After writing and sharing with family and friends one of the most lasting and odd results of my brain surgery—the loss of the compulsive list-making habit I've had since I was child—I finally, today, while driving in my car and listening to the local jazz station (and in the process of reading every night a few pages of the first just-prose book I've been able to read since the op, the new bio of Thelonious Monk) I started making an alphabet list in my head of piano players I dig and have always dug (mostly jazz, because that's what I played and know the best).
I started with Monk and immediately came up with several more names, unlike recent attempts to make lists where I could only think of the broadest categories (like favorite "creators" of any kind of art) and then gave up after one or two names came to mind.
I ended up having to work on this a bit, unlike pre-op, having to jar my memory in a few instances, etc. but it was still kind of fun to make a list again. Though I still have no compulsion or even big inclination to do any more of them as I used to all the time.
ALLISON, MOSE, ALBERT AMMONS
BASIE, COUNT, DAVE BRUBECK, CARLA BLEY
CHARLAP, BILL, NAT KING COLE, RAY CHARLES, SONNY CLARK, FLOYD CRAMER
DAMERON, TADD
EVANS, BILL, DUKE ELLINGTON
FLANAGAN, TOMMY
GARNER, ERROL, RED GARLAND, VINCE GAURALDI
HANCOCK, HERBIE
I? [ETHAN IVERSON—see comments]
JAMAL, AHMAD, HANK JONES, JOHNNY JOHNSON, KIETH JARRET
KENTON, STAN, DIANA KRALL, WYNTON KELLY, KENNY KIRKLAND
LEWIS, JERRY LEE
MONK, THELONIOUS, MARION MCPARTLAND
NEWBORN JR., PHINEAS, LAURA NYRO
O?
POWELL, BUD, OSCAR PETERSON, ANDRE PREVIN, ALAN PRICE
Q?
ROBERTS, MARCUS
SIMONE, NINA, PINETOP SMITH, HORACE SILVER, GEORGE SHEARING
TATUM, ART, LENNIE TRISTANO, CECIL TAYLOR, BOOKER T.
U?
V?
WALLER, FATS, TEDDY WILSON, STEVIE WONDER, STEVE WINWOOD
X?
Y?
ZAWINUL, JOE
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17 comments:
I've checked out some of your poems, Michael and they're wonderful.
I'm a tad embarrassed at my lineal perspective. I haven't had brain surgery but I am a creature of my generation. I rarely look to side bars for information on line. I scroll straight down the text. Hence I misses the obvious.
For an orderly mind such as yours with or without brain surgery this might seem strange, just as your penchant for lists seems strange to me. Though it should not.
My husband also loves to write lists, but usually for pragmatic purposes - lists of things to do, rather than lists of things done.
Thanks for this, Michael.
Dad,
I'm sorry you are able to make lists again :)
JK, I'm glad you're up to it.
Ethan Iverson from The Bad Plus gets you an "I" entry that I know you like.
Booker T.'s last name is Jones as you probably know. Also, what about Jimmy Smith and McCoy Tyner? Finally, I'd personally have to add John Medeski. I've had the pleasure of seeing him in intimate club settings more than once.... smoking organ, clavinet and electric piano chops.
Miles, You're totally right about Iverson. I forgot Booker T.s last name was Jones. I thought about Jimmy Smith and left him off since he was mostly organ, but probably should have included him. But McCoy Tyner actually used to bug me. I dug how well he fit into what 'Trane was doing on his sets with him, but on his own I didn't like a lot of his choices and technique. Just my taste I guess. Do I know Medeski? I was also trying to remember the name of that young Japanese woman with the amazingly fast percussive playing style we caught at the Helsinki Club a few years ago (can't remember if you were there that night, but assume you were). I bought one of her CDs for your brother but it must be at his mom's 'cause I can't find it here.
Never knew you didn't like McCoy. Medeski is part of Medeski Martin and Wood. Here is a youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_P2s1JEYDY&feature=related
It's not my favorite song but it shows his minimalist style well. And at approx 2:15 minutes in he does some cool stuff on piano. I haven't listened to them much in years, but at one time they were a major inspiration.
I guess links don't work? you can cut and paste if you want.
Also, Hiromi is the artist you saw at Helsinki.
Dear Lal--Pianists who deserve to be on your list:
Toshiko Akiyoshi,Blossom Dearie, Junior Mance, Jess Stacey, T-Bone Walker. And I'd like to add a couple of unknowns: John Bunch and Ralph Dickey played mighty fine in Iowa City in the 60s, and me own mother played the best damn stride piano in the whole state of Iowa, not to mention the eastern half of Nebraska.
Bob Berner
Fats Waller never fails to lift my spirits.
Thanks Miles, and everyone.
Bob, Blossom Dearie and Junior Mance definitely should be on my list. And Ralph Dickey, my good friend and fellow pianist. We used to get together in the music room at Iowa and trade off playing tunes in our different styles. I wished out loud I had his technical proficiency and I'm not too modest to admit he often said he wished he had my feeling, though he used another word for it that my post brain surgery brain can't call up right now. I loved Ralph. The first time my older kids saw me cry and one of the few times I ever did back then was when we were living in DC and got the call that Ralph had died. I still think of him often and miss him much.
Les McCann and Eddie Harris, "Compared to What?", George Benson, "Body Talk" and "White Rabbit," quintessential. Mark Almond's "The City".....
Les McCann and Eddie Harris, "Compared to What?", George Benson, "Body Talk" and "White Rabbit," quintessential. Mark Almond's "The City".....
You're right Robert, Les McCann should be on my list. But does George Benson play the piano too? And Mark Almond...?...
Sorry Michael, I was thinking Jazz, not just piano. By the way, I have a great Herbie Hancock story - Verve Records hired me to cover a session when Herbie was making "Gershwin's World" - the day he was doing "Summertime." The day of they called me from NYC and told me to be at the studio in North Hollywood area at 4pm. Then they called and said hold off, Herbie's not there yet. They called again a few times and said he's still not there, we believe he's somewhere chanting. Finally at 9pm they said, just do what you have to do - I crashed out and at around 3a.m. my phone rang "Can you be there in 15 minutes?" I made it there in about 18 minutes. Saw Herbie's electric Honda (this was I think '97) plugged in in front. Herbie was in the main glassed in area on his piano, Joni Mitchell was in a smaller recording booth, with her cigarettes and unique-in-all-the-universe voice. About an hour or so in, unbenknownst to Herbie, Stevie Wonder was snunk-ushered into another sound booth and halfway through the take, he raised his harmonica to his lips and the heavens opened. You should have seen the smile on Herbie's face. ;-) When the session ended around dawn, I did a group photo of all, then Herbie took Stevie for a ride in his electric car, then Herbie came back alone and before he left I we made a solo portrait of in the warm early morning sun beaming in through the high studio window.
Elton John, Bruce Hornsby, Lee Michaels
Robert, great story and what a trio of musical geniuses! I thought of Elton, but not Hornsby, and who's Lee Michaels?
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSHB_enUS353US353&q=lee+michaels
Michael, check out "Do you know what I mean?"
Thanks for that Robert. I don't know if I knew who Lee Michaels was years ago and forgot, or the brain surgery knocked it out of my head, or if I just never noticed him, though the recordings sound very familiar and obviously I would have heard "Do You Know What I Mean"—but it's like hearing it all for the first time and quite impressive. Actually, those runs he makes on the Hammond are the kind that were my trademark as a piano player when I was doing that as a young man (and even up until the brain surgery I could still do them in at least the key of C, but when the motor stuff staring going in my right hand before the operation, that led to it actually, I stopped being able to and since the op still too difficult for me, oh well).
I can picture it. Some of the things I could do on a tennis court, or run down the sides of mountains, not pausing to think...here we are now...
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