tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5241063190450464888.post5186999469624019279..comments2024-01-06T18:34:30.188-08:00Comments on I Witness: Part 3B: Perk Up!IWitnessEdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18312808828448124509noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5241063190450464888.post-12441652194723844612011-07-13T14:58:36.292-07:002011-07-13T14:58:36.292-07:00Thanks for schooling us on a forgotten Perkins/Ken...Thanks for schooling us on a forgotten Perkins/Kenton venture (rather than B-rating me more for that misperceived Brownian motion). Perks me up again.IWitnessEdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312808828448124509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5241063190450464888.post-6459771886207491962011-07-13T02:11:31.752-07:002011-07-13T02:11:31.752-07:00Since nobody else is commenting, please let me act...Since nobody else is commenting, please let me actually say something about Bill Perkins. You note his many recordings with mid-'50s Kenton bands, among which I've always liked <i>Rendezvous with Kenton</i>. <a href="http://allmusic.com/album/rendezvous-with-kenton-r159822" rel="nofollow">Scott Yanow at AllMusic.com</a> calls it "one of the less essential Stan Kenton recordings. The 18-piece orchestra is featured playing Joe Coccia's dance arrangements of melodic standards. … No real excitement occurs. The music is pleasant but not up to the fiery level one would expect of the Stan Kenton Orchestra."<br /><br />It's a reviewer's cliché that, with big bands such as Kenton's, there was an "essential" jazz book and a "throwaway" dance book, and never the twain met in any memorable recordings. Scott Yanow is so captive to this cliché that he misses the point of <i>Rendezvous with Kenton</i>, which frequently showcases "the early romanticism" that you correctly ascribe to Bill Perkins.<br /><br />It was recorded in Oct. 1957 on location in Balboa, Calif., at the closed Rendezvous Ballroom, whose unpopulated cavernous acoustics were ideal for Kenton's trademark lush, 5-trombone choir and distinctive, wide-open sax section voicings. Sometimes we forget that big bands grew three to five each of trumpets, trombones and saxes simply in order to be heard in those vast ballrooms that dotted the American landscape in the days before sophisticated large-scale sound systems and individually amplified instruments.<br /><br />Anyhow, neither Kenton nor any of the other perennial big band leaders could've long survived delivering nothing but fiery excitement. Even as late as 1957, couples were still dancing to well packaged melodic standards. And, I might add, falling in love to and with that music.<br /><br />Enter Bill Perkins with his enchanting, still Lestorian (Young-ian?) tone and warmly expressive ideas. A particular standout is Joe Coccia's original "Two Shades of Autumn," which boasts a gorgeous solo by Perkins and later a haunting improvised duet between Bill and altoist Lennie Niehaus played in pianoless quartet fashion. And, just to give the lie to Scott Yanow, the piece concludes with a typically Kentonesque flourish of fiery excitement from the trumpets.<br /><br />Perhaps due to Scott Yanow dismissing it as "one of the less essential Stan Kenton recordings," <i>Rendezvous with Kenton</i> has never been issued on CD. However, it is available as an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rendezvous-With-Kenton/dp/B004CCXP2M/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_3" rel="nofollow">Amazon MP3 Download</a>. Audio quality is sometimes choppy, but listeners who can't get enough of Bill Perkins' "early romanticism" will find this set a steal at $6.99.Alan Kurtzhttp://www.amazon.com/Stereotypes-Black-Music-African-American-Compromise/dp/1453853669/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291054567&sr=1-1noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5241063190450464888.post-732381192211787992011-07-12T21:10:43.868-07:002011-07-12T21:10:43.868-07:00Right. Ready when you are, C.B.Right. Ready when you are, C.B.IWitnessEdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312808828448124509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5241063190450464888.post-46587528917290746522011-07-12T20:24:33.213-07:002011-07-12T20:24:33.213-07:00Ed, when it comes to judging artistic genius, you ...Ed, when it comes to judging artistic genius, you have impossible standards. "Could he really have never made a single mistake nor had an off night in his improvising?" By that gauge, all jazz geniuses have been intermittent. Leading the pack would be Charlie Parker. Consider, e.g., "Lover Man" and "The Gypsy" from his infamous July 29, 1946 Dial recording session in Hollywood.<br /><br />You mention Rollins, but he too can be uneven. Longtime followers concede that, over the course of his career, Sonny has had more than a few nights on the bandstand where he was distracted and uninspired.<br /><br />"Never had to vamp a bit or fall back on a comfortable musical phrase he recalled from having used it before?" That could apply to Louis Armstrong or Art Tatum as well as to Clifford Brown.<br /><br />Lighten up, Ed. I'm not trying to start another <i>controversy</i>, since I know how much I Witness abhors those. But "intermittent" applied to the genius of Clifford Brown is just plain miserly.<br /><br />And the unintended consequence is that it leaves us talking about a slighted Brownie, not about the rightly praised Bill Perkins. You would've done better to leave Clifford out of it.Alan Kurtzhttp://www.amazon.com/Stereotypes-Black-Music-African-American-Compromise/dp/1453853669/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291054567&sr=1-1noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5241063190450464888.post-57164778008457017402011-07-12T17:25:49.676-07:002011-07-12T17:25:49.676-07:00We-ell, I must quibble a small bit (and don't ...We-ell, I must quibble a small bit (and don't I always?). Inadequate wording on my part left readers believing I referred to restrained playing when what I meant was his restraint in LIVING--i.e., avoiding drugs, alcohol, screwing around, etc. As for the adjective "intermittent," I admit to not having studied or memorized Brownie's solos, but I am dubious that even he, close to perfect, was able to play at that genius level with every note, every phrase, every solo, every instantaneous intersection with Land or Rollins or Powell. Could he really have never made a single mistake nor had an off night in his improvising? never had to vamp a bit or fall back on a comfortable musical phrase he recalled from having used it before?IWitnessEdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312808828448124509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5241063190450464888.post-70684231837064929042011-07-12T15:36:34.684-07:002011-07-12T15:36:34.684-07:00Great article, Ed. It was worth the long wait. As ...Great article, Ed. It was worth the long wait. As for that afterthought "Brownie" Award, you refer to "the inherent skills, intermittent genius, quiet wise restraint, and general nice-guyness of the award's namesake, Clifford Brown."<br /><br />No one can dispute either the inherent skills or general nice-guyness of Clifford Brown. But "intermittent genius" and "quiet wise restraint" are inapt descriptions. There was nothing intermittent about Clifford Brown's genius, nor was his playing "restrained" à la the two best-known trumpeters of his generation: Miles Davis and Chet Baker. Except for his album with strings, Clifford was more Louis than Bix, more Fats Navarro than Shorty Rogers.<br /><br />And of course the (unintended?) irony is that, given the criterion of "a lengthy career in music," Clifford Brown himself would be ineligible for the award you've named in his honor.Alan Kurtzhttp://www.amazon.com/Stereotypes-Black-Music-African-American-Compromise/dp/1453853669/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291054567&sr=1-1noreply@blogger.com