Your book was a huge part of my education in jazz, and remains my favorite thing you have written. (Well, along with your first, The Imperfect Art.) I've returned to the book and re-read it over the years maybe five times, not counting the occasions when I just dip in for a chapter or two. Maybe the most important thing I learned was that west coast jazz was more than Brubeck/Shorty Rogers/Kenton etc., though you do well by them too. So one of the gifts of SubStack is I get to say directly to you: thank you for writing the book. It made a difference.
Yes! Unfortunately, given the racial element to all of this, there is a sizable (and loud) group of critics, activists, etc. that claim the West Coast scene *wasn’t*—or even *can’t be*—jazz. Mulligan and Baker were nothing—and couldn’t be anything—but “appropriators” in the eyes of some.
Thanks Ted, and thanks, too, for your pioneering research on the Jazz West Coast musicians and their music. I've placed the video on my jazzprofiles.blogspot.com site and I plan to make a large contribution to the film project.
There was an excellent and thriving jazz scene on the West Coast. Most of the Wrecking Crew were originally jazz musicians who were working out there. The studio work was far more lucrative. The whole east vs west thing is contrived, IMHO. For example, Dexter Gordon and Charles Mingus were both originally from the West Coast.
Vince Guaraldi was indeed great! He is the only reason I went to my senior ball in high school. Would have skipped it as to classe, but his name as the other band got me there.
Good luck! So many: W Coast jazz has current stars from San Diego to Seattle. Gilberto Castellano, Mark Dresser,
Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, the Bay Area improvisers (Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, the Clines, Larry Ochs, Kitty Margolis, SFJazz Sextet, Joshua Redman, Steve Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum (if you consider natives who emigrated), Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Joe Sample, the Portland scene and Seattle w Origin Records come to mind. And not to forget influence of Horace Tapscott’s circle, George Duke, Haden’s Quartet West, Cal Arts, Bobby Bradford, Nancy King, Gerald Wilson, besides Mingus, Chico Hamilton.
the most important, by far, of those you named are Bobby Bradford and Horace Tapscott, whose Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra is alive, well & blowin' for 60+ years!!!
As you include (as do some others on this thread) the muses that inspired and were inspired by Horace Tapscott and the big-eared and closely observed journalism of the South Central Ave musical scene in LA by Steven Isoardi and others I am hoping the scholarship of the recent past doesn't get left behind by backwards leap-frogging cultural his\herstorians:
"When Central Avenue Was L.A.'s Jazz Capital | Things That Aren't Here Anymore | PBS SoCal
PBS SoCal
178K subscribers
Subscribe
The mystique of the local in the case of mid to late 20th Century So Cal jazz has never lost its almost mystical appeal along with the activist and real ties forged by the educators, journalists and community enmeshed players, listeners, students, activists and cultural ambassadors themselves well-connected to the present day institutions including Public and Community as well as college radio. May they emerge from their deeply lodged scenes and long may they netcast, broadcast, publish, appear, organize and joyously edjamacate while keeping the communal enthusiasms properly ventilated.
Tracing the Ft. Worth, Texas roots of what South Central (Avenue) L.A.-based ghosts such as Horace Tapscott and assorted community organizing activists and journalist-scholars such as Steven Isoardi were and continue to chase need to screen and include the engaged documentary film work of such scene founders as Shirley Clarke:
Along with the dramatic stage playwright and screenplay writing Northern California and Pacific NW active cultural creative scenesters such as Murray Mednick (whose roots go back to the vital East Greenwich Village Second Avenue scene in NYC:
Four a.m. Figures wrapped in blankets move slowly around the town square, drinking hot soup in paper cups. Other figures huddle together for warmth on the wooden porches in front of the stores. A guitar strums tiredly. A baby whimpers.
What catastrophe has thrown these people together under the cold moon? They are theater fans, and it is intermission at “The Coyote Cycle.”
The figure in the sleeping bag on the far porch is your reporter, feeling remarkably fresh. We have been watching “The Coyote Cycle” since sundown, but it will be over at dawn, only a couple of hours away. It’s cold out here in the mountains, but it’s not getting any colder. The stars are magnificent. As a camping experience, it has been distinctly bearable.
As theater? Again, not an ordeal. Murray Mednick’s “Coyote Cycle” isn’t one long play but seven short ones, separated by intermissions of about 40 minutes. There’s time to regroup between the acts, even to nap. In terms of sustained attention, less is required than at “Nicholas Nickleby.”
The space is right for an outdoor epic: the Paramount Ranch, an abstract of every Western movie town. The audience (about 200) returns to Main Street between shows. Then we’re led by flashlight to a new locale: a big tree, an open field, a stockade. One of the plays is set on slanted ground, which figures in the dialogue. Gravity is out of whack here, in thrall to the Spider Woman (Christine Avila.)
The actors, who have been with the project since Mednick started writing the plays in the 1970s for the Padua Hills Festival, are extraordinary. There are only four of them: Avila; Priscilla Cohen as Clown; Darrell Larson as Coyote; Norbert Weisser as Trickster. What does it take for two actors to run around under that cold moon wearing nothing but bathing suits? More than adrenaline. Belief.
Does the audience believe “The Coyote Cycle”? From the complimentary howls that went up at the last play ended at dawn, last weekend’s crowd did. (Another marathon performance will be held this Saturday.) This viewer had trouble maintaining the faith.
“Coyote Cycle” takes its mythology from the American Indian. Coyote and Trickster are young gods with much to learn about life, which the Spider Woman will teach them--the hard way. (There’s a lot of Gail Sondegaard in Avila’s portrayal, consistent with the piece’s jokey tone. Wisdom in this epic comes through laughter.)
Coyote’s mission on Earth involves freeing a hidden waterfall, which will flush the Earth of evil spirits . . . for now. (In this cosmology, what goes around comes around.) Trickster, too, has a mission, which he can’t recall. Being the more serious spirit, this is driving him around the bend. He wishes he were home in the lower world.
Coyote also wants to go home. He lives in the upper world, as befits his cheerful outlook. Think of Ariel crossed with Simple Simon--a Simon who has somehow got it into his head that he is capable of doing anything. In fact, whatever the mission, Coyote usually screws up.
The worrywart and the goof: They make funny sidekicks. And in time it comes to them, as it may earlier have come to the viewer, that they are two sides of the same coin called Man. Either he is falling on his face trying to be divine, or he is skulking around with the moles. Never content just to walk on the trail.
But the piece doesn’t articulate a moral. All we know for sure is that the waterfall does finally flow--leading to those howls--and that our heroes seem to have taken a step toward wisdom, symbolized by their last walk up the mountain. And by now we have a young Trickster (Morgan Weisser) and a young Coyote (Tavish Graham).
An epic myth can have as many meanings as it has readers. What counts is its resonance as a tale, a journey of the soul. Does it hold us as a story? Are we eager to see Coyote’s and Trickster’s next adventure?
After a few chapters, I wasn’t especially eager to do so, for this reason: Their adventures proved so spiritual that it was hard to see much going on on the surface other than talk. An exception, and a delightful one, was Coyote’s experience giving birth to a dozen weird little spider brats (sired by Spider Woman, to teach him a lesson).
As each spider emerged from the “door of birth” in the hillside, he would zip up into the tree on a wire, until we finally had a tree swinging with spider ornaments. Not a profound image--a gag, almost--but it culminated and symbolized an action, and one felt that this particular chapter had gotten somewhere.
Elsewhere Trickster and Coyote tended to have mutual epiphanies--verbal revelations--rather than adventures. Instead of traveling with them in a kind of dream time, this viewer felt shut out from the source of their hilarity and discoveries, though our actors made it clear that they were having tremendous ones.
It was a bit like listening to two buddies who have had a few too many beers. They’re breaking up at their jokes, but the jokes just aren’t that funny. Much of “The Coyote Cycle” resembles the kind of children’s theater where the performers say stupid things and expect the kids to giggle. Here we’re expected to giggle and to see the essential wisdom behind the stupidity. Hey, Doo-Doo Brain!
One also missed a sense of the pain that men lay up while getting smart. In the first play, Weisser issues a tremendous howl at the memory of his dead son, but when it comes time for him and for Coyote to die, they simply flop down like kids. OK. We’re dead. The idea may be this is a universe where nothing is final and therefore nothing is entirely serious; but it looks cute.
As a dramatic cycle, “Coyote” needs to be less beguiling and more dramatic. It needs a darkness that can be taken seriously. As a theater experience, however, it’s unique. If the marathon sounds a bit daunting, the reader can see Parts I-IV tonight and Parts V-VII Wednesday. Wear lots of heavy clothing, bring coffee and take the route to the ranch that goes through the Santa Monica Mountains, which are spectacular both at sunset and at dawn. Information at (213) 655-4137.
‘THE COYOTE CYCLE’ Murray Mednick’s seven plays, presented by L.A. Theatre Works at the Paramount Ranch, Agoura. Producers Susan Albert Loewenberg, Sara Maultsby. Director Mednick. Set design Robert A. Behling. Production stage manager Matthew Goulish. Set construction Behling, Steve Bauer, Gregory Hormel, John Oldach, Cogswell Gearhead. Production coordinator Richard Bloom. Costumes Louise Hayter, Michele Jo Blanche. Weaving Margaret Clarke; Nargis. With Christine Avila, Priscilla Cohen, Darrell Larson, Norbert Weisser. Plays in its entirety next Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with Parts I-IV playing Tuesday and Parts V-VII playing Wednesday. Tickets: $45 for the entire cycle, $15 for the partial showings. Paramount Ranch, Agoura, (213) 655-4137.
You mean the SF Jazz Collective which is a septet, not sextet. I'm not sure if any members actually live in the Bay Area. I just saw a wonderful show where they paid tribute to wayne Shorter's Native Dancer.
Yes Septet. Whether they live there or not, the musicians by virtue of repping SFJ are making a case they play West Coast jazz -- no? How about Billy Childs, the Clayton Bros., Jeff Hamilton, Gerald Clayton, Diane Reeves, Ernie Watts, Kenny Burrell. They've gotten less than deserved respect?
If the discussion is about Kenton, Brubeck, Chet Baker, Shelley Manne -- maybe a matter of taste, but contextually a lot of their music is less urgent and powerful to me than comparable ensembles or instrumentalists based further East. But Ted is the man to make the counter argument.
Amen! and if the discussion is on the LA scene, much more vital & dynamic music has been made here by the 2 people you mentioned, Bobby Bradford and Horace Tapscott...
I have also been aware of the racial element underlying the East vs. West Coast Jazz controversy, however I think that rather than a problem of appropriation or exploitation the issue is more about racial proportionality. West Coast Jazz seemed to be disproportionately represented by white musicians.
My introduction to West Coast Jazz was in 1964 when I was recruited to be the bassist in our Glendale, CA high school stage band. Our director loved Neal Hefti, Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader, Don Ellis’s big band, Stan Getz, to name only a few. I remember going to The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach to hear the MJQ and to Rudy’s Pasta House to hear Cal Tjader.
This new film documentary seems long overdue and I applaud the project and will make a contribution. Please keep us posted about its progress.
the "cool sound" became representative of the LA West Coast jazz scene, no doubt reflecting the racism of those involved...There was a much more vibrant, vital scene led by Black musicians in the area, especially Bobby Bradford(at 93 still creating challenging music) and Horace Tapscott, despite his passing many years ago, his Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra continues on the path seeking & creating!
Good points. Lots of racism in SoCal and it continued throughout the “cool” period of the West Coast Jazz scene. I’m also sure many of the white musicians had gigs at various film and television production studios and they were racist as well.
I had a huge collection of West Coast jazz CDs. Dave Brubeck was my gateway (still the jazz musician I listen to most) followed by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker, then Barney Kessel, Jimmy Giuffre, Chico Hamilton, Shorty Rogers… the list goes on and on.
I agree with critics that say that it can be very lightweight at times, but It was a much more diverse and exploratory scene than people are willing to admit.
I’d like to think there’s an alternate universe out there where Dick Twardik made a bunch of albums in the fifties and sixties.
Your book was a great guide to stuff I otherwise would have missed.
For what it's worth, Carol Kaye, who is still around and active on social media, was part of that scene both on the band stand and in the studio. Hopefully Ms Evans will include her in this documentary.
I could only find Carol Kaye on one track with J.J. Cale (and I've got all of his records). Yet I recall Cale and his wife\creative collaborator\bandmate Christine Lakeland mentioning that great innovative electric bassist from Everett, WA numerous times in context of the LA studio scene's 'Wrecking Crew.' That one track is the flip side of laid back J.J. Cale persona as it whizzes past before you can check yer watch and really is a song that illustrates movement & energy, regardless of what the lyrics might be narrating:
"JJ Cale "Carry On" 1980 Tommy Tedesco Carol Kaye Russ Kunkel Christine Lakeland Audie Ashworth"
Leon Russell Superstar in a Masquerade
2.09K subscribers
"91 views May 10, 2024
"One of JJ Cale's albums recorded with some of Hollywood's elite Wrecking Crew was his 1980 offering titled Shades. During evening September 26, 1980, Cale recorded "Carry On" at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Along with his wife Christine (on organ and backing vocals) were the Wrecking Crew's bassist Carol Kaye and guitarist Tommy Tedesco. Russ Kunkel was the drummer and Cale's producer Audie Ashworth joined in uncredited."
"Also on Shades, recorded at Capitol Studios, is "Pack My Jack," with Wrecking Crew guitarist James Burton, and "Runaround," which had Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine on it. Again, there is "What Do You Expect," which was recorded at Leon Russell's Paradise Studio with Leon on electric piano. It is on this YouTube channel. Leon was also a Wrecking Crew member."
(TV\Film Soundtrack & Incidental Music Producer Perry Botkin unpeels the label biz of record credits & lack of back in 60's
& studio session clips with Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles & move of Motown to Mo'West in LA studio scene. Funny scenes with her hub swigging Listerine instead of booze, in schools with students sharing day to day reality of working with 'stars.') 8:34
Bass Player Magazine i-view cuts in on Carol Kaye speaking of Jaco Pastorius and a session bassist needing to work on "Walking Bass...." Simplifies Jazz technique on session work compared with film\tv\jingle biz & rock-pop-jazz
"BASS PLAYER: Carol Kaye Interview" On Note Scales Not Being Session method
Ted. I hope you have heard of and listen to the Portland jazz station KMHD. They are the best and have a streaming app if you’re not in the pacific northwest. Please donate to OPB or your local PBS station if possible and support listener supported radio. Thank you
Pirate Cat Radio began in 2001 as an unlicensed community station in Los Gatos, broadcasting an eclectic mix of music, talk shows, and cultural programming. The station was part of a broader trend of pirate radio in the Bay Area, known for challenging traditional media boundaries and giving voice to underrepresented communities.[4] Despite numerous warnings and fines from the FCC, Roberts continued to operate the station, citing a loophole in wartime broadcasting regulations.[5]
"Legal Challenges and Closure
In 2009, the FCC fined Roberts $10,000 for broadcasting without a license, and in 2011, the station ceased operations amid financial and legal disputes.[6] The physical station in the Mission District of San Francisco also closed, marking the end of an era for Pirate Cat Radio."
"Revival in 2024
In August 2024, Pirate Cat Radio made a highly anticipated return, this time with FCC approval and a focus on its roots in Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. According to Roberts, the station aims to blend its rebellious spirit with community-oriented programming, leveraging its legal status to build new partnerships and reach a broader audience.[1][2]"
"The relaunch includes upgraded facilities and programming that reflects the station's original eclectic ethos. Roberts noted that this revival is part of a broader effort to support community media and provide a platform for diverse voices.[3]"
"Pirate [sometimes accurately typo'd as P irate Cat Radio] Cat Radio, at the 92.9 FM frequency, is the “work in progress” of Los Gatos resident Daniel Roberts. KPCR was switched on in 2020 and relocated here this past December, as first reported by the Los Gatan. For Pirate Cat Radio founder Roberts, that move was a homecoming—the culmination of a journey that began in the town of the cats and included stops in San Francisco, Pescadero and Santa Cruz."
"In the late 1990s, Roberts—then calling himself Monkey Man—began microbroadcasting at the bottom of the FM dial at 87.9 megahertz from his bedroom in his mother’s Los Gatos home. His antenna was in a tree, and his equipment (purchased from Radio Shack for about $30, plus donated or recycled gear) was under his bed."
"One day, the Federal Communication Commission—Roberts refers to them as “men in suits”—dropped in and took possession of his equipment for broadcasting without a full FCC license. The men in suits drove around in a specially equipped van that detected Roberts’ low-watt pirate station."
“I asked the FCC agents if they could show me how they locate unlicensed radio stations, and they offered to take me for a drive to show me,” Roberts said. “I happily jumped in their van and went for an educational ride.”
"Among the things he learned: There was a $10,000 daily fine for broadcasting without a license. (And as of 2020, that rate increased to as much as $100,000 per day per violation, with a maximum of $2 million.)"
"In the 1998 Metro article “Buccaneer Broadcasting,” reporter Jeff Kearns wrote, “Monkey Man is not going to shell out the $10,000 daily fee to the FCC for a broadcast license anytime soon, and even if he did, the FCC won’t license puny little stations under 100 watts.”
"Roberts got his start in microbroadcasting at Free-Radio San Jose (93.7 FM)."
"After that, Roberts says, “I spoke with other radio renegades like Free-Radio Berkeley’s Stephen Dunifer and Dr. Slick from Free-Radio Los Gatos.”
"Dr. Slick (who infrequently broadcasted an unlicensed station at 91.3 FM), “helped me understand more about the legalities of broadcasting in the US and about the science behind (radio frequency) engineering,” Roberts says."
‘Here in SV we hear about big tech names, yet equally impactful are the folks who do not get the light of day’ "
"—Daniel Roberts, Pirate Cat Radio founder"
I can vouch for the liveliness and playfulness of the programming of this wonderful example of Community Radio hopefully to blossom in the nurturing soils and shadows of the national Pacifica Foundation broadcasting and netcasting from WBAI (Tri-State CT, NYC, NY, NJ) to other Pacifica Community radio stations in Washington DC, Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA KPFK along with Pacifica Radio Left Coast HQ back where it all started for some of US long-term home station volunteers studio bivouc'd once upon a time a flight of stairs above the corner diner on Shattuck Avenue down the street from the downtown light rail station (BART) and Alameda County bus line hub and now a theater district with new housing necessarily intruding via big investment funding of exclusive new condo housing in Berkeley, CA:
& then there's the even more neglected faction of NORTH West coast jazz...(at least Paul DeBarros is writing a sequel to his wonderful "Jackson Street After Hours"..!) -- think Ray Charles, Quincy Jones et al...(!)
Nice article, and I totally share your opinion that there is no reason not to dig ALL jazz, regardless of which school or movement it belongs to. It's either good or it's bad.
To quote LA’s poet laureate Kendrick Lamar, “Don't say you hate L.A. when you don't travel past the 10”. As a native and an appreciator of LA’s cultural history, LA as a cultural center is robust and always worth celebrating. And add that to California’s cultural heritage in the arts, it isn’t anything to feel inferior about. To close out with KL “Don't say you hate L.A., but live in L.A. and pretend”
Your book was a huge part of my education in jazz, and remains my favorite thing you have written. (Well, along with your first, The Imperfect Art.) I've returned to the book and re-read it over the years maybe five times, not counting the occasions when I just dip in for a chapter or two. Maybe the most important thing I learned was that west coast jazz was more than Brubeck/Shorty Rogers/Kenton etc., though you do well by them too. So one of the gifts of SubStack is I get to say directly to you: thank you for writing the book. It made a difference.
Yes! Unfortunately, given the racial element to all of this, there is a sizable (and loud) group of critics, activists, etc. that claim the West Coast scene *wasn’t*—or even *can’t be*—jazz. Mulligan and Baker were nothing—and couldn’t be anything—but “appropriators” in the eyes of some.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Thanks Ted, and thanks, too, for your pioneering research on the Jazz West Coast musicians and their music. I've placed the video on my jazzprofiles.blogspot.com site and I plan to make a large contribution to the film project.
You did jazz a real service writing that book. Nobody else wrote as in-depth on that music. That book was also my first exposure to you.
There was an excellent and thriving jazz scene on the West Coast. Most of the Wrecking Crew were originally jazz musicians who were working out there. The studio work was far more lucrative. The whole east vs west thing is contrived, IMHO. For example, Dexter Gordon and Charles Mingus were both originally from the West Coast.
Vince Guaraldi was indeed great! He is the only reason I went to my senior ball in high school. Would have skipped it as to classe, but his name as the other band got me there.
Good luck! So many: W Coast jazz has current stars from San Diego to Seattle. Gilberto Castellano, Mark Dresser,
Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, the Bay Area improvisers (Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, the Clines, Larry Ochs, Kitty Margolis, SFJazz Sextet, Joshua Redman, Steve Bernstein, Peter Apfelbaum (if you consider natives who emigrated), Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Joe Sample, the Portland scene and Seattle w Origin Records come to mind. And not to forget influence of Horace Tapscott’s circle, George Duke, Haden’s Quartet West, Cal Arts, Bobby Bradford, Nancy King, Gerald Wilson, besides Mingus, Chico Hamilton.
the most important, by far, of those you named are Bobby Bradford and Horace Tapscott, whose Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra is alive, well & blowin' for 60+ years!!!
As you include (as do some others on this thread) the muses that inspired and were inspired by Horace Tapscott and the big-eared and closely observed journalism of the South Central Ave musical scene in LA by Steven Isoardi and others I am hoping the scholarship of the recent past doesn't get left behind by backwards leap-frogging cultural his\herstorians:
https://www.darktree-records.com/en/the-music-finds-a-way-by-steven-l-isoardi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2FV91K6Ylw
"When Central Avenue Was L.A.'s Jazz Capital | Things That Aren't Here Anymore | PBS SoCal
PBS SoCal
178K subscribers
Subscribe
The mystique of the local in the case of mid to late 20th Century So Cal jazz has never lost its almost mystical appeal along with the activist and real ties forged by the educators, journalists and community enmeshed players, listeners, students, activists and cultural ambassadors themselves well-connected to the present day institutions including Public and Community as well as college radio. May they emerge from their deeply lodged scenes and long may they netcast, broadcast, publish, appear, organize and joyously edjamacate while keeping the communal enthusiasms properly ventilated.
Tracing the Ft. Worth, Texas roots of what South Central (Avenue) L.A.-based ghosts such as Horace Tapscott and assorted community organizing activists and journalist-scholars such as Steven Isoardi were and continue to chase need to screen and include the engaged documentary film work of such scene founders as Shirley Clarke:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornette:_Made_in_America
Along with the dramatic stage playwright and screenplay writing Northern California and Pacific NW active cultural creative scenesters such as Murray Mednick (whose roots go back to the vital East Greenwich Village Second Avenue scene in NYC:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Mednick
http://murraymednick.com/plays/
http://murraymednick.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/JEWISH-JUNKIE-PLAY.pdf
https://www.villagevoice.com/homeland-insecurity-2/
https://jewishjournal.com/culture/arts/6622/
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/22/theater/theater-surviving-brooklyn-and-finding-a-voice-far-away.html
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-08-06-ca-5022-story.html (by LA Times theater critic and Stage features journalist Dan Sullivan 8-6-85)
https://www.villagevoice.com/fuck-the-curtain-an-oral-history-of-off-broadway/
https://www.villagevoice.com/romper-room/
https://magictheatre.org/magic-archive
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-08-06-ca-5022-story.html
Entertainment & Arts
STAGE REVIEW : ‘COYOTE’: A LONG ALL-NIGHTER
By DAN SULLIVAN
Aug. 6, 1985 12 AM PT
Times Theater Critic
Four a.m. Figures wrapped in blankets move slowly around the town square, drinking hot soup in paper cups. Other figures huddle together for warmth on the wooden porches in front of the stores. A guitar strums tiredly. A baby whimpers.
What catastrophe has thrown these people together under the cold moon? They are theater fans, and it is intermission at “The Coyote Cycle.”
The figure in the sleeping bag on the far porch is your reporter, feeling remarkably fresh. We have been watching “The Coyote Cycle” since sundown, but it will be over at dawn, only a couple of hours away. It’s cold out here in the mountains, but it’s not getting any colder. The stars are magnificent. As a camping experience, it has been distinctly bearable.
As theater? Again, not an ordeal. Murray Mednick’s “Coyote Cycle” isn’t one long play but seven short ones, separated by intermissions of about 40 minutes. There’s time to regroup between the acts, even to nap. In terms of sustained attention, less is required than at “Nicholas Nickleby.”
The space is right for an outdoor epic: the Paramount Ranch, an abstract of every Western movie town. The audience (about 200) returns to Main Street between shows. Then we’re led by flashlight to a new locale: a big tree, an open field, a stockade. One of the plays is set on slanted ground, which figures in the dialogue. Gravity is out of whack here, in thrall to the Spider Woman (Christine Avila.)
The actors, who have been with the project since Mednick started writing the plays in the 1970s for the Padua Hills Festival, are extraordinary. There are only four of them: Avila; Priscilla Cohen as Clown; Darrell Larson as Coyote; Norbert Weisser as Trickster. What does it take for two actors to run around under that cold moon wearing nothing but bathing suits? More than adrenaline. Belief.
Does the audience believe “The Coyote Cycle”? From the complimentary howls that went up at the last play ended at dawn, last weekend’s crowd did. (Another marathon performance will be held this Saturday.) This viewer had trouble maintaining the faith.
“Coyote Cycle” takes its mythology from the American Indian. Coyote and Trickster are young gods with much to learn about life, which the Spider Woman will teach them--the hard way. (There’s a lot of Gail Sondegaard in Avila’s portrayal, consistent with the piece’s jokey tone. Wisdom in this epic comes through laughter.)
Coyote’s mission on Earth involves freeing a hidden waterfall, which will flush the Earth of evil spirits . . . for now. (In this cosmology, what goes around comes around.) Trickster, too, has a mission, which he can’t recall. Being the more serious spirit, this is driving him around the bend. He wishes he were home in the lower world.
Coyote also wants to go home. He lives in the upper world, as befits his cheerful outlook. Think of Ariel crossed with Simple Simon--a Simon who has somehow got it into his head that he is capable of doing anything. In fact, whatever the mission, Coyote usually screws up.
The worrywart and the goof: They make funny sidekicks. And in time it comes to them, as it may earlier have come to the viewer, that they are two sides of the same coin called Man. Either he is falling on his face trying to be divine, or he is skulking around with the moles. Never content just to walk on the trail.
But the piece doesn’t articulate a moral. All we know for sure is that the waterfall does finally flow--leading to those howls--and that our heroes seem to have taken a step toward wisdom, symbolized by their last walk up the mountain. And by now we have a young Trickster (Morgan Weisser) and a young Coyote (Tavish Graham).
An epic myth can have as many meanings as it has readers. What counts is its resonance as a tale, a journey of the soul. Does it hold us as a story? Are we eager to see Coyote’s and Trickster’s next adventure?
After a few chapters, I wasn’t especially eager to do so, for this reason: Their adventures proved so spiritual that it was hard to see much going on on the surface other than talk. An exception, and a delightful one, was Coyote’s experience giving birth to a dozen weird little spider brats (sired by Spider Woman, to teach him a lesson).
As each spider emerged from the “door of birth” in the hillside, he would zip up into the tree on a wire, until we finally had a tree swinging with spider ornaments. Not a profound image--a gag, almost--but it culminated and symbolized an action, and one felt that this particular chapter had gotten somewhere.
Elsewhere Trickster and Coyote tended to have mutual epiphanies--verbal revelations--rather than adventures. Instead of traveling with them in a kind of dream time, this viewer felt shut out from the source of their hilarity and discoveries, though our actors made it clear that they were having tremendous ones.
It was a bit like listening to two buddies who have had a few too many beers. They’re breaking up at their jokes, but the jokes just aren’t that funny. Much of “The Coyote Cycle” resembles the kind of children’s theater where the performers say stupid things and expect the kids to giggle. Here we’re expected to giggle and to see the essential wisdom behind the stupidity. Hey, Doo-Doo Brain!
One also missed a sense of the pain that men lay up while getting smart. In the first play, Weisser issues a tremendous howl at the memory of his dead son, but when it comes time for him and for Coyote to die, they simply flop down like kids. OK. We’re dead. The idea may be this is a universe where nothing is final and therefore nothing is entirely serious; but it looks cute.
As a dramatic cycle, “Coyote” needs to be less beguiling and more dramatic. It needs a darkness that can be taken seriously. As a theater experience, however, it’s unique. If the marathon sounds a bit daunting, the reader can see Parts I-IV tonight and Parts V-VII Wednesday. Wear lots of heavy clothing, bring coffee and take the route to the ranch that goes through the Santa Monica Mountains, which are spectacular both at sunset and at dawn. Information at (213) 655-4137.
‘THE COYOTE CYCLE’ Murray Mednick’s seven plays, presented by L.A. Theatre Works at the Paramount Ranch, Agoura. Producers Susan Albert Loewenberg, Sara Maultsby. Director Mednick. Set design Robert A. Behling. Production stage manager Matthew Goulish. Set construction Behling, Steve Bauer, Gregory Hormel, John Oldach, Cogswell Gearhead. Production coordinator Richard Bloom. Costumes Louise Hayter, Michele Jo Blanche. Weaving Margaret Clarke; Nargis. With Christine Avila, Priscilla Cohen, Darrell Larson, Norbert Weisser. Plays in its entirety next Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with Parts I-IV playing Tuesday and Parts V-VII playing Wednesday. Tickets: $45 for the entire cycle, $15 for the partial showings. Paramount Ranch, Agoura, (213) 655-4137.
https://www.americantheatre.org/2025/10/22/murray-mednick-poet-and-fighter/
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of A-Tone-ment seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
You mean the SF Jazz Collective which is a septet, not sextet. I'm not sure if any members actually live in the Bay Area. I just saw a wonderful show where they paid tribute to wayne Shorter's Native Dancer.
Yes Septet. Whether they live there or not, the musicians by virtue of repping SFJ are making a case they play West Coast jazz -- no? How about Billy Childs, the Clayton Bros., Jeff Hamilton, Gerald Clayton, Diane Reeves, Ernie Watts, Kenny Burrell. They've gotten less than deserved respect?
If the discussion is about Kenton, Brubeck, Chet Baker, Shelley Manne -- maybe a matter of taste, but contextually a lot of their music is less urgent and powerful to me than comparable ensembles or instrumentalists based further East. But Ted is the man to make the counter argument.
Amen! and if the discussion is on the LA scene, much more vital & dynamic music has been made here by the 2 people you mentioned, Bobby Bradford and Horace Tapscott...
I have also been aware of the racial element underlying the East vs. West Coast Jazz controversy, however I think that rather than a problem of appropriation or exploitation the issue is more about racial proportionality. West Coast Jazz seemed to be disproportionately represented by white musicians.
My introduction to West Coast Jazz was in 1964 when I was recruited to be the bassist in our Glendale, CA high school stage band. Our director loved Neal Hefti, Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader, Don Ellis’s big band, Stan Getz, to name only a few. I remember going to The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach to hear the MJQ and to Rudy’s Pasta House to hear Cal Tjader.
This new film documentary seems long overdue and I applaud the project and will make a contribution. Please keep us posted about its progress.
the "cool sound" became representative of the LA West Coast jazz scene, no doubt reflecting the racism of those involved...There was a much more vibrant, vital scene led by Black musicians in the area, especially Bobby Bradford(at 93 still creating challenging music) and Horace Tapscott, despite his passing many years ago, his Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra continues on the path seeking & creating!
Good points. Lots of racism in SoCal and it continued throughout the “cool” period of the West Coast Jazz scene. I’m also sure many of the white musicians had gigs at various film and television production studios and they were racist as well.
Let's not forget Stan Kenton
I had a huge collection of West Coast jazz CDs. Dave Brubeck was my gateway (still the jazz musician I listen to most) followed by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker, then Barney Kessel, Jimmy Giuffre, Chico Hamilton, Shorty Rogers… the list goes on and on.
I agree with critics that say that it can be very lightweight at times, but It was a much more diverse and exploratory scene than people are willing to admit.
I’d like to think there’s an alternate universe out there where Dick Twardik made a bunch of albums in the fifties and sixties.
Your book was a great guide to stuff I otherwise would have missed.
For what it's worth, Carol Kaye, who is still around and active on social media, was part of that scene both on the band stand and in the studio. Hopefully Ms Evans will include her in this documentary.
I could only find Carol Kaye on one track with J.J. Cale (and I've got all of his records). Yet I recall Cale and his wife\creative collaborator\bandmate Christine Lakeland mentioning that great innovative electric bassist from Everett, WA numerous times in context of the LA studio scene's 'Wrecking Crew.' That one track is the flip side of laid back J.J. Cale persona as it whizzes past before you can check yer watch and really is a song that illustrates movement & energy, regardless of what the lyrics might be narrating:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Kaye
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIo8e6_pMEE
Carol Kaye Played On Over 10,000 Recordings
Otis Gibbs
122K subscribers
Share
18,082 views Apr 7, 2023
Alison Prestwood shares stories about the great, Carol Kaye.
You can learn more about Alison at her website.
https://www.alisonprestwood.com/
Ways to support this channel.
/ otisgibbs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music)
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/11/14/wrec-n14.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(2008_film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd5N5g4Fias
"JJ Cale "Carry On" 1980 Tommy Tedesco Carol Kaye Russ Kunkel Christine Lakeland Audie Ashworth"
Leon Russell Superstar in a Masquerade
2.09K subscribers
"91 views May 10, 2024
"One of JJ Cale's albums recorded with some of Hollywood's elite Wrecking Crew was his 1980 offering titled Shades. During evening September 26, 1980, Cale recorded "Carry On" at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Along with his wife Christine (on organ and backing vocals) were the Wrecking Crew's bassist Carol Kaye and guitarist Tommy Tedesco. Russ Kunkel was the drummer and Cale's producer Audie Ashworth joined in uncredited."
"Also on Shades, recorded at Capitol Studios, is "Pack My Jack," with Wrecking Crew guitarist James Burton, and "Runaround," which had Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine on it. Again, there is "What Do You Expect," which was recorded at Leon Russell's Paradise Studio with Leon on electric piano. It is on this YouTube channel. Leon was also a Wrecking Crew member."
Carol Kaye playing, teaching, interview clips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tufJsPSI8tQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh9zoO4xUKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BwlzdXgTkg
(TV\Film Soundtrack & Incidental Music Producer Perry Botkin unpeels the label biz of record credits & lack of back in 60's
& studio session clips with Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles & move of Motown to Mo'West in LA studio scene. Funny scenes with her hub swigging Listerine instead of booze, in schools with students sharing day to day reality of working with 'stars.') 8:34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9idtdWAAEA
Bass Player Magazine i-view cuts in on Carol Kaye speaking of Jaco Pastorius and a session bassist needing to work on "Walking Bass...." Simplifies Jazz technique on session work compared with film\tv\jingle biz & rock-pop-jazz
"BASS PLAYER: Carol Kaye Interview" On Note Scales Not Being Session method
MusicPlayerNetwork
9.45K subscribers
443,676 views Apr 7, 2009 6:21
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtdY2X7SaZq5d1bLO8UtCItJal0rEJkDC
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of A-Tone-ment Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
Ted. I hope you have heard of and listen to the Portland jazz station KMHD. They are the best and have a streaming app if you’re not in the pacific northwest. Please donate to OPB or your local PBS station if possible and support listener supported radio. Thank you
Thank you for this! We lost our jazz radio statin two decades ago.
Download their streaming app it’s free and is great! KMHD is celebrating 41 years this year
Also, KSDS out of San Diego. The station gives an on-air home to Loren Schoenberg and Will Friedwald, along with lots of other great programming.
Not to forget the newest terrestrial and online radio producer in the South Bay town of Los Gatos and so well named Pirate Cat Radio dba KPCR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Cat_Radio
Early Years and Unlicensed Broadcasting
Pirate Cat Radio began in 2001 as an unlicensed community station in Los Gatos, broadcasting an eclectic mix of music, talk shows, and cultural programming. The station was part of a broader trend of pirate radio in the Bay Area, known for challenging traditional media boundaries and giving voice to underrepresented communities.[4] Despite numerous warnings and fines from the FCC, Roberts continued to operate the station, citing a loophole in wartime broadcasting regulations.[5]
"Legal Challenges and Closure
In 2009, the FCC fined Roberts $10,000 for broadcasting without a license, and in 2011, the station ceased operations amid financial and legal disputes.[6] The physical station in the Mission District of San Francisco also closed, marking the end of an era for Pirate Cat Radio."
"Revival in 2024
In August 2024, Pirate Cat Radio made a highly anticipated return, this time with FCC approval and a focus on its roots in Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. According to Roberts, the station aims to blend its rebellious spirit with community-oriented programming, leveraging its legal status to build new partnerships and reach a broader audience.[1][2]"
"The relaunch includes upgraded facilities and programming that reflects the station's original eclectic ethos. Roberts noted that this revival is part of a broader effort to support community media and provide a platform for diverse voices.[3]"
https://losgatan.com/a-pirate-radio-story/
A Pirate Cat Radio story…
By Dinah Cotton -March 27, 20241606
"Pirate [sometimes accurately typo'd as P irate Cat Radio] Cat Radio, at the 92.9 FM frequency, is the “work in progress” of Los Gatos resident Daniel Roberts. KPCR was switched on in 2020 and relocated here this past December, as first reported by the Los Gatan. For Pirate Cat Radio founder Roberts, that move was a homecoming—the culmination of a journey that began in the town of the cats and included stops in San Francisco, Pescadero and Santa Cruz."
"In the late 1990s, Roberts—then calling himself Monkey Man—began microbroadcasting at the bottom of the FM dial at 87.9 megahertz from his bedroom in his mother’s Los Gatos home. His antenna was in a tree, and his equipment (purchased from Radio Shack for about $30, plus donated or recycled gear) was under his bed."
"One day, the Federal Communication Commission—Roberts refers to them as “men in suits”—dropped in and took possession of his equipment for broadcasting without a full FCC license. The men in suits drove around in a specially equipped van that detected Roberts’ low-watt pirate station."
“I asked the FCC agents if they could show me how they locate unlicensed radio stations, and they offered to take me for a drive to show me,” Roberts said. “I happily jumped in their van and went for an educational ride.”
"Among the things he learned: There was a $10,000 daily fine for broadcasting without a license. (And as of 2020, that rate increased to as much as $100,000 per day per violation, with a maximum of $2 million.)"
"In the 1998 Metro article “Buccaneer Broadcasting,” reporter Jeff Kearns wrote, “Monkey Man is not going to shell out the $10,000 daily fee to the FCC for a broadcast license anytime soon, and even if he did, the FCC won’t license puny little stations under 100 watts.”
"Roberts got his start in microbroadcasting at Free-Radio San Jose (93.7 FM)."
"After that, Roberts says, “I spoke with other radio renegades like Free-Radio Berkeley’s Stephen Dunifer and Dr. Slick from Free-Radio Los Gatos.”
"Dr. Slick (who infrequently broadcasted an unlicensed station at 91.3 FM), “helped me understand more about the legalities of broadcasting in the US and about the science behind (radio frequency) engineering,” Roberts says."
‘Here in SV we hear about big tech names, yet equally impactful are the folks who do not get the light of day’ "
"—Daniel Roberts, Pirate Cat Radio founder"
I can vouch for the liveliness and playfulness of the programming of this wonderful example of Community Radio hopefully to blossom in the nurturing soils and shadows of the national Pacifica Foundation broadcasting and netcasting from WBAI (Tri-State CT, NYC, NY, NJ) to other Pacifica Community radio stations in Washington DC, Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA KPFK along with Pacifica Radio Left Coast HQ back where it all started for some of US long-term home station volunteers studio bivouc'd once upon a time a flight of stairs above the corner diner on Shattuck Avenue down the street from the downtown light rail station (BART) and Alameda County bus line hub and now a theater district with new housing necessarily intruding via big investment funding of exclusive new condo housing in Berkeley, CA:
Via
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of A-Tone-ment Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
KKUP is also really good
& then there's the even more neglected faction of NORTH West coast jazz...(at least Paul DeBarros is writing a sequel to his wonderful "Jackson Street After Hours"..!) -- think Ray Charles, Quincy Jones et al...(!)
I have always respected Warne Marsh!
Nice article, and I totally share your opinion that there is no reason not to dig ALL jazz, regardless of which school or movement it belongs to. It's either good or it's bad.
To quote LA’s poet laureate Kendrick Lamar, “Don't say you hate L.A. when you don't travel past the 10”. As a native and an appreciator of LA’s cultural history, LA as a cultural center is robust and always worth celebrating. And add that to California’s cultural heritage in the arts, it isn’t anything to feel inferior about. To close out with KL “Don't say you hate L.A., but live in L.A. and pretend”