When Discs Die

By Ernie Smith

CDs were sold to consumers as these virtually indestructible platters, but the truth, as exemplified by the disc rot phenomenon, is more complicated. Continue Reading

 
 
http://tedium.co/2017/02/02/disc-rot-phenomenon/

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When Discs Die

By Ernie Smith

CDs were sold to consumers as these virtually indestructible platters, but the truth, as exemplified by the disc rot phenomenon, is more complicated. Continue Reading

 
 
http://tedium.co/2017/02/02/disc-rot-phenomenon/

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Charlie ParkerGetty Images
 
To those around him, the final years of Parker’s life were “like epiphanies of his helplessness and deterioration,” including failed efforts to get clean, a suicide attempt by drinking iodine and the death of his daughter from congenital heart failure.
The latter event was a final straw for the already depressed and strung-out legend.
 
“Something gave way inside of him after the event, like the earth shifting irreversibly along some deep fault line; he broke down and was never able to climb out of the abyss again,” Torgoff writes.
 
“ ‘Diz, why don’t you save me?’ he stammered the last time Dizzy Gillespie saw him play [the popular jazz club] Birdland. Thirty years later, Gillespie was still haunted by the moment. ‘It was the worst feeling in the world,’ ” he said.
 
Parker died on March 12, 1955, at age 34, after vomiting blood in a friend’s hotel suite. (The official causes of death were found to be numerous, including pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer.) Despite his prodigious talent, he was playing “dives and storefronts” by the end, with his friends unable to process the depth of his downfall.
 
“If people ran into him wandering around the city at dawn, shabby and broke, sleepless and alone, they could only stare and hope that it wasn’t really happening,” writes Torgoff.
 
One friend later recalled seeing Parker standing in front of Birdland in the pouring rain. “I was horrified and asked him why,” she later recalled. “He said he just had no place to go.”
 

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Charlie ParkerGetty Images
 
To those around him, the final years of Parker’s life were “like epiphanies of his helplessness and deterioration,” including failed efforts to get clean, a suicide attempt by drinking iodine and the death of his daughter from congenital heart failure.
The latter event was a final straw for the already depressed and strung-out legend.
 
“Something gave way inside of him after the event, like the earth shifting irreversibly along some deep fault line; he broke down and was never able to climb out of the abyss again,” Torgoff writes.
 
“ ‘Diz, why don’t you save me?’ he stammered the last time Dizzy Gillespie saw him play [the popular jazz club] Birdland. Thirty years later, Gillespie was still haunted by the moment. ‘It was the worst feeling in the world,’ ” he said.
 
Parker died on March 12, 1955, at age 34, after vomiting blood in a friend’s hotel suite. (The official causes of death were found to be numerous, including pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer.) Despite his prodigious talent, he was playing “dives and storefronts” by the end, with his friends unable to process the depth of his downfall.
 
“If people ran into him wandering around the city at dawn, shabby and broke, sleepless and alone, they could only stare and hope that it wasn’t really happening,” writes Torgoff.
 
One friend later recalled seeing Parker standing in front of Birdland in the pouring rain. “I was horrified and asked him why,” she later recalled. “He said he just had no place to go.”
 

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Earlier today, the website dnainfo reported some sad news out of Chicago – the closing of Meyer’s Ace Hardware. Why should we care about the closure of a hardware store in Chicago’s sprawling south side area (aside from the obvious sadness of yet another small business shutting down)? Well, Meyer’s Ace Hardware is one of the most important sites in jazz history. Before it became a hardware store, the building on E. 35th Street was the site of the Sunset Cafe, later known as the Grand Terrace Cafe.
The Sunset Cafe, which opened in the 1920s, was owned by Louis Armstrong’s manager Joe Glaser, and was one of the city’s few “black and tan clubs” – the name given to integrated clubs that allowed both black and white patrons. The club featured performances by many of jazz’s greatest musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway and others.
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According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, “In the late 1920s and throughout the `30s, Chicago was the broadcasting center of the nation and radio was the medium that popularized Chicago jazz.” During that time, the Grand Terrace Cafe, then co-owned by Al Capone, would run national broadcasts of club dates featuring the pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines and his orchestra. Not only did these broadcasts spread the jazz sound throughout the country, they also helped to establish Hines as one of the most influential pianists of the early jazz era. His orchestra served as an early training ground for such jazz legends as Billy Eckstine (no, he wasn’t Jewish), Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
 
 
Earl Hines & His Orchestra broacast from the Grand Terrace, Chicago.
 
In 1960, the father of current owner Dave Meyers purchased the space from Glaser and opened up Meyer’s Ace Hardware. Though the space no longer hosted the likes of Earl Fatha Hines, the Meyers family preserved the murals that had decorated the Grand Terrace Cafe. With the closure, Meyers is unsure what will happen to the murals. Sam Cholke at DNAinfo writes: “The building was landmarked by the city in 1998, but it’s unclear what protections that will provide for the murals inside. Landmark designation typically only provides protections for the exterior of buildings.” Still, it’s perhaps 

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Earlier today, the website dnainfo reported some sad news out of Chicago – the closing of Meyer’s Ace Hardware. Why should we care about the closure of a hardware store in Chicago’s sprawling south side area (aside from the obvious sadness of yet another small business shutting down)? Well, Meyer’s Ace Hardware is one of the most important sites in jazz history. Before it became a hardware store, the building on E. 35th Street was the site of the Sunset Cafe, later known as the Grand Terrace Cafe.
The Sunset Cafe, which opened in the 1920s, was owned by Louis Armstrong’s manager Joe Glaser, and was one of the city’s few “black and tan clubs” – the name given to integrated clubs that allowed both black and white patrons. The club featured performances by many of jazz’s greatest musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway and others.
JavaScript General Redirect Tag // Tag for network 9955: Marketplace: Forward // Website: Forward 100% Fill // Page: Forward // Placement: Forward 300×250 ROS 100% Fill (3474958) // created at: Dec 15, 2016 5:11:53 PM

 
According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, “In the late 1920s and throughout the `30s, Chicago was the broadcasting center of the nation and radio was the medium that popularized Chicago jazz.” During that time, the Grand Terrace Cafe, then co-owned by Al Capone, would run national broadcasts of club dates featuring the pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines and his orchestra. Not only did these broadcasts spread the jazz sound throughout the country, they also helped to establish Hines as one of the most influential pianists of the early jazz era. His orchestra served as an early training ground for such jazz legends as Billy Eckstine (no, he wasn’t Jewish), Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
 
 
Earl Hines & His Orchestra broacast from the Grand Terrace, Chicago.
 
In 1960, the father of current owner Dave Meyers purchased the space from Glaser and opened up Meyer’s Ace Hardware. Though the space no longer hosted the likes of Earl Fatha Hines, the Meyers family preserved the murals that had decorated the Grand Terrace Cafe. With the closure, Meyers is unsure what will happen to the murals. Sam Cholke at DNAinfo writes: “The building was landmarked by the city in 1998, but it’s unclear what protections that will provide for the murals inside. Landmark designation typically only provides protections for the exterior of buildings.” Still, it’s perhaps 

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HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.

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Cast of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”: Valerie Harper, top left, Ed Asner and Cloris Leachman, and Gavin MacLeod, bottom left, Mary Tyler Moore and Ted Knight. (Pioneers of Television archive)

Randall RobertsContact Reporter

 
“Who can turn the world on with her smile?” 
Anyone who had a television in the 1970s can easily answer that it was Mary Tyler Moore, who died Wednesday at age 80. Many could add that she’d also “take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile.” 
As delivered at the beginning of each episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” those lines are from the song “Love Is All Around,” written by singer-songwriter Sonny Curtis. Those words helped set the tone for the sitcom about a single woman making a go of it in Minneapolis.
Curtis has no doubt told the story of his theme many times, but reached on the phone at his home outside of Nashville, Tenn., he said he was a little wary of the renewed attention at this juncture. “I don’t want anyone to think that I’m using this as an opportunity,” he said. 
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He needn’t worry.
Over the course of his 60-plus-year career, Curtis earned accolades for his guitar playing with his friend Buddy Holly, as well as his skills as an early rock ’n’ roller armed with a Fender Stratoscaster. He’s also the writer of another American classic, “I Fought the Law,” which was made famous by the Bobby Fuller Four and, later, the Clash. (Spoiler alert: The law won.)

 
Mary Tyler Moore
FULL COVERAGE: Mary Tyler Moore | 1936-2017 »
Curtis, 79, said he’d heard the news of Moore’s death Wednesday. He was holding grocery bags after a trip to the supermarket when a reporter called. Though he and Moore didn’t know each other well, he considered her a friend.
“I was being interviewed before I knew what was going on,” he said.
Curtis spoke with The Times on Thursday morning. What follows has been edited for length and clarity.
That was an awfully good day for me. I remember enjoying writing that song. I just sat on my couch and took my guitar in hand and went for it.
— Sonny Curtis
 
How did you come to write “Love Is All Around”?
It was a deal that happened all in one day. I had a very good friend who worked for the Williams-Price Agency, and they managed Mary Tyler Moore. He called me one morning in the summer of 1970 and asked me if I would be interested in writing a song for Mary Tyler Moore. He said they’re going to do a sitcom on her and they all need a theme song. 
At his lunch break, he dropped off a four-page treatment that one of the writers or somebody had put together. It wasn’t a script. It was a treatment that didn’t have a lot of information. Like, “A young girl from the Midwest gets jilted and left at the altar” or something like that. “She’s in the big city of Minneapolis and gets a job at a news station and rents an apartment she has a hard time affording,” that sort of thing.
I wrote the song in about two hours and called him back and said, “Who do I sing this to?” He sent me to James L. Brooks —  he and Allan Burns were the executive producers —   who was over there on Ventura Boulevard. I don’t know if you ever saw “Gunsmoke,” where they have all those big Quonset hut-looking buildings? That’s where their offices were.
It was just you and him? 
Yes, James L. Brooks took me to a huge room and brought two iron-back chairs. We sat down and he said, “We’re not quite at the stage of picking a theme song, but I’ll listen to what you have.” The only other thing in the room — it wasn’t as big as a gymnasium, but it was a big room —  was a black telephone on the floor.
I sang it about 10 times, and before I left that afternoon, he had that room full of people.
— Sonny Curtis, on auditioning “Love Is All Around” for producer James L. Brooks
 
I got my guitar out and picked the song for him and he said, “Sing that again.” I sang it and he got on the phone and started having people come down. I sang it about 10 times, and before I left that afternoon, he had that room full of people. They were all lined up against the wall.
He ordered a cassette recorder and he said, “I want to take this to Minneapolis with me this weekend,” and I began to feel pretty confident at that time. Of course, you never feel real confident. People can change their minds.
Did you know of Moore’s work from “The Dick Van Dyke Show”?
Oh, I knew her work well. I had not met her at that point.
But it might be significant for you to know that the first season was different from the second season —  the lyrics. The verse changed and the chorus stayed the same except for one line. The verse on the first show was, “How will you make it on your own?” After the first season,  Allan Burns called me and said, “Sonny, we need a different set of lyrics, because she’s obviously made it.”
 
 

 
That’s interesting. Opening with “how will you make it?” adds doubt into the equation. 
Yeah, it’s doubtful. And at the very end, when it says, “Love is all around, no need to waste it/ You can have the town, why don’t you take it,” on the first season it ends, ‘You might just make it after all.’ And for the second season we changed that to, ‘You’re gonna make it after all.’”
It’s much more hopeful.
Yeah, because she’s made it. 
Did you watch the show?
I did watch the show, and after the show aired for the first time on Sept. 19, 1970, Allan Burns had a big party up at his house. Everybody was there, the whole cast and crew, and Louise —  my wife —  and I were invited, and that’s where I met Mary. 
You not only wrote the song but also sang it for the show, right?
Yes. I sort of insisted on that. The executive producers weren’t really comfortable with that in the beginning. They did say at one time, “Well, we were kind of thinking of maybe getting Andy Williams to do it.”
Of course, Andy Williams had a big TV show, he was hotter than soap. I said, “If you can get Andy Williams, you got yourself a deal. But if it’s just going to be somebody off the street, I’d like for it to be me.” And they finally agreed. 
Do you own the publishing rights to the song?
We don’t, actually. My friend who played drums for the Crickets, Jerry Allison, he and I published that, and about four years ago —  we are kind of getting on up there, I’m 79 and he’s a year younger —  he called and said, “Man this is getting out of control. Let’s sell this thing.” I said, “Man, Jerry, I can identify with that. We sold it to EMI in New York, and what’s kind of ironic is that I think they turned around and sold it about six months later . 
Before you sold it, did you make money every time the show was broadcast?
Yes, it paid good performance royalties. All the stations that ran it, they had to pay a fee. Where we really made good money was through third-party usage. AT&T would pick it up and want to use it in an ad —  we did very well with that. That song has been very good to me financially and otherwise. It’s been good for my career.
It must be an honor to have a piece of your work associated with something so culturally significant.
Absolutely. And that was at the beginning of the women’s liberation movement and Gloria Steinem and all those people were coming on pretty strong. I think they all identified with that show. It was sort of a cultural touchstone, and the song was a part of that. 
The two songs for which you are most known are, thematically, polar opposites. One is about being young and free, but the other, “I Fought the Law,” is about being behind bars. 
[Laughs] Yeah, well, when you’re writing songs the way that I do it, I just sit down with my guitar and see where my mind takes me. As I’ve told people a few times before when they say, “How did you write that?” I say, “You know, I think I dreamed it.” It’s hard for me to go back and say.
When I wrote “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” theme, I did have that little treatment to key into, and I must say that the fact that she had an apartment she couldn’t afford, was having a hard time getting by and making it, I really remember.
That was an awfully good day for me. I remember enjoying writing that song. I just sat on my couch and took my guitar in hand and went for it. It came to me pretty quickly. “How will you make it on your own? This world is awfully big. Girl, this time you’re all alone. “
That’s when she moved to Minneapolis, you know? “It’s time you started living and it’s time you let someone else do some giving. Love is all around,” you know?
 

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Cast of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”: Valerie Harper, top left, Ed Asner and Cloris Leachman, and Gavin MacLeod, bottom left, Mary Tyler Moore and Ted Knight. (Pioneers of Television archive)

Randall RobertsContact Reporter

 
“Who can turn the world on with her smile?” 
Anyone who had a television in the 1970s can easily answer that it was Mary Tyler Moore, who died Wednesday at age 80. Many could add that she’d also “take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile.” 
As delivered at the beginning of each episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” those lines are from the song “Love Is All Around,” written by singer-songwriter Sonny Curtis. Those words helped set the tone for the sitcom about a single woman making a go of it in Minneapolis.
Curtis has no doubt told the story of his theme many times, but reached on the phone at his home outside of Nashville, Tenn., he said he was a little wary of the renewed attention at this juncture. “I don’t want anyone to think that I’m using this as an opportunity,” he said. 
Promoted stories from TravelChatter.net

Men share the most fun date a girl has ever taken them on

11 places celebs stay while on vacation

Daughter of Russian oil tycoon wears $620,000 dress to wedding
 
He needn’t worry.
Over the course of his 60-plus-year career, Curtis earned accolades for his guitar playing with his friend Buddy Holly, as well as his skills as an early rock ’n’ roller armed with a Fender Stratoscaster. He’s also the writer of another American classic, “I Fought the Law,” which was made famous by the Bobby Fuller Four and, later, the Clash. (Spoiler alert: The law won.)

 
Mary Tyler Moore
FULL COVERAGE: Mary Tyler Moore | 1936-2017 »
Curtis, 79, said he’d heard the news of Moore’s death Wednesday. He was holding grocery bags after a trip to the supermarket when a reporter called. Though he and Moore didn’t know each other well, he considered her a friend.
“I was being interviewed before I knew what was going on,” he said.
Curtis spoke with The Times on Thursday morning. What follows has been edited for length and clarity.
That was an awfully good day for me. I remember enjoying writing that song. I just sat on my couch and took my guitar in hand and went for it.
— Sonny Curtis
 
How did you come to write “Love Is All Around”?
It was a deal that happened all in one day. I had a very good friend who worked for the Williams-Price Agency, and they managed Mary Tyler Moore. He called me one morning in the summer of 1970 and asked me if I would be interested in writing a song for Mary Tyler Moore. He said they’re going to do a sitcom on her and they all need a theme song. 
At his lunch break, he dropped off a four-page treatment that one of the writers or somebody had put together. It wasn’t a script. It was a treatment that didn’t have a lot of information. Like, “A young girl from the Midwest gets jilted and left at the altar” or something like that. “She’s in the big city of Minneapolis and gets a job at a news station and rents an apartment she has a hard time affording,” that sort of thing.
I wrote the song in about two hours and called him back and said, “Who do I sing this to?” He sent me to James L. Brooks —  he and Allan Burns were the executive producers —   who was over there on Ventura Boulevard. I don’t know if you ever saw “Gunsmoke,” where they have all those big Quonset hut-looking buildings? That’s where their offices were.
It was just you and him? 
Yes, James L. Brooks took me to a huge room and brought two iron-back chairs. We sat down and he said, “We’re not quite at the stage of picking a theme song, but I’ll listen to what you have.” The only other thing in the room — it wasn’t as big as a gymnasium, but it was a big room —  was a black telephone on the floor.
I sang it about 10 times, and before I left that afternoon, he had that room full of people.
— Sonny Curtis, on auditioning “Love Is All Around” for producer James L. Brooks
 
I got my guitar out and picked the song for him and he said, “Sing that again.” I sang it and he got on the phone and started having people come down. I sang it about 10 times, and before I left that afternoon, he had that room full of people. They were all lined up against the wall.
He ordered a cassette recorder and he said, “I want to take this to Minneapolis with me this weekend,” and I began to feel pretty confident at that time. Of course, you never feel real confident. People can change their minds.
Did you know of Moore’s work from “The Dick Van Dyke Show”?
Oh, I knew her work well. I had not met her at that point.
But it might be significant for you to know that the first season was different from the second season —  the lyrics. The verse changed and the chorus stayed the same except for one line. The verse on the first show was, “How will you make it on your own?” After the first season,  Allan Burns called me and said, “Sonny, we need a different set of lyrics, because she’s obviously made it.”
 
 

 
That’s interesting. Opening with “how will you make it?” adds doubt into the equation. 
Yeah, it’s doubtful. And at the very end, when it says, “Love is all around, no need to waste it/ You can have the town, why don’t you take it,” on the first season it ends, ‘You might just make it after all.’ And for the second season we changed that to, ‘You’re gonna make it after all.’”
It’s much more hopeful.
Yeah, because she’s made it. 
Did you watch the show?
I did watch the show, and after the show aired for the first time on Sept. 19, 1970, Allan Burns had a big party up at his house. Everybody was there, the whole cast and crew, and Louise —  my wife —  and I were invited, and that’s where I met Mary. 
You not only wrote the song but also sang it for the show, right?
Yes. I sort of insisted on that. The executive producers weren’t really comfortable with that in the beginning. They did say at one time, “Well, we were kind of thinking of maybe getting Andy Williams to do it.”
Of course, Andy Williams had a big TV show, he was hotter than soap. I said, “If you can get Andy Williams, you got yourself a deal. But if it’s just going to be somebody off the street, I’d like for it to be me.” And they finally agreed. 
Do you own the publishing rights to the song?
We don’t, actually. My friend who played drums for the Crickets, Jerry Allison, he and I published that, and about four years ago —  we are kind of getting on up there, I’m 79 and he’s a year younger —  he called and said, “Man this is getting out of control. Let’s sell this thing.” I said, “Man, Jerry, I can identify with that. We sold it to EMI in New York, and what’s kind of ironic is that I think they turned around and sold it about six months later . 
Before you sold it, did you make money every time the show was broadcast?
Yes, it paid good performance royalties. All the stations that ran it, they had to pay a fee. Where we really made good money was through third-party usage. AT&T would pick it up and want to use it in an ad —  we did very well with that. That song has been very good to me financially and otherwise. It’s been good for my career.
It must be an honor to have a piece of your work associated with something so culturally significant.
Absolutely. And that was at the beginning of the women’s liberation movement and Gloria Steinem and all those people were coming on pretty strong. I think they all identified with that show. It was sort of a cultural touchstone, and the song was a part of that. 
The two songs for which you are most known are, thematically, polar opposites. One is about being young and free, but the other, “I Fought the Law,” is about being behind bars. 
[Laughs] Yeah, well, when you’re writing songs the way that I do it, I just sit down with my guitar and see where my mind takes me. As I’ve told people a few times before when they say, “How did you write that?” I say, “You know, I think I dreamed it.” It’s hard for me to go back and say.
When I wrote “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” theme, I did have that little treatment to key into, and I must say that the fact that she had an apartment she couldn’t afford, was having a hard time getting by and making it, I really remember.
That was an awfully good day for me. I remember enjoying writing that song. I just sat on my couch and took my guitar in hand and went for it. It came to me pretty quickly. “How will you make it on your own? This world is awfully big. Girl, this time you’re all alone. “
That’s when she moved to Minneapolis, you know? “It’s time you started living and it’s time you let someone else do some giving. Love is all around,” you know?
 

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By Amanda Loviza
Times Herald-Record
 
When it comes to drumming, Adam Nussbaum is the real deal.
 
He is a world-renowned jazz drummer who has played and recorded with the likes of Sonny Rollins, John Scofield, John Abercrombie, Art Farmer, Michael and Randy Brecker, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Chuck Mangione and Joe Sample, among many others.
 
Nussbaum jets around the world to perform gigs with the best of the jazz world before returning to his modest house on a quiet residential street in the Town of Woodbury.
 
And how he got to the top of the jazz world is quite a story.
 
“When I was 5 years old, my parents went away and I spent a week with my aunt and uncle,” Nussbaum says, sitting at his dining room table.
 
“My 9-year-old cousin had a drum set in the basement, and when I watched him play, it was monkey-see, monkey-do.”
 
“I came home with drumsticks and started by listening to the radio and playing on pots, pans and pillows.”
 
Home was in Norwalk, Conn., and his parents were the artist Ervin Nussbaum, who made his living as a technical illustrator; and his mother, Muriel, who was involved in acting and was a graphic designer.
 
“I grew up in an artistically aware household,” he says.
 
Nussbaum, now 61, studied classical piano until he was 12 but always wanted to be a drummer.
 
“I had a terrific piano teacher, but when I had my bar mitzvah I finally had enough money to buy a drum set.”
 
“I feel very grateful for the musical training I had,” Nussbaum says, “Because it allowed me to come to the drums from music, instead of coming to music from drums.”
 
“My fascination with jazz started when I was 15 or 16,” he says. “Growing up close to New York City gave me the opportunity to jump on a train and go and listen to the people I heard on the recordings.”
 
“It was an undeniable experience.”
 
Nussbaum moved to New York City in 1975 to attend City College, and that allowed him to play and network within the jazz community.
More Video: 845 LIFE: Adam Nussbaum 
 
“I started learning in school, but I also started learning in the street,” he says. “Being part of the community and being in the trenches was invaluable.”
 
“I was playing with and studying people who were better than me, and that’s how I got better. I learned by doing.”
 
In 1978 he joined Dave Liebman’s quintet, and in the early 1980s was part of a celebrated trio with Steve Swallow.
 
In 1983 he was asked to join the Gil Evans Orchestra and also played with Stan Getz.
 
Then, in 1987, he began touring with the Michael Brecker Quintet, winning a Grammy with them in 1988.
 
During 1992, the same year he moved to Woodbury, Nussbaum was hired by John Abercrombie as part of his trio.
 
Nussbaum has also taught as an adjunct professor at NYU, at the New School and at SUNY Purchase and holds clinics around the world.
 
He has been married to wife Susan for 32 years and they have two children. Today, their home holds many of his father’s paintings and sculptures.
 
But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
 
“You know, the quickest way to change the sound of a band is to change the drummer,” he says. “Because the drummer creates the sonic environment of the group.”
 
“I’ve always learned more from getting fired than from getting hired,” he says. “But I think people hire me because I help them feel good and sound good.”
 
“In the end, it’s not about me sounding good, it’s about the music sounding good.”
 
John DeSanto is a freelance photojournalist. Find more of his 845LIFE stories, photos and videos at recordonline.com. Reach John at jjdesanto@gmail.com

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By Amanda Loviza
Times Herald-Record
 
When it comes to drumming, Adam Nussbaum is the real deal.
 
He is a world-renowned jazz drummer who has played and recorded with the likes of Sonny Rollins, John Scofield, John Abercrombie, Art Farmer, Michael and Randy Brecker, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Chuck Mangione and Joe Sample, among many others.
 
Nussbaum jets around the world to perform gigs with the best of the jazz world before returning to his modest house on a quiet residential street in the Town of Woodbury.
 
And how he got to the top of the jazz world is quite a story.
 
“When I was 5 years old, my parents went away and I spent a week with my aunt and uncle,” Nussbaum says, sitting at his dining room table.
 
“My 9-year-old cousin had a drum set in the basement, and when I watched him play, it was monkey-see, monkey-do.”
 
“I came home with drumsticks and started by listening to the radio and playing on pots, pans and pillows.”
 
Home was in Norwalk, Conn., and his parents were the artist Ervin Nussbaum, who made his living as a technical illustrator; and his mother, Muriel, who was involved in acting and was a graphic designer.
 
“I grew up in an artistically aware household,” he says.
 
Nussbaum, now 61, studied classical piano until he was 12 but always wanted to be a drummer.
 
“I had a terrific piano teacher, but when I had my bar mitzvah I finally had enough money to buy a drum set.”
 
“I feel very grateful for the musical training I had,” Nussbaum says, “Because it allowed me to come to the drums from music, instead of coming to music from drums.”
 
“My fascination with jazz started when I was 15 or 16,” he says. “Growing up close to New York City gave me the opportunity to jump on a train and go and listen to the people I heard on the recordings.”
 
“It was an undeniable experience.”
 
Nussbaum moved to New York City in 1975 to attend City College, and that allowed him to play and network within the jazz community.
More Video: 845 LIFE: Adam Nussbaum 
 
“I started learning in school, but I also started learning in the street,” he says. “Being part of the community and being in the trenches was invaluable.”
 
“I was playing with and studying people who were better than me, and that’s how I got better. I learned by doing.”
 
In 1978 he joined Dave Liebman’s quintet, and in the early 1980s was part of a celebrated trio with Steve Swallow.
 
In 1983 he was asked to join the Gil Evans Orchestra and also played with Stan Getz.
 
Then, in 1987, he began touring with the Michael Brecker Quintet, winning a Grammy with them in 1988.
 
During 1992, the same year he moved to Woodbury, Nussbaum was hired by John Abercrombie as part of his trio.
 
Nussbaum has also taught as an adjunct professor at NYU, at the New School and at SUNY Purchase and holds clinics around the world.
 
He has been married to wife Susan for 32 years and they have two children. Today, their home holds many of his father’s paintings and sculptures.
 
But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
 
“You know, the quickest way to change the sound of a band is to change the drummer,” he says. “Because the drummer creates the sonic environment of the group.”
 
“I’ve always learned more from getting fired than from getting hired,” he says. “But I think people hire me because I help them feel good and sound good.”
 
“In the end, it’s not about me sounding good, it’s about the music sounding good.”
 
John DeSanto is a freelance photojournalist. Find more of his 845LIFE stories, photos and videos at recordonline.com. Reach John at jjdesanto@gmail.com

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http://wbgo.org/post/chuck-stewart-master-jazz-photographer-dies-89#stream/0
 

Chuck Stewart, one of the most prolific and admired photographers in jazz — an intimate chronicler of many of its icons and milestones, including the historic recording session for John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme — died on Jan. 20 in Teaneck, N.J. He was 89.
His death was confirmed by his daughter-in-law Kim Stewart, who has handled the licensing of his images in recent years.
Over a distinguished career that spanned more than 70 years, Stewart shot countless artists in profile and at work, capturing resonant and unguarded images that also tell the story of the music. By his estimate, he shot the cover images for more than 2,000 albums, including a large portion of the Impulse! catalog. He also contributed photographs to a range of publications, including Esquire and the New York Times.
“In my portraits and improvisational shots, I’ve tried to unveil the soul of the artists I photographed and communicate the essence of their craft,” Stewart wrote in his official bio. “That’s why they trusted me: James Brown, John Coltrane, Candido, Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Quincy Jones, Machito, Max Roach, Frank Sinatra, and many more. You know their names, but few people have known and photographed them as I have.”

<img src=”http://wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/default/public/201701/john_coltrane_by_chuck_stewart.jpg” alt=”John Coltrane during the session for A Love Supreme, 1964.”>
Charles Hugh Stewart was born in Henrietta, Tx. and raised in Tuscon, Az., where he received a Box Brownie camera as a gift on his 13th birthday. It wasn’t long before he put it to professional use, photographing the great opera singer Marian Anderson during her visit to his school. He sold prints to teachers and his fellow students for two dollars apiece. 
He attended Ohio University, one of the only colleges in the country to offer a fine arts degree in photography. It was there that he met the older photographer Herman Leonard, who fast became a mentor and friend. 
Stewart served in the Army after graduation, working as a combat photographer; he was the only African-American to shoot the postwar atomic bomb tests in 1952. After his service, he accepted an invitation from Leonard to work in his New York studio: “I did a lot of the grunt work, where I learned to set up a shot, and understand what the photographer tries to translate to an audience.” 
Eventually Stewart inherited the studio, carrying on Leonard’s legacy in his own language. His images often incorporate darkness as a backdrop, setting up the subject in dramatic relief. A gallery exhibition of his work ran at WBGO last spring. He has also exhibited at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and published a collection called Chuck Stewart’s Jazz Files, on Da Capo Press. Among the honors he has received are the Milt Hinton Award For Excellence in Jazz Photography.
He is survived by a daughter, Marsha Stewart; two sons, David and Christopher; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. 
Stewart was also an avuncular hero to many photographers, who received his counsel and his blessing. One of these, Carol Friedman, shares her tribute below.

<img src=”http://wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/default/public/201701/coltranebychuckframednate__carolfriedman_chuckstewartimage.jpg” alt=”A portrait of John Coltrane by Chuck Stewart, framed in Carol Friedman's home.”>
Remembering Chuck Stewart  
By Carol Friedman
I was absolutely devastated to learn of the passing of master photographer Chuck Stewart this past Friday. Chuck was a sublime artist and a sublime man. He was so very dear to me. One thing is abundantly clear when you look at Chuck’s photographs: his subjects loved and trusted this man. In the pantheon of jazz imagery, I cannot imagine anything greater than his portrait of John Coltrane. I have many photographs in my home, but this particular image hangs as a shrine, not only to Trane, but to a spirit world that seldom makes its way onto a two-dimensional surface. This level of emotional access is not easily or often granted. Chuck did not have have to ask. It belonged to him by virtue of who he was. 

<img src=”http://wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/default/public/201701/abbeychuckstewartnatural.__norepronate.jpg” alt=”Abbey Lincoln by Chuck Stewart”>
  I knew and loved many of Chuck’s magical pictures long before I knew Chuck. I don’t remember where or when we met, but we became fast friends. I was stunned and flattered by his admiration of my work. When I was researching pictures for my film on Abbey Lincoln, I asked if he had any never-before-seen pictures of her. Chuck generously opened his entire archive of images to me, with no limitations or restrictions whatsoever. 
I am so thankful that I took the #67 bus to Teaneck just a few months ago to show Chuck a rough cut of the film. I wanted him to see the extent that his beautiful images informed the film’s tenor and aesthetic. In addition to the many stunning portraits of Abbey and the images of Max and Abbey in various recording sessions, Chuck’s photographs of their wedding day offer a precious interlude: a scrapbook of tender and rarified history. Through his brilliant eyes.
Chuck got his start in the record industry as Herman Leonard’s assistant and quickly ascended. When Herman decamped to Paris, he gave his studio to Chuck and that was that. Through the years, Chuck shot thousands of album covers for a wide-ranging collective of music icons, from Ellington to Judy Garland to Sinatra to Ray Charles to Coltrane, Monk and Mingus. He told me that given how fast and furious it all happened, he fell into the practice of providing the record labels with only what they needed — a cover and two publicity photos — and would then move on to the next job. He never looked back. When I went through his contact sheets of Abbey and Max, I realized the degree of his genius. His greatest images had never even been printed.
Chuck was sweet, funny, wise, generous and nobody’s fool. He always spoke his mind, and although gentility was not a hallmark of his delivery, his brutal honesty and fabulous, mischievous spirit was. I feel so very privileged to have been his friend, comrade and the fortunate recipient of his love, respect and generous heart and soul.
 

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http://wbgo.org/post/chuck-stewart-master-jazz-photographer-dies-89#stream/0
 

Chuck Stewart, one of the most prolific and admired photographers in jazz — an intimate chronicler of many of its icons and milestones, including the historic recording session for John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme — died on Jan. 20 in Teaneck, N.J. He was 89.
His death was confirmed by his daughter-in-law Kim Stewart, who has handled the licensing of his images in recent years.
Over a distinguished career that spanned more than 70 years, Stewart shot countless artists in profile and at work, capturing resonant and unguarded images that also tell the story of the music. By his estimate, he shot the cover images for more than 2,000 albums, including a large portion of the Impulse! catalog. He also contributed photographs to a range of publications, including Esquire and the New York Times.
“In my portraits and improvisational shots, I’ve tried to unveil the soul of the artists I photographed and communicate the essence of their craft,” Stewart wrote in his official bio. “That’s why they trusted me: James Brown, John Coltrane, Candido, Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Quincy Jones, Machito, Max Roach, Frank Sinatra, and many more. You know their names, but few people have known and photographed them as I have.”

<img src=”http://wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/default/public/201701/john_coltrane_by_chuck_stewart.jpg” alt=”John Coltrane during the session for A Love Supreme, 1964.”>
Charles Hugh Stewart was born in Henrietta, Tx. and raised in Tuscon, Az., where he received a Box Brownie camera as a gift on his 13th birthday. It wasn’t long before he put it to professional use, photographing the great opera singer Marian Anderson during her visit to his school. He sold prints to teachers and his fellow students for two dollars apiece. 
He attended Ohio University, one of the only colleges in the country to offer a fine arts degree in photography. It was there that he met the older photographer Herman Leonard, who fast became a mentor and friend. 
Stewart served in the Army after graduation, working as a combat photographer; he was the only African-American to shoot the postwar atomic bomb tests in 1952. After his service, he accepted an invitation from Leonard to work in his New York studio: “I did a lot of the grunt work, where I learned to set up a shot, and understand what the photographer tries to translate to an audience.” 
Eventually Stewart inherited the studio, carrying on Leonard’s legacy in his own language. His images often incorporate darkness as a backdrop, setting up the subject in dramatic relief. A gallery exhibition of his work ran at WBGO last spring. He has also exhibited at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and published a collection called Chuck Stewart’s Jazz Files, on Da Capo Press. Among the honors he has received are the Milt Hinton Award For Excellence in Jazz Photography.
He is survived by a daughter, Marsha Stewart; two sons, David and Christopher; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. 
Stewart was also an avuncular hero to many photographers, who received his counsel and his blessing. One of these, Carol Friedman, shares her tribute below.

<img src=”http://wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/default/public/201701/coltranebychuckframednate__carolfriedman_chuckstewartimage.jpg” alt=”A portrait of John Coltrane by Chuck Stewart, framed in Carol Friedman's home.”>
Remembering Chuck Stewart  
By Carol Friedman
I was absolutely devastated to learn of the passing of master photographer Chuck Stewart this past Friday. Chuck was a sublime artist and a sublime man. He was so very dear to me. One thing is abundantly clear when you look at Chuck’s photographs: his subjects loved and trusted this man. In the pantheon of jazz imagery, I cannot imagine anything greater than his portrait of John Coltrane. I have many photographs in my home, but this particular image hangs as a shrine, not only to Trane, but to a spirit world that seldom makes its way onto a two-dimensional surface. This level of emotional access is not easily or often granted. Chuck did not have have to ask. It belonged to him by virtue of who he was. 

<img src=”http://wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/default/public/201701/abbeychuckstewartnatural.__norepronate.jpg” alt=”Abbey Lincoln by Chuck Stewart”>
  I knew and loved many of Chuck’s magical pictures long before I knew Chuck. I don’t remember where or when we met, but we became fast friends. I was stunned and flattered by his admiration of my work. When I was researching pictures for my film on Abbey Lincoln, I asked if he had any never-before-seen pictures of her. Chuck generously opened his entire archive of images to me, with no limitations or restrictions whatsoever. 
I am so thankful that I took the #67 bus to Teaneck just a few months ago to show Chuck a rough cut of the film. I wanted him to see the extent that his beautiful images informed the film’s tenor and aesthetic. In addition to the many stunning portraits of Abbey and the images of Max and Abbey in various recording sessions, Chuck’s photographs of their wedding day offer a precious interlude: a scrapbook of tender and rarified history. Through his brilliant eyes.
Chuck got his start in the record industry as Herman Leonard’s assistant and quickly ascended. When Herman decamped to Paris, he gave his studio to Chuck and that was that. Through the years, Chuck shot thousands of album covers for a wide-ranging collective of music icons, from Ellington to Judy Garland to Sinatra to Ray Charles to Coltrane, Monk and Mingus. He told me that given how fast and furious it all happened, he fell into the practice of providing the record labels with only what they needed — a cover and two publicity photos — and would then move on to the next job. He never looked back. When I went through his contact sheets of Abbey and Max, I realized the degree of his genius. His greatest images had never even been printed.
Chuck was sweet, funny, wise, generous and nobody’s fool. He always spoke his mind, and although gentility was not a hallmark of his delivery, his brutal honesty and fabulous, mischievous spirit was. I feel so very privileged to have been his friend, comrade and the fortunate recipient of his love, respect and generous heart and soul.
 

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