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Mark Stryker

12 Apr, 10 tweets, 4 min read

@herbiehancock

1. Maestro @herbiehancock turns 81 today. Herbie is great in so many ways, but perhaps this doesn't get said enough: He's one of the best accompanists in jazz history. What are the greatest examples of Herbie "comping" on record? Please chime in with faves. I'll start with a few.

2. Stella by Starlight w/Miles, 1964. What an intro! 4 rubato bars of perfection. Telepathy w/Miles is off the charts, Herbie playing in the cracks. Harmony, touch, melodies & rhythms link Miles phrases in ballad or swing time. Same thing behind George.

3. Snuff w/JMac, 1964. 32-bar modal structure. B-flat minor for 8 bars, B-flat 7 for 8, chromatic bridge, then back to B flat 7. Herbie’s rhythmic hook up w/Roy Haynes--whew! He's alert to the blues behind Jackie but wanders harmonically behind Tolliver.

4. Feelin’ the Spirit w/Grant Green. 1962. One of the great piano vamps ever. Talk about the blues! Talk about defining a pocket! Check out how Herbie expands the figure during the guitar solo without abandoning the groove. Magic.

5. Teru w/Wayne. Just the way Herbie underlines the harmony during the head--at times mirroring the rhythms of the melody, other times offering counterpoint (those gentle triplets). The delicacy of his touch is otherworldly in its expressive beauty.

6. You're My Everything w/Freddie. Great example of how Herbie can comp aggressively without getting in the way. He steals the show in a good way on the melody & he's RIGHT ON everything Freddie does without crowding the trumpet. More magic.

7. Pinnochio w/Miles, 1967. The way Herbie plays behind the repeating melody statements is brilliant. It's like he's having two elevated conversations at once -- one a private dialogue with Wayne's beguiling melody & another with the whole ensemble.

@mcbridesworld

8. @mcbridesworld asks a great question perhaps to nudge me out of the '60s. Name your favorite post-1990 tracks of Herbie comping. I'd start w/ "Sweet Bird" from River: The Joni Letters, 2006/7 -- the sublime dialogue w/Wayne. They comp for each other.

9. Summertime, 1998 from Herbie's Gershwin's World, a record I found unfocused when it first came out but which has grown considerably on me. I love the feeling of floating behind Joni & Stevie -- but fie on the clumsy edit of the harmonica solo at 2:15.

Errata: The title of Wayne Shorter's composition in tweet No. 7 should have been spelled "Pinocchio." We regret the error.

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@Mark_Stryker

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Word has come that the peripatetic composer-pianist Freddie Redd has died at 92. He hit a peak in 1960, recording two masterpieces, "The Connection" (February) & six months later the equally remarkable but more obscure "Shades of Redd." (Both LPs are on Blue Note.)

2 "The Connection" is Redd's score for Jack Gelber's play of the same name that ran in NY at the experimental Living Theatre, 1959-60. Redd's 4qt w/Jackie McLean appeared as actors, performing at regular intervals. (Gelber specifies music in the style of Charlie Parker.)

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Mark Stryker

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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…

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Mark Stryker

@Mark_Stryker

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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:

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Mark Stryker

@Mark_Stryker

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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.

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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:

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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