<continuation of previous post> “Writing on music is much like dancing on architecture.” Frank Zappa, as cited by Bruno Anastasi Ha as Musical Reactant I have not systematically done the math, but it seems to me Harrell’s activity as accompanist, guest, featured guest, and partner on the (predominantly studio) recordings of others peaked at an …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, Chemistry and Recognition ii (horns)”
We move past the Phil Woods years. My Trip through Harrell-land resumes in its Quest for a “pretty” song (or two or three) for my Horn of Pretty playlist I noted at the end of my last Trip report that Real Life, the last album Tom Harrell recorded, as a guest, with the (augmented) Phil …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, Chemistry and Recognition i (Chesky)”
Contemporary – Harrell as Leader As we reported earlier, Tom Harrell’s contract with Contemporary Records straddled his departure from the Woods Quintet. After Contemporary/GPR Productions’ Sun Dance with George Robert, Harrell made three important albums with Contemporary as leader, all produced by Bill Goodwin. Two of these preceded the final Phil Woods Quintet album (Flash, …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, The Phil Woods Years – Transition”
Lately I have been writing a series of posts about jazz trumpeter Tom Harrell. In the metaphor of that series, I am taking a Trip through Harrell’s recordings (“Harrell-land”), and on this Trip I have occasionally taken some unplanned excursions. One particularly enjoyable one has been looking back at the recorded music of Charlie Haden’s …
Continue reading “Charlie Haden and Carla Bley’s Liberation Music”
(my Trip takes me to Tom Harrell’s substantial output aside from the Woods Quintet during the years 1984-1989, places where I might also expect to find candidate songs for inclusion in my “Horn of Pretty” playlist) Flash, the final Phil Woods Quintet album with Tom Harrell, was recorded in April 1989. The liner notes specify …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, The Phil Woods Years – Other Activity”
Welcome to my Philosophy blog! Let me start right off with some questions. Why am I interested in philosophy? What do I mean by philosophy? Why am I blogging about philosophy? Why am I blogging about philosophy? Πάντες ἄνθρωποι τοῦ εἰδέναι ὀρέγονται φύσει. Aristotle, kicking off the Metaphysics This is perhaps the easiest question to …
(a continuation of my Trip through Harrell-land in search of a song (or two or three) for inclusion in my “Horn of Pretty” playlist) Quartet + One = Quintet It was late 1983. The great alto saxophonist Phil Woods was wild about Harrell’s playing and desperately wanted to add Harrell to his decade-old Quartet. The …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, The Phil Woods Years – The Phil Woods Quintet”
I like making playlists. I will do this for just about any theme that pops into my head. Some months ago, for example, I was listening for the millionth time to Lee Morgan’s Ceora when it flashed before my mind that there are a number of compositions by jazz trumpeters that I would call “pretty.” …
Continue reading “Tom Harrell: A Quest. Part 1, The Early Years.”
ἀρχὴ παιδεύσεως ἡ τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐπίσκεψις principium eruditionis vocabulorum consideratio est Epictetus I certainly spent a lot of time on Comenius the preceding decade, extolling his usefulness for Latin and Greek vocabulary acquisition and making YouTube videos to that end. I mean a lot of time — my wife got to calling it Comania! Here …
Continue reading “Comenius – Still Useful (or, Comenius Comania)”
Ten years ago, on the brink of retirement, I began dusting off the Latin and Greek I had learned decades ago in college. In the process, I discovered there were two ways of going about learning ancient languages. For lack of better terms, we can call these the grammar-first approach and the natural-language approach. In …
Reflections As The Spirit Moves Me