"News From the Front" by Matt Lavelle - slight SR/ MA content
"News From the Front" by Matt Lavelle - slight SR/ MA content
from multi-instrumentalist Matt Lavelle - posted to Facebook - cb
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News from the Front...
All of my recent gigs were benefits to raise money so that Free jazz and creative music can survive through the Jazz Foundation,the Vision festival,.and the Hells Kitchen Jazz festival in NYC.Music Now! had a great weekend though we Didn't make any bread as usual.I got down in a duo with Mike Wimberly on drums,and then played with Ras Moshe before the Chris Kelsey 4 came with it.Sometimes I wonder were we are headed with all this,.just what might be our final destination..
*Will I go down like Freddie Keppard?
One of the first Great Cornet Players in Jazz,..as described by Wikipedia: Freddie Keppard's style is much more raggy compared to Oliver's blues tinged style.Jelly roll Morton, Lil Hardin Armstrong,and Wellman Braud all thought Keppard superior to Oliver.Several musicians with clear memories of Buddy Bolden said that Freddie Keppard sounded the most like Bolden of anyone who recorded.Keppard suffered from Alcoholism and Tuberculosis in his final years, and died largely forgotten in Chicago.
*Or maybe I should break bread with this cat...
from the myspace page of a musician at JALC in 2009:
All that I can really say about myself is that I am one of the few people in the world that has been blessed enough to live a dream. I am allowed by the Good Lord above to make a living doing what I was put here on this earth to do, and love to do above all things: Play Jazz Music.Sure, I have worked at it, practiced, and struggled with it and for it (and still do all of those things), but we all know that that alone doesn=92t guarantee success. Think about all of the geniuses that have died alone, poor, and without recognition of their greatness
With Uranus in the 9th House,.I'll find it beyond impossible to think that the reason I have yet to make a Living playing Jazz is because I have not been Blessed enough.If I have been blessed,.It's with a Sound and a story.Many of the "Blessed guys",.were not "Given" that.What do you have to do? choose? Monk said to Play the way you want to play,.even if it takes the public 25 years to get it.Monk died in financial debt to Columbia something like $13,000 dollars.Sometimes people only get you and your music after you have died,.Like people all about Albert Ayler now.(Albert said they would get it sooner or later).
Me,Myself.and I,.we don't want to go out like that..Buddy Bolden himself,.the First Great Jazz man,.spent the last 24 years of his life in a mental home.BIX Lost his mind from drinking like a Fish.Freddie Webster got bad dope.Clifford,.the Car wreck.Booker Little,.a blood illness.Lee Morgan(who said he was tired of hard bop and wanted to play more free),.shot.Woody Shaw left us getting hit by a Subway car.Dewey Johnson just vanished into the streets.(Just Trumpet players alone,.you know you have to be fearless to raise that horn up to the sky)
These are only the guys we KNOW about,..and NOT the only ones.(One of the reasons Giuseppe Logans return is so important).Charles Gayle told me there were was a drummer playing FREE IN THE 50's IN BUFFALO. I'll never forget this trumpet player I used to jam with from Harlem at this place called Mo Betters.I saw him for many sessions,.couple times at Smalls,.and then POOF! He was gone.I never saw him again,.and he would never even tell me his name.NYC can eat you alive..Last Blog I mentioned a jam session I ran for a year and a half and a place called the Rainy Daze.If you go by there now,.you'll find a PARKING LOT,..like it NEVER HAPPENED.Roy Campbell told me about a legendary spot called THE TIN PALACE,..from the 70's that I never even knew about.All of this makes me wonder about the real history of Jazz.Something Like Ken Burns becomes official in the eyes of many,.and to remember the REAL story is really important,.(especially since free Jazz is just a foot-note to the people telling everyone else the deal.) I like a good story to,.but we have to be careful with this shit.The way people manipulate history so that it makes sense with their own perspective of life is evil,.like those crazy people saying the Holocaust of the Jews never happened.Right,.and America never dropped Atomic bombs on Japan.Buddy Bolden was supposed to have owned a Barber Shop,."ran the numbers",.and had big time success with Woman.Research reveals that at least the Barber shop and numbers shit is urban Legend.Louis Armstrong and the hundred high C's practice routine,.and also his Love of "VIPERS",.supposedly true.OC getting BEAT UP because of the way he played,.TRUE.Cecil having somebody try to break his Hands,.true.Miles pulling up to the Tin Palace,.getting out looking for Sidney Slouch in full boxing gear after he wrote a bad review? TRUE,(.I have a good friend who was standing right there).In jazz,.It's like were all part of a Living story,.We just have to remember that were the ones writing it.I consider myself a character,..in it...Who decides who lives or dies? Who has success and who doesn't,..Who can stay,.and those who,..Got to go..(sigh)..I know something else that happened not to long ago because I was there..and I got to see it with my own eyes.Soul eyes on the prize.
MARSHALL ALLEN conducted a whole stage of heavyweights at the Vision Marathon and this cat had the energy of THE SUN.In his 80's,.Marshall has survived and Lived a Life of music on his own terms..
RISE,.
and
FALL,.
the music spoke volumes and created visuals of landscapes far into the future.Mountain-scapes on Moons we have yet to reach.and when he hit that Alto?!
!!!!!!!!!!!
There has never been a Sound Like that,.or will there ever be again.so VIBRANT,..so ALIVE..Anybody that feels tired,.or is thinking about throwing in the towel,.or waving that white flag of surrender,.Think of MARSHALL on that night..
Get back to the FRONT LINE..
and LIVE...
- Matt Lavelle http://www.myspace.com/mattLavelle