Where's the Beef?

Late Captain Beefheart, 1973-1982:  It's what's for dinner.

By "late"I refer not to the death of Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, in 2010, but rather to the second half of his recording career, from 1973 to his final recording in 1982 (and perhaps with a glimpse beyond).

Like many other Beef enthusiasts, I regard his early recordings as his best, with Trout_Mask Replica at the top of my list.  In an earlier post I discussed my pleasure with the Magic Band's pair of 1972 albums, The Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot.  If within Beefheart's short career one can speak of the end of one era and the beginning of another, the ensuing CD was just that in the story of the Captain's remarkable vocation in music.

One footnote:  I cringe when I see Beefheart hailed as "the greatest white bluesman;" what has ethnicity got to do with it?  Better to say he was one of the best.  Nevertheless, by 1966 the master of the 12-bar began to go off the rails into uncharted territory. 

THE RADAR STATION, Gateway to All Things Vliet. 

• Unconditionally Guaranteed (Virgin/ EMI, 1973)

The Magic Band:  Zoot Horn Rollo, Alex St. Clair, gtrs; Rockette Morton, b; Mark Marcellino, kybds; Art Tripp, d; augmented by co-producer Andy DeMartino, acoustic gtr; Del Simmons, ts, flute.

The year 1973 was bad for my faves:  I had already heard the Beach Boys' Holland  and the Kinks' Preservation Act 1.  And now this.

I certainly wasn't the only fan to feel this way.  Captain Beefheart's audience, already a  relatively tiny cult, was hugely disappointed by this unabashed sell-out and grew even smaller.  Their expectations had been built on all that had come before, especially Trout Mask Replica.  From the drums (Art Tripp) on up, most of the album sounded numbingly ordinary.  And the cover portrait of Beefheart grasping wads of cash didn't help.

But without such expectations, the album sounds more interesting than it did when first released. Comprising ten tracks, it runs to barely 31 minutes.  All songs are credited to Don and Jan Van Vliet and Andy DeMartino.

"Upon the My-O-My," "Full Moon, Hot Sun," and "Peaches" work out fairly well, but the rest is hardly worth hearing.  Worse, the album seemed to signal that everything truly magic about the Magic Band had disappeared.

TRS Portal:  Unconditionally Guaranteed

• Bluejeans & Moonbeams (Virgin/ EMI, 1974)

The Tragic Band:  Ira Ingber, b; Gene Pello, d; Mark Gibbons, kybds; Dean Smith, gtr; Michael Smotherman, backing voc, kybds; Jerry Caravan, kybds; Ty Grimes, perc; Bob West, b on "Observatory Crest"; Nick Danger, third eye.

TRS Portal:  Bluejeans & Moonbeams

This record was even more widely reviled than its predecessor.  So bad was its reputation, I myself didn't own a copy until a few years ago.

None of the so-called  "Tragic Band" members seems to have a page on Wiki; apparently, not one of them had a notable career in music.

After the release of Unconditionally Guaranteed, The Magic Band-- Art Tripp, Rockette Morton, Alex St. Clair, and Zoot Horn Rollo--  resigned en masse shortly before a tour of the U.S. and Europe was to start.  Don Van Vliet's new managers, Andy and Augie DiMartino, desperately assembled a new, polyglot "Magic Band" for this recording session in North Hollywood and a 1974 tour.  All of the musicians left the band after the tour, and it seemed perhaps that Captain Beefheart's career had come to an end; maybe he was just a novelty like Tiny Tim.

This recording is the pits.  Everything is played in 4:4 time by a totally conventional rock band and released as a totally conventional production (by Andy DiMartino, who had also produced Unconditionally Guaranteed).  Most tellingly, the drummer here is completely unequipped to handle real Captain Beefheart  music, because drums are key to Beefheart's music.  His own vocals, on the other hand, are first class.  One wonders how this release might have sounded if the real Magic Band had handled it.

All selections, except "Same Old Blues" (J. J. Cale), were composed or co-composed by Don Van Vliet.

A few of the selections are worth hearing, even if they only suggest what might have been with the true Magic Band.

Here's a quick rundown:

• "Party of Special Things to Do" features slide guitar work by Dean Smith

"Same Old Blues"  With Smotherman on backing vocal it trips along, just as the title says:  same old, same old.  It somehow reminds me of "Too Much Time," with the addition of synthetic mice.

• "Observatory Crest"contains a narrative:  A couple escapes the city.  So what?

• "Pompadour Swamp"resembles "Clear Spot" in theme and execution.  It might have stood a chance with the real Magic Band.

• "Captain's Holiday"  Perhaps the title refers to the absence of a Van Vliet Vocal.  When his mouth harp finally does appear in the song's tag line, it is buried under a female group backing vocal crooning, "Ooh, Captain, Captain..."  I'm afraid Walt Whitman is spinning in his grave.

• "Rock 'n Roll's Evil Doll"

Narration of a reluctant seduction by the title character.  Ho hum.

• "Farther Than We've Gone"

Ballad with a synthesized string quartet.

• "Twist Ah Luck"

Recalls "Clear Spot" (the song) with its long guitar solo and an outstanding mouth harp performance. Even the background singers are tolerable.  This track nearly redeems the album.

• "Bluejeans and Moonbeams"

Stately synth string arrangement intro; effective, poetic song.

Zappa/ Beefheart,  Bongo Fury (Ryko, 1975)

Personnel:    Frank Zappa, lead gtr, vocal; Captain Beefheart, harp, vocal, shopping bags (+ soprano sax); George Duke,  kybds, vocal;  Napoleon Murphy Brock, sax, vocal; Bruce Fowler, tb, fantastic dancing; Tom Fowler, b, also dancing; Denny Walley, slide gtr, vocal; Terry Bozzio, drums, moisture; Chester Thompson, d. on "200 Years Old" and "Cucamonga." 


As a slight reprieve from the responsibility of leading his own band, Beefheart took the opportunity to travel with Frank Zappa and the Mothers on their 1975 tour.  He sings two of Frank's songs ("Debra Kadabra" and "Poofter's Froth Wyoming," a mordant satire of America's upcoming Bicentennial) and two poems of his own, done in the style of recitation rather than song: "Sam with the Showing-Scalp Flat Top" (whom I take to be an ordinary grasshopper, spitting up "tobacco juice") and "Man with the Woman Head." Both selections are punctuated by Zappa's wheezy, sleazy band.

Most of the album was recorded live at Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin TX, on May 20 and 21, 1975.

TRS Portal:  Bongo Fury

• Bat Chain Puller... puller puller (Zappa, 1976; released 2012)

The Magic Band:  Jeff " Moris" Tepper, gtr; Denny "Feelers Rebo" Walley, gtr; John Thomas, kybds, Moog bass; John "Drumbo" French, d, gtr (on 3 selections). 

Although  Bat Chain Puller  was recorded in 1976; because of legal complications, not until 2012 was it finally released.

The album per se consists of twelve tracks, as shown below; three additional bonus tracks include an alternate take of the title tune, "Candle Mambo" and, as a separate production, "Hobo-ism," a rustic narration in a primitive style of a crime of passion.

Because ten of these tracks were re-recorded with a larger band for Beefheart's ensuing studio albums,  I will comment on them in the context of those albums.  Minus those ten tunes, we are left with"Ah Carrot Is As Close As Ah Rabbit Gets to Ah Diamond," an instrumental, and "Seam Crooked Sam,"which begins:

The mule kicked off a new one
and the stockings ran up Seam Crooked Sam
bandana frock stuffed with smoke
and ears out flopped like bowlin' pins
hog troughs hocked and walleyed in cool mud bins
and patent leather hooves
split in twos

(Another asset of this set is that it contains a booklet with contributions from session participants John French and Denny Walley.  Fast and bulbous:  Got me?)

TRS Portal:  Bat Chain Puller

Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (Enigma Retro/ Straight, 1978)

The Magic Band:  Richard Redus, gtrs, accordion, fretless bass; Eric Drew Feldman, kybds; Jeff MorisTepper, gtr; Bruce Fowler, tb; Robert Williams, d, perc, with Mary Jane Eisenberg, "shake bouquet."


Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller), Captain Beefheart's first release in three years, was co-produced by Don Van Vliet and Pete Johnson as Shiny Beast Productions.

They did a marvelous job, making full use of the studio.  Van Vliet receives the sole writing credit for each tune, except for "Owed T'Alex," in which the credit is shared with the mysterious Herb Bermann, whose last writing credits with Beefheart appeared more than a decade earlier on Safe As Milk.

Five of these titles were carried forward from the original Bat Chain Puller, plus "Candle Mambo,"to wit:

• "The Floppy Boot Stomp" tells a tale of mythological proportions about a farmer's struggle with the Devil: 

The floppy boot stomped down into the ground

The famed screamed 'n blew the sky off the mountains

Eye sockets looked down on the chest bone mountains

'n the sun dropped down, 'n the moon ran off,

His heels 'n elbows pale as chalk

'n all the comets collided 'n blew t' dust

For fear they'd be seen.

Then comes the band's unison chant to punctuate the story:  "Floppy boot -- stomped down -- to the ground!" countered by Beefheart's mantra:  

'n the sky turned white in the middle of the night

'n the sky turned white in the middle of the night

'n the big floppy boot stomped down into the ground

"Hoodoo hoedown!" the band answers in cadence, as Beefheart nears the denouement: 

"If you fall into my circle again I'll tan your red hide

And dance you on your tail, and pitch you from now to now

Pitch you from now to now."

And the hot lick kicked 'n the fire leaped and licked.

And the hot lick kicked 'n the fire leaped and licked

And the hot lick kicked an' the fire just leaping' an' lickin'

And the fire leaped and licked.

• "Apes-Ma" is identical to the track featured on the original Bat Chain Puller.  It consists of an a capella recitation lasting 39 seconds.  In essence, it's a denunciation of our species, but I've learned not to take it personally.

• "Harry Irene" were a couple that lived in the green, ran a canteen, and otherwise apparently led an entirely uninteresting life, leading to the ontological question:

What does this mean?

What does this mean?

What is the meaning of this?

Poor Harry, I guess.

whereupon Van Vliet whistles a little tag, over and out.

• "Bat Chain Puller," in this sextet version becomes more intricate than its predecessor,  but not fundamentally different.  The repetitive, otherworldly complaint  (issuing from God knows what instrument) across the background remain from the original, alongside:

A chain with yellow lights

That glistens like oil beads

On its slick smooth trunk

That trails behind on tracks, and thumps

A wing hangs limp and retrieves

This chain morphs into 

This train with grey tubes that houses people's thoughts,

Their very remains and belongings.

As in so many previous Magic Band accompaniments, this version of the tune is  highlighted by an all-out guitar duel between Tepper and Redus.  "Owed T'Alex" is most notable for the Captain's workout on the mouth harp.  He still had his chops.

• "Candle Mambo," which was a bonus track on the 1976 recording, adds a marimba (played, of course, by  Ed Marimba),  a new tint in the Magic Band's tonal palette.

"New" titles include:

• "Tropical Hot Dog Night," like two flamingoes in a food fight, another of the Captain's salacious lyrics, set to marimba.
• "Ice Rose," an instrumental featuring Fowler's trombone before an avant-garde accompaniment.
• "Love Lies," a song of anxieties and regrets, taken at a slow, loping tempo.  Don delivers an exceptionally fervent vocal.
• "Suction Prints" is a rip-roaring, full blast instrumental a la "Hair Pie," with Don on saxophone.
• "You Know You're a Man" rocks.  (Naturally, it reminds one of "Nowadays, a Woman Gotta Hit a Man," just to show she's there.)
• "When I See Mommy, I Feel Like a Mummy" is  eerily recited to the band's chant, "mummy, mummy, mummy; mommy, mommy, mommy."

TRS Portal:  Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)

• I'm Going to Do What I Wanna Do  (Rhino Handmade, limited edition, 1978, released 2000)

The Magic Band:  same personnel as Shiny Beast.

This two-disc recording offers a live performance at My Father's Place in Long Island, New York.  As seen below, the setlist offers the full gamut of Beefheart's music, from Safe as Milk to Shiny Beast.  The sound quality is first-rate, and the Magic Band is at its best.  The title is taken from a remark Van Vliet made to a rude audience member who interfered with his performance.

Because the recording is too long for a single disc, there are two, but not as one might expect; the first disc delivers the entire concert, exclusive of its ten-minute encore, which is featured on the second disc.  The silk-screening art on both discs is uber-cool.

TRS Portal:  I'm Going to Do What I Wanna Do (Live at My Father's Place 1978)

•  Doc at the Radar Station (Virgin, 1980)

The Magic Band:  Jeff Moris Tepper gtr; Gary Lucas, gtr, french horn; Eric Drew Feldman, kybds; Robert Williams,  d; Bruce Fowler, tb;  John French (Drumbo), multi-instrumentalist, d.  on two tracks.

This set from 1980 featured most of the same players who had accompanied Van Vliet since Bat Chain Puller, plus the return of John French, who takes the drums for "Ashtray Heart" and "Sheriff of Hong Kong."  As always, the drums keep the whole project afloat, with movements within songs and changing textures throughout.

This time around, more tunes from the Bat Chain stockpile were re-recorded, "A Carrot Is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond," "Flavor Bud Living," both instrumentals, and "Brickbats," a fireplace-inspired vision of bats, upside down, squeaking and roasting.

"Owed T'Alex" reappears with its Western fantasy:

Sparks, tattoos, two tats and a toot

Helmets, crosses, and a patch to boot

Engine hot, pipes burn white

Glad I'm not home tonight

Five miles back I took a spill

-- Thought I almost paid my bill

Makin' my putt to Carson City.

Among the new titles here, two immediately grab the attention, "Hot Head" and "Ashtray Heart," both performed on Saturday Night Live (check the videos above).

• Ice Cream for Crow (Virgin, 1982)

The Magic Band:  Captain Beefheart, vocals, harmonica, soprano sax, Chinese gongs, prop horn; Jeff Moris Tepper, steel appendage gtr, slide gtr, acoustic gtr; Richard "Midnight Hatsize" Snyder, bass gtr, marimba, viola; Gary Lucas, glass-finger gtr, slide gtr, gtr, National steel duolian; Cliff R. Martinez, d, shake bouquet, glass washboard, metal d; Eric Drew Feldman, Rhodes pno, synth b.

End of the road for Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band, their thirteenth and final studio album.  From Bat Chain Puller, two more selections were released: "81 Poop Hatch" was a direct transfer from the original tape, while "The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole," yet one more excoriation of our species, was re-recorded with an expanded band personnel.

The more recent compositions were still more interesting.  The title tune, of course, would have been more aptly rendered "I Scream for Crow":

don't shake my hand
give me your claw
two tears in a haystack
scarecrow get back.

"The Host the Ghost the Most Holy O" lopes along on a chant of the title behind Captain Beefheart's recitation; "Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat" features an ever-changing background riff which may remind one of "Pena" from Trout Mask.  And, of course, "The Past Sure Is Tense" (appealing to my pedantic disposition) might better be rendered "The Pasture Is Tense" to mirror the title track.

There is a hint of something new in the instrumentals, "Semi-Multicoloured Caucasian,"and  "Evening Bell" (a short guitar solo); several tracks-- "Ink Mathematics,""The Witch Doctor Life"-- seemed to harken back to the rough-and-tumble backgrounds the old Magic Bands used to produce. 

ADDENDUM:  Pearls Before Swine, Ice Cream for Crows

SOME MONTHS AGO,  I had occasion to introduce this rather odd booklet and its accompanying CD.  The disc consists of six selections, purportedly from about 1989 to the early '90s, all featuring Don Van Vliet reciting poems of his own, including "Falling Ditch" and "Skeleton Makes Good," both well-known from his recordings.

To one degree or another, all the tracks reveal Don's decline, particularly his inability to speak as he once had.  I first heard Pearls with little idea of what had happened to the erstwhile Captain Beefheart  in the interval between his final record release and the appearance of this CD, although I understood he had turned to the visual arts to express his particular weltanschauung.  It was hard to listen to Don's halting speech and sad to remember the great Beefheart, whose voice could peel paint off walls  at fifty yards. 

 RIP, Don.

***************

STOP THE PRESSES!

Apropos my mention a few months ago of this album in LP form, I received today the first U.S. release of any kind and the first CD remastering of Alice Babs and Duke Ellington, Serenade to Sweden.  I'm so excited, I haven't yet removed the shrink-wrap.  I just stare at it.

**************************

In my rotation:  (NB:  I must confess that my writing can't nearly keep up with my daily listening.  I have notes from the past few months I haven't used, and, sadly, perhaps never will.  But I'll keep on trying.  --The Management)

• Ravi Coltrane, Spirit Fiction (Blue Note, 2012)

collective personnel:  Joe Lovano, ts; Luis Perdomo, p; Drew Gress, b; E.J. Strickland, d; Ralph Alessi, tp; Geri Allen, p; James Genus, b; Eric Harland, d.

I met Ravi a few months ago, when he played Joe Segal's joint in Chi, the Jazz Showcase.

This set is more Ornette than Trane-oriented, contrary to what one might expect; one tune, in fact,  was written by Ornette, another by Paul Motian,  three by trumpeter Ralph Alessi,  and the rest by the leader.  The selections are performed mainly by Ravi's regular quartet, along with appearances by guest artists Joe Lovano, Geri Allen, and trumpeter Ralph Aleppi.

All of the tunes are explorations of tempo and rhythm.  Geri Allen, especially in the ensembles, lends a sort of '60s Blue Note avant-garde vibe to the sessions; a well-chosen track order enhances contrasts in mood.

The first track, Ravi's "Roads Cross," appears to have no set theme; it drifts up and down like a flag caught in the wind.  In his solo, Coltrane deftly quotes "Lift Up Your Voice and Sing."  Alessi's "Klepto," on the other hand, possesses form enough to allow the players to interact contrapuntally.
Probably the group plays at its best when joined by Lovano and Allen, on Paul Motian's "Fantasm," which features both tenor saxes on a draggy, liquid theme.

The Great Lost Kinks Album/The Kink Kronikles (Reprise, 1973, 1972)

The Great Lost Kinks Album, released in 1973 only in the U.S. to fulfill the Kinks' contract upon their leaving the Reprise label for RCA, has never been reissued in any form, while The Kink Kronikles was released worldwide in 1972 and has been reissued on compact disc.  Both compilations feature hard-to-find singles and B-sides recorded between 1966 and 1970.  Some of the selections on Great Lost were never previously released until the deluxe CD versions of albums from the same time frame have appeared in recent years.

My disc is a compilation of the two compilations, omitting the tracks that appeared on the Kinks' "regular" albums, from Face to Face through Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One.  I listen to this do-it-myself disc often, because it contains recordings made during what I consider their most fertile and creative period.  While not all the tunes are of equal quality, some of them-- "Til Death Do Us Part," "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," "Autumn Almanac," and "Big Black Smoke," and Dave Davies solo recordings that were not issued at the time they were made, to name a few-- are indispensable.

*

NB:  There is one negative observation I must make about The Great Lost Kinks Album, and it is important enough, for me at least, to cast a shadow across my memories of the Kinks.  Side Two of the LP begins with a song called, "When I Turn Off the Living Room Light."  Here is the opening verse:

Who cares if you're Jewish, and your breath smells of garlic
And your nose is a shiny red light?
To me you are gorgeous, and everything's right,
When I turn off the living room light.

I've read apologies for this verse that maintain that the main intent of the lyric is not to denigrate Jews, but rather to propose the idea that no one is ugly in the dark.  Yes, I understand the message of the song, but it bothers me even more that its anti-Semitism is delivered so casually, as if it is commonly understood that the song's audience considers all Jews ugly.  How would it go over if, instead, the lyric went, "Who cares if you're Negro, or Asian, or Danish"?

• 

• Duke Ellington, 1899-1974 (MF, 1958-1971)

This 1980s compilation, taken from Ellington's "stockpile" recordings and released after his death, originally consisted of five LPs, which I have crammed into three CDs.  The program contains a cornucopia of studio and live recordings amassed over the years, ranging from about 1959 up to 1973.  Although I do not regularly listen to it (there are so many other great Ellington records), I'm glad to have acquired it, thanks to eBay.  Throughout, the music is excellent and well-recorded.

By the way, the MF designation of the label refers to Manheim Fox, who, at the time of the set's release, was the agent for Duke's music.

Carole King, The Carnegie Hall Concert, Jun 18, 1971 

When this concert took place, King was still riding high on the huge success of her most recent album, Tapestry, so it is not surprising that many of the tunes performed were taken from that album, one of the finest recordings of all time (I almost wish that she had sung the entire album).  At the time, she often expressed disdain for her own voice; she must have felt overwhelmed by the popularity she had gained, after having recorded only her second solo album:  from Brill Building songsmith to "singer-songwriter," a genre that she practically invented.

• Christian McBride, Conversations with Christian (Mack Avenue, 2011)

I received this album courtesy of my friend, Bloy.  All thirteen tunes were recorded as duets.  The first track, "Afrika," introduces Angelique Kidjo :  shades of Miriam Makeba!  Along the rest of the way, McBride teams with such luminaries as violinist Regina Carter ("Fat Bach and Greens"), trumpeter Roy Hargrove,  Dr.  Billy Taylor (whose gorgeous, chromatic piano accompaniment under McBride's walking bass provides lyricism  to "Spiritual"), Hank Jones, George Duke, Chick Corea, and-- brace yourself-- Sting.  As a rule, albums of this sort do not appeal to me, but this one is worth hearing.

•  Gary Burton Quartet, Duster (RCA, 1967)

Burton, vib., Larry Coryell, gtr; Steve Swallow, b; Roy Haynes, d.

I have always enjoyed listening to the music of Gary Burton, from the late '60s particularly.  Here is one I probably heard soon after it came out.  It sounds like no other quartet, and there is no better introduction than this one.

The production here, well-recorded with plenty of echo, suits the vibraphone particularly well.  Most of the tunes are rather short, yet they afford quite a lot of room for experimentation, in slow tempos ("Sweet Rain," "Sing Me Softly of the Blues") and fast ("Portsmouth Figurations,"), unusual time signatures and forms ("Ballet" is a fast 3:4 blues, while "General Mojo's Well-Laid Plan" is played almost as a tango.  "Response," without chord changes, builds a melody out of rhythmic stops and starts,  and "Liturgy" is a Latin-tinged steamer.  Burton, his instrument at one moment a veritable locomotive and at another a delicate, shimmering surface, explores territory new to the vibes; Coryell, his young partner in the front line, is all over his instrument as well, accepting Burton's challenges and, at times, going him one better.

At this point in his career, Steve Swallow was still playing the standup double bass, arco as well as pizzicato; Roy Haynes was at his peak of performance, lending his kit fully to Burton's conceptions.

• Gary Burton Quartet, Lofty Fake Anagram/ A Genuine Tong Funeral (RCA, 1967)

On Lofty Fake Anagram:   Burton, vib; Larry Coryell, gtr; Steve Swallow, b; Bob Moses, d.  On A Genuine Tong Funeral, add Carla Bley, pno, organ, conductor; Steve Lacy, ss; Gato Barbieri, ts; Jimmy Knepper, tbn; Michael Mantler, tp; Howard Johnson, tuba, baritone sax.

Lofty Fake Anagram presents Coryell's working band at the time it was made.  As before, creative arrangements and the use of acoustic instruments give the project, as a whole, a certain texture throughout.  Burton contributes "Lines," an Elizabethan masque that quickly accelerates into a dialogue between vibes and guitar, "The Beach," a tumbling theme with an odd rhythm, and "Good Citizen Swallow," a feature for the bassist.  Other tunes were contributed by Swallow, Terry Gibbs, Carla Bley, and Duke Ellington ("Fleurette Africaine," from the Maestro's trio session with Charles Mingus and Max Roach).

The larger group on A Genuine Tong Funeral performs Carla Bley's "dark opera without words," a ten-part foray into experimental forms and rhythms.

• Harold Land, The Fox (OJC/ Contemporary, 1958)

Here's Harold Land at his best, and that alone is reason to celebrate, but this album offers a rare session that includes Dupree Bolton on trumpet.  Together these two are a formidable pair, and the rhythm section offered the great Elmo Hope on piano, Herbie Lewis on bass, and the drummer present on innumerable L.A. sessions, Frank Butler.

• Wanda Jackson, Vintage Collections

Country?  Rock 'n' roll?  Rockabilly?  It doesn't really matter how you categorize her; Wanda Jackson was a marvel.  Thanks to the music collection at LCPL, I discovered this disc not very long ago while on one of my frequent forays into their catalog.

• Sivuca, Forte Norte (SOM/ Tropical Music, 1979-1982)

I bought this disc at Rose Records in Chicago, at the suggestion of my brother's friend, David Kirsch.  At the time I was just beginning my passionate exploration of Brazilian music, but it had involved vocalists exclusively.

This is an excellent compilation of Sivuca's recordings for the SOM label and a good introduction to a monster accordionist in interesting combinations.

I'm pretty certain that among all my discs, I have no other record by an accordionist.  Too many Polish weddings, I guess.

Joe Sixpack's Guide to Brazilian Music is da bomb!

Our Car Club:

Mary Lou Williams,  Zoning (Mary/ Smithsonian Folkways, 1975)

One of her last studio recordings, Zoning stands out among Mary's many wonderful recordings.  In my automobile, it has usurped the place of her Zodiac Suite, not because that was anything less, but since I was over-familiar with it, I wanted to listen to something new.

I first found Zoning in the 1970s, not many years after it was recorded.  Mary drenched nearly everything she played with the spirit of the blues, and this is no exception; yet it sounds forward-looking and modern even now.  Her accompanists on most tracks include Bob Cranshaw on bass and Micky Roker on drums, with Zita Carno playing second piano in two instances; on the rest, Mary is accompanied by Milton Suggs on bass and Tony Waters on bongos (although the notes say he's playing congas).  On the Smithsonian reissue, there are extra titles and a different track order from the original LP on Mary's own label.

I most enjoy the composition "Gloria," which appears in two different versions on the Smithsonian reissue.  The title isn't someone's name, but rather a portion of the liturgy, without words, from  Mary Lou's Mass from the previous decade.  Its effect is thrilling, as are the other titles in the collection.

Willie "The Lion" Smith, Piano Solos (Commodore, 1939)

This was an easy pick for my Elantra Collection.   What a thrill to be listening to these tunes after quite a while, especially "The Lion's" own compositions, "Morning Air," "Echoes of Spring," "Concentration," and five more.  On the remaining tracks, Smith performs his own takes on such pop standards as "Tea for Two," "Stormy Weather," and "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea."  He had a style all his own, forceful yet exquisitely delicate, and this recording contains some of his very best playing.

Like many people my age or younger, I made the acquaintance of The Lion via the recommendation of his famous protege, Duke Ellington.

There is no shortage of recordings by Smith, but at least half of them feature him in a supporting role in small combos, and I favor by far his solo recordings.  Beyond that, The Lion was a prolific composer, and his own compositions are without peer.   Here he performs some of his best, along with a set of standards and two-piano exercises.

• Rosemary Clooney,  Do You Miss New York? (Concord, 1992)

Thanks again to the music collection at LCPL, I rediscovered Rosy in the latter days of her career, among which she made many recordings for the Concord label.  The years between her youthful hits of the '50s and these made her a better singer, especially in a jazz context, as here.

NEXT:  Zoot Sims

Grammar & Grampar

Some time ago, I railed against the increasingly common trend of turning nouns into verbs-- impacting, transitioning, referencing, etc.-- but that has nothing to do with grammar; it is instead a matter of usage and the unavoidable tendency of the language to change over time.  Usage is the device by which, as "educated" people, we may adhere to Standard English.  However important this may be, usage has nothing to do with one's essential meaning.  Usage is therefore meaningful only in the context of how we are judged as speakers or writers.

Grammar, on the other hand, allows speakers of a language to express thought and enables thought to be understood, by oneself as well as others.  It is absolutely essential to language as communication and hence to our existence as human beings.  We learn grammar as we learn to speak, not in a classroom.

With this distinction in mind, I wish to attack a common pedagogical assumption which has held sway in the teaching of English over at least the past thirty years, namely that the teaching of the rules of grammar, as such, is useless and even harmful to the teaching of writing.  The foremost proponent of this view in the U.S. is nothing less than the National Council of Teachers of English.*

To the NCTE, it has become almost an article of faith to leave grammar (by which, as we shall see, appears to mean both grammar and usage) out of the curriculum.  I will here present some of what professes to prove the benefits of not teaching grammar.

I strongly disagree with the NCTE position and insist that the contrary is true:  Ignorance of the rules not only impedes the teaching of writing; it also impedes the teaching of reading.

(Just a short anecdote before I proceed, from the late years of my own teaching career:  The issue of the teaching of grammar came up once in an English department meeting, and I voiced my disagreement with the NCTE prescription, to no reply.  In attendance was an assistant principal named Marty, and sure enough a fake E-1 notice, the last warning before "termination," appeared in my office mailbox. Hmmmm.)

I cannot claim to have done any original research on this subject, other than my own experience as a student and as a teacher of English for 35 years in the Chicago Public Schools, as well as some part-time experience at the college level.  I should say in advance that I'm not going to the musty stacks to prove my case; but I am willing to explore the issue as far as I can by internet links.

Here is the result of a search ("teaching grammar") on the NCTE website:

Unfortunately, one cannot gain access to these pedagogical secrets without a paid membership in the NCTE.  They seem to be the sole proprietor of everything in their private library.  Now I can see that I'm up against an industry (i.e. a vested interest) dedicated to a false claim.  There is obviously more to the proscription of grammar than what research dissertations purportedly prove.

Here's another shot in the dark from NCTE, which characterizes grammar as "the skunk at the garden party," but surprisingly does not disparage the teaching of grammar.

The good old days.  Let's make America great again!

It appears one must do a Google search to make headway online.  Here are three examples I thought looked promising:

 1.  The Atlantic, Feb. 2014:  Michelle Navarre Cleary, "The Wrong Way to Teach Grammar"

At last, I have discovered an actual text.  And incidentally I find an ad at the Atlantic site that offers a free download, Grammarly, that promises to "[make] sure your writing is easy to read, effective, and mistake-free."  Apparently, the ultimate solution of the problem of not knowing how to write is to have your computer do it for you.  The unspoken assumption of this ad is that good writing is hard, not at all a dreamy episode of letting it all hang out, as the Atlantic article proposes.  And that is the truth.

Here are the article's main assertions and their warrants:

• The author's personal teaching experience confirms that students' nervousness about writing stems from their teachers' vain attempts to instill grammar.
• "A century of research shows that traditional grammar lessons—those hours spent diagramming sentences and memorizing parts of speech—don’t help and may even hinder students’ efforts to become better writers. Yes, they need to learn grammar, but the old-fashioned way does not work."
• This finding-- confirmed in 1984, 2007, and 2012 ... is consistent among students of all ages...  [One] well regarded study followed three groups of students from 9th to 11th grade [two of which received grammar instruction and one that did not].  The result: No significant differences among the three groups-- except that both grammar groups emerged with a strong antipathy to English."
• "... [W]e need to teach students how to write grammatically by letting them write.  Once students get ideas they care about onto the page, they are ready for instruction-- including grammar instruction-- that will help communicate those ideas."

Before undertaking a rebuttal, let's explore some of the article's links.

The first link leads to a blurry view of highlighted selections from a  Handbook of Research in Teaching the English Language Arts and a c.v. of its author, but nothing else; continuing along the links, we are destined to fall into the rabbit hole of another Google search, from which we arrive at an advertisement for the book (cosponsored by the International Reading Association and-- you guessed it, the NCTE), but no substantive text.  We'll have to try again.

Ms. Cleary's 1984 link leads us to an advertisement for an issue of the American Journal of Education and a short description of its contents:  there is not a word in it referring to the teaching of grammar.

The 2007 link connects to something more substantial:  a 31-page article in the Journal of Educational Psychology by Dolores Perin, followed again by a huge bibliography.  Within the article, one finds only two explicit references to the teaching of grammar; both negatively compare it to the activity of "combining sentences."  There is, however, no explanation of how this can be done without such grammatical concepts as compound and complex sentences or an awareness of various types of phrases and subordinate clauses.  The article, moreover, is unlikely to be of use to anyone other than doctoral candidates who can navigate its nearly impenetrable mass of obscure methodologies and arcane vocabulary; it is rather like the ink the octopus excretes to obscure its position (I never did care much for most academic writing).  No one who is engaged in the process of actually teaching students to write would have any use for such a study.

Her name is Kellyanne Conway.

Wrong!

Finally, the 2011 link connects to the website of the American Psychological Association, which contains an abstract of another article (Graham, et al. "A Meta-analysis of Writing Instruction for Students in the Elementary Grades") from the Journal of Educational Psychology.  For the full text of the article, unfortunately, one must again shell out for a pdf download from the Journal.  By itself, the abstract contains no reference to the teaching of grammar.

The study link refers to an article (Elley, et al. "The Role of Grammar in a Secondary School Curriculum") posted on the ERIC website, taken from a 1979 piece published under the auspices of the NCTE.  Once more, we find ourselves reading a short abstract (the complete article will cost a few dollars).  The abstract posits that, while "a textbook based program that focussed on traditional grammar" produced a negligible effect on students' writing, "the Oregon Curriculum without the grammar thread... but with extra reading and creative writing" was "more positive."  Unfortunately, it is impossible to judge this claim knowing neither the Oregon Curriculum nor the methodology and extent of the study.

Continuing to follow the links that are not outdated, we are led to studies of varying lengths, none of which refer explicitly to the teaching of grammar.  One of them (Thomas Flynn and Mary King, eds., Dynamics of the Writing Conference, 1993) contains an article which, from the book's index, appears to investigate the subject, but is actually about usage, specifically about African American dialect and the use of verbs.  In short, none of the citations in Ms. Cleary's article support her main thesis, that the teaching of grammar is ineffective or harmful to students' writing.

One of the author's remaining claims is supported by observations taken from her own experience of eight years teaching remedial writing (or so I presume) at the college level.  The other is a sweeping generalization concerning the efficacy of teaching grammar.  Based on my experience teaching remedial writing at Purdue University Calumet, as well as a long career teaching language arts at the high school level, here are some observations of my own.

• What Ms. Cleary describes as her students' problem appears to fall into the categories of usage and punctuation, not grammar:   "In my work with adults...  I have found over and over again that they over-edit themselves from the moment they sit down to write.  They report thoughts like "Is this right?  Is that right? and "Oh my God, if I write a contraction, I'm going to flunk."  My own experience, also with adults, was in a remedial class, not exclusively of former drop-outs, but rather a larger group who were unable to pass a writing competency test, in the form of an essay responding to a particular prompt.  Most of them continued to be enrolled in other classes, but a few had taken the test every semester for four or five terms; one was a woman in her sixties, chasing a degree.  Yes, there were often usage problems, many stemming from misuse of the principal parts of verbs.  A few of them, however, were unable to differentiate a complete sentence from a fragment or a run-on.  Others wrote as fourth or fifth graders might:  short, simple sentences, producing a choppy mess that failed to achieve the minimum count of words demanded by the test.  The same students usually had trouble reading sentences longer than ten or twelve words.  I found that it was indispensable for a writer to create a subject and verb when he or she began to organize thoughts into meaningful sentences.  Likewise, it was essential that they recognize various sentence structures.  This required an understanding of the rules of grammar.  Ms. Cleary confuses the issue:  nobody maintains that a prewriting exercise of some sort should not be the very first step in creating a piece of writing, yet Ms. Cleary seems to imply that teachers wrongly force structure, usage, and style points on students before they even have their ideas down on paper in the form of diagrams, outlines, or whatever.  She seems to be attacking a straw position which no experienced writing teacher or coach would ever employ in a classroom.
• "We need to teach students how to write grammatically by letting them write," Ms. Cleary concludes, without giving an example of what she means.  On its face, it appears to be a circular argument.  She ends by slamming us damned sentence-parsers as being grounded by nostalgia (for what she doesn't say), rather than research.

2.  Valparaiso University

Here I find, to my surprise, not another proscription against the teaching of grammar, but instead a set of recommendations for various strategies for its incorporation.  Apparently, Heather Zaharias, its author, was unaware of the research proving its negative effects.  No rebuttal is necessary.

3.  Heinemann 1991 asserts:

"Research over a period of nearly 90 years has consistently shown that the teaching of school grammar has little or no effect on students."   Following this sweeping statement is a mighty-looking fortress of bibliography, all this under the heading of "Facts."  Curiously, this behemoth list of sources and perky quotations contains no references before 1959, which is hardly ninety years.  I would be willing to take aim against any of Heinemann's sources, but unfortunately there are few links, and none of them are operational.

The names on top, George Hillocks and Michael Smith. appear to be the twin gods of the dogma I have been questioning.  Attributed to various experts, here are a few of Mr. Heinmann's choices which are just plain silly:

• "Diagramming sentences...  teaches nothing beyond the ability to diagram."
• "If schools insist upon teaching...  concepts of traditional grammar (as many still do), they cannot defend it as a means of improving the quality of writing."
• "Studying formal grammar is less helpful to writers than simply discussing grammatical constructions and usage in the context of writing."
• "Teach only the grammatical concepts that are critically needed for editing writing and teach these concepts and terms mostly through mini lessons and conferences while helping students edit."  (my emphasis)

There are many similar statements I could quote, but why beat a dead horse?


Rebuttal:  I promise to keep it short.

1.  My own experience as a K-12 student and my children's affirmation, that learning to recognize sentence structures, label them, and work with them was an essential part of graduating and continuing to succeed as students at the next level and beyond.

2.  The notion that teaching grammar can be incorporated entirely into the process of editing is completely counter-intuitive.  Reading, essentially, is an analysis of the written word, while writing is a synthesis to create it.  Presumably, our aim is to add to the complexity of both at a certain point of a child's education.  One need not retain diagrams of compound-complex sentences with all the trimmings, but when reading, one needs to recognize them and differentiate between independent and subordinate clauses.

3.  Terminology is important in teaching any subject, as is precision.  Improvements in our writing do not happen overnight or by some vague method of imbibing them.  They require attention, hard work, and they happen gradually, little by little, so that at each successive grade level, students grow as writers.  This means that grammar instruction should be a steady part of a child's learning beginning in the middle grades and continue through graduation.

4.  What concerns me most is that when we are commanded not to teach grammar "in isolation,"  we are really being given an excuse not to teach grammar at all.  Chances are that at least one generation of teachers has somehow muddled through their own education without digesting English grammar.  They don't know how to teach it, because nobody bothered to teach them.


One final comment:  a political slant.  And then I'll shut up.  I take seriously George Orwell's contention that slovenly language and slovenly thought exist in a symbiotic relationship.  It is also instructive to read his forecast of the future of the English language, Newspeak, actually a parody of the abuse of language the first essay takes on.

Politics and the English Language

Principles of Newspeak

*Just dropping the name NCTE reminds me of the few years when I was a dues-paying member.  Aside from the fancy conferences they sponsor annually, with hundreds of industry vendors standing by, I remember the quarterly journal they sent to aid me as an English teacher.  In all the issues I received there was not an article even remotely related to what actually happened in classrooms at Gage Park High School.

In my rotation:  

• Duke Ellington, All American in Jazz/ Midnight in Paris (originally Columbia, 1962; Essential Jazz Classics reissue, 2013)

Until this first-ever CD release of All American, I considered it among the least compelling Ellington recordings of the '60s.  I now realize this was because I was listening to a poorly-recorded cassette copy of the late Don Miller's original LP.  Now that I can hear it properly, I am able to overlook the varying quality of the tunes (all taken from the Broadway musical of the same name), and focus instead on its ingenious arrangements, all but two of which have been confirmed as Billy Strayhorn's, for the Ellington band.

All in all, this is not a very memorable score; I vaguely remember the brief popularity of "Try to Remember," but none of the rest strikes a chord at all.

Still, I would characterize this project as the "Ellingtonization"  (actually, the "Strayhornization") of someone else's bag, much in the manner of their treatment of The Nutcracker the previous year, and future projects like Recollections of the Big Band Era.

The release also includes Midnight in Paris, not to be confused with Duke's soundtrack for Paris Blues a little earlier in the decade.  This project, too, relies on clever arrangements to give some overused Parisian themes a little goose, in the Ellington manner.  A handy little booklet includes the original liner notes for both LPs.

• Gram Parsons, GP/ Grievous Angel (Reprise, 1972, 1973)

On an earlier post I took up a two-disc compilation covering Parsons's entire, albeit short, career.  This single disc pairs his first recordings under his own name, after leaving the The Flying Burrito Brothers.*   The two LPs were released a year apart, GP in January 1972, and Angel the following January, a few months before Parsons's death.

GP was recorded at Wally Heider's Studio 4 in Hollywood.  Gram Parsons remains a top-notch lyricist, alternately sensitive and assertive.  He puts on a whole sub genre of country pop with "Kiss the Children," wherein yet another drunk, apparently still on his barstool, laments the woman gone for good with their kids:

"And the gun that's hanging on the kitchen wall, dear,
It's like a road-sign pointing straight to Satan's cage."

Emmylou Harris contributes mightily here in many duets with Parsons.

Emmylou figures large as well on Grievous Angel, which features a much larger contingent of sidemen than its predecessor.  Guest vocalists include Linda Ronstadt, singing backup on the album's closer, and Bernie Leadon.  An amusing highlight is a medley concocted in the studio, disguised as a fictitious "live" performance in Northern Quebec:  shades of The Beach Boys Party!

*not to be confused with The Traveling Wilburys.

• Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington, The Stockholm Concert, 1966 (Pablo)

The provenance of these recordings must have been unearthed fairly recently, as my sole reference, W. E. Timner's Ellingtonia: The Recorded Music of Duke Ellington and His Sidemen, does not list this concert, though it does note another appearance of Ella and Duke's in Stockholm early in the year.

Ella is at her absolute best in front of an enthusiastic audience, like the one on this recording.  One can imagine her facial expressions as she scats and growls her way through Só Danço Samba and Cotton Tail.

Most of the tracks feature Duke's orchestra with Jimmy Jones, Ella's regular accompanist, at the piano;  but as always, Ellington makes his presence felt swinging the band through "Imagine My Frustration," "Duke's Place" (wherein Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves both take solo turns), and the glorious closing "Cotton Tail," with Gonsalves returning to trade fours with Ella.

• Captain Beefheart, Mirror Man Sessions (Buddha, 1967)

I've owned the original Mirror Man LP since it first appeared, four years after it was recorded; chronologically, it would fit between the albums Safe as Milk and its follow-up, Strictly Personal.  (The original gatefold cover was cut in such a way as to present Beefheart within a broken mirror.)   

Originally there were only four tunes-- "Tarotplane," "25th Century Quaker," "Mirror Man," and "Kandy Korn," all long workouts that sounded more like demos than material for release.  The CD reissue adds five tracks, much more concise, that sound like they were meant to be heard.  These tunes all stick in my mind, especially "Gimme Dat Harp Boy" and that instrument's furious demonstration by one of its all-time masters.

OUR CAR CLUB

IN MY CAHHH 
Insurrection in the ranks:  off with their heads!
Discs that I have not played much are getting the heave-ho to make room for:  Thirty-seven promotions and demotions, in all.  

Here are a few of the new arrivals:

• Lucky Thompson, Lord, Lord, Am I Ever Gonna Know? (Candid)

• Caetano Veloso, Livro (Nonesuch, 1998)

• Dexter Gordon, Doin' Allright (Blue Note, 1961)

Next:  Latter-Day Captain Beefheart