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Mark Weber, Gerald Wilson, Steven Loza -- backstage at the Outpost Performance Space, Albuquerque -- December 4, 2003 ---- I grew up listening to Gerald Wilson's orchestras on the radio in Los Angeles so it was deja vu having him on my radio show that afternoon and this night on stage at the Outpost with a University of New Mexico large jazz band (Steven Loza is a trumpeter and long-time friend of Gerald's and the author of TITO PUENTE AND THE MAKING OF LATIN MUSIC, 1999) -- Gerald brought his wife Josefina to the radio show and I was beside myself as my all-time favorite tone poem of Gerald's is "Josefina" and anyone who lived in Southern California during the 1970s heard that tune everywhere, it is so beautiful, and she was so shy I couldn't get her to say a word during the radio hang

Mark Weber, Gerald Wilson, Steven Loza — backstage at the Outpost Performance Space, Albuquerque — December 4, 2003 —- I grew up listening to Gerald Wilson’s orchestras on the radio in Los Angeles so it was deja vu having him on my radio show that afternoon and this night on stage at the Outpost with a University of New Mexico large jazz band (Steven Loza is a trumpeter and long-time friend of Gerald’s and the author of TITO PUENTE AND THE MAKING OF LATIN MUSIC, 1999) — Gerald brought his wife Josefina to the radio show and I was beside myself as my all-time favorite tone poem of Gerald’s is “Josefina” and anyone who lived in Southern California during the 1970s heard that tune everywhere, it is so beautiful, and she was so shy I couldn’t get her to say a word during the radio hang

The Thursday Jazz Radio Show

October 20, 2o16 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)

NAVIGATION

Bing bang bam boom
I was surprised aspirin worked
That toothache seemed more in the category
……………………….of opiatesville
Maybe when you get older, aspirin
………………………………….is all you need?

The guy with the horns said
You are now assigned to 63
………….don’t fuck it up
I said What business is it of yours?
He just laughed
I guess, in this poem, he represents
…..bad turns of events that could have been avoided
………………..if I was paying closer attention, he’s a trope, a mirage

The dentist was half-heartedly trying to convince
me to see a periodontist, even though my teeth were
in fairly good shape, the gums were separating
and there was bone loss, but
if the teeth are secure
maybe running off to a periodontist is premature?
Nobody mentioned the elephant in the room: The dentist
was some years younger than me, and maybe from her
perspective I could just ride it out?

Even though you’d rather sit back
and let the specialists figure out
the best course of action, it doesn’t work that way:
You have to crank up the brain and navigate
…………….the choices, sort out the vested interests
…………………the imprudent moves, just like chess . . . .

For the heck of it
I actually picked up the ringing telephone
(I’m back home now, in this poem)
The guy wanted to sell me some insurance
I told him about the elephant
He said it wouldn’t cost that much more

We never did figure out why the toothache, exactly
Maybe I grind my teeth at night?
…………and that aggravated the ligaments and nerves?
It doesn’t strike me as beyond the realm of possibilities
there being a plethora of things in this world
to grind one’s teeth about

I bet the guy with the horns
could sell me some heroin

7oct2o16

Arnett Cobb at Hollywood Bowl Playboy Jazz Festival -- June 19, 1982 -- photo by Mark Weber -- Somewhere I have a shot where Arnett told me "Wait a minute," then raised his crutches straight up in the air, and said, "Okay, shoot!"

Arnett Cobb at Hollywood Bowl Playboy Jazz Festival — June 19, 1982 — photo by Mark Weber — Somewhere I have a shot where Arnett told me “Wait a minute,” then raised his crutches straight up in the air, and said, “Okay, shoot!”

Mal Waldron, Jana Haimsohn (dancer), and Ed Blackwell -- downtown Los Angeles at Biltmore Hotel -- January 15, 1982 -- photo by Mark Weber

Mal Waldron, Jana Haimsohn (dancer), and Ed Blackwell — downtown Los Angeles at Biltmore Hotel — January 15, 1982 — photo by Mark Weber

Philly Joe Jones and Leonard Feather at Donte's -- April 9, 1980 -- photo by Mark Weber -- It was the devil in me that orchestrated this photo -- Philly Joe's quartet was on break, and I had asked him if I could take his picture, and just at that moment Leonard Feather was walking by and I said Hey Leonard stand with Philly Joe! -- (Leonard was not very well liked in those days -- despite all of the great work he did in jazz journalism he had a weird quirk of slanting things pejoratively in his L.A. TIMES jazz column) -- So, that explains Philly Joe's look, he was telling me with his eyes that he's going to kill me after this shot (I still think Feather's less than 500-word analysis of Supersax on their first album is the most succinct explanation of that marvelous band's work)

Philly Joe Jones and Leonard Feather at Donte’s — April 9, 1980 — photo by Mark Weber — It was the devil in me that orchestrated this photo — Philly Joe’s quartet was on break, and I had asked him if I could take his picture, and just at that moment Leonard Feather was walking by and I said Hey Leonard stand with Philly Joe! — (Leonard was not very well liked in those days — despite all of the great work he did in jazz journalism he had a weird quirk of slanting things pejoratively in his L.A. TIMES jazz column) — So, that explains Philly Joe’s look, he was telling me with his eyes that he’s going to kill me after this shot (I still think Feather’s less than 500-word analysis of Supersax on their first album is the most succinct explanation of that marvelous band’s work)

Art Pepper Quartet at Donte's -- January 15, 1981 -- John Dentz, drums; Mike Lang, piano; Bob Magnussen, bass -- photo by Mark Weber

Art Pepper Quartet at Donte’s — January 15, 1981 — John Dentz, drums; Mike Lang, piano; Bob Magnussen, bass — photo by Mark Weber

Otis Rush in a little dive on the Near North Side of Chicago -- December 10, 1988 -- photo by Mark Weber -- and it was COLD in Chicago that week -- Otis Rush is one of the baadest of the baad for post-war Chicago blues guitar -- and this little club only had about a dozen other people there that night, so, we had him all to ourselves ----- There's a convention in rhythm & blues showbiz where the backing band comes out first and plays 3 or 4 numbers to "warm up the audience" ----- well, this band was so killin' I didn't care of Otis ever came out, gawd, Chicago was so full of great bluesmen those years (Dave Cook, organ; Sam Burton, drums; James Wheeler, guitar, Emmett Sutton, bass) ----- While Otis was playing I somewhat loudly was explaining to Janet (I'd had a few maybe too many beers) how Otis can arpeggiate a chord and then inexplicably bend all the strings in opposite directions which makes for a very wobbly out-of-kilter sound ---- Well, he heard me, and walked over to our table and stuck his guitar neck right in front of Janet and while the band was burning full on, he demonstrated this technique, articulating that chord over & over, in time with the blues they were scorching the place with -- club Close Encounters, 936 N. Rush Street

Otis Rush in a little dive on the Near North Side of Chicago — December 10, 1988 — photo by Mark Weber — and it was COLD in Chicago that week — Otis Rush is one of the baadest of the baad for post-war Chicago blues guitar — and this little club only had about a dozen other people there that night, so, we had him all to ourselves —– There’s a convention in rhythm & blues showbiz where the backing band comes out first and plays 3 or 4 numbers to “warm up the audience” —– well, this band was so killin’ I didn’t care of Otis ever came out, gawd, Chicago was so full of great bluesmen those years (Dave Cook, organ; Sam Burton, drums; James Wheeler, guitar, Emmett Sutton, bass) —– While Otis was playing I somewhat loudly was explaining to Janet (I’d had a few maybe too many beers) how Otis can arpeggiate a chord and then inexplicably bend all the strings in opposite directions which makes for a very wobbly out-of-kilter sound —- Well, he heard me, and walked over to our table and stuck his guitar neck right in front of Janet and while the band was burning full on, he demonstrated this technique, articulating that chord over & over, in time with the blues they were scorching the place with — club Close Encounters, 936 N. Rush Street

Bobby Bradford was his Pomona College Stage Band -- Thatcher Music Building, Claremont Colleges, California -- February 1979 -- photo by Mark Weber

Bobby Bradford was his Pomona College Stage Band — Thatcher Music Building, Claremont Colleges, California — February 1979 — photo by Mark Weber

The saxophonist Hal McKusick -- big breakfast after-shot at The Hampton Maid, Hampton Bays, Long Island -- July 10, 2009 -- photo by Mark Weber ---- I've never known anyone with the level of cool that Hal had. He was completely unpretentious and totally laid-back. Nothing was rushed. And he talked in that smooth tongue of the 40s & 50s hipster, an elliptical argot that we know from Lester Young. One time when I showed at his door he invited me in, asked if I was hungry, "You want me to burn you something?"

The saxophonist Hal McKusick — big breakfast after-shot at The Hampton Maid, Hampton Bays, Long Island — July 10, 2009 — photo by Mark Weber —- I’ve never known anyone with the level of cool that Hal had. He was completely unpretentious and totally laid-back. Nothing was rushed. And he talked in that smooth tongue of the 40s & 50s hipster, an elliptical argot that we know from Lester Young. One time when I showed at his door he invited me in, asked if I was hungry, “You want me to burn you something?”

Bill Evans at Howard Rumsey's Concerts By The Sea -- May 5, 1977 -- photo by Mark Weber

Bill Evans at Howard Rumsey’s Concerts By The Sea — May 5, 1977 — photo by Mark Weber

Harold Land & Blue Mitchell at Donte's -- July 10, 1977 -- photo by Mark Weber

Harold Land & Blue Mitchell at Donte’s — July 10, 1977 — photo by Mark Weber

Chris Calloway with Joshua Breakstone, guitar; John Trentacosta, drums; (David Parlato, bass) -- at the little mountain village of Placitas, New Mexico -- September 13, 1998 -- photo by Mark Weber

Chris Calloway with Joshua Breakstone, guitar; John Trentacosta, drums; (David Parlato, bass) — at the little mountain village of Placitas, New Mexico — September 13, 1998 — photo by Mark Weber

Connie Crothers at Studio 725, Albuquerque -- March 25, 2001 -- photo by Mark Weber -- the Connie Crothers Memorial will be 5 hours of live music at Roulette, Brooklyn, November 13, 2o16 -- I'll be there

Connie Crothers at Studio 725, Albuquerque — March 25, 2001 — photo by Mark Weber — the Connie Crothers Memorial will be 5 hours of live music at Roulette, Brooklyn, November 13, 2o16 — I’ll be there

9 Comments

  1. Mark Weber

    It’s a small world sometimes. Where miraculously you meet the Lady Josefina, the inspiration behind a favorite tune you used to hear thirty years previous. The jazz world is it’s own subculture, with six degrees of separation: We all know each other and if we don’t, we know somebody who knows somebody who does. Or we heard it on the radio, the communal soundboard/grapevine.

    Today on the Thursday jazz show we’ll be deep into the KUNM Fall Fundraiser — I’ll have the esteemed general manager of this great radio station, Richard Towne, as my pitch partner, as we ask for your support: call (505) 277 – 4357 during the show (so that it goes toward the jazz tally)

  2. Billy the Celloist

    yo Mark, please say goodbye to Connie for me at the Memorial. thanks.

  3. Mark Weber

    And here’s last week’s show :

    —————————playlist————————————
    the lee konitz happy birthday jazz radio show
    October 13, 2o16
    KUNM Albuquerque
    Host MARK WEBER

    1. Lee Konitz Quartet “Sunday” –22oct57 cd TRANQUILITY
    w/Billy Bauer(guitar), Dave Bailey(drums), Henry Grimes(bass)
    2. Lee Konitz Meets Jimmy Guiffre “The Song is You” — May 1959 w/ 5 saxophones + rhythm section:
    Warne Marsh, Hal McKusick, Ted Brown, & Bill Evans(piano), Buddy Clark(bass— this is the guy that co-founded Supersax), Ronnie Free(the drummer who participated in the jam sessions at W. Eugene Smith’s loft at 821 Sixth Street, Manhattan (between 28th & 29th Streets)) I think he lived in the building, also
    3. Lee Konitz Trio w/ Elvin Jones & Sonny Dallas “I Remember You” –29aug61 cd MOTION (Verve)
    4. Lennie Tristano Quartet “April” — 11june55 Live at Sing Sing Room — (Mosaic box) COMPLETE ATLANTIC RECORDINGS OF LENNIE TRISTANO — recorded by Tom Dowd in stereo, who went on to record Ornette, Coltrane, Ray Charles, Allman Brothers, and even “Layla” and also Cream’s DISRAELI GEARS — Lennie’s
    quartet: Lee Konitz(alto), Gene Ramey(bass), Art Taylor(drums)
    5. Buddy Collette Quartet “Three and One” –16jan57 from Lp CALM, COOL and COLLETTE (ABC Paramount) — Buddy on tenor in his Prez mode
    6. Bobby Broom Trio “After Words” –January 2o11 cd UPPER WEST SIDE STORY (Origin) *Bobby Broom grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan but now lives in Chicago
    7. Abe Most Quintet “Stuffed Olives” –August 1955 Lp MR CLARINET (Liberty) w/ Tony Rizzi(guitar), Larry Bunker(drums), Joe Mondragon(bass–born & raised in Espanola, New Mexico), Paul Smith(piano)
    8. Ruby Braff & Woody Herman — cornet & clarinet — “Rose Room” — March 1980 cd IT HAD TO BE US (Concord) w/ Wayne Wright(guitar), John Bunch(piano), Michael Moore(bass), Jake Hanna(drums)
    9. Harry Allen’s All Star New York Saxophone Band “The One For You” — August 2015 cd THE CANDY MEN (Arbors Records) w/ saxophones: Gary Smulyan, Eric Alexander, Harry Allen, Grant Stewart + unlisted piano bass drums: Rossano Sportiello(piano), Joel Forbes(bass), Kevin Kanner(drums) + three tenors & a baritone matching Woody Herman’s Four Brothers sound
    10. Lee Konitz Quintet — furious version of “Kary’s Trance” w/ Don Ferrara(trumpet), Sal Mosca(piano), Peter Ind(bass), Shadow Wilson(drums) from VERY COOL (Verve)
    11. Kazzrie Jaxen solo piano “Stella By Starlight” –1997 cd FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH (Kazzrie’s birthday is Oct 17)
    12. Lee Konitz Quartet “Ronnie’s Tune” — April 1954 cd IN HARVARD SQUARE w/ Ronnie Ball(piano), Peter Ind(bass), Jeff Morton(drums)
    13. Milt Jackson & Frank Wess “Ghana”(Ernie Wilkins) –1958 album BAGS & FLUTES (Atlantic)

  4. joan jobe voss

    more groovy pix of fabulous performers… how lucky you’ve been Mark to see and listen to these greats live… your amazing true-life dentist poem, as you know, grabbed me personally…fun to see artifice made from pain and dental angst…

  5. Michael Sumner

    How you DO it. The poem I mean.
    Good thing Word Navigator was your career choice.
    p.s.
    So good seeing you now I miss you again.

  6. Mark Weber

    ————————–playlist———————————————-
    the golden opportunity jazz radio show
    KUNM Fall Fundraiser
    October 20, 2o16
    Host MARK WEBER
    Pitch partner RICHARD TOWNE

    1. Kenny Davern Quartet “Wild Man Blues”(Jelly Roll Morton composed and the Louis Armstrong Hot Seven recorded in 1927) from KD’s 2003 cd LIVE AT MILL HILL PLAYHOUSE (Arbors) — great guitar solo by James Chirillo
    2. Artie Shaw & His Gramercy Five “The Sad Sack” –9jan45 w/Dodo Marmarosa, Barney Kessel, Roy Eldridge
    3. Cab Calloway “Hey Now” –13may46
    4. Sun Ra “Plutonian Nights” –c.1959 Chicago
    5. Baby Dodds solo “Drum Improvisation #1” — 1946
    6. Prez Conference “I Never Knew” — 1978 Hollywood, California
    7. Duke Ellington Orchestra “Cotton Tail” –4may1940 —- this is the first recorded version of this song that Duke wrote to feature Ben Webster — Tom Lord Discography lists 413 subsequent versions
    8. excerpted Ben Webster solo “Cotton Tail” –4may40 *
    9. Buell Neidlinger & Marty Krystall “Ben Addiction” –14may81 — Marty in dual tenors with Gene Cipriano playing Ben’s Cotton Tail solo as a new composition — from Lp OUR NIGHT TOGETHER Krystall Klear and The Buells (K2B2 Records) — Buell told me (telcon) that when he worked with Ben that Ben dragged out his old reel-to-reel and would play this version at rehearsals and then at the gigs would commence to play this tune for upwards of half an hour (am I remembering correctly what Buell told me? So, Ben would solo for all that time?) — this must have been in NYC prior to Ben moving to Europe in December 1964
    10. Dave Frishberg fundraiser radio spot
    11. Bob Dylan “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” new cd FALLEN ANGELS — announcement last week that Bob has been awarded Nobel Prize in Literature — Frank first recorded this Jimmy Van Heusen/Johnny Burke song in 1940 when he was with Dorsey, and subsequently recorded a few extra times through the years

    * I called Bradford the evening before this radio show to ask him about this practice of taking iconic jazz solos and using them as compositions in and of themselves. I know Lennie Tristano had students learn solos from Prez, Louis, Roy and that studying solos is common. I was thinking of the great album Lee Konitz and Gary Foster made in 1995 where they took solos Warne Marsh played on standards and used them as compositions. Bobby said as far back as Rex Stewart in Fletcher’s band was using Bix solos (“Singing the Blues”); and there’s Illinois Jacquet’s “Flying Home” solo that was commonly used on stages all over the world; and when he was growing up there wasn’t a tenor player in Texas who didn’t know Jimmy Forrest’s solo on “Night Train”; and there’s Stan Getz’s solo on “Early Autumn” with Woody Herman; and all the Prez Conference material working with Lester Young; and Bobby Hackett’s solo “String of Pearls” became iconic.

    NOTE: This coming Monday morning I’ll be on the air with Arlen Asher at KSFR on his The Jazz Experience radio show — Santa Fe — from 9am till Noon — and we’re going to play wall-to-wall jazz music from Sweden —
    That’s

    UPCOMING on my Thursday KUNM show: Tootie Heath will visit on November 3 and guitarist Joshua
    Breakstone on November 10 ——- Live in the studio

    Addition to PLAYLIST

    Somewhere in the middle of the show I played Oscar Brown Jr’s hilarious spin on the blase &
    cool jazz persona of the 60s “But I Was Cool” –23oct60 from his album SIN & SOUL (Col.) w/ trumpet obbligati by either Billy Butterfield or Joe Wilder

  7. Marty Krystall

    Thanks Mark! Cip and I played clarinet duets for four hours today. Mozart, Magnani (a Rossini contemporary) and Lazarus. I’ll let him know we were on the airwaves.

  8. Joshua Breakstone

    Where did you get that picture??? Or more appropriately- I can’t believe you have this! WOW…..Mark, you (and camera) are everywhere…your field of view is W-I-D-E!

  9. Mark Weber

    ————————————–playlist—————————————
    the sweden for sweden jazz radio show
    October 27, 2o16
    KUNM Albuquerque
    Host MARK WEBER

    1. Lars Gullin Octet “Ma” — 23apr56 w/ Arne Domnerus (cl. & alto), George Vernon (trombone), Carl-Henrik Norin (tenor), Rune Falk & Lars Gullin (baritone saxes), Georg Riedel (bass), Nils-Bertil Dahlander (drums), Rune Ofwerman (piano) — composed & arranged by Lars
    2. Nils Lindberg SAXES GALORE w/ Herb Geller (alto) “Curbits” –23may79
    3. Alice Babs w/ Arne Domnerus Orchestra & Bengt Hallberg arrangement & comp. “No Words Blues” w/ Arne on clarinet interlaced with Alice wordless vocals — quite sublime
    4. Rold Billberg Quintet “Blue Daniel” –1jan61 cd RARE DANISH RECORDINGS off radio
    5. Jan Allan – Rune Gustafsson – Georg Riedel “Background Music” (Warne Marsh’s contract upon All Of Me) trumpet-guitar-bass — March 1992 cd SWEET & LOVELY (Dragon)
    6. Bengt Hallberg Sextet “Limehouse Blues” — 9nov53 w/ Ake Persson (trombone), Arne Domnerus (cl. & alto), Lars Gullin (baritone), Bengt (piano), Simon Brehm (bass), William Schiopffe (drums)
    7. Connie Crothers – Roger Mancuso duet “Parallel Time” –1993/1994 cd DEEP INTO THE CENTER (New Artists) piano & drums
    8. Carol Liebowitz – Nick Lyons duo “Carol’s Dream” (Connie Crothers) new release on Line Art Records: FIRST SET — recorded 20may2o12 at Connie’s loft in Williamsburg — piano & alto
    9. Lee Konitz w/ Lars Sjosten Octet “Danny’s Dream” — November 1983 — plays the music & arrangements of Lars Gullin ——————purely a coincidence that those two dream songs followed each other
    10. Clifford Brown “Stockholm Sweetnin'” (Quincy Jones) — 15sept53 w/ Art Farmer, Arne Domnerus, Ake Persson, Bengt Hallberg, Lars Gullin, Gunnar Johnson(bass), Jack Noren (drums)
    11. Albert Tootie Heath album KWANZA newly reissed on cd “Oops” 4june73 trio w/ Percy Heath (bass) &
    Jimmy Heath (flute)
    12. Hacke Bjorkstens All-Star Sextet “Go Home Swanson” –12apr57
    13. Jack Sheldon (triple over-dubbed trumpet) Lp THE WARM WORLD OF JACK SHELDON (Dot)–1968 “Grazin’ in the Grass” and Jack yelling “Hey, don’t graze in the grass!” over Don Sebesky’s studio orchestra

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