Elvis Costello gets Stroppy with Aging Jazzbo

Funny, I was gonna post that Diana Krall's not that old. (Yes, Diana Krall is jazz.)

November 27, 2003
JAZZ REVIEW | LEE KONITZ
A $400 Cake Wasn't Served, but the Band Played On
By BEN RATLIFF

A bit of show-business disaster surrounded the subdued music of a new quartet led by the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz on Tuesday night at Iridium. Elvis Costello was to make a brief appearance to give Mr. Konitz a cake for his 76th birthday and to sing "Someone Took the Words Away."

But Mr. Costello left abruptly during the sound check, apparently after a disagreement with the quartet's bassist, Gary Peacock.

Mr. Costello's appearance had been arranged by Iridium, which had advertised it widely. Mr. Peacock did not want to play backup for the song; he had said so last week and reiterated that on Tuesday, said Steve Cloud, his manager. When that became clear to Mr. Costello, he left in a huff.

Mr. Costello and Mr. Konitz had a bond that included Mr. Konitz playing a solo on Mr. Costello's new album, "North" (Deutsche Grammophon).

Many Costello fans who came for the first set unaware that Mr. Costello had already left — and perhaps not particularly interested in Mr. Konitz's quartet — angrily demanded refunds at the end of the set. (The club obliged.)

The $400 cake never left the kitchen.

By the second set things had settled a bit. Mr. Konitz's history goes back to the early years of bebop, and he had performed only occasionally before this week with the guitarist Bill Frisell, who is 24 years younger. But they are strangely compatible, no matter what they are playing. Their connection is not a matter of rhythm or harmony, but is expressed in individual notes, which both musicians like to give a kind of half-inflated shape; they both know how to make quiet, vulnerable, woozy music.

For a full house the newly convened quartet — filled out by Matt Wilson on drums — delivered free-floating dream material. Mr. Konitz's improvisations in recent years have been tender to the point of disjointed, and this was an epigrammatic performance. Instead of stamping out one song after another, the quartet worked fluidly with few breaks, letting Mr. Konitz lead with spontaneous suggestions of favorite melodies, which included "The Song Is You," "Pennies From Heaven," "What's New?" and Sonny Rollins's "Oleo."

There is a Konitz side to the music and a Frisell side; as the band plays through Sunday, the poles should come closer together. The late set on Tuesday often flickered between hesitant, wispy elaborations of the standards' melodies and more durable, countrylike playing instigated by Mr. Frisell. (Mr. Konitz weaved in and out of those parts, never quite gaining firm footing.)

Both styles had moments of incredible beauty; the rhythm section of Mr. Peacock and Mr. Wilson, whose refined free-jazz telepathy has little directly stated pulse but lots of clear implications, already communicates strongly.

I know it's NYT style and all but I just find this sentence incredibly funny to read.

EC isn't fit to kiss the shoes of the man who played bass on 'Spiritual Unity', tho' someone told me that GP is known to be "a grouchy old asshole". That's what happens when you play with Jarrett for twenty years!

it sounds like a game of "clue"...

mr. costello in the iridium with the cake.

Bahahahahahahaahha

I'm no Costello scholar, but Deep Dead Blue: Live at Meltdown (1995), is the only "torch song" record of Costello's that I've enjoyed. The stark arrangements are a major boost to his style and it sounds like he's singing the songs for the sake of singing them, not to impress anybody; also, it mixes his own material in with a couple standards and Mingus songs ("Gigi" kills), so you don't get the feeling that he's "dressing up for the occasion." (The version of "Poor Napoleon" on there, in my mind, kills the original.)

They also worked together on Sweetest Punch, a jazz version of the Costello-Bachrach album, arranged by Frisell, but I'm lukewarm on it - I think Frisell could've pushed it a little farther out, and the few songs with vocals are a lot more interesting than most of the instrumentals. On the other hand, I think the vocals are better than on the original record - there's a cool performance of "Toledo" that's worth checking out.

tho' someone told me that GP is known to be "a grouchy old asshole". That's what happens when you play with Jarrett for twenty years!

When the Boston Globe reviewed the trio's performance in Boston, they started off quoting Jarrett bitching about how rude or incompetent everyone had been. Maybe someone forgot to give him the key to the mini-bar or something and it was downhill from there.