“Time: August, 1998, a brilliant summer day. Scene: An apartment in uptown Manhattan. Windows closed, blinds drawn. Outside and far below, sailboats drift along the Hudson River. Flowers blossom on precious patches of soil along the waterfront. On the streets, peddlers peddle cheap compact discs, watches and hot roasted nuts in little paper bags. Inside, …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, Fulfilling An Inner Need: The RCA Years, iv”
It started with big bands. Stan Kenton. Woody Herman. The West Coast Latin band Azteca. His first decade in New York City, the Horace Silver decade, included recordings with the Lee Konitz Nonet, the Gerry Mulligan Orchestra, the Bronx Latin band of Bobby Vince Paunetto, stints with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, the New …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, Fulfilling An Inner Need: The RCA Years, iii”
Thanks to his generosity of spirit, I was able to spend a day with Socrates and three of his friends during this year’s Panathenaic Festival in Athens (the festival’s procession, as you perhaps know, was recently sculpted on the frieze of the Parthenon). Socrates being Socrates, the day was spent with his friends in philosophical …
In 2013 I recorded Asahel C. Kendrick’s Greek Ollendorff and made these publicly available on Dropbox. In January 2021, when I was consolidating various things I have done on the web into this WordPress blog, I decided to delete my Ollendorff recordings, since I didn’t have any evidence they had gained any traction — see …
Leader: The Art of Rhythm They are facing us and inviting us to study them, but their gaze is inward, self-reflective, almost impenetrable. I am struck by the similarity in the 52-year-old Rembrandt’s self-portrait (part of the Frick Collection in New York) and the photographic portrait of 51-year-old Harrell on the front of The Art …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, Rhythm and Innovation: The RCA Years, ii”
At the end of 1995, Tom Harrell signed a contract with RCA Victor. Over the period 1996-2003 he recorded five studio albums for Victor plus a live appearance at the Village Vanguard. Intriguing studio titles like Labyrinth, The Art of Rhythm, and Time’s Mirror promised exciting new adventures on my Trip through Harrell-land in my …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, Rhythm and Innovation: The RCA Years, i”
<continuation of previous post and completion of ‘Chemistry and Recognition’> Hallelujah! The Polls In my Trip through Harrell-land so far, I have listened to and reported on much of Harrell’s recorded music from the earliest LPs in the late 60s to the LPs and CDs through the mid-90s. My most recent “Chemistry and Recognition” posts …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, Chemistry and Recognition vi (the polls, the songs)”
<continuation of previous post> “It’s so mysterious.” “It reads like a composition in and of itself.” Ha + Vo Given the stylistic breadth and emotional depth of his trumpet playing, it comes as no surprise that Tom Harrell was in great demand by vocalists. I have only recently perused KG systematically for his albums with …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, Chemistry and Recognition v (voice, ensemble)”
<continuation of previous post> Plucked, picked, beaten, struck Ha + B Bassist Bill Crow in his book Jazz Anecdotes passes this one along: Deep in the African jungle, a safari was camped for the night. In the darkness, distant drums began a relentless throbbing that continued until dawn. The safari members were disturbed, but the …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell, a Quest. Part 1, Chemistry and Recognition iv (bass, drums, vibes)”
<continuation of previous post> “poetically and with intensity” Ha as Musical Reactant, cont’d Chemistry I am using — and granted, beating to death — a chemistry metaphor as a convenient and I think appropriate way to report on Tom Harrell’s musical activities in his post-Phil-Woods period (~1990-1995). A musical mixture, like a chemical mixture, is …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, Chemistry and Recognition iii (guitar, piano)”
Reflections As The Spirit Moves Me