And So It Was

Collage by Mark Weber -- March 28, 1994

Collage by Mark Weber — March 28, 1994

The Thursday Jazz Radio Show

January 19, 2o17 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)

AND SO IT WAS

And so it was                                                       when the fog was here
All the little cats                                                      that we thought were dead
Come visiting                                                              out of the mists

                      * * * * * *

Sad they had gone                                             there is something
in the turning                                                              time of the stars
that awaits us all                                                   in the fog

                      * * * * * *

You could if you wanted
Go find the edge of the fog
And with that you would know
what was before it

Henry Grimes with the Jameel Moondoc Quartet (including Connie Crothers & Chad Taylor) at The Stone -- September 19, 2009 -- photo by Mark Weber -- I know this band recorded some of their performances (this one for one), I sure wish they'd make the sounds available, there has never been someone like Connie who was so attuned to what Henry was all about ----- I had a major epiphany the other afternoon listening to Henry Grimes: ominous dark clouds engulfing New Mexico (I love this time of year -- good for fires in the fireplace and reading anthropology) -- when Henry read one of his poems then picked up the bass and hooked into the cosmos the way he does so naturally I felt I understood him on a whole new level (cd SPIRITS ALOFT in duet with Rashied Ali, 2009) -- I said to him once how much I love his walking on the bass, and how he does it sans a tonal center, just free walking, and he said he was glad I caught that . . . . .

Henry Grimes with the Jameel Moondoc Quartet (including Connie Crothers & Chad Taylor) at The Stone — September 19, 2009 — photo by Mark Weber — I know this band recorded some of their performances (this one for one), I sure wish they’d make the sounds available, there has never been someone like Connie who was so attuned to what Henry was all about —– I had a major epiphany the other afternoon listening to Henry Grimes: ominous dark clouds engulfing New Mexico (I love this time of year — good for fires in the fireplace and reading anthropology) — when Henry read one of his poems then picked up the bass and hooked into the cosmos the way he does so naturally I felt I understood him on a whole new level (cd SPIRITS ALOFT in duet with Rashied Ali, 2009) — I said to him once how much I love his walking on the bass, and how he does it sans a tonal center, just free walking, and he said he was glad I caught that . . . . .

Dexter Gordon -- February 17, 1979 -- photo by Mark Weber ---- Dexter sure smoked a lot of reefer in those days, this night his quartet was on a double-bill with the Basie Orchestra, and we were standing in the wings of Bridges Auditorium, Claremont Colleges, California, right behind Basie as the orchestra came roaring to a stop and left a little hole for Basie to do a little cute tinkle on the piano keys before they roared off into the chase chorus and Dexter grabbed me by the shoulders and started shaking me yelling "BASIE IS SO COOL!"

Dexter Gordon — February 17, 1979 — photo by Mark Weber —- Dexter sure smoked a lot of reefer in those days, this night his quartet was on a double-bill with the Basie Orchestra, and we were standing in the wings of Bridges Auditorium, Claremont Colleges, California, right behind Basie as the orchestra came roaring to a stop and left a little hole for Basie to do a little cute tinkle on the piano keys before they roared off into the chase chorus and Dexter grabbed me by the shoulders and started shaking me yelling “BASIE IS SO COOL!”

Evan Parker -- October 29, 1978 -- photo by Mark Weber -- His solo work just knocks me out and is completely different than his ensemble approach -- with the solo he does things you have never heard before on a saxophone, long coruscating entwined threads that go on for ten, twenty, thirty minutes, circular breathing, with little explosions that pop out the holes completely mystifying and riveting -- He has made somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 solo albums and all but one are on soprano saxophone, in the last half hour of today's show we'll listen to Evan Parker solo

Evan Parker — October 29, 1978 — photo by Mark Weber — His solo work just knocks me out and is completely different than his ensemble approach — with the solo he does things you have never heard before on a saxophone, long coruscating entwined threads that go on for ten, twenty, thirty minutes, circular breathing, with little explosions that pop out the holes completely mystifying and riveting – He has made somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 solo albums and all but one are on soprano saxophone, in the last half hour of today’s show we’ll listen to Evan Parker solo

Evan Parker solo saxophone concert at Century City Playhouse, Los Angeles -- October 29, 1978 -- photo by Mark Weber

Evan Parker solo saxophone concert at Century City Playhouse, Los Angeles — October 29, 1978 — photo by Mark Weber

Smokey Wilson (w/ hat) and another guitar slinger Curtis Griffin at Smokey's Pioneer Club at 88th & Vermont, Los Angeles -- June 1978 -- photo by Mark Weber -- I love that pool cue being chalked behind them ---- For whatever reasons I never did do a lot of college (stay in school, my children, it's important), but I like to tell people it's because I was hanging out in clubs like this, instead ---- the music was hard & tough, and the beer was good, and the culture of Watts and environs was fascinating ----- One afternoon hanging out at the Pioneer I got to see where Smokey hid all his money: He lifted up the green slate of the pool table (I didn't know those were removable) and there was his cash money ----- Who could deny the poetry of the blues . . . .

Smokey Wilson (w/ hat) and another guitar slinger Curtis Griffin at Smokey’s Pioneer Club at 88th & Vermont, Los Angeles — June 1978 — photo by Mark Weber — I love that pool cue being chalked behind them —- For whatever reasons I never did do a lot of college (stay in school, my children, it’s important), but I like to tell people it’s because I was hanging out in clubs like this, instead —- the music was hard & tough, and the beer was good, and the culture of Watts and environs was fascinating —– One afternoon hanging out at the Pioneer I got to see where Smokey hid all his money: He lifted up the green slate of the pool table (I didn’t know those were removable) and there was his cash money —– Who could deny the poetry of the blues . . . .

John Breckow interviews Albert Collins -- These were good times, we lived in Los Angeles but every summer we'd pile into one of our old beat-up cars and drive the 500 miles north for the San Francisco Blues Festival, we'd find someone to let us sleep on their floor and do the blues thing for a whole weekend ------- John is the guy in sunglasses and he's the guy who nowadays hosts the Friday jazz show at Noon on KUNM -- This shot looks like early evening when the festival was over -- those years the festival was in McLaren Park on a hill that over-looked the Bay outdoors in a Greek amphitheater --August 14, 1977 -- photos by Mark Weber

John Breckow interviews Albert Collins — These were good times, we lived in Los Angeles but every summer we’d pile into one of our old beat-up cars and drive the 500 miles north for the San Francisco Blues Festival, we’d find someone to let us sleep on their floor and do the blues thing for a whole weekend ——- John is the guy in sunglasses and he’s the guy who nowadays hosts the Friday jazz show at Noon on KUNM — This shot looks like early evening when the festival was over — those years the festival was in McLaren Park on a hill that over-looked the Bay outdoors in a Greek amphitheater –August 14, 1977 — photos by Mark Weber

Lee Kaplan & Margarette Shuette -- Century City Playhouse -- November 26, 1978 -- photo by Mark Weber

Lee Kaplan & Margarette Shuette — Century City Playhouse — November 26, 1978 — photo by Mark Weber

Two Jazz Musicians: a bass player and a drummer after the gig: Ratzo Harris and Jimmy Madison -- November 12, 2o16 Manalapan, New Jersey, members of Jack Walrath Quartet -- photo by Mark Weber

Two Jazz Musicians: a bass player and a drummer after the gig: Ratzo Harris and Jimmy Madison — November 12, 2o16 Manalapan, New Jersey, members of Jack Walrath Quartet — photo by Mark Weber

Derek Bailey and Evan Parker in Los Angeles at Century City Playhouse -- probably the only time Derek ever played L.A. -- October 15, 1980 -- photo by Mark Weber

Derek Bailey and Evan Parker in Los Angeles at Century City Playhouse — probably the only time Derek ever played L.A. — October 15, 1980 — photo by Mark Weber

Alan Silva at The Lighthouse, Hermosa Beach, California, as member of Cecil Taylor Quartet on tour -- June 7, 1979 -- photos by Mark Weber -- Anasazi petroglyphs, Canyonlands, Utah, June 30, 1989 (most of these are Anasazi circa AD 1 to 1300, with some Navajo post-1500 ie. the horses)

Alan Silva at The Lighthouse, Hermosa Beach, California, as member of Cecil Taylor Quartet on tour — June 7, 1979 — photos by Mark Weber — Anasazi petroglyphs, Canyonlands, Utah, June 30, 1989 (most of these are Anasazi circa AD 1 to 1300, with some Navajo post-1500 ie. the horses)

Maryanne de Prophetis Quartet: Ron Horton (flugelhorn), Frank Kimbrough(piano), Satoshi Takeishi(drums -- note that he uses a frame drum in place of a kick drum) -- this is the same band as her new cd TELL A STAR -- November 18, 2016 at Michiko, 149 west 46th Street, Manhattan -- photo by Mark Weber who is still learning how to take digital photos -- (I have other more "conventional" shots on film from this concert -- altho, it wasn't really a type of gig where you wanted to be snapping photos, it was quiet-like)

Maryanne de Prophetis Quartet: Ron Horton (flugelhorn), Frank Kimbrough(piano), Satoshi Takeishi(drums — note that he uses a frame drum in place of a kick drum) — this is the same band as her new cd TELL A STAR — November 18, 2016 at Michiko, 149 west 46th Street, Manhattan — photo by Mark Weber who is still learning how to take digital photos — (I have other more “conventional” shots on film from this concert — altho, it wasn’t really a type of gig where you wanted to be snapping photos, it was quiet-like)

Edward Field, master of the quotidian: seeing the macrocosm in the micro, all done in the narrative lyric homespun style we call plainspeak, in a way you could consider him America's Cavafy -- at a little cafe in the Village (Riviera Cafe, 225 W. 4th, NYC) -- September 25, 1992 -- photo by Mark Weber

Edward Field, master of the quotidian: seeing the macrocosm in the micro, all done in the narrative lyric homespun style we call plainspeak, in a way you could consider him America’s Cavafy — at a little cafe in the Village (Riviera Cafe, 225 W. 4th, NYC) — September 25, 1992 — photo by Mark Weber

“The Last Bohemians”

for Rosetta Reitz

We meet in a cheap diner and I think, God,
the continuity, I mean, imagine
our still being here together
from the old days of the Village
when you had the bookshop on Greenwich Avenue
and Jimmy Baldwin and Jimmy Merrill used to drop in.

Toying with your gooey chicken, you remind me
how disappointed I was with you for moving
to Eighth Street and adding gifts and art cards,
but little magazines, you explain, couldn’t pay the rent.
Don’t apologize, I want to say, it was forty years ago!

Neither of us, without clinging to our old apartments,
could pay Village rents nowadays,
where nobody comes “to be an artist” anymore.
Living marginally still, we are shabby as ever,
though shabby was attractive on us once — those years
when the latest Williams or Stevens or Moore was sold
in maybe five bookstores, and the Horton
biography of Hart Crane an impossible find.
Continuity! We’re still talking of our problems
with writing, finding a publisher,
as though that was the most important thing in the world.
Sweetheart, we are as out of it as old lefties.

Someone came into my apartment recently and exclaimed,
“Why, it’s bohemian!” as if she had discovered
the last of a near-extinct breed.
Lady, I wanted to protest,
I don’t have clamshell ashtrays,
or chianti bottles encrusted with candle wax,
or Wilhelm Reich, Henry Miller and D.H. Lawrence,
much less Khalil Gibran and Havelock Ellis,
on my bricks-and-boards bookshelves!
But it’s not just the Salvation Army junk she saw,
or the mattress and pillows on the floor.
My living style represented for her
the aesthetic of an earlier generation,
the economics, even, of a time,
our time, Rosetta, before she was born.

The youth still come weekends, though not to
“see a drag show,”
or “bull daggers fighting in the gutters,”
or to “pick up a queer or artist’s model.”
But there is something expectant in them
for something supposed to be here, once called,
(shiver) bohemian. Now it’s I who shiver
as I pass them, fearing their rage against
an old guy with the sad face of a loser.
Daytime, it’s safer, with couples in from the suburbs
browsing the antique shops.
I find it all so boring, but am stuck here,
a ghost in a haunted house.

At a movie about a war criminal whose American
lawyer daughter blindly defends him blasted by the critics
because it is serious and has a message
the audience is full of old Villagers, drawn to see it
because it’s serious and has a message,
the women, no longer in dirndles and sandals,
but with something telltale about the handcrafted jewelry,
the men not in berets, but the kind that would wear them
couples for whom being young, meant being radical,
meant free love. Anyway,
something about them says Villager,
maybe the remnants of intellect, idealism
which has begun to look odd on American faces.

Nowadays, there’s nothing radical left, certainly not
in the Village, no Left Bank to flee to, no justification
for artistic poverty, nothing for the young to believe in,
except their careers, and the fun of flaunting
their youth and freaky hairstyles in trendy enclaves.

Leftovers from the old Village, we spot each other
drifting through the ghostly
high rental picturesque streets, ears echoing
with typewriters clacking and scales and arpeggios
heard no more, and meet fugitive in coffee shops,
partly out of friendship, but also, as we get shabbier and rarer,
from a sense of continuity like, hey, we’re historic!
and an appreciation, even if we never quite got there,
of what our generation set out to do.

—–from Edward Field’s collection COUNTING MYSELF LUCKY (1992, Black Sparrow Press)

16 Comments

  1. bayouseco

    Only a while until the Last Hippies go out into the fog to join their predecessors, some of us passed in that space between the two and between war and anti-war, between poverty not chosen into the financial poverty of our expressions and art.

  2. SHELDON KAPLAN

    & HERE I AM SUPER DUPER AS ALWAY’S STILL WITH YOU SHELLY KAPLAN

  3. Joshua Breakstone

    As usual….Love it all….But in this case, especially especially love the collage at the top….Thanks Mark W!

  4. Mark Weber

    My poem was in an ancient Norse meter known as fornyrdislag, or close. (The old northern styles were not strict.) Using the broken line caesura with a rough 8-syllable line, ie. 4 + 4. I had been reading Anglo-Saxon poems that morning in bed with fog engulfing Albuquerque (which is a rare climatic event here) when Janet came in and told me some background on Robert Frost’s famous poem about cat’s feet & fog that she read on the Internet, so I decided to jot down some lines in this singsong meter. So, that’s why there’s cats in the poem. Also, I was thinking of our dear Kaylamarjara who was ambushed by a coyote a few months ago.

    Note on Ed Field and his poem: C.P. Cavafy (1863-1933) was a Greek poet who lived in Alexandria, and like Ed’s poems, don’t let the casual ease of his lines fool you, these are highly crafted poems that breathe in real time. Highly recommended. I still need to look up what a dirndle might be. Ed says: “the women . . . in dirndles and sandals”

  5. Mark Weber

    ALSO, after Klaus got this page up, the way my poem was cast on the page, reminded me of my teenage wonder when looking at the gatefold poem-songs on Tim Buckley’s 1967 album GOODBYE AND HELLO (ELectra) mostly the title song-poem, which much later I learned that the words are not by Tim but by Larry Beckett ———-He has two poems running side-by-side and Tim sings the lines across, which actually works, even though these are separate poems ————– I wonder where Larry Beckett got that idea?

  6. Sheila Jordan

    Great as usual my dear Mark. Love and Joy and Jazz always….Sheila Jordan

  7. Fred Voss

    great photo & anecdote of Dexter Gordon, will never forget him in Round Midnight, that voice, that horn liked your opening poem Mark! I was at the 1978 SF Blues Fest., remember George Smith playing “Misty” on his chromatic harp and Mark Naftalin organ player for P. Butterfield I remember seeing that big black 2-story house on the corner across from GGPark where the Airplane had lived….

  8. Kirk Silsbee

    Such a great blend of what was and what is, as always, Mark.

    I was at that Bridges Auditorium show with the Basie band and Dexter. Basie was down to playing little Morse Code chords and figures by that time, and saying less in his announcements. At one point he leaned into the microphone and mysteriously intoned the title of next tune: “Tall Cotton.” Didn’t know what it meant but I couldn’t forget it. Years later I told my dad about some in-crowd function I’d been to, probably my first time at the Playboy Mansion, and he grinned and said, “You’re pissin’ in some pretty tall cotton these days.”

  9. Mark Weber

    Kirk, the other variant on that Tall Cotton trope, spoken by us Okies out east of L.A. was > You’re chopping around in some pretty tall cotton now!

  10. Carol Tristano

    Mark I dig your Norse meter poem. It took a few times looking at it to realize how it read – but what’s cool is that it works no matter how you read it. I always wanted to go to the edge of the rainbow.

  11. Mark Weber

    ——————————————playlist———————————————–
    Odawala Jazz Radio Show
    January 19, 2o17
    KUNM Albuquerque
    Host MARK WEBER

    1. Art Ensemble of Chicago “Illistrum” — Sept.1973 Lp FANFARE FOR WARRIORS (Atlantic)
    w/ poem recitation by Joseph Jarman “Odawala came through the people of the Sun / into
    the grey haze of the ghost worlds” — untitled myth poem page 46 of Jarman’s collection BLACK VOICE Volume I & II RETURN FROM EXILE (1977)
    2. Nels Cline + 22 musicians “Glad to Be Unhappy”(Rodgers & Hart) cd LOVERS released 2o16
    3. John Coltrane Quartet “Bass Blues” –23aug57 (Prestige) w/Art Taylor, Red Garland, Paul Chambers
    4. Evan Parker solo tenor “Chicago Solo 9” –18nov85 cd CHICAGO SOLO
    5. Sonny Rollins & Coleman Hawkins “Just Friends” — 18july63 w/Paul Bley(piano), Henry Grimes(bass), Roy McCurdy(drums) cd SONNY MEETS HAWK! (RCA)
    6. Henry Grimes poem “Moments” — 7feb2oo9 cd SPIRITS ALOFT (Porter Records)
    7. Henry Gimes & Rashied Ali duet “Arcopanorama” — cd SPIRITS ALOFT
    8. Gerry Mulligan — 5 saxophones + rhythm section “Four And One Moore” — 4dec57 w/Lee Konitz, Allen Eager, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Gerry Mulligan + Freddie Green(guitar0, Dave Bailey(drums), HENRY GRIMES(bass), Bill Holman(arranger) cdd THE GERRY MULLIGAN SONGBOOK (Pacific)
    9. Lee Konitz Quartet “Stephanie”(LK) –22oct57 w/ Billy Bauer(guitar), Dave Bailey(drums), HENRY GRIMES(bass) — cd TRANQUILITY (Verve/Gambit)
    10. Evan Parker solo soprano “Conic Section 2” –21june89 cd CONIC SECTIONS (ah um records)
    11.Maryanne de Prophetis Quartet “Two Folk Songs” cd TELL A STAR — 28aug2o15
    12. Perry Robinson title track from FUNK DUMPLING w/ Henry Grimes(bass), Perry(clarinet), Kenny Barron(piano), Paul Motian(drums) — 1962

  12. Nels Cline

    Mark! Man oh man…. just back from DC (march and benefit concert) and once again you have stirred up some feelings and dusted off some brain cells long thought to be dormant/dead…!
    Thanks for playing “Glad To Be Unhappy”! And now I must revisit that Gerry Mulligan “Songbook”. Did I know Henry Grimes was on that?? Dang!…. It’s been eons since Henry re-emerged and Alex, Vinny, Dan Clucas, young Nick Rosen and I (among others) played with him in Los Angeles. I’m not even sure he would remember us, but YEAH – Henry!
    I think Derek played one other time in Los Angeles after that CCP concert – probably at Miles Playhouse in Santa Monica. Strangely, I missed both concerts for reasons I cannot recall (unlikely it was because I had a gig the same night, but maybe I did), but both times he borrowed my old Music Man amp. I finally caught up with him in Barcelona and got to thank him for doing such intrepid, uncompromising work and allowing cowardly/less visionary people like me to find expression utilizing one sixteenth of his exhaustive vocabulary, as well as for putting out “Acoustic Guitar Trio”on Incus. He was gracious and humorous about it – a real gent. He died less than a year later. I am so glad I got a chance to express my gratitude. I always do this, even when advised against it. I don’t need these great artists to feel comfy or think I am cool. I just think it’s nice to be honest and let them know. I did the same with Julius and I am glad I did. And he was really cool about it…
    Might want to check the spelling of Paul Motian’s name on that Perry Robinson date! And WHAT?! I do not know this record! Crazy personnel! Must hear!
    Love to you and keep it up. It’s going to be a really weird “time period” (Braxton term)….

    And Lee performing with Margaret S! Whoa!!!

    XO

  13. Mark Weber

    ——————————playlist——————————-
    The Quien Sabe Jazz Radio Show
    January 26, 2o17
    Host MARK WEBER
    KUNM Albuquerque USA

    1. Jerry Coker septet (3 tenors & a bari + rhythm section) “Red Kelly’s Blues” — July 1955 cd MODERN MUSIC AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY (Fresh Sound)
    2. Lorraine & Herb Geller Quartet “Blues in the Night” –26apr55 w/ Red Mitchell(bass) & Mel Lewis(drums)
    3. Jimmy Rowles Septet “Let it Snow” arranged by Bill Holman with Bill also on baritone w/ Herb Geller(alto), Lee Katzman(trpt), Bob Enevoldsen(trombone), Monty Budwig(bass), Mel Lewis(drums), Jimmy Rowles(piano) –13dec58 (VSOP Records) cd WEATHER IN A JAZZ VANE
    4. Billy Taylor Trio + Jim Hall cd IMPROMPTU 8may62 “Free and Oozy” w/Bob Cranshaw(bass) & Walter Perkins(drums)
    5. Stan Kenton Orch CUBAN FIRE “La Quera Baila” — May 1956 (Capitol) featuring Willie Rodriguez(bongos), Carl Fontana(trombone), Lucky Thompson(tenor)
    6. Chris Connor w/ Vinnie Burke Quartet “Out of this World” — August 1954 w/ astounding clarinet by Ron Odrich, I got to look into this guy! Joe Cinderella(guitar), Don Burns(accordion), Art Mardigan(drums), Vinnie on bass, from her cd CHRIS (Bethlehem)
    7. Ronnie Ball & Ted Brown “Prez Sez” –21march1956 w/Willie Dennis(trombone), Kenny Clarke(drums), Ronnie Ball(piano), Ted Brown(tenor) cd ALL ABOUT RONNIE (Fresh Sound)
    8. Jack McDuff & Gene Ammons “Mellow Gravy” –23jan62 cd BROTHER JACK MEETS THE BOSS (Prestige)
    9. Al Grey & the Basie Wing “Al-Lamo” –Aug.1960 cd THE LAST OF THE BIG PLUNGERS (Fresh Sound)
    10. Zoot Sims & Al Cohn “Tangerine” –8sept52 cd THE BROTHERS (Prestige)
    11. Jerry Coker “Jack’s Acts” ibid.
    12. Walter Bishop Trio “Take one of my Pills” –1962 w/ J.T. Hogan(drums) & Butch Warren(bass)
    13. Herbie Mann Sextet “Let Me Tell You” –1957 w/Jack Nimitz(baritone), Urbie Green(trombone), Joe Puma(guitar), Oscar Pettiford(bass), Charlie Smith(drums), Herbie Mann(flute) cd SULTRY SERENADE (Riverside)
    14. Kenny Burrell & Coleman Hawkins “It’s Getting Dark” –14sept62 cd BLUESY BURRELL (Moodsville)
    15. Herb & Lorraine Geller Quartet “Come Rain or Come Shine” ibid.

    * Quien sabe = Who knows (Espanol)

  14. Mark Weber

    NOTE: that Paul Motian continued to spell his name “Motian” even as he asked us to switch the pronunciation to Motion (it used to be Mo-tee-an that we’d say) It seems the change came about in the late 80s

  15. vosslongbeach@aol.com

    love that collage, love that poem by Field… wow… bohemia… Fred and I love our almost-bohemia here in LB in the ghetto part of LB that’s fast becoming gentrified with high-rise condos… and I wear black everyday anyway…great reading, Mark… you “publish” a jazzy zerxy lit mag for us all..

  16. Maryanne de Prophetis

    Mark, again thanks for all you do for getting so much great music out there. And of course, love the poetry.
    Bring it on bring it on . .
    Love,
    Maryanne

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