Private Archives

A free piece on tenor with drummer Wolfgang Reisinger who is using electronics to accompany me, creating an unusual accompaniment to the tenor.

Preparing with Lee Konitz to record, he handed me the Lester Young solo from "Dickie's Dream," one of the landmark tracks from Prez' early recordings with Count Basie. On the record date for fun, Richie (Beirach) and me recorded the solo and played on it. This harkens back to my lessons wtih Lennie Tristano when I was 17 when I had to sing along with Lester-full circle.

"Dickies Dream"

This is one of my saxophone quartets, in fact this has been played a lot over the years. Beginning as a piano piece, this comes from a particular personal period of my life which is obvious from the title. I think what musicians like most about this piece is the ending 15/8 vamp which is a lot of fun to play on as I am doing here. These are some of the saxophonists from the WDR in Koln , Germany where I did many wonderful performances in the 90s.

This is from a live recording done at the old Knitting Factory in New York, 1995 when I first returned to tenor sax after a fifteen year hiatus. With me is Ellerie Eskelin and John Hollenbeck playing completely freely. Ellery now plays with me in the group Different But The Same with bassist Tony Marino and drummer Jim Black.

This features me on flute in a post Eric Dolphy, contemporary style. In fact, it reawakened my interest in performing on C-flute again after nearly 20 years. The other musicians are Joel Spencer (drums), Kelly Sils (bass), and John Campbell (piano).

Part One:

Part Two:

From a live performance of Gabriel Faure's "Reve d'Amour" done at Purchase College in Westchester, NY., this gig was in preparation for the recording "Vienna Dialogues" (Zoho) featuring pianist Bobby Avey and myself playing classical songs,. We chose most of the repertoire from from the Romantic era. This music is all about melody and harmony, and attempting to musically be oneself THROUGH the composer's language.

These tracks are from a record I did called “Picture Show” (available from P.M .Music) on which I play all the instruments. This was rather early in the synthesizer and multi tracking overdub days (mid 80s). The record (at that time LP) was reflections of various idioms and moods I enjoy playing in from jazz to rock to classical, and “world music.”

Drums and Tenor Duo:

Ethnic Suite - Indian Summer:

These two tracks are outtakes from my 1979 release "Dedications" which is out of print at this point, and obviously are dedicated to my parents.

Mother - Solo Flute:

Father - Solo Tenor:

This is from a recently recorded solo project on tenor saxophone, which is a completely free improvisation.

This is a recording of a solo soprano saxophone piece which is published and available through Caris Music Services. It is titled "Elvin," obviously for Mr. Jones, and based on thematic aspects from Elvin's original composition which I recorded in 1971, "Three Card Molly." The soprano saxophonist is Jean Charles Richard, a former student from Paris who obviously excels in both classical and jazz, as is the case in many European musicians. Though the music was written for solo soprano, as it is dedicated to Elvin Jones, it can be accompanied by drums in a free form style, incorporating mallets, brushes and sticks both in and out of pulse. On this track, I am playing drums.

On this tune taken from a recent performance in Europe with the World View Trio (Wolfgang Reisinger on drums, Jean Paul Celea on bass), I am playing piano. It is an encore tune which we usually do free meaning no discussion or idea of what will transpire. I like this take for its sense of surprise and basic brevity. Also you can hear the incredible expertise of Celea who is also the classical bass teacher at the famous Paris Conservatory, quite a feat to pull off in the conservative academic world of France.

This excerpt is from a very different kind of jam session in the old port Jaffa near Tel Aviv, Israel, where I jammed with several drummers for hours on end. My good friend Leon Segal was also present in the drum corps. This kind of playing is reminiscent of the old loft sessions that I have written so much about that took place in the late '60s. Basically, the music has a late Trane vibe in which one just lets everything go.

This is a live version of “Little Peanut” which was originally recorded on “Songs for My Daughter (Soul Note)” from the Santa Fe Jazz Festival, October 2000, after a Japanese tour. It features, along with Vic Juris on guitar and Tony Marino on bass, the newest addition to the group, Marko Marcinko on drums. The tune itself is merely a simple head that allows for open and free improvising as the mood strikes us.