Jazz & Football

Saddened today to read of the departure from this planet, at age 72, from cardiac arrest, of Tim Hauser, founder of Manhattan Transfer.

The story or legend is that Hauser was driving a cab in New York and picked up a singer--probably Janis Siegel--going to an audition. They fell into conversation, found they shared similar musical objectives, and then, connecting with Alan Paul and either red-haired Laurel Masse or Cheryl Bentyne, formed one of the truly terrific jazz vocal quartets.

(And further on jazz singers--Jon Hendricks, of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, continues to perform at age 97.)

Two companies have begun issuing CDs of jazz that should not be lost. One is JazzPlus, which has delivered, among other things, a memorable club session with Johnny Hodges, Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins. The other is Original Jazz Classics, and among its releases is "Waltz for Debby" by the Bill Evans Trio in performance at NYC's Village Vanguard. It is the last disc on which can he heard bassist Scott LaFaro.  Evans--"the Chopin of jazz," in Louis Lortie's words--redefined the jazz piano trio, not restricting bass and drums to accompaniment, but giving them equal expression. This CD contains probably the best ever performance of "Waltz for Debby," as well as two other songs Evans played over and over through his career: "My Foolish Heart" and "I Loves You, Porgy." There is also a blistering "Milestones," recalling Evans's time with Miles Davis.

And turning to Slap Maxwell for football news: Jon Cornish once again bursts thru for 160 yards, well on his way to repeating as the CFL's top running back, despite missing several games at the start of the season after a nasty hit. We saw Cornish first as a teenage player at New Westminster's St. Thomas More School (not our favorite saint nor our favorite school, but that's something else). There probably aren't enough games left in Cornish's career for him to top Normie Kwong's all-time rushing record, but who knows?

Meanwhile, it would seem inevitable that Cornish's team, the Calgary Stampeders, will take the west and then the Grey Cup, but that's been said before. This is the CFL, where the name of the game is often surprise.