Happy Birthday

How could we not go about today, August 30th, and not take a moment to celebrate Kenny Dorham's birthday. I mean come on people. KD! The man, the legend.....that's right you probably don't know who he is...


....like most people.

Kenny Dorham is considered one of the most over looked musicians in jazz. I've read over and over again how KD was never recognized for his genius as a trumpeter, composer, and piano player. He would never live a long and healthy life, he would spend most of his career working for non musical positions including many years as a post office worker. When you hear KD and all of his brilliance, you can't, at least I can't figure out how this has become his fate.

I first came to know of KD the same way most do, by performing his classic tune Blue Bossa. Like so many young and starting jazz musicians this was one of the first tunes I ever learned. Then in college I was exposed to him much more from my college teacher because KD was his idol. For every 5 gigs I play or jam sessions I attend this song is played at least 3 of those times. Its a great tune, and great to improvise over.


I don't want to get into all the details about KD's life because it requires the amount of space of a full blown novel but I would like to mention a few points.


His album Una Mas had a very strong impact on my life as a musician. Teamed,with an all-star cast of musicians, including his protege' Joe Henderson, this album is full of great playing, intriguing melodies and full of groove all people of the world need to hear. At one point this album was played more than anything else I owned.

KD got his first break when he replaced Miles Davis in Charlie Parker's band in the late 1940's. He played consistently into the 50's, took some time off then re-emerged in the late 50's as one of the original members of the Jazz Messengers. He would then continue playing all through the 60's in various contexts with everyone from Horace Silver to Andrew Hill.

Due to economical reasons in the 60's KD began working a regular gig at the Post Office and occasionally reviewed albums and wrote columns for Downbeat magazine.

Kenny Dorham was always in the shadow of many players throughout his career. His curse of never becoming a house hold name seemed to just be an act of fate. Miles writes in his autobiography that at a jam session KD swept him under the rug.

Even though he was over looked by all the stars of the trumpet at the time, he was an amazing player. His ballad playing was melodic and so fluid. His fast paced playing was smooth and connected.

He was an original voice.

He was Kenny Dorham


August 30th 1924-December 5th 1972

two pictures you need to see.

John Coltrane and Lee Morgan (playing trumpet) at the recording session for Trane's album Blue Train on Blue Note Records.

This is a classic photo by Blue Note's own Francis Wolff who took session photos for the label.

Look at the intensity of Trane's face is in this shot.










Horace Silver.


I call this "the mad scientist."


I don't know when this was taken, but I guarantee its something funky.

photo by Francis Wolff

Weekend at Jeremy's

This past weekend was one hell of a way to end the summer for myself before my day job as a middle school music teacher begins for the 2nd year now. Believe me, I love teaching the little ones but I felt I needed to celebrate the end of summer vacation and Jeremy Pelt and his electric band, Wired, at Smalls was just the ticket.

Like I have said in the blog Unlimited Breadsticks, I am a big fan of Mr. Pelt's playing. I first heard him in a small and now non-existing club and now have even become a student of his and his concepts.

Jeremy currently leads two bands: Wired and the Jeremy Pelt Quintet. I was lucky enough to finally hear Wired at Small's for the first time ever. Wired is Jeremy's "electric" band, meaning unlike a more traditional setting electronics are a major figure in the sound of the group. Frank LoCrasto is featured on Fender Rhodes with effect pedals, Gavin Fallow on electric bass with his own army of pedals and effects and Dana Hawkins who plays your standard drum kit but by standard I mean he destroys your ears and melts your face with his intense and very groovin' drumming. Jeremy himself plays on and off with effects of his own, playing through a VOX wah pedal.

The concept of this electric band is nothing particularly new, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, Nicholas Payton, Dave Douglas and even Chris Botti apply these same concepts in bands through out their career. Miles Davis you could say was the father of applying effects to the trumpet. His album Bitches Brew can be considered the stepping stone for all trumpet players who try effects in their playing. In Miles' footsteps came Eddie Henderson, who in the 70's led various funk oriented groups where he applied effect pedals to his trumpet. His tracks from this era became a huge success in the UK where his music is still played in night clubs. Check out: Heritage http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wxfrxq9gldae.

So anyway the concept of an electric trumpet led group won't rattle the world of music but the vibe, groove and spark that Wired creates with only 4 players is outstanding.

Wired recorded their only album Shock Value in 2007 and has only been playing rarely since and mainly overseas. The reason is really JP recorded a quintet album in 2008 and that has been his primary focus. I was lucky enough to speak to him Saturday night after the show in Small's very tiny stairwell and he told me he loves what Wired does and would like to do more but because of the Quintet it has always been slow moving. Saturday afternoon in between shows, the band was able to go into the studio and lay some tracks down of new material which this guy right here cannot wait to hear!

So Friday night i dragged two good friends to the show promising a night of face melting and intense music they loved and I'd like to take this moment to applaud myself at how right I was. The band opened with the first two tracks of their album: Circular then into Blues. Circular opens with a trancey vibe where the band is allowed to set the mood. Jeremy comes in with a simple melody that just builds tension in the overall groove through his effect pedal and it creates this explosion of music. Dana Hawkins' drumming is quite far the pivotal driving force in this band and the effects on the keys and bass are amazing. The band then settled down into Blues which as JP has said often "it has no name so its entitled Blues, because that's what it is....Blues." This tune takes things in a much calmer and opposite effect than the earlier tune. The next tune, Suspicion, is one of a kind, with a driving tempo, intense groove and very demanding melody on JP's part it then launches right into a great solo. The tune takes a complete 180 and drops to a groove 1/16 or slower of what it was before for a trancey solo by LoCrasto. Other selections were the driving Pythagorous which featured Dana Hawkins and the sublime Beyond that featured wonderful flugelhorn playing by Pelt and great bass soloing by Fallow.

I stayed for the second set and the next night. There wasn't much of a change in terms of tunes, with a small book of material the band pretty much hit the same tunes every set. This might sound redundant but in fact it was a treat to hear the band over 2 nights work with the material they don't get to play too often together in the first place. By the last set Saturday night the band was on a completely different level than before. The playing was so perfect the band mates seemed to have a sense of intuition together.

Lastly the band ended each set with my favorite tune Scorpio with an open groove that sets up the band into different territory every time. I couldn't keep track of how many times I heard a Miles lick here or a Bitches Brew reference there it was quite exciting.

This past weekend was definitely a treat for myself and I couldn't have enjoyed what I heard more. Like I said, complete face melting.

I'm hoping I'll get to hear this band more often.

P.S. Thanks to JP for taking the time to shoot the shit, it is always, a pleasure and a delight.

Rashad Ali

First off I would like to take a moment to memorialize a great musician who passed away last week. Rashied Ali was 74 when he passed away apparently from a heart attack during heart surgeory. Most people will go about their lives not knowing who Ali was and what he did, which is sadly a very common thing to happen to jazz musicians.

Rashied Ali was most famous for replacing Elvin Jones in John Coltrane's band. Ali was one of many musicians in the avant-garde movement that Trane took under his belt and gave opportunities to play. According the the book: The House That Trane Built, author Ashley Kahn writes: "Coltrane had been reluctant in 1964 to accept a leading role in any musical movement, but Acension roared like a cacophonous acceptance speech. As welcoming as he was to new talent on that album, so his club and concert gigs in 1965 opened the door to a retinue of young improvisors who joined him onstage, including two future band members, drummer Rashied Ali and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders."

He was known as a power house of stamina at the drum set. He had the reputation to play for extended periods of time. Ethan Iverson writes on his blog Do the Math he once saw Ali play a gig and only one tune was played, Cherokee, for 60 straight minutes with out stopping.

Ali was never in my opinion ever considered even close to Elvin Jones by musicians my generation. Its simple: he was barely ever talked about. I think in college 90% of my collegues didn't even know who he was. The albums he played on are classics but they couldn't help but be over shadowed by Coltrane's classically classic albums like A Love Supreme, Coltrane, Live at the Village Vanguard, Giant Steps and Crescent. Those albums except Giant Steps had Elvin in the drum seat and those are the albums everyone talks about. After 1964 Coltrane's music became more about emotion than swing and it seemed fitting to have Ali at the drums. Ali's style fit that music so well. I once heard that at a time Coltrane was employing Jones and Ali at the same time and Jones got sick of playing with a second drummer and left the band.

His work on the albums Live at the Village Vanguard...Again! Stellar Regions and of course Interstellar Space helped create a whole new way of playing drums....not so much as a time keeper but a expressive voice within a band's sound.

Rashied Ali 1935-2009

Son of Frank

Tonight I was able to catch the Zappa Plays Zappa show in Wallingford , CT. I was really hesitant to go because, well it was really billed as a Dream Theater show and quite frankly, next to Aerosmith and Lynyrd Skynyrd, is one of the worst, most boring bands I have ever heard.

I am sure down the line I will discuss Dream Theater but tonight's focus was on ZPZ.

This band is a tribute to the legendary composer/guitarist Frank Zappa. I first heard Zappa on the album Apostrohpe(') back in college and soon became obsessed with his music. My favorite albums were always the more jam based ones like Hot Rats, Roxy & Elsewhere and Waka Jawaka.

Frank's son Dweezil who alot of people seem to forget was a voice on the not so hit show Duckman back in the 90's that also featured the voice of Jason Alexander. Dweezil looks and sounds just like his old man, I mean it is really uncanny when he speaks.
A few years ago Dweezil formed a band and began playing tributes to his father's music which was very well receptive. I believe this is now the 4th year the band has been running and after one studio recording it seems like it won't be slowing down.
When the tribute first started the band featured Zappa alumni which was a complete treat. Steve Vai, Terry Bozio, Ike Willis and Napolean Murphy Brock were the alumnists in attendists.
They performed all the Zappa hits with original voices it was great!!

This time there were no special guests but all in all the show was great. The band seemed to focus primarily on the more instrumentational tracks from Frank's very enormous song book. We didn't get Bozio playing the "Black Page" live but we did get some excellent vocals and a really tight band. One of the singers sounded exactly like Frank! When the band played "Montana" I really thought they were using Frank's voice from a recording or something. This guy had the Bass Vocals down and the voice inflection was great.
The set started off with a personal fav: "I'm The Slime" and then the band seemed to showcase the first few tracks of Roxy & Elsewhere, so I was obviously enjoying what I was hearing.
One of my favorite moments was "Village of the Sun" which is always been a favorite tune of mine.
Of course the band played "200 Motels" and "Filthy Habits" but what I liked was Dweezil seemed to grasp what made his father such a good band leader. Moments of cueing the band with hand signs, jumping and running in place moments really added to the show. Even Dweezil's soloing I thought was excellent.
The band ended the night with another favorite of mine, "Willie the Pimp" of course the vocals coudn't quite be there (God Bless Captain Beefheart) but it was a great performance.

I was sad when the show ended because I knew there wouldn't be an encore, or a performance of "Joe's Garage." After the band finished I departed for home, leaving Dream Theater to their non-melodic 16th note fest to some of the lesser human beings.

So this starts off my own personal blog. The purpose is exactly what the title inflects: a place to talk about music.
Most of the music on this site will be jazz based, but all kinds of genres and concepts will be discussed on a regular basis.
I'd like to eventually have different "columns" and themes within this blog so stay tuned for all topics posted throughout the life of this blog known simply as Some Other Stuff.


This blog is an off-chute of another blog, I participate in known as Unlimited Breadsticks, and while I was writing for it I realized that I wanted to have something of my own to write about in my own place.

Some Other Stuff was the inspiration for this blog in which if you notice, you have a quite unknown trombone player teamed up with the members of the Miles Davis Quintet. I like how Grachan holds up on his own in a world that seems established. That was the theme I felt when I created this page, a rather unknown musician interacting with the rest of the world. I hope you enjoy what you read here.