Tweet

Mark Stryker

11 Feb, 19 tweets, 6 min read

Devastated by Chick Corea’s passing. R.I.P. to a master. Full stop. I wrote a piece in ‘99 about the bond between Chick & Herbie Hancock, interviewing each separately talking about the other. I’d do some things differently today, but the core stands. freep.com/story/entertai…

I interviewed Chick many times. He was unfailingly warm & gracious. He was all about connecting — with musicians & audiences. He seemed to be EXACTLY the same person on & off stage. The last time we spoke in 2018, the topic was Detroiters past & present. google.com/amp/s/amp.free…

Chick’s debut as a leader in Detroit was this weekend stand at the Strata Concert Gallery in 1971. Chick flipped when I showed him this. He definitely remembered the gig and said this trio was ground zero for what morphed into Return to Forever.

Chick Corea at 18 or 19 From left to right: Pete Yellin, Chick, Bill Fitch, Noel Carter and Milford Graves. 1960 Jamaica, NY.

Chick in 1976 on the Downbeat Awards Show with Thad Jones, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Gary Burton, Sonny Fortune, Bill Watrous, Stanley Clarke. Chick had so much love and respect for Thad that he named his son Thaddeus after him.

Amazing night: Chick Corea, solo, Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe, metro Detroit, 4/11/18. 66 seats. Smallest venue he had played in 40 yrs? Set list: Someone to Watch Over Me/Waltz for Debbie/Pastime Paradise/Desafinado/Trinkle Tinkle/Blue Monk/The Yellow Nimbus/Spain

I'm not certain I would call the piano fill Chick plays behind the horns between 1:34 and 1:38 my favorite four seconds of music ever, but it's on the shortlist.

From 11/63, one of Chick's first recording sessions, still assimilating his influences. Lots of bebop & laying behind the beat (mature Chick is way more on top). He gets hung up a bit heading into the bridge, maybe the last time Chick flubbed on a record.

Coda: That's a helluva a solo by Thad Jones -- a lot expressive dissonance and a truly wild sequence in the bridge!

Chick Corea & Roy Haynes together created an iconic sound in jazz. Chick's pinging attack fit perfectly w/Roy's bouncing cymbal beat. It's like both players are on the same trampoline having a constant, joyful conversation of loose rhythm & accent.

For an improviser who takes so many chances, who REALLY goes for it, Chick NEVER seems to make a mistake. His fingers never get tied up, he never has to restart or abandon an idea. The clarity of his thought, intent & execution is otherworldly.

Even in an era of great leader debuts, Chick's "Tones for Jones Bones" (1966) stands out. Couple that with his transcendent sophomore LP, "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs" (1968), and you have maybe the greatest 1-2 punch of first recordings in the post-war canon. Any comparables?

A deep cut to close out tonight. "Marjoun" from drummer Pete (La Roca) Sims' "Turkish Women at the Bath" (1967). Burning! Obviously a ton of McCoy Tyner in Chick's playing. It was just 11 months ago that we said goodbye to McCoy . Now Chick. Heavy sigh ...

@downbeat

Here's an interesting historical document: The @downbeat review of the formal debut of Return to Forever @vanguardjazz in Nov. 1971. The review appear in the 2/3/72 issue and the writer is Richard Seidel, who later became a jazz record producer.

Coda: The accompanying review of Cecil Taylor in Detroit written by Herb Boyd is tantalizing indeed. Alas I was hundreds of miles away in Bloomington, Ind., and also only 9 years old.

The bootleg tapes of Chick w/ Sarah Vaughan in Vegas, '68 are unbelievable. Chick throws all this abstract harmony at Sarah & she eats it up. Swings his ass off & even quotes Isotope on a blues. He's always making the gig -- but still playing w/his personality. NOTHING is by rote

A copy of these tapes used to be on YouTube but they've disappeared. I've never heard a quality dub. Does one exist? I wish these could see a commercial release. Truly revelatory. Herbie Mickman, b; Steve Schaeffe, d. When Chick joined MIles, a young Jan Hammer joined Sarah.

I assume this is in Chick’s hand.

Errata: Should be drummer Steve SCHAEFFER a couple tweets back.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @Mark_Stryker

Mark Stryker

@Mark_Stryker

22 Dec 20

1 A Twitter discussion yesterday led me to pull 5/29/69 issue of Downbeat off my shelf. A random issue, 51 yrs ago, & you cannot believe the picture it paints of the scene. Cover interviews w/Sonny Rollins (Ira Gitler), Dexter Gordon (Gitler) & Louis Jordan (Leonard Feather)

2 Here's the Dexter interview:

3 Here's the first page of the interview with Sonny.

Read 16 tweets

Mark Stryker

@Mark_Stryker

19 Dec 20

1 I've spent an insane amount of time digging deep into the Sinatra discography, but after all these years, I keep discovering gems that had somehow eluded me. Here's a late-period ballad from 1974 worth savoring.

2 Sinatra was inconsistent in this period, still getting his voice back together after his 1971 retirement. Here, however, he's in command of his instrument.

3 The phrases aren't as long as when he first recorded this beautiful song (at a brighter tempo) 32 years earlier with Tommy Dorsey. But the storytelling is as rich as a novel, and the feeling of loss is almost overwhelming.

Read 8 tweets

Mark Stryker

@Mark_Stryker

16 Dec 20

@LukeEpplin

In honor of Beethoven's 250th birthday & with a nod to Peanuts historian & Charles Schulz expert @LukeEpplin, here are some relevant strips starring, of course, Schroeder. Beethoven's birthday was an idée fixe in the strip. Let's start with my favorite:

An early example -- maybe the first? -- from 1953 (I think).

This particular year it fell on a Sunday.

Read 5 tweets

Mark Stryker

@Mark_Stryker

15 Dec 20

1 The Sage and Soul of Detroit

Happy 91st birthday to Barry Harris, born 12/15/29 in Detroit. May this heroic pianist & professor of bebop go forever. Here’s an annotated playlist of 20 tracks & videos. It's in chronological order, except for a special closer.

2 “Hopper Topper,” 1950. Barry’s debut record. “Cherokee” changes with no theme. Striking confidence for a 20-year-old. The even attack, precise beat & jabbing left hand remind me of Horace Silver. The young Frank Foster comes directly out of Sonny Stitt.

3 “All The Things You Are" (1958). Will Austin/Frank Gant. Barry’s first LP as a leader opens with a ballad at a walking tempo. Improvised curtains of lovely double-time melody. All-Detroit trio, produced for Argo in Chicago by Detroiter Dave Usher

Read 23 tweets

Mark Stryker

@Mark_Stryker

17 Sep 20

1 Stanley Crouch, 1979:

"Coltrane had a black following while most of the avant-garde didn’t because Elvin Jones had orchestrated the triplet blues beat into a sophisticated style that pivoted on the boody-butt sway of black dance.

2 "In tandem, Coltrane and Jones created a saxophone and drum team that reached way back to the saxophone of the sanctified church shouting over the clicking of those sisters’ heels on the floor and the jingling, slapping pulsation of tambourines.

3 "The sound was lifted even higher by the antiphonal chants of the piano and bass played by McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison, whose percussive phrasing helped extend Jones’s drumming into tonal areas.

Read 14 tweets

Mark Stryker

@Mark_Stryker

7 Sep 20

@sonnyrollins

1. Thread

Happy 90th birthday to the greatest of them all -- @sonnyrollins. I have no bigger hero in or out of jazz. In his honor here's a playlist of 25 brilliant live performances that span nearly 50 years, from 1957-2006.

2. Caveat: Some of my absolute favorite performances --"Remember" from Newport in '63; an epic 48-minute version of "Four" & 32-minute "Three Little Words" captured in Copenhagen in '68 -- are not on YouTube. But what's here is choice. Like Bird, the best Sonny is live Sonny .

3 “Bye, Bye Blackbird” w/Miles Davis 5qt, Café Bohemia, NY, 7/27/57. Fun to hear Miles in this era with Sonny rather than Trane. Sonny sounds a bit sassy here, and he's seriously swinging. Red, PC. Art Taylor. (Note: Tape is running 1/2 step fast.)