Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss

Greg Brown was the founding guitarist and had songwriter credits for or with Cake. He later co-founded Death Ray, which played my concert series.

my dad and I went to two Super Bowls one at Stanford and one in Miami, 1985 then 1988.

PHOTO BY JAY BLAKESBERG

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RALPJ

Memorial thoughts from Charlie Haden’s extended family of musicians, including Ralph Alessi, Geri Allen, Reid Anderson, Joey Baron, Django Bates, Tim Berne, Matt Brewer, Alan Broadbent, Chris Cheek, Greg Cohen, Stephen Crump, Benoit Delbecq, Mike Formanek, Bill Frisell, Larry Goldings, Jerome Harris, Billy Hart, Tootie Heath, John Hébert, Mark Helias, Fred Hersch, David King, Frank Kimbrough, Guillermo Klein, Joe Lovano, Tony Malaby, Branford Marsalis, Joe Martin, Brad Mehldau, Ben Monder, Jason Moran, Sam Newsome, Matt Penman, Chris Potter, Tom Rainey, Joshua Redman, Eric Revis, Jorge Rossy, Kenny Werner, Jeff Williams, Matt Wilson, and Ben Wolfe.)

—

RALPH ALESSI:

I was deeply saddened at hearing about Charlie Haden’s passing. It’s actually a nice opportunity for me to write about him at this moment. In the mid-Eighties I attended California Institute of the Arts and played trumpet in Charlie’s ensemble. Most of those rehearsals started with Charlie walking in and making a beeline for the stereo to play some music for us that he couldn’t wait to share. One time he played “Lonely Woman” (the Horace Silver tune) and was directing every note and inflection of Horace’s piano solo, obviously knowing it like the back of his hand. After every phrase, he would let out a huge “woohoo!” sound, not able to contain his giddiness for the music. That enthusiasm for music was infectious and can’t be underestimated for its lasting effect on all of us who were fortunate enough to be there. Then we’d play music that mostly consisted of Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman tunes. He would offer comments, oftentimes having to do with abstract concepts like “Play music as if you’ve never heard it before” and other things of this nature I know I wanted to grasp, but really couldn’t at the time. Invariably he would also play with us and that’s when the real lesson began. I heard him play on numerous occasions and every time there was a moment when my jaw would literally drop struggling to come to grips with how he was doing it: it seemed like magic to me. These simple melodies were being spun in an almost predictable way, yet they sounded like a symphony every time because of his impeccable voice leading, his rich sound, and amazing use of dynamics. He could shape dynamically at such a quiet volume and then could make a note “growl,” almost knocking you off balance.

I have two more fond memories of Charlie as a teacher.

One was a road trip that we all took to the Notre Dame jazz festival in which our group performed. We traveled the day before and spent a night in Chicago because Charlie wanted to meet our pianist David Ake’s parents. Then there was a concert with Charlie’s ensemble at Cal Arts in which Charlie was in the audience making sounds of approval that were at times drowning out the music. Charlie really loved teaching, and from what I heard he was still making it up to Valencia in recent months to teach despite being severely weakened by his illness.

He really loved his students.

But after years and year of reflection, my thoughts are that Charlie was all about music, which deeply emanated from every fiber of his body, mind, soul and most specifically his ears. His bass sound was literally channeling what he really was: a singer. Maybe the most powerful evidence of this is from his record Rambling Boy in which we hear a two-year-old Charlie yodeling with his family and then a seventy-year-old Charlie singing Shenandoah with his family. If you haven’t heard it, it’ll bring tears to your eyes. He truly was one of the most soulful musicians that I can think of and he is one of the main reasons I have embraced improvisation to the extent I have. He and his music will live on forever.

as recorded by ethan iverson ie EI, KOTFTT

night of the funky turntable

Feb 22 Jim Campilongo Adam Levy Duo P  7:30 

Feb 28 Edward Simon Trio f Adam Cruz Or Bareket, Stephan Crump M 8 pm

March 17 Edu Ribeiro Noah Garabedian Vinicius Gomes trio, Murray Low M

March 23 Ralph Alessi Quartet P

April 4 Realtime Collective Tammy Hall Sylvia Cuenca Kristen Strom Ruth Davies, Rabiah Kabir  Quartet M 8 pm

April 17 Mads Tolling Sam Reider Duo, Larry Ochs Ben Davis Fred Lonborg-Holm Trio TBA

May 1 Never Come Down, Hannah Mayree J 6:30

May 15 Caroline Davis Quartet M

May 22 Lily Finnegan Gaby Fluke- Mogul Duo, Jordan Glenn Flatways Trio M

June 6 Emi Makabe Quartet f Thomas Morgan Kenny Wolleson Vitor Gonćalves M

Sept 18 Splash Myra Melford Michael Formanek Ches Smith M

J = Johnson Park (free)

M = Mitchell Park Community 

Center

P = Palo Alto Art Center

$20 

😎 ⛄️ 🐍 

the little 🐍 has to do with St. Patrick’s Day

First Gunn grad since Tony Bower to play for Stanford.

Marta Sanchez played a week of solo prepared piano at Earthwise at The Mitch in April, 2024 directly before going into the studio in Oakland.

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OTOH

Kudos to Danielle Wertz the vocalist and arranger, for winning a share of the Grammy for the best instrumental performance, in the project led by Remy LeBoef. Remy plays reeds, Pascal plays piano: they are the first twins to win Grammy’s in successive years. From Santa Cruz. Danielle is from DC area; she performed in Earthwise new music series in the Raffi Garabedian project; came thru recently with her Joan Mitchell Leonard Cohen project with Eddie from Ohio; said hi to me in New York Winterjazzfest at Matt Merewitz’ Fully Altered showcase that included Carmen Staaf, Adam O’Farrill, Ben Goldberg, Hamir Atwal, Dillon Vado and Todd Sickafoose, and Josh Roseman. At Loove Labs sick.

Regarding Dean: she is playing two nights this summer at the Warriors arena. She looks healthier seven years ago in a video doing “Natural Woman”. She went to the same performing arts school as Imogene Heap.

Edit to add or ad: Oivia Dean is booked by Jenna Adler of CAA so will be just fine.

and1– I deserve the MacFound grant for running a post about Olivia Dean, Hattie McDaniel and Jenna Adler