Mark Stryker
@markstryker
Author, Journalist, Critic, Filmmaker. Books: “Jazz from Detroit”; “Destiny: 100 Years of Music, Magic, and Community at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.” Film: “The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit.” Former Detroit Free Press arts reporter/critic, 1995-2016
Jimmy's Blues "The poets, by which I mean all artists, are finally the only people who know the truth about us. Soldiers don't. Statesmen don't. Priests don't. Union leaders don't. Only the poets."--James Baldwin, born 8/2/24 and gone far too young at 63 in 1987. Some first editions from my shelf.
Happy 72nd birthday to drummer Peter Erskine, who isn't from Detroit but, as these photos prove, got an early taste of the city's jazz tradition c. 1961-62 by spending time in the orbit of two of the all-time great Detroiters at Kenton summer camps. Louis Hayes (left) and Donald Byrd (right).
Interesting item in my weekly email from the great Bolerium Books in San Francisco. Jarvis Tyner was McCoy Tyner's brother and the vice presidential candidate of the American communist party in 1976. 4-page flier in newspaper form. $20. Details here if interested. www.bolerium.com/details.php?...
Reminds me of this 1971 flier for Chick's first gig in Detroit as a leader. Not "Stanley" Clarke on bass but "Stan."
Great photo by Gus Powell accompanying today's @nytimes.com profile of Jay McInerney at age 71. Of course, it echoes the iconic Vintage Contemporaries edition cover of his breakout first novel in 1984.
Happy Birthday to one of my great heroes, Gene Ammons, born this day 101 years ago, 4/14/25 and gone far too young at age 49 in 1974. The sweetest spot on record is 1960-62. Roughly 20 LPs in that widow, including my faves: Jug, Nice 'n Cool, Boss Tenor, Soulful Moods (all in 4th row from bottom).
Happy Birthday, Maestro Flanagan. (Not pictured: rare four-tune bootleg tape from the Blue Bird Inn on Detroit's west side, April 1950, with Tommy on piano, Frank Foster on tenor sax, either Alvin Jackson or Beans Richardson on bass, and Art Mardigan on drums.) #JazzFromDetroit
Happy to say that I wrote the liner notes for these recordings , taped at the historic Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit in August 1960. Release date: April 17. Details here: www.universalmusic.ca/press-releas...
Here she is: Jill Watson. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the guy here is not me but, rather, her Olympic partner, Peter Oppegard. Jill and I were 10 when we skated together. Sharp-eyed readers will also notice that she is not 10 in this picture.
Fair warning to folks in or near the Hudson Valley north of NYC: "The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit" is screening at the indispensable Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, on Thurs, Jan. 15. Doors at 6, film at 7. Q-and-A follows. Tickets/info: jazzforumarts.org/event/34001/
Happy New Year from the team behind "The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit." Roberta Friedman, producer Daniel Loewenthal, director, editor, and producer Mark Stryker, writer and producer
Now streaming on Prime Video, YouTube TV, and Google Play. To watch on your computer or phone, go here: www.amazon.com/gp/video/det... To watch on your TV, go to your Prime account and search for us by title or use your voice activated remote to go directly to the film. Happy watching!
Audrey in her little black dress and Nancy in her little yellow dress both entered the culture a few months apart in 1961-62. Those were some damn good months.
New acquisition Thrilled to find this box in the wild at the indispensable Encore Records in Ann Arbor at a reasonable price. Fantastic quartet at its early peak. I have the Vegh Quartet's later Beethoven cycle but have always wanted the earlier recordings too.
Nice words about "The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit" from author David Ritz, who collaborated with Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Etta James, Buddy Guy, and others on their autobiographies.
A reminder to please join me, Detroit City Historian Jamon Jordan, Justin Norman & Detroit director of arts/culture @rochelleriley.bsky.social for a conversation about Detroit's central role in jazz history. 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 8 at the Valade Jazz Center, 4743 Cass Ave., Wayne State Univ.
Of those 834 sessions, the first is pictured below: At 20, Randy is on one track from a recording documeting an international jazz competition held on May 24, 1966. He apparently came in second in the trumpet category, narrowly beaten out by the 24-year-old Franco Ambrosetti.