{"id":384,"date":"2006-10-30T10:24:01","date_gmt":"2006-10-30T18:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/?p=384"},"modified":"2006-10-30T10:24:01","modified_gmt":"2006-10-30T18:24:01","slug":"woodshedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/?p=384","title":{"rendered":"WOODShedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Birthday Phil! On Friday, November 3, from 8pm to Midnight Eastern. WGBH 89.7FM’s Jazz From Studio Four host Steve Schwartz celebrates the 75th birthday of alto saxophonist Phil Woods<\/strong><\/a> (born Nov. 2, 1931) with a four-hour retrospective of his ongoing career. One of the true masters of the bop vocabulary, Woods has played with an impressive array of artists\u00e2\u20ac\u201dtouring and recording with jazz legends Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, and Benny Goodman and playing on pop albums by Billy Joel, Carly Simon and Steely Dan. I can’t think of a better way to enjoy an evening while simultaneously boning-up on large slice of jazz history. If you’re not within earshot via terrestrial radio, tune in online at wgbh.org\/jazz<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, here’s a little appetizer. It’s an excerpt from the liner notes I wrote for a live concert recording in honor of Johnny Pate<\/strong><\/a>, featuring Phil Woods, James Moody, Monty Alexander, Shirley Horn, and Ron Carter, among others.<\/p>\n

…\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Minor Detail,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d opens with Pate playing solo piano \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the first of many pleasures yet to come. The solo introduction to this minor-key ballad is thick with rich chordal harmonies that weave through the reed and horn sections. Then an alto saxophone is heard in the distance, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Phil Woods, in his trademark black cap, who emerges from the wings playing. Soon a deeper horn sounds and James Moody wanders onstage playing tenor. Woods kisses the top of Moody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s balding head, and the two go on musically conversing with one another. The jazz ensemble members are mesmerized, and though it is not discernable to the ear, they are so awestruck that they nearly miss their musical cue to come back in. Woods and Moody wander off the stage.<\/p>\n

At the microphone again, Pate waits just a beat to compose himself, and tries to lighten the moment by joking. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153An intrusion,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says, gesturing toward the wings. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They just let anyone wander around.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He tells the audience about the day he heard Phil Woods playing alto on a Dizzy Gillespie recording, and how he thought to himself that if he were ever in a position to produce records, Phil Woods would top his list of artists. Bringing Woods back onstage, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all the way from Pennsylvania,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d his voice cracks with tears. A week earlier, Pate predicted this would happen, telling Spencer Patterson of the Las Vegas Sun, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been in contact with most of these people for years. Seeing them all at once, all together will be quite a thing. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need three or four boxes of Kleenex.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

It may not seem like such a long way from Pennsylvania to Nevada, but for someone battling emphysema and down with the flu just days earlier, it is a very long way indeed. Still, Woods would not have missed today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s events. Woods\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 handwritten note to Pate, reprinted in the program book, says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your faith in me long ago lives forever in my heart.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Woods means it. He tells the audience about his life as a struggling musician in the 1960s. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get arrested. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBuy a flute, be a studio man,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 they told me. I said \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcforget it.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Woods moved to Europe where he hoped the musical climate would be more hospitable to jazz musicians. But in 1968, salvation came from stateside in the form of Johnny Pate.<\/p>\n

Then East Coast director of A&R for Verve Records\/MGM, Pate was in a position to make Woods an offer. Tracking him down in France, Pate offered Woods a record deal with a dream rhythm section (Herbie Hancock on piano, Richard Davis on bass and Grady Tate on drums), augmented by a string section led by Gene Orloff. The album is titled Round Trip. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m talking the truth,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Woods tells us. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I went back to France with a shitload of money, and a few months later I was invited to play at Newport. I was back, baby! I was back, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u2122cause of Johnny Pate, and I want to say thank you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Woods sounds breathless when talking, but not when playing. He is featured on the next two selections, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carolyn\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fill the Woods With Laughter,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d both of which are on that 1968 recording. The first, a ballad dedicated to Pate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wife, is a simple theme with variations, rich harmonies, a walking bass line, and a sweet trumpet turn at the end. The students acquit themselves well, breaking into double time before the bridge, but it is Woods who plays with such love that my eyes tear up. Pate is standing on stage, bending backward from the knees as if the music is the wind and he is a sail. Much later, the only words Pate will be able to muster are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I love what he does with a ballad. I just stood there in awe.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d By the time they finish the second tune, the audience is cheering and all Pate can say now is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wow!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Birthday Phil! On Friday, November 3, from 8pm to Midnight Eastern. WGBH 89.7FM’s Jazz From Studio Four host Steve Schwartz celebrates the 75th birthday of alto saxophonist Phil Woods (born Nov. 2, 1931) with a four-hour retrospective of his ongoing career. One of the true masters of the bop vocabulary, Woods has played with … Continue reading “WOODShedding”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-timely-thoughts","category-jazz-ears"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}