The Memphis Scene

Andrew Hill, a great but relatively obscure jazz pianist who recorded influential albums for Blue Note over the years, died Friday at his home in New Jersey. With his jagged sound and quirky tunes, Hill had been pegged as something of a stylistic descendant of Thelonius Monk, though he never achieved the latter's popularity. Hill had been making something of a comeback lately; I picked up a remastered version of his album "Black Fire" a couple years back (see my review here) and (regrettably) passed up an opportunity to check him out live in New York in 2005.

The Goner Message Board is serving up an outpouring of grief and love the likes of which I've never seen on there (Caution: Contains exceedingly poor taste, as well as profanities).

I've been in the newspaper business for about 10 years now (10 years I'll never get back), and I don't think I've ever seen this kind of reaction by trained professionals before, not from Sept. 11 or Ronald Reagan's death or anything. It began with unconfirmed reports on the wires and on TV that she had collapsed, and then confirmed reports that she had died. I began to grumble, knowing that our bosses -- who have CNN playing in their offices -- might want to completely overblow the story. It just so happened that the brass were all in a meeting when the bulletins started moving, so once they adjourned and heard the big news, there erupted a rude cascade of guffaws, one-liners and boob jokes. About 20 minutes later, those newsroom employees who were particularly enrapt in their eBay business or MySpace bulletins voiced their surprise at finally hearing the news.

We ended up with a fairly reserved presentation, as befits a "serious" newspaper running a made-for-basic-cable story. We also saved ourself the ghoulish embarrassment of CNN digging up every bit of archival Larry King footage tracking Anna Nicole's physical transmogrifications and personal psychodramas. What a joke.

Oh, wait, they've just broken away to Michael Ware in Baghdad, as if there's a war going on or something.

I had a chance to play some Michael Brecker charts during my old All-State Jazz Band days. He's certainly in that top echelon of '70s jazz greats who were able to cross over among rock/pop, disco and funk in addition to the straight-ahead stuff.

I had heard in recent that he was in bad shape from his blood disease, though he continued to perform and record as his strength would allow.

You certainly can't argue with his resume. His AllMusic bio calls him the most influential tenor player since Wayne Shorter.

Tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker dies at age 57 in NYC
AP Photo NY108
By NAHAL TOOSI
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK -- Michael Brecker, a versatile and influential tenor saxophonist who won 11 Grammys over a career that spanned more than three decades, died Saturday. He was 57.
Brecker died in a hospital in New York City of leukemia, according to his longtime friend and manager, Darryl Pitt.
In recent years, the saxophonist had struggled with myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer in which the bone marrow stops producing enough healthy blood cells. The disease, known as MDS, often progresses to leukemia.
Throughout his career, Brecker recorded and performed with numerous jazz and pop music leaders, including Herbie Hancock, James Taylor, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell, according to his Web site. His most recently released recording, "Wide Angles," appeared on many top jazz lists and won two Grammys in 2004.
His technique on the saxophone was widely emulated, and his style was much-studied in music schools throughout the world. Jazziz magazine recently called him "inarguably the most influential tenor stylist of the last 25 years," according to a press release from his family.
Though very sick, Brecker managed to record a final album, as yet untitled, that was completed just two weeks ago. Pitt said the musician was enthusiastic about the final work.
"In addition to the love of his family and friends, his work on this project helped keep him alive and will be another jewel in his legacy," Pitt said.
Brecker, who had a home in the New York City suburb of Hastings-on-Hudson, was born in 1949 in Philadelphia to a musically inclined family. His father would take his sons to performances of jazz legends such as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington.
Brecker, who first studied clarinet and alto saxophone, decided to pursue the tenor saxophone in high school after being inspired by the work of John Coltrane, according to his Web site. He followed his brother, Randy, a trumpet player, to Indiana University, but he left after a year for New York.
In 1970, he helped found the jazz-rock group Dreams. He later joined his brother in pianist and composer Horace Silver's quintet. Michael and Randy also started the successful jazz-rock fusion group the Brecker Brothers. The two also owned the now-defunct downtown jazz club Seventh Avenue South.
His solo career began in 1987, when his self-titled debut was voted "Jazz Album of the Year" in both Down Beat and Jazziz magazines.

Peter Tomarken, the host of a game show I remember well from childhood, "Press Your Luck," died in a plane crash today along with his wife. The Tomarkens had quite a compassionate streak. They were flying their private prop plane to San Diego to pick up a needy patient to transport to UCLA Medical Center. They didn't make it far; the plane went down in Santa Monica Bay. He was 63.

Seeing this item on the wires today reminded me of a recent post on EJ's blog, where for seemingly no particular reason, he recounted the bizarre and sad saga of Michael Larson, the "unemployed ice cream truck driver" who gamed the show for $110,000 by memorizing the patterns of the light squares. Of course, Larson had $40,000 in singles stolen, and lost most of the rest on a real estate flim-flam. Lesson: That's why you don't cheat on game shows.

With that post in mind, I decided to include a little sidebar on the "Press Your Luck" scandal with the Tomarken obituary in the Wednesday newspaper. That item won't appear on our Web site, I don't think, so let the Best Week Ever people tell you about it.

From AP ...

BAMAKO, Mali -- The renowned African musician Ali Farka Toure died Tuesday after a long illness, Mali's Culture Ministry said. He was in his late 60s.
Toure, one of Africa's most-famous performers, played a traditional Malian stringed instrument called the gurke.
He was best-known overseas for his 1995 collaboration with American guitarist Ry Cooder on "Talking Timbuktu," which netted him his first of two Grammys.

I've had "Talking Timbuktu" for about 10 years. It's one of my favorites for, um, "quiet moments." Toure's gurke jangles like a 12-string acoustic, but features droning overtones reminiscent of Indian stringed instruments like the sitar. The plucked instruments float above subtle percussion that is never intrusive, but pulses along like a jazz drummer with brushes. Check it out sometime and notice the similiarities between the Malian sounds and the Delta blues sounds from our own backyard. Just like James Brown's funk influenced Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, Toure's Mali blues drew from the sounds of the American South that were in turn originally influenced by the musical traditions of West Africa. Back and forth, back and forth.

Kudos once again to Ry Cooder for blessing us with the haunting sounds of Mali. You might recall a tribute post I did last August for another of Cooder's "discoveries," the Cuban son master Ibrahim Ferrer.