http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhnb215rkrE&feature=related

In a previous post I create an imaginary scene in which my friend and former client Lisa Fay Beatty (1964-November 25, 2011) is in heaven and describes  briefly her weekend with Nina Simone, based on events that actually happened in the 1990s. In the scene for fairly esoteric reasons I have Lisa in a room, let’s say it’s a hotel room, with three other people: the jazz musician Paul Motian, the rock singer Mia Zapata and what I believe to be a real person, although I know of him through a novel by James Patterson, the Lakota Indian Charging Elk.

In the process of fact-checking the post — again, it’s fictitious, it’s actually based in some ways on a version of Jean Paul Sartres “No Exit” I saw at ACT — I read a beautiful and awe-inspiring tribute to Paul Motian written by the bandleader and composer Ethan Iverson, at his Do The Math blog. Ethan played with Motian, and befriended him in Paul’s later years and was quoted in the New York Times obituary of the great drummer, who died a few days before Lisa Fay Beatty. Ethan’s blog tribute is divided into two sections, the second labeled “Personal” meaning that it contained references to things Paul told him in private, or in emails, as contrasted with the larger preceding section that, although personal and proprietary could be written by other jazz scholars with access to the same performances and recordings (but not my me; Jesus!; it would take me another 100 years of study to know jazz half as well as Iverson; I think that — God forbid — if EI stopped writing performing and recording and did nothing but listen to and comment on his peers and heroes, he would still garner a Genius Grant someday, but I digress).

That Motian’s passing influenced the ensuing three or four “Plastic Alto” posts, my tribute is pretty esoteric. I knew that as Shakespeare would say, something is out of joint in the universe and I wanted to try to catch part of that vibe. When I heard that Lisa Fay had died — I heard it from Kimberley Chun’s mention in Thursday’s paper, which I read Friday around noon, that did him home in a personal way, and I wrote my little tribute. Indeed, for me Lisa and I did have a meeting and some dialogue about turning a story she told me into a performance piece, about her relationship to Nina Simone. Not that we would have agreed to set it in heaven, or invite Paul Motian in as a cameo.

Anyhow, because I believe that good jazz bloggers read Ethan Iverson and great bloggers steal from him, I followed his hint of checking out the Modern Jazz Quartet in a tv appearance in Japan — he was lauding the piano solo, natch — Ethan plays piano — and then leaped to what I think is the same television host and trumpet player — wearing shades, like Paul Motian wore — interviewing in a hotel room Miles Davis, in 1985, with a third person in the room, the lovely young female interpreter, and a fourth, I would guess, the cameraman. I noted a parallel construction to my “No Exit” thing. Also “Plastic Alto” likes that the dude is gifting Miles some plastic vegetables — I like it more than Davis seems to. Not sure it is worth sitting through all nine minutes worth — Miles plays briefly at the end. It’s the first time I recall watching Miles interviewed, at least on youtube. I also, if you permit me a personal aside, have a not-to-far-along initiative to learn Japanese; this may help some. Better for many readers would be to just watch the MJQ performance. If I get around to it, I will edit to add the name of the host.

“No Exit” is actually called in the original French “Huis Clos” which roughly translates to “in camera” the legal term for “private meeting” or “behind closed doors”.

edit to add: The Japanese host is Tamori, a very famous personality, and he also plays trumpet and flute; his show is called “It’s Okay To Laugh” and has run since 1982; he is 66. Here he sits in with MJQ doing “Night in Tunisia”. Ethan Iverson lauded the piano solo starting at 2′ 50″ by John Lewis:(so, if you are pressed for time, a grazer or a dilletante like me, watch the first two minutes of the Miles interview, until he blanches at the offer of the plastic “sample food” and then skip ahead to the MJQ, especially 2’50” until about 3’50 if you want to skip the last minute, to focus on the piano per se. Meanwhile, I think Tomori is actually pretty good; I’d like to see him in a cutting contest with Jason Olaine and Eric Hanson; I play more like a Duane Hanson; side one, dummy!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E275fYha2xo