form of story?

“Myths embody the quest for meaning in an otherwise random universe” — Verlyn Flieger — INTERUPTED MUSIC, p.11

A myth is a story that everybody knows, even when they can’t remember having ever heard it or read it. — C.S. Lewis paraphrased

I know everybody loves Joseph Campbell and his notions of mythology but I haven’t found him useful to my search, and he’s a little bit too shrill for my taste. His conclusions are hard for me to understand. Likewise, Carl Jung who is renowned for his theories of collective unconscious and racial memory, inherited memory, are terms I find useful but his actual definitions are laughable. He’s also something of a windbag, like Freud, these guys had no acquaintance with the concepts of brevity. Why say something in 30 words when you can say it in 30 pages? So, I can’t claim to have wallowed through enough C.G. Jung to venture too strong of an opinion.

Jazz is nearly old enough to start entering into the halls of mythology. Myths contain fragments of the larger, objective truths — higher purpose — sanctified & sanctifying all parts of life — motivations for the greater good — grace & forgiveness (to absolve ourselves) — redemption, consolation, restoration of meaning — nor is there a division between the supernatural and the natural — A myth is true real created world — as well, jazz is heroic.

And so, I am still thinking about it. I want to read what Claude Levi-Strauss has to say about mythology.

In photography everything is collapsed into two dimensions. Then, mysteriously, the images put you into a narrative mood which has it’s own dimension. All of a sudden you’re a stranger in paradise.

Mark Weber – Early June 2013

Kenny Davern & Bill Payne afternoon clarinet session at Kenny & Elsa's place in Sandia Park, New Mexico -- December 16, 2005 -- my band The Mark Weber Poetry Band had just performed the night before at the Outpost (MWPB: Bill Payne, William Roper, Michael Vlatkovich, and me) and Kenny & Elsa were there and Kenny was knocked out by Bill, a total absolute deep-grain clarinet player, and so the next day was set aside for them to get together and trade ideas -- one of the clarinets on the table is Pee Wee Russell's -- photo by Mark Weber

Kenny Davern & Bill Payne afternoon clarinet session at Kenny & Elsa’s place in Sandia Park, New Mexico — December 16, 2005 — my band The Mark Weber Poetry Band had just performed the night before at the Outpost (MWPB: Bill Payne, William Roper, Michael Vlatkovich, and me) and Kenny & Elsa were there and Kenny was knocked out by Bill, a total absolute deep-grain clarinet player, and so the next day was set aside for them to get together and trade ideas — one of the clarinets on the table is Pee Wee Russell’s — photo by Mark Weber

Eric Person w/ Anasazi petroglyphs -- West Mesa, Albuquerque -- February 16, 1997 -- photo by Mark Weber

Eric Person w/ Anasazi petroglyphs — West Mesa, Albuquerque — February 16, 1997 — photo by Mark Weber

Don Menza & his 1939 Cadillac out back of Carmelo's jazz club in North Hollywood -- May 26, 1980 -- Left to right:  Jay Migliori, Ray Pizzi, Frank Strazzeri, unknown, Don Menza, Nick Ceroli -- photo by Mark Weber

Don Menza & his 1939 Cadillac out back of Carmelo’s jazz club in North Hollywood — May 26, 1980 — Left to right: Jay Migliori, Ray Pizzi, Frank Strazzeri, unknown, Don Menza, Nick Ceroli — photo by Mark Weber

Virg Dzurinko --  we have a tradition of jumping off the subway at 103rd and walking  up Broadway so Virg can have a smoke and I can have a blueberry parfait from Westside Market, always  at night, always after a session -- this her in solo at The Stone -- September 23, 2009 -- photo by Mark Weber

Virg Dzurinko — we have a tradition of jumping off the subway at 103rd and walking up Broadway so Virg can have a smoke and I can have a blueberry parfait from Westside Market, always at night, always after a session — this is her in solo at The Stone — September 23, 2009 — photo by Mark Weber

Connie Crothers & Henry Grimes as members of Jameel Moondoc Quartet at The Stone, Lower East Side NYC -- September 19, 2009 -- photo by Mark Weber

Connie Crothers & Henry Grimes as members of Jameel Moondoc Quartet at The Stone, Lower East Side NYC — September 19, 2009 — photo by Mark Weber

Dan Morgenstern in the stacks at Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey -- one of the great scholars and gentlemen of jazz and a literate exquisite historian -- August 9, 2011 -- photo by Mark Weber

Dan Morgenstern in the stacks at Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey — one of the great scholars and gentlemen of jazz and a literate exquisite historian — August 9, 2011 — photo by Mark Weber

Kazzrie Jaxen is a priestess, a pianist in the Tristano trajectory, she communes with trees, rivers talk to her. Or, should I say: the rivers and trees talk to all of us, Kazzrie actually listens.  This is one of the great rivers back east, the Delaware, passing through Kazzrie's village of Callicoon, upstate New York.  That far shore is Pennsylvania.  August 7, 2o11 -- photo by Mark Weber

Kazzrie Jaxen is a priestess, a pianist in the Tristano trajectory, she communes with trees, rivers talk to her. Or, should I say: the rivers and trees talk to all of us, Kazzrie actually listens. This is one of the great rivers back east, the Delaware, passing through Kazzrie’s village of Callicoon, upstate New York. That far shore is Pennsylvania. August 7, 2o11 — photo by Mark Weber

New Orleans parade --  the Histories tell that we are to parade for the dead, march with them onward -- Charles Barbarin Memorial Brass Band -- July 3, 1982 --  French Quarter -- photo by Mark Weber -- In 1928 the Rio Grande in Albuquerque almost claimed the Master of Time & Space Lester Young but for his friend Ben Webster who saved him from joining the Barge of the Dead.

New Orleans parade — the Histories tell that we are to parade for the dead, march with them onward — Charles Barbarin Memorial Brass Band — July 3, 1982 — French Quarter — photo by Mark Weber — In 1929 the Rio Grande in Albuquerque almost claimed the Master of Time & Space Lester Young but for his friend Ben Webster who saved him from joining the Barge of the Dead.

TG3 -- Tom Guralnick Trio -- July 12, 1997 @ old Outpost Perfomance Space -- photo by Mark Weber

TG3 — Tom Guralnick Trio — July 12, 1997 @ old Outpost Perfomance Space — photo by Mark Weber

Alicia Ultan & her viola -- October 10, 1999 -- photo by Mark Weber

Alicia Ultan & her viola — October 10, 1999 — photo by Mark Weber

Bud Shank -- January 18, 1981 -- Gilberto's, on Rt.66 in Cucamonga, California (about an hour east of Los Angeles) -- photo by Mark Weber

Bud Shank — January 18, 1981 — Gilberto’s, on Rt.66 in Cucamonga, California (about an hour east of Los Angeles) — photo by Mark Weber

Jazz At Half Moments by Mark Weber

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13 Comments

  1. Mark Weber

    [the introduction to the gallery show ]

    WAVING BACK AT PICTURES

    Poetry is nebulous. You can pull an Anne Sexton book off the shelf one day and the poems just lay there flat, seem meaningless. Then, six months later the same damn poems can knock your socks off. ( I love Anne Sexton.) Photographs are somewhat the same. Although photos seem to get better with age. Poems have a hard time aging, they don’t do well under the clock. Only a certain amount of them squeak through. (A good example of the intangibility of poetry is the infamous waffling of T.S. Elliot over whether Milton was happening.)

    I’ve always worked in graphics, and photography just fell into my lap in high school where I lived in the darkroom my entire last year in that strange brainwashing emporium they call the American public school system. I hid in the dark. For years I was mostly interested in the “art” aspects of photography. Over time I became more of an anthropologist with a camera.

    January of 2005 we donated 10,000+ of my jazz & blues photographs to the UCLA music archives. Then, around two years ago me & Cal Haines started the process of scanning & digitizing & cataloging all these old negatives — we’re presently rounding the bend at 26,000 frames. So, for this show we had a lot of variety of approach to take. The narrative I constructed for this show is not linear. Nor do I, as an anthropologist worship at the altar of the cult of celebrity. To an anthropologist the culture of jazz is not made up of the famous entities that we all know. Jazz culture comprises the teachers, promoters, record store clerks, critics, historians, audience, weekend jazz players, and disk jockeys. Jazz is a joyous world with a sense of immediacy about it.

    Without revealing too much about my modus operandi, let’s just say that there is a lot of angles yet to explore in jazz photography. And that it is not necessarily wrapped up in technical things, but in the 4th dimension.

    Jazz in half moments, shadows, ghosts, between the ticks of the clock, after-hours, in the moon or sunlight, in the haze of memory, a young mother with perambulator in dappled leaf light, Vermeer moments, myth & mythology.

    The eye sees everything in 3-D, whereas the camera collapses everything into two dimensions. I grew up in a period when the lab coat photographers (led by Ansel Adams) were taking over photography. That is: scientific technique prevailed over emotional content. When I was in “photography school” we were taught to search for the “proper lighting” and/or manipulate the light. Every photo should have the whitest white and blackest black. SO, thirty years later I’m bopping down a street in Midtown Manhattan to catch a bus when I pass an art gallery showing some strange photographs. I go in. My first thought was Whew, these kids would have all got an F in the school I went to. What happened to the Zone System? The photos were all in the gray zone, no highlights. Now, it’s true with black & white photography you have hardly no latitude to miscalculate the exposure. One stop in either direction and it’s fried. (Whereas with color you have 2 stops in either direction of grace)( I wonder why that is?) Anyway, I read the “artist statement” by these New York City 20-somethings and I had an epiphany right there. Immediate recognition of a paradigm shift. The statement says that in real life there is no whitest white and blackest black, that much of what we see is in the gray zone. Jazz photographers like Harlan Leonard and William Claxton would faint.

    Jazz. A few months ago I was out to lunch with our station manager Richard Towne, KUNM, and I told him how at home, of late, we mostly listen to Indian classical music, sitars, tambouras, santoor, bansuri, sarod . . . . And one day I put on an LP of a jazz sextet and my mind was blown. I said to Richard, “Jazz is really good!” And he nodded and agreed. The polyphony, the multi-layer’d rhythms, the manner in which the ensemble circled each other in a heliosphere and all off the top of their heads. This jazz music is profound stuff.

    Cameras can be an intrusion on a social setting. A photographer needs to finesse any situation like a ghost. What I do is rather inconspicuously bring the camera out and set it down on a table and let the idea of photography gradually settle in. It’s an easy trick and it works. One of the heaviest things I’ve ever photographed was my father’s funeral. I still look at those photos and wonder how I managed it. Probably on auto-pilot. Not that I took a jillion shots.

    The Los Angeles drummer Alex Cline, who works for the UCLA Oral History Project, and is on my team assisting me in identifying my old photos — Alex paid me the greatest compliment a few months ago when I was worrying that with all these photos of mine people are going to think I was a shutterbug, one of those nervous, frantic, snap-a-million shots and hope something sticks — Alex said, “Mark, I don’t think I ever saw you with a camera. In fact, I had forgotten that you were actually taking pictures all those years.” A ghost. Because, after all, aren’t we there at these music events to be transported by the music?

    A few years ago I said to Connie Crothers that I like to take pictures between the moments, and she said: “Those are the best ones!”

    —–Mark Weber
    Late June 2o13 Albuquerque

  2. Mark Weber

    1. Philly Joe Jones — April 9, 1980. Philly Joe with his Quartet at Donte’s (Frame 6388)

    2. Edward Wilkerson of the AACM out of Chicago in Albuquerque to provide live soundtrack at Kimo — November 12, 2o11 — Edward Wilkerson was the man behind the great music of Eight Bold Souls.

    3. Sal Mosca tuning his piano — afternoon of December 4, 2004 (Frame 6850)

    4. Jonathan Baldwin — February 8, 2o13 KUNM Friday jazz @ Noon 89.9FM and streaming on the web> KUNM.org (Frame 18935)

    5. Dexter Gordon Backstage at Howard Rumsey’s Concerts by the Sea — August 13, 1982 The Buddha said over & over & over how everything is connected. The bass is connected to the pulse and the drums are connected to time and the piano is inside the rhythm and the guitar is firing off messages to the moon ditto Copernicus pointed out this helio-centric nature of small group jazz way back in 1543 in his De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestrium — how it all revolves around the sun, how it all revolves around the central idea (or tone) . . . and the thigh bone is connected to Hip bone and the Hip bone swings on down the boulevard . . . .

    6. Reverend Lonnie Farris. I was all set to check out Barney Bigard that Sunday afternoon when I fell by John Breckow’s place who convinced me we absolutely had to follow up this rumor of this storefront preacher who played lap steel & bass drum with a congregation of tambourine chorus — after that mind-blowing day I followed Reverend Lonnie Farris for several years then lost touch . . . This shot is at his little duplex apartment in Watts — February 28, 1980 — His joy was over-flowing it seemed always.(Frame 10475)

    “Few among men are they who cross to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side.” — The Buddha

    7. Richard Tabnik on roof of Connie’s apartment — September 24, 2009 Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn NYC (Frame 18446)

    8. John Carter at UCLA Schoenberg Hall — October 20, 1979

    9. H. Ray Crawford — February 1980 at Bell’s Bar-B-Que, Pomona, California — I call this photo “The Theory Lesson” — H. Ray is looking at the organ player Joel Sebastian while he slowly runs through some changes on the B3 as their trumpet player Harold Howard looks over H. Ray’s shoulder — H. Ray was a guitar player who started out as a saxophonist but was sidelined in his early 20s by TB and switched to guitar in the hospital — He’s the guitarist on Gil Evan’s OUT OF THE COOL — I love how he’s not talking a gang of complicated theory, he’s allowing Joel to absorb in his own way the chords and what they mean — also, H. Ray, when the mood or situation called could tear up a B3 himself (shades of all those years he worked for Jimmy Smith?)(Harold was an old fishing buddy of James Newton’s father.) (Frame 327)

    10. Bobby Shew & Michael Glynn — February 17, 2o13

    11. The workhorse of jazz guitar, the Gibson L-5. There’s even a photo of Frank Zappa playing an L-5 in the early days of the Mothers (not his typical guitar). This is Mundell Lowe. In the cut-through (Cahuenga Pass) from Hollywood over into the Valley is a wonderful outdoor theater , the John Anson Ford, built into the side of the hills, where Angelenos keep their tradition of Sunday afternoon jazz. Mundell was playing in a quintet with Plas Johnson and Lou Levy. Ask Michael Anthony about the L-5. (Frame 11349)

    12. Joshua Breakstone & Earl Sauls live on KUNM Thursday jazz — December 17, 2009

    13. Kenny Davern & Bill Payne — December 16, 2005 Instant friends. Kenny heard Bill on a performance the night before at the Outpost with my MW Poetry Band. Bill had flown out from Vegas. Everybody know’s Kenny but Bill, as illustrious as his career has been is relatively unknown to the jazz world. Spending 12 to 14 years playing in the Barnum & Bailey Circus doesn’t lead to fame. He’s also worked Broadway pit bands and was on the road with Margaret Whiting ( ! ) and presently has a trio with Carol Leibowitz & Eva Lindal. He also has a phenomenal CD in duet with Connie Crothers. Kenny came up to me at the break and said, “Wow, who is this guy on clarinet? He’s incredible!” (Frame 14867)

    14. Between sets — May 14, 1980 — Los Angeles

    “Tell us tales of your heroic deeds to gladden our hearts. Certainly you have distinguished yourself in battle and honored your father and your people?” — Hrothgar speaking to Beowulf

    Left to right: guitarist Herb Ellis you know from the Oscar Peterson Quartet and for bringing a little Texas twang to the table; bassist Larry Gales you know from Monk; Ross Tompkins from the Tonight Show band; Allen Jackson was prominent bassist around L.A., mostly with the Jack Wilson Trio, and behind Esther Phillips; Dolo Coker is the proto-bopster of the early days in 50s L.A. (Frame 294)

    15. Sal Mosca, piano, and Jimmy Halperin, tenor sax — December 4, 2004 — one of the great jazz afternoons of my life — Connie Crothers, myself, and Richard Tabnik caught the train at Grand Central Station and rode up to Sal’s studio in Mt Vernon, NY (Frame 6860)

    16. Clora Bryant — May 9, 1981 @ Cat Anderson Memorial Service — Rosedale Cemetery, 1831 W. Washington Blvd — this cemetery is just west of downtown Los Angeles — the resting place of Eric Dolphy, Art Tatum, and Henry Miller — I’m fairly certain that’s Jacket (Illinois Jacquet) talking to Clora through the window as Jerome Richardson looks on — in the background are Kenny Burrell, Bill Berry, and journalists Leonard Feather and Patricia Willard (Frame 2786)

    17. Janet Simon — jetset jazzer — here she is looking out window of her sister’s apartment in NYC — September 27, 2009

    18. Chris Garcia — April 8, 2o10 — the drummer for Michael Vlatkovich Quartet, The Grande Mothers, Quarteto Nuevo . . .

    19. vocalist Cheryl Richards & pianist Carol Liebowitz — September 24, 2009 at Chez Betty around corner from The Stone, Lower East Side (Frame 18441)

    20. Ndugu Chancler & Bobby Shew — October 18, 2o12 — this photo is hanging in exact spot that it was taken! Ndugu was the drummer on Bobby Bradford’s 1972 album SECRETS

    21. Sweets & Coop — December 28, 1980 Bob Cooper writing music while Harry Sweets Edison warms up and pianist Dolo Coker hangs loose. Backstage prior to Live KKGO broadcast of their Quintet — Kinsey Auditorium, Los Angeles. (Frame 8529) It is good to remember that this music is heroic, originating from an enslaved and disenfranchised people who’s life spirit would not be put down, who’s human spirit refused to be diminished.

    22. John Trentacosta & Arlen Asher — KSFR combined radio show “The Bopera House” and “The Jazz Experience” — October 17, 2010 Santa Fe

    23. Mal Waldron, Jana Haimson, Ed Blackwell — January 15, 1982 Mal & Ed played for NYC dancer Jana Haimson at Biltmore Hotel on Bunker Hill downtown Los Angeles (Frame 2274)

    24. James Newton & Buddy Collette — July 5, 1980 Watts Towers Jazz Festival

    “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” — Matthew 5:6

    James studied with Buddy Collette in the 70s and went on to be a distinguished professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA and last month (June 2013) working in his studio here in Corrales completed his Saint Matthew Passion written for chamber orchestra, chamber choir, and jazz rhythm section which will premier in Torino, Italy, next year. (Frame 8561)

    25. H. Ray Crawford — 1980. *This photo was used on the cover of one of Ray’s CDs.

    26. Lee Konitz & Art Pepper — January 15, 1982. We were downtown on Bunker Hill at the old Biltmore Hotel for a concert with Mal Waldron & Jana Haimson & Ed Blackwell when . . . Rumor spread that Lee Konitz was going to sit in with Art Pepper’s Quartet at Donte’s this night (before electronic communication devices like cell phones and twitter we had rumor). We jumped in our 64 Ford Fairlane and flew up the Hollywood Freeway across town and into the Valley. (ibid. Frames 2259-2263)

    27. John Carter — April 22, 1980 — Los Angeles John & Bobby played duet this night as part of the Eric Dolphy Memorial Tribute Concert broadcast over KPFK (does anyone have recordings?) along with Gary Bartz solo, and several other acts.

    28. JB Bryan — October 11, 2oo9 — his studio in Placitas

    29. Gary Foster & Warne Marsh — 1977 @ Donte’s. Some the greatest jazz ever made (ibid. Frame 1037)

    30. Bobby Bradford — April 22, 1980. You don’t normally catch Bobby on flugelhorn, he’s mostly a cornet player. John and Bobby formed their musical partnership in 1966 and kept it going till 1991 when John got away from us. Their duets are a breath-taking swing through wide-open pan-tonal counterpoint. Bobby and John were my mentors into the world of jazz. I couldn’t have been luckier to have found two better teachers. (Frame 15479)

    31. Hal & Jan McKusick — we’re at lunch in a restaurant in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and Jan pointed out a little piece of lettuce on Hal’s teeth, and Hal said, “Oh, I was saving that for later” — August 3, 2011 — Hal was the saxophonist on all of those important George Russell Jazz Workshop records, among hundreds of others. You hear Hal quite often on my radio show.

    32. Bud Shank in flight — January 18, 1981. Bud Shank Quartet @ Gilberto’s in Cucamonga Bob Maize, bass; Jeff Hamilton, drums; Bill Mays, piano; with Bud on alto saxophone and still playing flute (he gave up the flute around 1985). This little restaurant out on Rt.66 an hour east of Los Angeles. (Linda Shank says “Bud ditched the flute when he and Ray Brown bagged LA4, which was about eight years after they formed it.” Email 28june13 ) (Frame 8801) Don’t miss the opportunity to listen with your eyes closed.

    33. cornet & tenor sax, Jon Baldwin & Tim Zannes. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness — night and day and ocean — and God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the entire expanse of sky” — and this God dug, so, He took another chorus: “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kind, livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind. And jazz musicians, don’t forget jazz musicians, I gotta have me some jazz musicians, free as the bees such as they are.” (Frame 22948)

    34. J.A. Deane & Michael Vlatkovich — April 4, 2002. The Zerx house trombonists

    35. Bobby Shew Sextet — November 16, 1980. Cool thing about this photo is that it shows Bobby’s actual working sextet (as opposed to an ad hoc tossed-together band that is a common practice in jazz), this band made a few records and one of my all-time favorites OUTSTANDING IN HIS FIELD. Gordon Brisker, woodwinds; Bob Magnussen, bass; Dick Berk, drums; Bill Mays, piano; David Levine, percussion (obscured in this photo), and Bobby Shew on trumpet & flugelhorn. (Frame 10341)

    36. Bill Plake & his son Evan at their “Condo in Redondo” Redondo Beach, California — with Michael Vlatkovich — November 23, 1996. Bill is a tenor saxophonist & flutist of the highest realm, has wrote a method book on how to negotiate wide interval jumps a la Eric Dolphy — Bill is renowned for explaining the fallacy of New Age Music, that it supposedly calms you and is mellow but in reality it is so cloying and saccharine that ultimately is insulting and has the opposite effect of making you angry.

    “Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it” ― Gautama Buddha

    “O, where is my Angel Eyes? Excuse me while I disappear.” The light in this photograph is a reflection off of the Pacific. (Frame 22948)

    37. Horace Silver — June 10, 1979 — Los Angeles. Note pianist Milcho Leviev (beard) behind Horace. (Frame 620-622)

    38. Don Menza & his 1939 Cadillac in back of Carmelo’s jazz club in North Hollywood — May 26, 1980. L to R: Jay Migliori, Ray Pizzi, Frank Strazzeri, unknown, Don Menza, Nick Ceroli (Frame 470)

    39. Fostina Dixon — March 22, 1981. There was a time when everybody was migrating to L.A. — since then, a lot of native Angelenos have scatter’d to the four winds — Fostina has returned to her home Delaware — in the 80s she was in many bands around Los Angeles and had her own group called Collage — in this photo Fostina is in the sax section of the Leslie Drayton Orchestra. (Frame 10255)

    40. The mystic, Fred Katz in his office — March 20, 1979 (one of Frames 2339-2341)

    41. Dave Holland Quartet — February 15, 1997 — Outpost. Steve Nelson, vibes, Gene Jackson, drums, Eric Person, alto sax — Dave Holland really knows how to put together great bands, they are unstoppable. (Frame 23065)

    42. Art Pepper — April 27, 1977 at Donte’s, North Hollywood. Art always said to me that this was his favorite picture of himself with a clarinet and wishes he had known about it to included it in his autobiography — he’d usually get the clarinet out at the end of the night during the 3rd set, way after midnight. (Frame 1295)

    43. Abbey Lincoln — July 31, 1980 — this was during the time Abbey lived in Los Angeles — she loved a little toke so I always brought a little something if I had it, usually some “rag weed” as we called it, nothing as sophisticated as they smoke these days.

    44. SuperSax New Mexico rehearsal in B117 Popejoy — February 6, 2o13 — Aaron Lovato, Lee Taylor, Sam Reid, Dave Anderson, Glenn Kostur, saxophones, and Paul Gonzales, trumpet — this is the music of champions. (Frame 18946)

    45. Roger Mancuso — September 6, 2oo6 NYC — Connie Crothers’ drummer since early 70s — He lives on the Jersey Shore and brings the train into Brooklyn for the quartet’s weekly sessions at Connie’s loft — I call him The Abstract Expressionist Drummer.

    46. Shelly’s drums piled up in the hallway at United Western Studios on Sunset Blvd — he had a quintet date with Benny Carter the next day so his cartage company deliver’d “Set #1” — (this Benny Carter session has yet to be released!) — I was there for a Horace Tapscott session back in Studio 4 — April 29, 1980 (Frame 2739)

    47. John Breckow — KPFK Los Angeles — March 16, 1979. Spinning the jazz on his beloved “Smoke Rings” late into the night. (Frame G-104)

    “I always felt that if you are going to do it, do it right, and yes, that sound you hear is the sucking of all your musical brain cells being channeled into the energy of the radio presentation/event/performance. If it was only you, it might not be such a big deal, but when you put yourself in a position to represent the music/musicians it is like training for a fight all week and then going 15 rounds and then starting all over again. With jazz there are infinite rabbits waiting to be pulled out of hats. I always loved the idea of making people sit through music from an era that, shall I say, was not their first interest, to get to what they really liked. I know I bent some rules, but, I opened some new ways of listening to the music as a whole. It was always the way I listened so naturally that was the story I told.” — John Breckow email 21march12

    48. TG3 vaudeville pose — November 4, 1995. Steve Feld, trombone; Jefferson Voorhees, drums; Tom Guralnick, saxophone — Tom is not partial to this shot, being cautious that it might misconstrue the intent of his beloved TG3 (This photo was entirely the idea of the photographer.) (Frame 3667)

    49. Count Basie — June 20, 1981. A LOT of jazz derives from the alchemy that was Basie — many of his working concepts for small group jam sessions are the basis for what goes on to this day — he distilled things down to an essence.

    50. Derek Bailey & Evan Parker duo — October 15, 1980 — Century City Playhouse. I don’t know about you but every now & again I need to re-arrange my brain and Derek Bailey is the perfect anodyne for perspective. Any art form has parameters and every art form has practitioners who tick around the edges. At this concert in Los Angeles Derek’s fatbody archtop was feeding back (on purpose) and he was doing his scritching & scratching & popping & tapping when very studiously he bends over his fretboard and upon inspecting the strings he selects one and then violently yanks it off — we in the audience completely didn’t expect that — he yanked and it blanged and we all jumped ten feet out of our seats, I think I left my shoes on the floor. Then he threaded the thwarted string through the remaining strings, weaving it into them, and began sawing and screeching up & down with serious intent. What it means I do not know. (Frame 7737)

    51. Richard Tabnik — June 30, 2003 in Connie’s studio window light —

    “If we’re not having fun, count me out” — Anthony Braxton

    52. Supersax — June 6, 1980 — the band that played Bird (ibid. Frame 8483)

    53. Horace Tapscott & Cecil Taylor — June 7, 1979. Two pianists of the New Thing from opposite sides of the country. Horace Tapscott visiting with Cecil backstage at the Lighthouse where he had four nights there in Hermosa Beach. (Frame 241)

    54. Ornette Coleman & Joe Zawinul — June 19, 1982 — backstage Hollywood Bowl. (Frame 8314)

    “That’s why I like jazz, kid, because we don’t know what’s going to happen next” — Bix

    55. David Parlato Double-Traps Quintet — August 5, 1996 I like to think I had something to do with the concept of this band, but, I could be mistaken — for years I used to harangue my friends to use two trap sets on their bands — and David took it one step further and formed this band for this single performance with two saxophones and two trap drums — note that Pete Amahl is using a Taos drum for his kick. Cal left New Mexico shortly after this date to work ten years for corporate America in Orange County. (Frames 22950 + 22962 + 22964 + 22966)

    56. Cal Haines in set pose with snare drum — May 20, 2o13 See my website JAZZ FOR MOSTLY for the story behind this shot.

    57. Horace Tapscott & Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra June 28, 1981 (ibid. Frame 3807)

    58. Doug Lawrence & daughter Lyla — February 10, 2012 — in Doug’s 1957 Chevy Nomad after lunch at Taj Mahal. (Frame 24272)

    59. Stefan Dill & David Parlato — February 13, 1996 (Frame 23207)

    60. Alicia Ultan — October 10, 1999. Alicia isn’t exactly a jazzer but she can improvise with the best of them — that’s her beloved viola she acquired in her second year of college, an Antonio Capela (1980, Portugal) “Took several years to break it in — it has a broad big sound” (Alicia has a shyness about her that hides behind violas.) (Frame G-009)

    61. Ali Ryerson & Alex Coke — October 7, 2o10 — Albuquerque — Ali Ryerson is a flutist, born on October 21 same as me almost on the same year, so we have that connection — her mother used to call her Miss Jones, funny story — Alex is from Dallas and is woodwinds master, worked for ten years with the Willem Breuker Kollektief in Amsterdam.

    62. Tom Guralnick, Bud & Linda Shank, & Mark Weber April 7, 1997 in the Outpost Inpost Artspace — I think I have 900 pictures of Tommy (all at my instigation) posing with the various thousands of artists he has presented, promoted, advocated for. I think Linda & Bud hadn’t moved to Tucson, yet, in this photo, and were residents of Port Townsend, Washington, still. (Frame 22646)

    63. Harold Land in red tint — November 15, 1976

    64. Kazzrie Jaxen — August 7, 2011. Kazzrie is a priestess, a pianist in the Tristano trajectory, she communes with trees, rivers talk to her. Or, should I say: the rivers and trees talk to all of us, Kazzrie actually listens. This is one of the great rivers back east, the Delaware, passing through Kazzrie’s village of Callicoon, upstate New York. That far shore is Pennsylvania. (Frame 23466)

    65. Don Cherry & Ed Blackwell — January 15, 1982. (Frames 2277 & 2278)

    “Kindness is a constant presence in America. This is a great county, and it wasn’t made so by angry people.” — Garrison Keillor

    66. Eric Person on the West Mesa, Albuquerque, with Anasazi petroglyphs — February 16, 1997 — Eric was in town for two nights at Outpost Performance Space with the Dave Holland Quartet. (Frame 23081)

    67. Art Pepper Quartet — solarized — January 16, 1982. Bob Magnussen, bass; John Dentz, drums; Mike Lang, piano at Donte’s (ibid. Frame 2281)

    68. Michael Anthony — August 16, 2011

    69. Jimmie Vaughan & Putnay Thomas — March 31, 2004 at El Rey Theatre, Albuquerque — we had dinner with Jimmie and I told him how much I like his instrumental interlude “Strange Pleasure” (Frame 1416)

    70. Roscoe Mitchell & Anthony Braxton — October 20, 1979 at UCLA Schoenberg Hall (Frame 8712)

    71. Count Basie — June 20, 1981 — Los Angeles

    72. Mark Weaver — musician of the tuba — September 20, 2o10

    73. Art Pepper & Warne Marsh — January 26, 1977 Donte’s, North Hollywood — two titans of bop — I remember this night they didn’t actually do much of the counterpoint they are known for — it was more like: each keeping to his side of the bear cage. (ibid. Frame 1015)

    74. Vi Redd Quartet — March 1, 1981. Mark Taper Forum, Bunker Hill, Los Angeles Art Hillary, piano; Richard Reed, bass; Bruno Carr, drums; and Vi Redd on alto saxophone. (Frame 6213)

    75. George Sams & Lewis Jordan & Mt Baldy — February 1979 (Frame 457)

    76. Sun Ra — Apirl 2, 1981 downtown Los Angeles at Myron’s Ballroom — ponder that sax section: Marshall Allen, Pat Patrick, John Gilmore — can you imagine a more disparate and amazing group of saxophonists? and check out the hat drummer Lex Humphries is donning. (Frame 190)

    77. Lewis Jordan — September 1, 1978. Lewis blowing from his rooftop on Haight Street (at Steiner) in San Francisco (Frame 9613)

    78. Kenny Davern — July 4, 2004. Some musicians are naturals. Even though I never saw Kenny play piano, I also never saw him play bugle. Lacy had just passed (that’s Lacy in photo by James Gale on piano). Kenny picked up this old bugle that sits on my piano and played a tender “Taps,” after which he said, “That’s for you, Steve.” KD and Steve grew up together in the cauldron of dixieland hot jazz that was Manhattan in the 1950s. (Frame 4088)

    79. Connie Crothers, piano, and Richard Tabnik, alto sax — silhouette — Connie’s studio in Williamsburg — evening of December 4, 2004 (Frame 6855)

    80. Trio 3 — November 5, 2oo9 — Outpost Performance Space. Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman

    81. Connie Crothers and Bill Payne — September 17, 2009 in duet at The Stone, Lower East Side (Frame 18344)

  3. Connie Crothers

    WOW! I sure wish I was there to see all this great and truly evocative visual beauty–evoking the past, present, and the future by implication. I am so glad that the two jazz giants–Vi Redd and Clora Bryant–are included in this presentation. Also, Virg Dzurinko. I do wish this exhibit could travel, especially to New York City.

  4. Connie Crothers

    …and the poem.
    I especially love, “played the jazz that relaxed the clock,”

  5. david parlato

    Archival Man: You’ve really outdone yourself with this show!
    Wow! Outstanding! I’ll be there for the opening on the 14th, for sure.
    Thanks for all the work you have done to preserve the “scene.”
    dp

  6. Mark Dresser

    Hey Mark, Nice show, !!! The very top one, though not identified (in my browser,) isn’t that David Murray, about 1973? Pomona? Thanks for sharing.
    Bravo!

  7. Mel Minter

    That Connie Crothers sure knows a good line when she sees one (or hears one, for that matter). That’s the same line I pointed out to you on Thursday night, when you threatened to have a heart attack, thinking I was going to point out a typo. Lovely poem, great line, super shots.

  8. Mark Weber

    2 Things:

    1) I saw Mel at Outpost Performance Space where the show is hanging — during it’s regular Thursday Night Jazz Summer series — and he had my program guide for the exhibit in hand . . . . Mel is a local writer of beautiful positiveness who keeps the populace up to speed on what’s happening in Albuquerque.

    2) Yes, David Murray in the first photo — January 7, 1977 — during his triumphal return visit to California after having departed Claremont Colleges to get into the NYC loft scene of 1975.

  9. Mark Weber

    Bobby Shew, just in from NY where he played with Curtis Fuller, Pat LaBarbara, Bill Cunliffe, Dennis Mackrel, Todd Coolman — Has identified the trombonist Bill Moffett standing just past Strazz in the Menza Cadillac photo, “He played some with Toshiko’s band. Don’t think he’s still in L.A.” [email 7july13] (Bobby lives in Albuquerque)

  10. Richard Towne

    Congrats on the new show. That is pretty amazing that you have so many thousand photo negs scanned. I’ll try to get over to Outpost to see the show.

  11. Henry Denander

    Great stuff Mark, wish I could be there but alas. Maybe there will be a book as well…? Congrats!

  12. Paula Mayhew

    So much work. So little time.

  13. Mark Weber

    I can’t forget to mention that the guy with the 500 watt smile in photo #5 in the exhibit is trumpeter Lammar Wright, Jr, who was living in Los Angeles these years (d. July 8, 1983) — I was lucky to hang with Lammar and hear so many of his great bebop stories — in this photo we’re backstage at Howard Rumsey’s under-sea jazz club (it was literally built where the beach sand used to be, it was a downstairs club, with a boardwalk & pier up above)

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