Milt Jackson or MJQ?

While listening to this tune, I realized the reason why I didn't like MJQ at the end. The tempo of this tune is rare in their collection. And they do 8 verse here. That is rare as well. Is it? I am not sure now. It's been a while since I listen to them.

The last was a session of Milt Jackson in San Fransisco, somewhere around mid 80es. It could have been in Sausalito. Yes, he is much vivid with his own group. And if you ever listened to John Lewis playing alone, he is thrilling in his own way and quite different from the thrill the MJQ had.

Those thing concludes that MJQ had been the group harmony. And in my opinion, it is not the way jazz should be. Or is it?

Anyway, the reason why I have bored with MJQ could have been that I was listening to them too much. That was really the day in and day out. I dosed off while listening to them and the first thing in the morning was to listen to their recording. Yeah, good days, good days, that was. . . . .

Well, Milt is hell'f vivid with this one.

C jam blues, played with four hands in Yokohama

As I repeatedly confess, I cannot get away from 1960es jazz scene. Because it links to my best years with excitement and thrill. One element that constitute the memory is Red Garland trio. Especially C Jam blues.

It was my greatest regret that I did not have the chance to listen to him live during my stay in NY, 1967-1972. I have experienced Bill Evans, Tomy Flanagan, Art Tatum, Wynton Kelly, Harbie Hancock and etc. Everybody except Evans played with so many sound and proved that they do have quite flexible fingers. Yeah, right Monk was the another one who sounded just like listening to LP.

Here, I have to get rid of my memory of Garland. Four hands play C jam Blues. The place was in Yokohama, my hometown.

There were Mr. Yoshida, who was the owner of a coffee shop. He was quite famous as the early explorer of jazz in Japan and love play with Pachinko. The name of the coffee shop was "Chigusa". As hs passed away, the shop had been demolished and give the space to one of those characterless condo in 2002? I am not sure on the date though, it's been a while since the shop is gone.

OK, here's what Red Garland did from his album "Groovy"

hey, Yokohama isn't bad, don't you think?

Movie with jazz, an old story

I haven't touched anything other than the piano jazz itself. But on the second thought that there were so many things attached to the jazz music, right? Dancing is one, nice dinner of course, and it should go along nicely with your love whisper.

There are lots of great movies that are featured in the movie. Or the jazzy version of movie themes that remind me of those beautiful days in my life. The first one was Miles Davis playing the BGM for Ascenseur pour L'echafaud. Jeanne Moreau walking around the night street. The movie was of 1957. Most of you weren't born, huh!

We, group members of Modern Jazz Lovers were fascinated by beautiful Ms Morrow and the rumor that Miles improvised the music at the scene. Yes, those were the most beautiful days for me, the 1960es.



Since I have raised the name of Miles, tell me your opinion. Who was the best match pianist for him?
Well, since I love his recording of "So what", Red Garland is my choice. Miles had changed his style so much. He should have selected the best available and the best fit for him whenever.

Two "Softly as in a morning Sunrise" from the past

Softly as in a morning sunrise has been my favorite. See, the face of John? It's rare to see his face with this kind of smile. When could this video be? They all are pretty young and I've never heard this kind of clear recording before. My experiences with MJQ is limited to the LP. No, I went the very first concert in Tokyo. That was, . . . well I cannot be sure though, it could be somewhere around 1960. Boy! that was the experience.

Well, tell you the truth, I don't like John's backing Mr. Jackson with too much high notes.

I realized first time that the improvisation of Milt is kind old fashioned. This recording cannot be any later than 1970, right?


My favorite softly is of Wynton Kelly. This is in Kelly blue, is it? This is my favorite "Softly".


See? that beautiful block chords Kelly does. That 's Wynton Kelly. and I like the way he use scales in his improvisation so naturally. And listen, so beautifully sing this song with his piano! I agree, drumming is a bit too old. But Kelly does as he should, my goodness.

Stardust, Paul Desmond plays clarinet, beautiful

I've been searching U-tube for some beautiful music. Yes, I wanted to listen to beautiful music because of the incident written below. And found this chorus. There are lots of sentiments for me in this song, Stardust. I started out to learn clarinet.

I was in love with Benny Goodman. It was mid 50es, as I started to go to junior high. This is one hell of the difficult tune to improvise and cannot be played without the verse. That makes harder to improvise. The initial 16 bars are so closely attached to the melody and it make you feel bad to neglect them. The reason may be that the melody line has been constructed so tightly and that makes us normal person difficult to improvise.



That makes me wonder if there's any piano player who dare to challenge its improvisation. So I've wondered around with the keyword "Stardust". La,la, la....
I've found a few.

Dave Brubeck duet it with Paul. The first passage of verse is intriguing. I see his face quite young. There is no discography though, I guess it could be before 1960. The sound of Desmond is so mellow but young, don't you think? Yeah, he does funny vibration around 4:50. Right, he is playing clarinet. This is the first I ever heard him with clarinet.



So, I needed something beautiful:
I stumbled over a road block and hit my right shoulder and knee plus got my left elbow skinned. Oh, I skinned a bit under the right eye as well. Right, to be exact I falled to the ground with my bicycle. It should have passed over 20 years since I tumbled over the ground last time. I feel like losing strength. I wonder if I have to accept that I am an old man. Those things made me sad.

This is the beautiful recording of Benny Goodman playing Stardust

Two powerful singers from 70es

Every once in a while, I feel the urge that I should let you know how the Japanese popular songs are. To do that, I sure will try to compare some technicality of it with jazz. If I say the popular, don't forget that I'm an old man. The Jazz is still one of the popular songs for me. So, the popular song can't be one of those anime songs that have been around with those cyber-creatures nonsenses.

During 1970es, well, allow me to repeat that I was young and full of hope to take over the corporation that my father established, or the blood and sweat and tears of his creation. There were, or should I say, are two ladies in this world who was singing with such powerful breathing and beautiful lyrics. Yes I can broaden the limits of each definition so that the area for jazz has been widened to include Ms. Streisand.

One was Ms. Barbara Streisand, singing "Where we were" and Ms. Sayuri Ishikawa, singing "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu-geshiki", meaning "The impression of Tsugaru Channel in Winter". The song is classified as one of the best Enka, Enka is the designation to this kind of music.

Tsugaru Channel in Winter


It may require a little explanation what this means. Tsugaru Channel is the northern most Channel running in between the Honshu Island and the Hokkaido Island. The point is that the Channel is used as the symbol of depressing loneliness in the dark cold winter.

The lyric may be in contrast each other. But both are quite sentimental. Barbara tells you her memory with someone, Sayuri tells her own depressing thinking and what she sees in her mind while traveling back to her homeland. It is nice to listen to good music and nice singers sing beautiful songs regardless of its category. That is the beauty of the art, right?

I cry over those Japanese Enkas, for the songs are too fit to my sentiment. I just cannot stop tearing. I don't know what it is. It may be the regret that I have over my past, or mere sentiment to the people I lost contact with, some may have been dead now...

Let me hear what you say on this Japaense song that have been marketed specifically in Japan

Maid dance with Take Five

We were at the College Jazz Band Contest. It was 1962 or 63, It's 45 years ago. So anyone under 45 hadn't existed at that time. Now you know how old I am. We played "So what" and relaxed as being the audience when one of the other contestants started to play "Take Five".



We knew pretty well that the improvisation of it was quite tough. Yes, the rhythm is 5/4. You count five for a bar, which is tough. If you try to keep beat you'll lose the melody line of your improvisation. It may be OK for 5-6 bars but eventually you'll give in to the four beat.

They started out all right. There was this alt sax player whose sound was pretty close to that of Paul Desmond. He stayed with 5/4 for the first chorus. A few bars later he started to play four beat. Rhythm section failed to keep time within next few bars. We all laughed out loud.

I've found this video interesting. First of all that is the amine. secondly girls dancing wear maid uniform. How does that connect to each other? Well, you must be one of the anime fun or you don't know the maid cafe in Tokyo.

It has started 4-5 years and been fad since then. Those cafes are the spot you must visit or you won't be qualified as one of the anime fun. They say "Welcome home, Master" as you walk into the cafe. Hey, you like that!

No, they don't serve alcohol, No, they don't sit next to you. They may allow to take picture with you. They may entertain you with some performance of their own.

In essence you can enjoy seeing and talking with them but no sexual matter involved.

I put up this video for its strange combination of 21st century and 1960es or 1950es for that matter. Enjoy! Let me know if you like it.

Jim Hall and two pianists, Evans and Petruciani

I haven't known this guy named Petruciani. He plays pretty nice with Jim Hall at this video. And I found that there is amazing resembalance with the recording of Undercurrent that was done with Bill Evans and Jim.

Petruciani + Jim Hall : beautiful love.

I am pretty sure that the Undercurrent was recorded much earlier than this video, isn't it? Yeah, right. That was 1962. I was 19. Arrogant in every aspect of my life. Were you not at the age?

I hear Evans touch of backing. With nice combination of block coding at lower octave. Beside, voicing itself sounds pretty close to that of Bill.

Would Petruciani is that tactful guy? I don't know 'cause this is the first time ever listen to his playing. It may be this: If Jim has to be comfortable with backing, the accompanist must be like Bill, is it? Jim is quite nice at both accompaniments.

Jim sure plays better with Valentine. But then it's a recording session. They both could have great time knowing each other. . .

By the way, the recording with this video is much better than the LP I bought.

Jazz piano plyaers of Japanese origin

I know there are lots of Japanese jazz players active in US jazz scene. Mr. Ozone, is the one and these are the most frequently played pieces at You tube.

We are all alone. Simple chord progression, very basic. It sounds nice. Listening to his balad reminds of a discussion we had in college. That was around 1960, Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, etc & etc. The best year for the so called Modern Jazz.

This is his trio version.

We were arguing whom to follow, Bill Evans or Oscar Peterson.

The LP disks were expensive at the time. The exchange rate was JPY360 to US$1. It is 1/3 now. We had to deversify the budget.

Years passed. Most of them are gone. But here are those new breeds. I am not crilicizing but the Japanese players sound too clean. There's no earthy nor gloomy feeling in there. It makes the whole sound something unrealistic. Well, for me, at least.

This is his solo of same tune.


I feel lucky because I can listen to any of those players on internet. Ozone or whoever it is.

Do you listen Radio?

I do a lot. Basically, I do not want any excessive noise around. I gave my wife to listen her favorite TV with earphone. Right, we are living rabbit burn. We used to live nice house in suburb. As we get older, it became pretty hard to go out for shopping. So we moved into a apartment house that has 25 floors.

That's right. It was 2 month ago we were hit by the heaviest earthquake in my life. The building did swing all right. We have a light hanging down from ceiling. It swung, men, it did swing and we surely got terrified.

We picked up pet cat, 16 years old by the way, and run down from 13th floor. It took much more time than we had expected. We got old. I was forced to realize that.

That was two months ago. Time flies. Well other than that, we live in peace and calm. Now I need some kind of sound every once in a while. I pick up earphone, not the headphone by the way. And listen to the Jazz.

I prefer vocal jazz sometime, piano jazz sometime, but never the jazz music of pre-1950es. And I was listening Tommy Flanagan. It's been a while. But his way of playing piano sounds so smooth. But if you wish to try his way, It's tough.

He sings. The way he sings cannot be imitated. It is completely different thing from so called swing. He sings. And I mean it. Check the video attached, you'll know what I mean.