Top Ten Lists; Critiquing the Critiquer's Critique

A reader finding an old post and wanting to post a comment about it can be a dose of cod liver oil to a blogger. You re-read the old post with a spirit similar to that of a musician forced to listen to an old solo. 

Thus, I revisited my post "Ten-reasons-why-best-of-lists-suck," written in reaction to a rash of Top Ten Lists. Older but no wiser, I have retractions and emendations to make:

1. Usually there's no commentary at all to validate a listing. If there is, it doesn't.
Mangled syntax(but I still believe it).

2. Hyper-selectivity is anathema to discovery. Stumbling through a thicket of sound leads to real discovery, not following a road map.

No. There's as much to discover on the microcosmic level as there is on the macrocosmic. A careful listening to a single vein of music, if it's fertile enough, can provide as much fuel as a scattershot approach.

3. Listing is something you do when you walk back to your cabin after drinking to forget that the ship is about to capsize.

Well, number 3 on a list is always tough to think of, but mea culpa for this clumsy metaphor.

4. Inclusiveness doesn't work. The more people you ask to help produce a list, the more the juice is sucked out.

True, unless people are asked to critique each other's choices.

5. The Net's about self-aggrandizement; no one argues with that. Can't ya be a little more subtle about it?

Hey-you talkin' to ME?.

6. It may be possible that someone could go to a friend's house for a listening session and say "Play me your top ten Zoot Sim's records." OK, but there are so many more interesting ways to go from one side to the next that if you actually did spend the night with these 10 albums, I'd recommend seeking treatment for OCDC.

The treatment is coming along nicely, thank you.

7. By reifying the 'experts,' lists decrease, they don't increase, the flow of actual communication. Trust your friend's musical advice, not a stranger online.

Yes, except me.

8. At least keep the list short. The larger the list, the harder it falls.

Jimmy Cliff's lawyers are on my tail.

9. Getting on such lists only misleads musicians into thinking their gigs will improve.

Yes.  It has not been and will never be effective publicity to say:"I was number 9 on Joe M. Figgs' top ten list-but he said the list was in no particular order."

10. You've probably stopped reading this list by now, which only goes to prove my point.

At least I was right about this.

Nature-And Roman Drivers-Abhor a Vacuum

Fifteen of us in the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band (SLSAPS) were in Rome last week to play in Sbandata Romana, a festival of street brass bands from Europe (and us) put together by the band Titubanda.

We brought our music to the people of Rome-not just in the park where the festival was held-but in streets, markets, bars and restaurants...While there is some overlap in the music played by many of the bands-especially funk stuff-the New Orleans tunes and tinge that we bring sounded fresh, resonated strongly and the reception was, well, splendida. 

I encountered a fascinating city: complex, sprawling and gritty, with pieces of different epochs sprouting out of the sidewalks next to and sometimes, on top of one other. 

Although my impressions are essentially uninformed (readers of this blog would expect no less), the city I criss-crossed in trams and buses seemed very similar to the city I saw in Italian movies of the 30's and 40's. Films like Open City, Bicycle Thieves and early Fellini films were called "Neo-realist," but the reality they represent-at least the pictorial reality-seems so much the same today that the word "Neo" might, by this point, be dropped.

It's a city which balances "slack" and the work ethic differently than we do in the U.S. You gotta love that no one seems to actually pay to get on a tram or a bus. On the other hand, new metro construction creeps ahead slowly. There are always archaeological concerns, of course, but financing with almost no ridership revenue has to be a challenge.

People do bustle and hustle. Street life is fast and furious. Nature and Roman drivers abhor a vacuum and any and all available space is immediately filled by two cars or 5 motorbikes. (parking spaces that would here be taken up by 2 SUV's have 6 vehicles in them). 

On the other hand, many places close for 2-3 hours during the afternoon; meeting times are, ah, flexible and pulses, while beating at an urban pace, seem less susceptible to fibrillation. 

Trumping up a conclusion to this meandering piece would only be gilding what was a lily of an experience. Let this stand as a paieon to the great hospitality of our Titubanda hosts, the wonderful spirit of our fellow bands and to the people who understood how lost Patricia and I were (several times), took us under their wings, fed us, comforted us and guided us on our way. Un milion di grazis!

Riff-Master 2000 App (NSA-Approved).

Hemingway-or Charlie Sheen

Ernest Hemingway Foundation, your efforts to rebrand the novelist's image have not gone unnoticed.  OK, so you got Ogilvy and Mather, a fancy-dancy Chicago public relations and advertising firm to take on the campaign pro bono (what better use of a fancy-dancy Chicago p.r. and ad firm's time?), but we at the Institute and our hard working cadre of unpaid interns have brought this idea to a new level by creating-with the help of our friends at the NSA-the Riff-Master 2000 App@

Riffmaster-2000 Magnified 2 Billion X

Here's how it works: Because of our relationship with insiders at the NSA, we are privy to, well, all the information there is. We analyze your phone records, your internet surfing records, your school records. We also talk to the priest who blessed you, the Imam who berated you and the Rabbi who circumcised you.
 
Then, we use our Juicy Logarithms@ and Jumbo Computers@ to cross reference this mountain, this Himalaya of information, with our musical data base.
                      
Put this together with a real-time log of your retinal movements and BOOM: The real sound track of your life. 

This is no one-size-fits-all-muzak-to-make-you-shop-faster-at-Walmart's, baby-This is putting your Prism dollars to work for YOU!

Ok, still not clear? Let me give an example. It's 8:00 AM. Our profile says you average 6.9 hours of sleep per night, with 3.1 average REM cycles and hungover 12.4% of the time. You score 72 on the Whipsnade Grogginess Scale, with sexual proclivities averaging 53 on the Mitchum-Loren Curve.Your playlist starts the first minute before you wake up with Dream, moves you seamlessly to A Day in The Life, No Sleep Blues (depending), Best of the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Touch Me in the Morning, Monday, Monday (maybe)...

Anyway, you get the idea. It completely frees the RIff Lobe of your frontal cortex to perform more important chores, like remembering the name of that rhythm guitar player who so impressed you in a 1975 Meters concert; the kind of thing that would otherwise have woken you up in the middle of the night.

So, act now, before someone hacks into our data base. Oh, but with the NSA, that would be impossible. Ok, take your time. 

Available as a free download, or in the Premium Cortex Implantation version for $99.00 (subject to local taxes).
                                                     

The Institute and the NSA. Unbeatable.

Duplex Mystery Hour: Jelly Roll Morton

The Duplex Mystery Jazz Hour (6-7 PM, WZBC 90.3; stream: WZBC.org) is starting a new series  "I Know the Name, but Why Should I care?" If you have any ideas about whom I should feature in upcoming shows, please let me know.

First up: Jelly Roll Morton. 

Playlist

NORK "Sobbin Blues" from "Sobbin Blues" (Single, Jazz, 1923) on Gennett

Jelly Roll Morton "Grandpa's Spells" from "Grandpa's Spells" (Single, Jazz, 1923) on Gennett

Jelly Roll Morton "King Porter’ Stomp" from Library of Congress recordings, 1938 (with Morton talking).

Edmonia Henderson "Jelly Roll Blues" from "Jelly Roll Blues" (Single, Jazz, 1924) on Gennett

Jelly Roll Morton And His Red Hot Peppers "Blackbottom Stomp" from "Blackbottom Stomp" (Single, Jazz, 1926) on Victor

Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers "Sidewalk Blues" from "Sidewalk Blues" (Single, Jazz, 1926) on Victor

Jelly & Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers "Dr. Jazz" from "Dr. Jazz" (Single, Jazz, 1926) on Electrola

Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers "Kansas City Stomp" from "Kansas City Stomp" (Single, Jazz, 1928) on Bluebird

Jelly Roll Morton And His Orchestra "Courthouse Bump" from "Courthouse Bump" (Single, Jazz, 1929) on Victor

Jelly Roll Morton And His Orchestra "Pretty Lil" from "Pretty Lil" (Single, Jazz, 1929) on Victor

Jelly Roll Morton "Finger Buster" from "Finger Buster" (Single, Jazz, 1938) on US Recording

Jelly Roll Morton "Creepy Feeling" from "Creepy Feeling" (Single, Jazz, 1938) on Blue Star

Jelly Roll Morton's New Orleans Jazzmen "Oh Didn't He Ramble" from "Oh Didn't He Ramble" (Single, Jazz, 1939) on RCA

Jelly Roll Morton "Spanish Swat" from "Spanish Swat" (Single, Jazz, 1938) on Library of Congress

A Duplex Mystery Trombone Show

The Duplex Mystery Jazz Hour with Steve Provizer 05/16/2013 06:00PM to 07:00PM

Listen here.

Miff Mole "Sugar Foot Strut"(1927) on Columbia 

Jack Teagarden "Shine"  (1940) on Hot Record Society

 Glenn Miller "Swanee Shuffle" (1929) on Columbia

Jack Teagarden "Pitchin" (1940) on Commodore

Red Allen "Struttin w. Some Barbq" from "At Newport" (1957) on Verve 

Bennie Green "Euphoria"(1948) on Decca

Oscan Pettiford "Rhumblues" from "Sextet" (Jazz, 1954) on Vogue 

Matthew Gee solos on King Pleasure's "Don't you Worry About Me" from "Golden Days" (Jazz, 1960) on Hifi Jazz 

Curtis Fuller "Rock and Troll"(1957) on Prestige

Bob Brookmeyer "I Believe in You" (Single, Jazz, 1960) on Verve 

Claudio Roditi "Estamos Ahi" from "Live at Keystone Korner" (Jazz, 1983) on Cbs (US) 

Roswell Rudd "Pannonica" (1965) Video

Phil Wilson "Let's Fall in Love" from "Accentuate The Positive" (1995) on Seaside 

Miles, Bird, Armstrong Simulacrum Kits

The marketing orgy at Brilliant Corners Merch, Inc. marches on!

Inspired by the Thelonius Monk Round Midnight watch, we provided SimulacrumKits@ for Louis Armstrong and Charley Parker (see below). Once more, we have forged an unholy metaheuristic liaison, this time with a coven of disaffected Tampa Bay cheerleaders and created The Deluxe Miles Davis Simulacrum Kit. As with all our kits, it allows you to really "get next" this greatest of jazz improvisers. It includes:

1. Discarded Harmon mute stems (8)
2. Alimony check receipts (too many to count)
3. Harem pants (assorted colors)
4. Two roaches from Ferrari 275 ashtray (Davis ownership certified by Price Waterhouse)
5. 1944 Julliard Conservatory of Music freshman beanie
6. 1954 mash note from Bob Weinstock
7. Kind of Blue limited edition totebag
  
If the Davis Estate lawyers come  a-knockin', we're readin to start rockin'!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last summer, inspired by the alliance between Sony and the Miles Davis estate which offered a mouthpiece replica, t-shirts and other fascinating items, we created our own Louis Armstrong Simulacrum Kit. And, we couldn't keep 'em in stock!

Always eager to cater to the whims of the insatiable jazz consumer, we have forged a metaheuristic liaison with a clutch of Ukranian businessmen and created The Deluxe Charlie Parker Simulacrum Kit. It includes:

1. A dental x-ray showing Bird's "upper partials."  
2. A yardbird wing from 1941, preserved in formaldehyde and the wheel from the band bus that probably crushed it.
3. A bottle of Gordon's gin salvaged from the wreckage of the old Birdland, with a letter of provenance from Willy's Liquor Store on 44th St.
4. An early brochure from the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce
5. A box of Dean Benedetti out-takes (so unlistenable that even Ross Russell wouldn't release them, but still...)
6. One oboe reed with a imbedded Mitch Miller moustache hair.

And, for the first 20 buyers, we will throw in shards from the cymbal thrown by Jo Jones in the infamous jam session incident (verification pending).

So act now. Our 'operators' are standing by.

And, as we always say, "it's not re-animation, but it's pretty damn close."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some have castigated the recent alliance between Sony and the Miles Davis estate which offers "A mouthpiece replica of exactly the 'Gustat' Heim 2 model used by Davis especially created by Kanstul," t-shirts and other fascinating items. They even throw in 43 cd's. In fact, those corporate giants don't go nearly far enough in offering a package that can truly bring fans closer to their favorite artists. We have therefore forged a metaheuristic liaison with several Baltic-area businessmen and are delighted to offer the Deluxe Louis Armstrong Simulacrum Kit, composed of:

1. A copy of the gun Armstrong shot off to get sent to the Colored Waif's Home for Boys.
2. A facsimile of the original sisal belt Armstrong used to hold up his pants while delivering coal.
3. A lump of coal.
4. Two half-used packages of Swiss Kriss.
5. A set of 10 designer "do-rags" created in honor of Satchmo's 100th anniversary.
6. An "I Hate Bebop" pin, allegedly worn by Armstrong at an Elks Club meeting in Sept. 1952.
7. A glassene envelope containing a half ounce of muggles that Armstrong forgot he even had.

Act today and we will throw in a re-engineered recording of Armstrong's solos with the King Oliver band, with the rest of that rickety group stripped off and replaced by the same excellent studio musicians Clint Eastwood used to replace Potter, Roach and Haig in the movie "Bird."  Act now. Our 'operators' are standing by. It's not re-animation, but it's pretty damn close.

A Salute to Musicians in the Community

As everyone knows, this was a dismal week here in Boston. The denouement could have been much worse, and we should be grateful for that, but the reverberations will continue for a long time. Bostonians are putting up a brave front, but something like this can't help but linger in our collective psyche. 

There are also ways to rebound from an event like this-lingering tete a tetes over tea or whiskey, bedroom escapades, bowling a couple of strings... Or my favorite: playing or listening to music in the street. 

We had already planned as a band to play on Saturday and we walked onto what was an odd stage, in its way. People had been shut in their houses-under siege, really-for several days. There was still a skittish quality to people's attention. Traffic helicopters drew more than the usual casual glances. Unexpected sudden movements startled more. But, after we finished, we heard how much people had gotten from our music and from our rough, spontaneous choreography and I'm confident that we had helped replenish a vital force that had been drained out of our city.

So too does the music of musicians who go into the streets, the parks, the projects, the nursing homes, the schools-anywhere their communities can access what they have to share. Your work is incredibly important and I dedicate this post to you.

Jazz and hip comedy. April 11 Radio show

"What, me? Worry. Jazz and hip comedy." 6-7 PM WZBC 90.3 FM, stream: wzbc.org 
Featuring Lenny Bruce, Nichols and May, Shelley Berman.

My apologies for not posting the audio file. It was recorded with distortion. Ugh. Here's the playlist:

The Duplex Mystery Jazz Hour (Specialty) with Steve Provizer 04/11/2013 06:00PM to 07:00PM

Clifford Brown “Tiny Capers”

Bob Newhart “Abe Lincoln” from The Button Down Mind Of

Jack Sheldon “Contour”

Lord Buckley “The Train” 
Lambert Hendricks and Ross “Charleston Alley” 

Mike Nichols And Elaine May “Telephone” from An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May

Randy Weston “Lifetime” 

Lenny Bruce “How to Relax Your Colored Friends at Parties” 

Sonny Rollins "Rockabye Your Baby"

Shelley Berman “Woman Hanging From a Ledge” 

George Carlin “Modern Man”

Betty Carter “Frenesi”

That Damned Armstrong Quote

When asked 'what is jazz?' Louis Armstrong said; “If you have to ask, then you'll never know."

This thing shows up all the time-on websites, tweets, facebook. It shows how abysmal and embattled the state of jazz is that people have to self-aggrandize by declaring: “Look at me. I get it. I’m hip. If you don’t get it, hang your aesthetic tail between your legs and get lost.”

Armstrong probably said it. Why not? He said a lot of things. The point is, this quote is as unrepresentative of Pops as any quote you could possibly find. His life was about reaching out; about achieving an emotional connection with as many people as possible. He didn’t separate himself from the unhip. He drew them into his energy.

People, do you really have to use this music as some kind of emotional crutch, like teenagers arguing over their, like, favorite pop star? If you care that new people come into the fold, look at it this way: Non-jazz people are a lot more likely to be drawn to this music if they don't think the people who love it and support it are snotty jerks.

The Roots of Scat

Here is the file of my program of March 21, 2013 that explored the roots of scat singing which, according to no less an authority that Jelly Roll Morton, goes back to the turn of the century.


Here's the Playlist. I guarantee there are people on this playlist that you have never heard.

Jazz Blogs; whither.

Some jazz blogs are straight ahead educational: "Download transcribed solos by Brownie, K.D. Miles, etc." God bless these people.

Most jazz blogs do the work of 'exposing' the music-"The Fearless Fosdyke Four will be at the Bluze and Brew Tavern/Festival/Restaurant this weekend. Don't miss it." Or: "You'll want to check out the FFF's latest CD release on the Gasoid label, available at Amazon/ Walmart/CD Baby/iTunes..." It works better if they post audio or video of the group in question.

Similar blogs, but with more critique, give you a blow by blow of concerts or cd's. These are almost always self-selecting for material the reviewer likes, so seldom is heard a discouraging word. This is often the home of The Top Ten List (see my other post on this menace).

Then, there are interview-oriented sites: "When last heard of, 33 years ago, Desmond LaBrea was on the road with the Jules Verne Aquanauts. We discovered him making baignets in Paduka and asked him why he left the world of riffing for the world of sifting..."

In the blogs above, there is often room for exploring jazz esoterica, i.e.: How many jazz groups have been named after lesser tributaries of the Snake River? I love that stuff.

Then, there are jazz blogs that are more 'meta.' They ask questions and may suggest solutions: "What's up with jazz? Where is the audience? Where's the money going?" "Let's do a Jazz IPO." It is in this arena that the rough-and-tumble lurking in the hearts of jazz people sometimes breaks out. I find the level of emotional engagement here seductive and enjoy this arena. This is where we get closest to experiencing personal agendas, but mostly, the emotion remains subtext, and infuses formal discussions on the redistribution of money, etc...

I have had a long musical life, marked with some pleasure, some pain and, at this point, a feeling of having read the same newspaper headlines over and over. I think this experience helps me sniff out magical thinking. Others see me as cynic. Both views are correct. We're all subject to the vagaries of age, temperament, career success, sex life-It's the human thing and, to the extent that the jazz blog world reflects this ungodly mess, I say it is better for it.

Some say the old battle between the Beboppers and the Moldy Figs was bad for jazz. Don't know. I think it was a reflection of the emotional importance that the music once had in many people's lives. Most homicide victims fall to the hand of someone they love, or once loved. By the same token, you're probably more likely to jump into swirling currents for the adored one. I'm not sure how many jazz bloggers I'd take the plunge for, but that's another story.

Mute-a-bility (Pt.3) by Steve Provizer

Mute regrets, I've had a few. Like, Why did the great Roy Eldridge start using a harmon mute?

Roy's tone was a pile-driver; epic, a mover of mountains. It vibrated at the highest energies. Just listen to what I think is the ripest performance in the history of swing:

National Rock Association (NRA)

http://nyti.ms/14kaYCs

Recently, controversy has arisen over our efforts to introduce young people to the joys of rock throwing. Many of us in the NRA grew up in urban environments with an large indigenous supply of rocks and ample, safe targets that could be used by young people for healthy sport. It is our responsibility to pass on the joys of rock throwing to the next generation and, in the process, give our youth the chance to develop the kinds of physical, mental and ethical skills that will serve them so well later in life. 

We know that this healthy, deeply American process is being threatened, but we won't sit back and let that happen.

Instead, we have raised money to purchase abandoned factories and made the windows available for target practice. We have brought thousands of de-commissioned street lights to our compounds so that young people can exercise their minds and bodies in the same way that ancient Greeks would train to throw the javelin. 



We have designed a fabrication system that quickly renders a realistic 3-D target of the thrower's brothers and sisters. This adds verisimilitude to the process and our psychologists say it can help defuse sibling rivalries. 

There are ignorant people who don't know the difference between a hand rock, a hunting stone and an assault boulder and it is the misplaced moral judgements of these pathetic liberals that threatens to force rock throwing into a dark, uncontrolled underworld environment, where the building of satanic stone cairns and altars can flourish. 

Finally, we have begun stockpiling rocks as a necessary hedge against secret governmental plans to confiscate all rocks. We can and will fight this threat. The hulking monster that is our government daily threatens our precious independence, but we must take inspiration from the biblical story of Davis and Goliath; a story that shows us the continuing need to defend our right to bear rocks.

"Alan Lomax," briefly reviewed

 Author John Szwed, who has also done bios of Miles Davis and Sun Ra, does an excellent job of delineating the work of Alan Lomax; work which altered the landscape of American music. Lomax doggedly sought out musicians in remote areas and prisons and brought their music to light-live, through radio, film and television. He was an early advocate of the need to provide a socio-political context for the music, which changed the approach of music archivists both in the US and abroad. He championed civil rights and tirelessly promoted the work of unknown musicians. 

Lomax was a driven, complicated man, who seems to have been as busy internally as he was externally. He was a risk-taker who was both inspired by and psychically somewhat intimidated by his father John. His sexual/romantic/family life was extremely complicated. He turned to and championed the talking cure. Despite his many successes and wide cultural acceptance, he remained broke his whole life. While elucidating an inner life is challenging, I would have liked Szwed to have put a little more meat on those particular bones. 

That said, this book does a fine job of showing us the power of Lomax's work. To some of us, more preoccupied with jazz, Alan and John Lomax are names we recognize and associate with folk music, but as this biography shows, Lomax pere et fils played a very important role in the preservation and presentation of several styles of American music-especially African-American music. A highly recommended read.

Sing Along WIth Diz

Brew reminds us that this year marks 20 years since the death of Dizzy Gillespie-one of the great souls of jazz. 

Some time ago, I wrote words for every note of Dizzy's amazing 1945 solo on I Can't Get Started. I invite you all to listen and to sing along, using my lyrics. If you don't know the solo, there's a lot of notes and it's a challenge. I've tried to notate it in a way that makes sense musically. Give it a shot and try as often as you like. If you get it down, record it and send it to me and I'll gleefully post your rendition. Tell your vocalist friends.

Long live Diz.


INTRO

Someone teach me to win;

Don’t know how to begin;

I’m getting desperate to capture your heart,

Won’t believe that I can’t make you love me.

All my dreams are of you I fear,

The promise of your love brings me through

Days on my own,

My fate so unknown, depends on you alone.

Though many days have passed I still can’t

CHORUS

Start to prove that I love you.

Doesn’t seem right or fair, that the

Things I do aren’t convincing you,

You’re all I need, don’t you believe me.

Everything I say and I do is just to

Show you and to convince you;

Endlessly I search for new

Hills to climb. Wars to win, worlds to conquer.

Flying around the world

And outposts I’ve charted,

Don’t mean a damn with you,

Why is it so,

My exploits leave you cold?

I’m doing it all, hoping you fall, breaking the wall, give me a call,

Telling me you’ll always care;

And that you’ll always be near.

You’re still su--

BRIDGE

--preme to me,

Lyrics I write of you, still scheming to

See you night and day.

I see your face in every flower and your

Eyes in stars that shine above.

Obsessed with trying to possess you and caress you,

Feel your touch so tender and loving, beautiful eyes looking into mine,

Hoping that you’ll trust that I’m willing to share all I own and that I love you with-

My body and soul, such a hard road.

Don’t ever believe I would deceive or mistreat you, run you around,

Only sounds I want to greet you with is

Joyful, tell you that my heart’s full.

Notes that are true and fine, listen to them,

Say that you’ll be mine.

CODA

Remember that it’s not what I say or I do,

But how I feel.

Please try to find the

Meaning inside all the foolish things I say and do.

Open up your heart,

Let me get started, with you.

1950's Trumpets #4: Tony Fruscella

There's an ongoing discussion in jazz about the playing vectors represented by Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke and how these manifested through succeeding generations of trumpet players. How does a player use techniques like range, articulation and dynamics to favor melody and cool like Bix, or power and heat, like Louis?

The differences between schools are often exaggerated. After all, Pops knew melody and Bix did not lack fire, which makes placing most players squarely in one school or another difficult. Tony Fruscella, on the other hand, was clearly a child of Bix.

A brief recap shows that, in the Swing era, most players came from the Armstrong power vector-Roy Eldridge, Harry James, Charlie Shavers, Bunny Berigan, Rex Stewart... At the same time, though, there were players who, often choosing the cornet, stayed closer to Bix-Bobby Hackett, Wingy Manone, Billy Butterfield, Wild Bill Davison...

Bop trumpet players came more from power and technique-Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Howard McGhee, Red Rodney, Sonny Berman. Miles Davis had technique, but edged more toward the Bix side of the ledger. The lineage of the "West Coast" players really comes from Bix and Miles. Of these, Chet Baker became the most well known.

Chet had very good chops, although he didn't have the top register that's associated with the Armstrong vector. However, his playing (more true in his earlier days) was strong and well articulated throughout his range.

If Bix, Miles and Baker diminished the importance of power over melody, Fruscella disregarded it almost completely.