More info:

• Icons Among Us: Jazz In The Present Tense home page (photos and video)
• IMDB page
• New York Times Review (4/19/2009)
• All About Jazz article

• Icons Among Us on Amazon.com

Enjoy!

What will replace it? So far, nothing, not even mog.com comes close. Maybe Apple will launch itunes.com soon, and retain most of the social networking features of lala.com. Only time will tell.

P.S. A bunch of music I embedded from lala.com just went dark too. Oh well. So much for living in the cloud…

56 seconds of bliss: dado moroni and tom harrell doing a soundcheck. i love listening to and watching musicians deal with the creative process. rehearsing a new tune, creating new vamp. eye contact. smiles. i even have a collection of mistakes. betty carter starting a song off too fast, having to say sorry, stop, start again (and i love that betty left that on the recording). a whole bunch of charlie parker outtakes. it’s all good!

listen to the first ten seconds. not only did betty start this song too fast. not only did she stop and restart the song at a slower tempo. not only did she leave the mistake on her recording. this is the title track of the album.

otoh, the song is all about “stumbling and droppin’ things!”

Huh?

I recently came across James Mahone’s Practice Portal blog. James writes about music, and frequently includes mp3s and, often, lead sheets and solo transcriptions. Three examples:

• Yusef Lateef’s Koko’s Tune
• Kenny Garrett’s Rendition of Trane’s Liberia

• Abbey Lincoln’s Bird Alone (including a transcription of Stan Getz’s great solo)

A lot of other stuff is there and he adds new posts all the time. I’m really looking forward to tackling Bird Alone; it’s a great ballad.

As always, of course, ymmv. Enjoy!

often I sing when I’m all alone,
and no one can see me but me.
i think and wonder what i am
and how i came to be.

i can swim the ocean,
and it’s deep and wide,
and in the house above me
abide.

maybe one day i’ll fly like an eagle,
fly like a bird and go and go.
soar like an eagle,
walk like a lion,
although it won’t be i know.

but i can swim the ocean,
and it’s deep and wide,
and in the house above me
abide.

i guess the time has come for me to go.
and look around for something, oh,
just moving in my house you know.
moving slowly is not really bad,
moving slowly you see
the wonders of the deep,
just waiting there for me.

and i can swim the ocean,
and it’s deep and wide,
and in the house above me
abide.

and in the house above me
abide…

of course, abbey sings the hell out of it too!

Missed the reunion tour because, really, how could the reunion be better than the original. OTOH, looking forward to listening to the recording. Downloading as we speak. I’ll read the review later…

Update: The music is very familiar and the musicianship is extremely high. It could only be better if they recorded awesome new songs or they really stretched out and improvised (the music is very “arranged”). Still I love it! It’s like seeing an old friend after a too long absence.

One nice moment. Al Dimeola is doing a solo and segues into Spain, where he’s joined by Chick. I was happy when I didn’t see Spain on the play list, but happier when I heard this spontaneous version.

btw, there’s also an hour-long village vanguard set by david sanchez available here.

enjoy!!

“Watching President Barack Obama work his way through the long, long inaugural day, I see a virtuoso. In each venue, at each moment, he’s broadcasting live across multiple streams of media. It’s live, well thought out, and in the moment. While the messages are carried by the major media networks, the voice speaks to the micro-community.

“...

“When a great player improvises he’s not making things up out of thin air. He knows the scales, the changes, the modes, the melody, the rhythm and the audience. And from those raw materials he makes something both familiar and new.”

It’s a good comparison as Obama always seems to be operating on several levels at once. The post is interspersed with YouTube jazz snippets. I especially liked this one of Anthony Braxton performing “Impressions”: