Talking Jazz by Randy Smith

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Praise for Talking JAZZ

"Randy L. Smith has written many excellent pieces for Jazz Journal. . . . producing fresh, crisply presented new information on his subjects. Talking Jazz will be a stimulating and engaging read." 

-Mark Gilbert, editor, Jazz Journal,

"The author takes us on a fascinating journey from Tacoma, Seattle, Bellingham and Port Townsend in Washington State to the Kansai region of Japan. Along the way there are entertaining and informative portraits of Bud Shank, Red Rodney, Barney Kessel, Bill Crow, Ernestine Anderson and Eiji Kitamura. He has also interviewed several performers who may be new to readers but each has a compelling story to tell." 

-Gordon Jack, author Fifties Jazz Talk

"After scrolling through Talking Jazz, Randy's love for jazz and respect for the musicians who make it were obvious to me. I read the first few pages of the introduction and was hooked from the start. Congratulations, Randy, on a job well done!"

-Rebecca Kilgore, acclaimed jazz vocalist

"Randy Smith's Talking Jazz offers a treasure trove of new and original writings about the well-known and unknown lives of jazz musicians spanning four decades and six, different geographic locales. Almost as important as the subjects under discussion is the quality of the writing. The book is a joy to read; full of interesting pieces, interviews and contributions from guest writers. Books as illuminating and interesting as Talking Jazz don't come along very often, all the more reason to snap a copy of this one up and savor it."

- Steve Cerra, Jazzprofiles.blogpsot.com (blog)

"Randy L. Smith's subjects are not the superstars of jazz, but real working artists who provide the day-to-day sense that is so important to our understanding. Throughout, the author's personal accounts succeed in giving the reader a feel for the actual lives of lesser-known but nevertheless important jazz artists, all with stories to tell." 

-David Haney, editor, Cadence, The Independent Journal of Creative Improvised Music

"This conversational yet also detailed reminiscence of a life of listening to jazz is an altogether pleasant read and makes a considerable contribution to the body of knowledge about jazz in the Pacific Northwest."

-Paul de Barros, Down Beat, The Seattle Times, Earshot Jazz

"Great storytelling. I think it's particularly worthwhile in that it includes stories from around the region as well as Seattle. Lots of good info here I haven't seen elsewhere. I'll be back to it for more!" 

-Jim Wilke, host and producer of Jazz Northwest, KNKX

"I believe this book to be an important addition to our study of jazz music and its lexicon…. It has been a fun read and one that triggered so much in my own recollections. Randy has done a remarkable job with Talking Jazz.'

-Pete Fallico, The Doodlin' Lounge, San Jose, CA

I’ve included the above comments praising Talking Jazz: Profiles, Interviews, and Musings from Tacoma to Kansai to give you some perspective on the scope of this new book, as well as, it’s value as a compendium of original writings, interviews and reflections on the subject of Jazz by Randy L. Smith, a writer whose style is accessible, informative and entertaining.

Earning a living as a writer is no easy task under the best of circumstances and doubly so when the subject is Jazz, a form of musical artistry that has been bereft of a national audience and press for many, many years. 

And not only do we have to credit Randy for much new and original Jazz content, but we also have to thank him for the time and expense he incurred as a result of having to self-publish the book which is available through Amazon as a paperback selling for $19.99.

Randy sets the stage for his book at the outset with Kicking Off the Beat: A Note of Explanation: 

“I conceived this book assuming readers would have some familiarity with jazz. Having scanned the table of contents, the veteran listener will comprehend the significance of my section headings. I provide this note of explanation for those with limited jazz exposure.

The headings are meant to reference a typical jazz performance. First comes the opening theme, the statement of the head, or the melody of a tune. Accompanied by the rhythm section (piano, bass and drums), the head is played by the front-line instruments, say a saxophone and a trumpet, usually in unison or harmonized, sometimes in counterpoint. The start of "Ah-Leu-Cha" provides a good example of deft counterpoint by Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, commonly referred to as Bird. For my purpose, the opening theme serves as an introduction of how I came to jazz, and of how I grew up with the music to the point of wanting to document the lives and careers of the people who create it.

After the opening theme, I've inserted a solo break. That occurs when one of the instruments breaks away from the band, playing a brief unaccompanied lead-in to a solo chorus. Breaks can be dramatic, as with Bird's celebrated alto break after the thematic statement on Dizzy Gillespie's "Night in Tunisia." My solo break is a short tribute to the one-and-only Louis Armstrong.

Then come the choruses, the heart and soul of the jazz player's improvisation. A chorus consists of an equal number of measures and uses the same harmonic underpinning as the head. Upon this structure, the musician builds a solo. Some players let the tune itself guide their choruses, rifling off the melody; others favor the harmony, creating an entirely new melody with their solo. The lyrical cornetist Bobby Hackett was known as a melodic player, while a harmonically-advanced John Coltrane improvisation may give little indication of the original melody. The point is, what may seem like random notes to an uninitiated listener are actually based on either the melody or the harmony of the tune (or a combination of both). Some solos may be worked out, some spontaneous, but a good jazz musician is aware of the song at all times.

Sometimes players will have an idea in advance of how many choruses each will lake. Other times, circumstances influence the number. Paul Gonsalves, the great tenor man, famously put the Ellington Orchestra back on the jazz map after a fallow period for the Duke, closing his eyes and digging in for a marathon 27 choruses on "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue," nearly sparking a riot (or at least an orgy), at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival.* For this book, choruses are analogous to chapters, each of the six corresponding to a geographical region that collectively illuminate my lifelong jazz journey.

After each soloist has had a say in the choruses, the leader might hold up four fingers, a signal to trade "fours." The chorus is divided into four-bar segments, each played by one of the musicians. It's akin to a musical conversation, each player riffing off the four bars a colleague has just played. Sometimes the horns alternate fours with the drummer. Fours are often playful, and in general, a lot of fun. So in that spirit, the fours here are given over to guest authors. Considering the brevity of a four-bar unit, I requested submissions of 600 - 1,000 words.

Finally, we have the closing theme (sometimes called the out chorus), a restatement of the head to end the performance. When the leader of a band points to his or her bean, that's a signal to wrap things up and take the song out. My closing theme consists of a summing up, plus two pieces I wanted to include in this book that did not fit into any of the six choruses.

So jazz novice, now you know everything you need to begin reading. Forge on, then—the wonderful world of jazz awaits!

But hold! One further point. Gale Madden, mystery woman of jazz, told me she and Chico Hamilton had been "running buddies." On the spot, I fell in love with the phrase. So if you chance to see it employed in these pages, please know that it refers to a very special kind of friend.

"Naturally, there is more to the story than this trim narrative suggests. Fodder, I guess, for my next book.”

In an earlier feature about Seattle-based pianist, Jack Brownlow, I wrote the following:

“Every town has one.

Whether it's Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Reno or Seattle.

Somewhere in these cities, there is an exceptional Jazz musician who is mainly known only to those familiar with the local Jazz scene.

For whatever reason, these local Jazz musicians don’t travel, preferring to stay close to home while working the occasional club date, party or benefit.

Every so often, a group of local admirers cobble some schimolies together and produce a compact disc to put on display their local favorite’s talents.

These fans know that their player is special and want portable accessibility to the music while at the same time doing their bit to document it for posterity.

Until the advent of e-commerce, the “distribution” of such recordings often consisted of making it available for sale on a card table that was staffed by someone before and/or after gigs or performances.

When you’ve listened to a lot of Jazz, you can usually tell when someone is special.

You hear it first in the phrasing and with the ready expression of ideas while soloing.

Jazz soloing is like the geometric head start in the sense that you never catch up.

When you improvise something it’s gone; you can’t retrieve it and do it again.

You have to stay on top of what you are doing as Jazz is insistently progressive – it goes forward with you or without you.

People who can play the music, flow with it. Their phrasing is in line with the tempo, the new melodies that they superimpose over the chord structures are interesting and inventive and they bring a sense of command and completion to the process of creating Jazz.

These qualities help bring some Jazz musicians to national, if not, international prominence. Deservedly so.  It’s not easy to play this stuff.

We buy their recordings, read articles about them in the Jazz press and attend their concerts and club dates.

But throughout the history of Jazz, be it in the form of what was referred to as “territory bands,” or local legends who never made it to the big time or recorded, or those who only played Jazz as a hobby, word-of-mouth communication somehow managed to inform us of the startling brilliance of these locally-based musicians.

Such was the case with pianist Jack Brownlow who for many years was one of the most highly regarded Jazz musicians in the greater-Seattle area.”

In Talking Jazz: Profiles, Interviews, and Musings from Tacoma to Kansai, Randy expands on this theme by “bringing to life” via a series of well-crafted interviews, relatively obscure Jazz artists based in the Pacific Northwest including Bill Ramsay, Chuck Stenz, Barney McClure, Don Lamphere, Freddie Greenwell, Bob Hammer and Floyd Sandifer, among many others.

In fairness, some like Bill Ramsay and Don Lamphere have had some national exposure along with other fine musicians hailing from the Pacific Northwest including bassist Red Kelly, vocalist Ernestine Anderson and bassist Buddy Catlett and Chuck Israels - all subjects with whom Randy visits in his book.

Jazz clubs including the New Orleans, the Pioneer Banque, Parnell’s and Jazz Alley are brought to life by Randy as the venues that gave these locals a chance to grow and develop along. He also provides informative background on the evolution of the Port Townsend Jazz Festival which provided a more expansive roster of Jazz talent including guitarist Barney Kessel, trumpeter Red Rodney, alto saxophonist Bud Shank, bassist John Clayton, and drummer Jeff Hamilton.

Randy’s travels also take him to Japan where he shares an insider’s look at Jazz musicians in the “Land of the Rising Sun” and later to Portland, OR where he conducts a marvelous interview with pianist-singer-songwriter, Dave Frishberg.

Randy’s writing is very straight-forward and direct. There’s not a lot of hyperbole or wasted language which makes for very enjoyable and compelling storytelling.

His book is a fun read and is arranged in such a way that the reader can take pleasure in what’s on offer at a leisurely pace.

If you are looking for something new and different on the subject of Jazz and its makers, Randy’s interviews and memoirs in Talking Jazz: Profiles, Interviews, and Musings from Tacoma to Kansai won’t disappoint.