In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed actor Brian Baumgartner for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Brian is best known for playing Kevin Malone on the trompe-l'œil sitcom The Office. Brian talked about a terrible mishap after foot surgery when he was young and how having to use a walker and a cane in middle school awakened his imagination and sensitivity. If you love the office, check out Brian's oral history of the show here. [Photo above of Brian Baumgartner courtesy of Wikipedia]
Here's 11 1/2 minutes of Brian playing Kevin in The Office...
Rock their worlds. You still have time to order my new book, Rock Concert, as a gift for the holidays. And while you're at it, throw in a few live albums on vinyl. There's no better gift than music—except a book on music. Go here. Want it signed? Just two left. Go here.
Catch me on the air today, Saturday, with Chris "King" Cowles (above), host of Greasy Tracks, on WRTC-FM in Hartford, Ct. Chris will be interviewing me as he hosts a three-hour show on great rock concert recordings. Tune in from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. (ET) by clicking the "listen live" button after going here.
SiriusXM. Last week, I joined co-hosts Nik and Lori on SiriusXM's Feedback to talk about Mickey Guyton's Indigo, a song off her new album Remember Her Name. I also talked about the history of Black country and the many marvelous artists who have recorded hit songs. Listen for free here...
Barry Harris. Following my post honoring the late bebop pianist Barry Harris, I heard from two great musicians, bassist Chuck Israels and pianist Michael Weiss [image above of Barry Harris courtesy of YouTube]:
Here's Chuck Israels...
Dear Marc, musicians and lovers of music have lost a dear, generous friend with the passing of Barry Harris. I don’t know anyone else who's given so much on such a personal level to so many. Jazz schools are restricted by their structure to teaching mostly the mechanics of music—certainly essential components to achieving mastery. Those of us who had the opportunity to learn the music in apprenticeship settings, when jazz schools were unavailable, often learned more efficiently and in better proportion—a better hierarchy of what’s important, despite (or perhaps because of) the absence of formal jazz education.
In his classes, Barry gave time and attention to teaching vocabulary and efficiency while exhibiting almost endless patience and personal commitment unavailable in most school situations. For years he's been the antidote to the misaligned values of the jazz school system—a misalignment that's not necessarily intended, but that's a built in result of the way schools are organized. We need to remember him for what he did, and for what he valued. Time spent with Barry was a lesson in music, inclusiveness, acceptance and understanding.
Here's Michael Weiss...
Today, with sadness we mourn the loss of a great man. With joy we celebrate the life of a great man. I met Barry Harris in 1979, receiving a piano lesson while Barry was in Indianapolis for a concert. After I moved to New York in 1982, we established a close musical and personal
relationship. Over the years he would call me or I would call him with a musical challenge, an investigation, or a conundrum—he at his piano and me at mine. In the 1980s I performed several times at Barry's Jazz Cultural Theatre as a member of the Junior Cook/Bill Hardman Quintet.
We collaborated on numerous projects, including concerts in tribute to Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and an extensive co-interview recorded and transcribed for the liner notes to the Complete Bud Powell on Verve. In 2012 Barry commissioned me to transcribe his complete compositional
output. Despite a 30-year difference in age, there was a bond, a kinship, a sharing of the same musical aesthetic and values. Barry was my musical soulmate.
As a pianist Barry orchestrated melodies and constructed his improvisations in an easy-going, unhurried, free-flowing narrative—a lyricism delivered with a laissez-faire attitude, never resorting to virtuosity
for its own sake, yet complex or as simple as needed. But his rhythm was profound. He grabbed the beat in his phrasing that tugged at your very soul. He was a brilliant and effective musical orator.
As an educator, Barry’s own codification of the bebop language stands alone, apart from most of the trite attempts at jazz theory in the academic world, because it goes to the heart of what makes a
melody melodic. He married the horizontal and the vertical in a unified whole of tonality: melodies existing inside chords and chords existing inside melodies. As the best practitioner of his theoretical concepts, Barry mined extraordinary beauty in exploring all the harmonic and melodic possibilities he could derive. To the very end he remained curious, always looking for
new answers and looking for new questions.
As a person, he gave tirelessly of himself as a teacher and as a human being, always wanting to help others. For this he was revered and loved throughout the world. Anybody who has known Barry well over the years, probably feels like they had a special and unique relationship with him, and I'm no exception. But he was just Barry.
Barry Harris radio. Today, Saturday, WKCR-FM in New York will present a special memorial broadcast from noon until midnight (ET), spinning records and honoring Barry Harris's legacy. You can listen from anywhere in the world by going here.
Bobby Darin. I came across this audio last week. Had to share with you. Here's Bobby Darin singing I Wanna Be Around. This was Darin's sweet-spot tempo, a walking swinger. So much of is catalog is junk. It's a shame they didn't record everything at this sassy-strut pace...
Steely Dan radio. Following my post on Steely Dan's Black Friday, I heard from Kim Paris of the FM Radio Archive:
Hi Marc, thanks for your recent column on Steely Dan's Black Friday, one of my favorites. Your readers may enjoy this recording from Steely Dan's "Two Against Nature" tour in 2000, broadcast on the SFX Radio network. I believe this may be the first Steely Dan live broadcast since the 1970s. It includes a great version of "Black Friday." Go here.
Quiet Now. As noted in my post on Quiet Now, the song is a jazz standard written by jazz pianist Denny Zeitlin while he was in college in the early 1960s. Here's the Bill Kirchner Nonet playing the song on Bill's Lifeline album in 2001. Bill orchestrated the music directly from Denny’s published piano voicings. Go here...
Sal Mosca. Bassist Don Messina alerted me last week that Rutgers’ Institute of Jazz Studies completed its website of the Sal Mosca Archives. I last posted on the late pianist here. To view the archives, go here.
And finally, here's the late, great Barry Harris in performance in 2014, courtesy of the Jazz Video Guy...