Notes & Tones

 Notes and Tones  is one of the most controversial, honest, and insightful books ever written about jazz. As a black musician himself, Arthur Taylor was able to ask his subjects hard questions about the role of black artists in a white society. Free to speak their minds, these musicians offer startling insights into their music, their lives, and the creative process itself.

This expanded edition is supplemented with previously unpublished interviews with Dexter Gordon and Thelonious Monk, a new introduction by the author, and new photographs. →Notes and Tones← consists of twenty-nine no-holds-barred conversations which drummer Arthur Taylor held with the most influential jazz musicians of the ’60s and ’70s:

 1. Dexter Gordon.                          16. Nina Simone.

 2. Miles Davis                                 17. Tony Williams.

 3. Randy Weston.                           18. Sonny Rollins.

 4. Ornette Coleman.                      19. Don Cherry.

 5. Philly Joe Jones.                        20. Hampton Hawes.

 6. Don Byas.                                   21. Kenny Clarke.

 7. Ron Carter                                  22. Freddie Hubbard.

 8. Johnny Griffin.                           23. Richard Davis.

 9. Charles Tollivier.                       24. Elvin Jones.

10. Eddie Lockjaw Davis.               25. Kenny Dorham.

11. Erroll Garner.                            26. Art Blakey.

12. Leon Thomas.                            27. Hazel Scott.

13. Max Roach.                               28. Betty Carter.

14. Dizzy Gillespie.                         29. Thelonious Monk.

15. Carmen McRae.                       

¤  Art Taylor  –  (1929 – 1995)

One of the premier hard bop drummers of his era, by 1948 while still a teenager in Harlem, Art Taylor had played drums in church with Jackie McLean and Sonny Rollins. He also played with Howard McGhee and other young bop musicians in New York.

In the early 50s he was also to be heard in mainstream groups, playing with Buddy De Franco and Coleman Hawkins. He continued to play with leading beboppers, including Bud Powell, and Art Farmer. Later in the decade was with Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

From time to time he led his own bands, notably Taylor’s Wailers, and toured the States and Europe with Donald Byrd, and did a short stint with Thelonious Monk in 1959. Also in ’59 he was the drummer on John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” album, which speaks for itself.

He became resident in Europe in the early 60s, playing with visiting fellow Americans including Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin. During this period, Taylor began recording interviews with musicians, the results of which, often acutely angled towards the racial and political circumstances surrounding jazz, were first published in 1977 under the title ‘Notes And Tones’  (which was reprinted in 1993).

In the mid-80s Taylor returned to the USA and hosted a radio show. Between 1989 and 1991, he featured several brilliant recordings with Steve Grossman. His last studio session was with Jimmy Smith in 1995 for the excellent record “Damn!,” and the album was dedicated to his memory.

Φ  For more bios of other artists, you can try the links below ↓

•→ http://www.infoplease.com/biography/music-jazz.html

•→ http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/

♣  Regina Carter  ⇓

Violinist Regina Carter is a highly original soloist whose sophisticated technique and rich, lush tone took the jazz world by pleasant surprise when she arrived in New York from her native Detroit . . .

⇓  ‘Artistya’

  ∞  N’Teri  ↓  (=’friendship’)  +  Kanou

If you’re into jazz at all, some of your favorite albums were probably issued by Blue Note Records. Aficionados celebrate the label for putting out some of the definitive recordings in jazz history, spanning from before bebop to the present day. Even the cover art, with its Francis Wolff photography, elegant design and sleek typesetting, has become iconic in jazz lore.

Φ → Blue Note Art Covers  ⇓

Δ Lee Morgan  ⇑  ‘The Sidewinder’  [1963]

¤  A great blog for jazz lovers:  → http://jazzpages.tumblr.com/←

♦  ‘Cantaloupe Island’ ↓

A jazz standard composed by H. Hancock and one of the first examples of a modal jazz composition set to a funky beat… Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter & Tony Williams.

US3 – Cantaloop from 7 K on Vimeo.

¤  :::    US3    :::  ¤→

A jazz-rap group founded in London in 1991. Their name was inspired by a Horace Parlan recording produced by Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. On their debut album, Hand on the Torch, Us3 used samples from the Blue Note Records catalogue, all originally produced by Lion.

◊  ‘You Can´t Hold Me Down‘ ↓

You can’t hold me down – Don’t wanna be pushed around . . .

Why ya’ll wanna stress me for?

Can’t a young man have fun anymore?

Been to more places than you ever saw

Why you always wanna keep me poor?

Can’t my world be cooler than yours?

Keep a smoke inbetween my jaws

Or is it your job to point out my flaws?

Just because you got your mind on pause

Cause I ain’t got no time tonight

For all the things that just ain’t right

Like traffic lights and crowded trains

Tonight it just won’t be the same

 

You can’t hold me down  –  Ain’t gonna be pushed around . . .

Why you always wanna try and stop me?
I don’t think you can really top me
Can’t my car be quicker than yours?
Or is it my job to always wipe floors
Don’t blame me for the way I live
My work is done, it’s time to give
I don’t think you should get all mad
Just because I wanna groove so bad
Cause I ain’t got no time tonight
For all the things that just ain’t right
Like traffic lights and crowded trains
Tonight it just won’t be the same

You can’t hold me down  –  Ain’t gonna be pushed around . . .

Why you always look at me so wrong
Just because I wear my hair so long?
Can’t my world be bigger than yours?
Or is it my job to always wipe floors
Can’t me talk be smoother than yours
Why you always wanna shut your doors?
Cause I ain’t got no time tonight
For all the things that just ain’t right
Like traffic lights and crowded trains
Tonight it just won’t be the same

◊  ‘Cantaloop’  ↓

Ladies and Gentlemen, as you know we have something special for you at Birdland this evening.
A recording for Blue Note Records

What’s that?    yeah – yeah yeah
funky funky,  how ‘bout a big hand now?
wait, wait a minute

Groovy groovy  jazzy funky pounce bounce dance as we
Dip in the melodic sea, the rhythm keeps flowin, it drips to MC
Sweet sugar pop  sugar pop rocks it pops ya dont stop
Till the sweet  beat drops
I show and prove as a stick in move
Hear the poems recited on top of the groove
Smooth, mind, floating like a butterfly
Notes start to float, suttle like a lullabye
Brace yourself as the beat hits ya
Dip trip, flip
fantasia(ah, ah, ah,  what’s that? biggity biggity bop)

Feel the beat  drop, jazz and hip hop
Drippin in the dome, and mix is on the lock
Funk and fusion, a fly illusion
Keeps ya coastin on the river we cruisin
Up down round and  round, round the found
But nevertheless  ya gots to get down
Finesse the freak  thru the beat so unique
Ya move your feet, the sweat from the heat

Back to the fact  –  I’m the mack and I know that
The way I kick the rhymes, some would call me a poet
Funky flowin goin on with the sweet sound
Caught in the groove in Fantasia I’m found
Trip the tour upon the rhymes they soar
To an infinite height to the realm of the hardcore
Here we go off I take ya
Dip trip flip
fantasia

Jump to the jam  boogy woogy jam slam
Bust the dialect  –  i’m the man in command
Come flow with the sounds of the mighty mic masta
When I rhyme on the mic I bring a sucka disasta
Beaucoup bucks and I still rock Nike
With the razzle – dazzle star I might be
Scribble scrabble  – on the microphone I babble
As I flip the funky words, into a puzzle
Yes yes yes, on and on as I flex
Get with the flow  words manifest
Feel the vibe from here to Asia
Dip trip flip
fantasiaI’ve found it. At last.
Put it on.

◊  ‘Different Rhythm, Different People’  ↓

«. . . Different rhythms, different people . . .

 

The drum is the most important instrument…»

ending:  sampled   «Announcement by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’s»  at the Cafe Bohemia Volume 1 – Blue Note 1956:

«…For those of you coming late, we’re now having a little cooking session for Blue Note…»