The Origin, The Gesture, The Sign, The Scratching On Rocks Poem

50th & Western, Los Angeles — 1977 –The building with “Bird Lives” spray-painted is the old Hi-De-Ho Club where Bird played and Dean Benedetti made his recordings during March 1947 (at the time of this photo the building was the First Evangelical Church) — photo by Mark Weber

50th & Western, Los Angeles — 1977 –The building with “Bird Lives” spray-painted is the old Hi-De-Ho Club where Bird played and Dean Benedetti made his recordings during March 1947 (at the time of this photo the building was the First Evangelical Church) — photo by Mark Weber

The Thursday Jazz Radio Show

June 11, 2o15 Jazz @ Noon every Thursday (starts at 12:07 after the satellite news) 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 -6 hours (*Coordinated Universal Time)/Greenwich Mean Time)

THE ORIGIN, THE GESTURE, THE SIGN, THE SCRATCHING ON ROCKS POEM

. . . still within a song
something catches you —-

Art has a way of stopping
you in time —
in Darwinism we do not know
how art was advantageous
as a characteristic that was selected for: it does
not appear to directly benefit survival of the species —-

Maybe it is merely a by-product
of having some spare time?

to amuse the mind . . . .

Eventually it grows into
a pattern —-

Maybe drawing, language, dance, music
grew out of a need to signal:
(signal not so much a warning, but signal
cooperation, reciprocal open-ness, directions,
cohesion, warmth, good pizza, last gas for 200 miles ….)
Still within a song
is something ancient

John Carter Ensemble ----- October 24, 1976 at The Little Big Horn, Pasadena, California -- Stanley Carter, bass; William Jeffrey, drumset; John  Carter, clarinet ---- photo by Mark Weber

John Carter Ensemble —– October 24, 1976 at The Little Big Horn, Pasadena, California — Stanley Carter, bass; William Jeffrey, drumset; John Carter, clarinet —- photo by Mark Weber

Reverend Lonnie Farris on lap steel with Reverend E. Keyes, tenor -- August 28, 1977 -- Los Angeles --  photo by Mark Weber

Reverend Lonnie Farris on lap steel with Reverend E. Keyes, tenor — August 28, 1977 — Los Angeles — photo by Mark Weber

Chick Corea and Victor Feldman playing for Blue Mitchell's Memorial @ Local 47 Los Angeles --  June 10, 1979 -- photos by Mark Weber

Chick Corea and Victor Feldman playing for Blue Mitchell’s Memorial @ Local 47 Los Angeles — June 10, 1979 — photos by Mark Weber

Flora Purim arriving backstage at Hollywood Bowl with Milcho Leviev and Airto (they were performing  with the Crusaders that afternoon) -- June 20, 1981 -- photo by Mark Weber

Flora Purim arriving backstage at Hollywood Bowl with Milcho Leviev and Airto (they were performing with the Crusaders that afternoon) — June 20, 1981 — photo by Mark Weber

Joe Farrell with Philly Joe and Papa Jo Jones -- Watts Towers Festival of the Drum --  September 23, 1984 -- photos by Mark Weber -------- Cal's new band plays a scorching  version of Joe Farrell's tune "Moon Germs" which we'll listen to today on the show

Joe Farrell with Philly Joe and Papa Jo Jones — Watts Towers Festival of the Drum — September 23, 1984 — photos by Mark Weber ——– Cal’s new band plays a scorching version of Joe Farrell’s tune “Moon Germs” which we’ll listen to today on the show

Lena Bloch Quartet w/ Russ Lossing, piano; Cameron Brown, bass; Billy Mintz, drums --  May 7, 2o15 at Kitano Hotel, Park Avenue & 38th, Manhattan -- photo by Mark Weber

Lena Bloch Quartet w/ Russ Lossing, piano; Cameron Brown, bass; Billy Mintz, drums — May 7, 2o15 at Kitano Hotel, Park Avenue & 38th, Manhattan — photo by Mark Weber

Soundcheck at the Outpost Performance Space, Albuquerque: Sheila Jordan & Cameron Brown -- March 5, 2o15 -- photo by Mark Weber ---- me & Sheila have something special cooked up for you for today's show, just a little thing, but fun . . . . . (something we pre-recorded over the telephone)

Soundcheck at the Outpost Performance Space, Albuquerque: Sheila Jordan & Cameron Brown — March 5, 2o15 — photo by Mark Weber —- me & Sheila have something special cooked up for you for today’s show, just a little thing, but fun . . . . . (something we pre-recorded over the telephone)

Riding the subway to rehearsal -- Today we'll be listening to their newly released  first CD simply called Bill Payne, Eva Lindal, Carol Liebowitz ---- May 7, 2o15 -- somewhere  under the East River heading to Brooklyn -- photo by Mark Weber

Riding the subway to rehearsal — Today we’ll be listening to their newly released first CD simply called Bill Payne, Eva Lindal, Carol Liebowitz —- May 7, 2o15 — somewhere under the East River heading to Brooklyn — photo by Mark Weber

Bill Payne on Eb clarinet and Eva Lindal on violin as part of trio with Carol Liebowitz, piano --  concert at Scholes Street Studio, Brooklyn, to celebrate release of their CD -- May 8, 2o15 --  photo by Mark Weber

Bill Payne on Eb clarinet and Eva Lindal on violin as part of trio with Carol Liebowitz, piano — concert at Scholes Street Studio, Brooklyn, to celebrate release of their CD — May 8, 2o15 — photo by Mark Weber

Billy Mintz, one of the greats -- May 7, 2o15 Manhattan -- photo by Mark Weber

Billy Mintz, one of the greats — May 7, 2o15 Manhattan — photo by Mark Weber

 Cal Haines’ Flora Purim Project — L to R: Jim Ahrend (keyboards); Cal Haines (drums); Jackie Zamora (vocals); Colin Deuble (bass), Kanoa Kaluhiwa (tenor saxophone) — on Central Avenue, Albuquerque — May 26, 2o15 photo by Mark Weber —- this new band pays tribute to the music of Flora Purim (we'll listen to Flora singing with Chick Corea & Return to Forever on the LIGHT AS A FEATHER album)

Cal Haines’ Flora Purim Project — L to R: Jim Ahrend (keyboards); Cal Haines (drums); Jackie Zamora (vocals); Colin Deuble (bass), Kanoa Kaluhiwa (tenor saxophone) — on Central Avenue, Albuquerque — May 26, 2o15 photo by Mark Weber —- this new band pays tribute to the music of Flora Purim (we’ll listen to Flora singing with Chick Corea & Return to Forever on the LIGHT AS A FEATHER album)

11 Comments

  1. ben

    It just seems to me
    Mark!
    that your pix
    musings
    and occasional poems
    over the decades
    could be Jazzed-up
    and codified–
    so to speak–
    assembled in book-form
    for a coffee table
    or a bedside one.

  2. Mark Weber

    Ben Daitz,
    I’d do a book if it weren’t so much work —- and I have a feeling you can reach farther with this web page thing ——- the only books I have planned currently are my little double-chapbooks, and the next is currently being organized in duet with Mitch Rayes —- we were laying cement blocks together last month and put the finishing touches on the idea, that has been in the works for a couple years, but nothing like a good sunny spring day to get the barnacles off . . . .

    NOTE to everyone else: See Ben’s new film documentary about THE SUN newspaper of Espanola, New Mexico, it’s legendary . . . . . .

  3. Paula MAYHEW

    Your 1977 jazz history photo, “Bird Lives,” made me jealous about the way you have, in passing, documented your own life as you went along.
    And I think you might consider putting more of your poems online. No coffee table dinosaurs, please.

  4. Mark Weber

    Isn’t that a marvelous photo of the Hi-De-Ho Club. Whew. Palm trees and liquor stores and land yachts! Another version of it, from another day, in B&W was used in the Mosaic Records box set THE DEAN BENEDETTI RECORDINGS OF CHARLIE PARKER. Someday, Paula, I’ll tell you who the asshole was that did that spray paint job “Bird Lives.”

    (Paula is my sister-in-law and professor of Literature & English only recently retired AND she was the person responsible for me doing a web page —- I’m what you’d call a “late adapter” —- she started pestering me 25 years ago to start a web page ever since we sat down at a front table at Sweet Basils to hear Andrew Hill Quartet and I pointed at Bennie Maupin’s bass-clarinet and said to her “Bitches Brew” AND SHE KNEW whereof I spoke!)

  5. Dave laczko

    Great pics, Mark, as always!

  6. Paula MAYHEW

    No one in my life is better suited to this medium than Mark. (Too bad he’s a little slow!)

  7. Kevin Norton

    Hi Mark,
    I have spoken to you, through email, about how much I enjoy this journal of yours, I thought, maybe for once, I would comment, here.
    One of the things I like about your journal is how things to most “jazz writers” that would seem “unrelated”, you see, that they ARE connected. One FEELS the LOVE of music through this website. Also, I am constantly “challenged” to learn more about, for instance, the musicians that you write about. For instance, I don’t know that much about John Carter … I know something about the other great clarinetist that you mention, Bill Payne, but that’s because I’ve played with him. SO, I looked up John Carter –
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carter_%28jazz_musician%29
    Not great, but something and something to urge me to deeper investigation. One last thought: Joe Farrell – a killer saxophonist who died way too young of MDS – here you have him pictured, hanging out with Philly Joe Jones and Papa Jo Jones – a picture is worth a thousand words, but how many investigations can that picture launch? A lot, I would think: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Farrell
    Thank you for this journal, thank you for the delicious, pleasurable food for though.

  8. Bill Payne

    Beautiful Words and Photographs. I am still digesting the fantastic week that we experienced in New York. Thanks!

  9. fred voss

    Good to see Philly Joe Jones, I like his album with
    Miles Davis

  10. Mark Weber

    ——————–playlist—————————–
    THE MEMORIAL ORNETTE COLEMAN JAZZ RADIO SHOW
    Host MARK WEBER
    June 11, 2o15
    KUNM Albuquerque USA

    1. Scott Robinson (contra-bass sax) “Basso Profundo”(Ellington) –Dec.1996 cd THINKING BIG w/Bucky Pizzarelli
    2. Ornette Coleman Quintet “Law Years” solo order: Dewey, Bobby, Ornette, Charlie, Ed — Sept. 1971 cd SCIENCE FICTION
    3. Charlie Parker “Moose the Mooch” –28march46 (Dial)
    4. Lena Bloch Quartet “Marshmellow”(Warne) –27may12 cd FEATHERY
    5. Sheila Jordan telephone answering machine message —-2015
    6. Sheila Jordan & Alan Broadbent “Inchworm/The Caterpillar Song” –March 1993 cd HEART STRINGS
    7. Sheila Jordan sings (pre-recorded via telephone) a couple of her answering device orginal song lyrics, the
    first one to melody “Blue Monk” –28may15
    8. Harry Carney & The Duke’s Men “Baby Blue” w/smoking solo by Paul Gonsalves — Sept. 1960
    9. Bill Payne-Eva Lindal-Carol Liebowitz trio “what we are saying” –12june12 cd BILL PAYNE-EVA LINDAL-CAROL LIEBOWITZ (Line Art Records)
    10. Andrea Wolper “The Girls in their Dresses” –2011 cd PARALLEL LIVES
    11. Sheila Jordan singing Ornette’s “When will the blues leave?” Live on KUNM March 5, 2o15
    12. Cal Haine’s “drum solo #1” — 17may07 cd ALBUZERXQUE Vol.28
    13. Chick Corea “You’re Everything” w/Flora, Airto, Joe Farrell, Stanley Clarke–Oct.1972 cd LIGHT AS A FEATHER
    14. Joe Farrell Quartet “Moon Germs” –21nov72 w/Jack DeJohnette, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke

  11. Lena Bloch

    Mark, many many thanks for including our piece in the Ornette Memorial. What an honor, and what a joy! Indebted to Ornette for ever.

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