#bill shoemaker

[delahorserace]

Cougar II at Hollywood Park (1973)

[porterdavis]

When legends collide

Andre the Giant ‘meets’ Bill Shoemaker

Photo -  Sport & Betting History@CDCHistory·

[delahorserace]

Exceller (1978 San Juan Capistrano Handicap)

[delahorserace]

Ferdinand (1986 Kentucky Derby)

[9to5buzzcom]

On Apr 24, 1981, Bill Shoemaker wins his 8,000th horse race, 2,000 more than any other jockey.

[diyeipetea]

Fred Van Hove In Memoriam

Fred Van Hove In Memoriam

  Bill Shoemaker: Do any pianists still influence you? Fred Van Hove: My biggest influences are the bells of Antwerp, which ring every quarter hour. So, I hear them more than anything else. To name one name, I would say Erroll Garner, because I think he did something to the sound of the piano, like Monk did and Teddy Wilson did and Fats Waller and Cecil Taylor. But now I would say Erroll…

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[jbgravereaux]

Bill Shoemaker , Moment's Notice : For a brief time in the early 1980s, Anthony Davis embodied “neoclassicism” in jazz.                                                                                                                                                                                              The phrase evoked ripe historical parallels with Igor Stravinsky, who, after his Russian period spawned the scandalous “Le sacre du printemps,” spent over three decades exploring tonal harmonies, albeit with some quirks, propelled by bright, even muscular rhythms.                                                                                                                                                                                                            Jazz had gone through something of a Russian period by the time Davis made his first recording as a member of Leo Smith’s New Dalta Ahkri mere weeks before the mid-point of the ‘70s; both Fire Music and loft jazz filtered jazz’s African roots through an expressionist lens, often relegating design to a secondary consideration.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Like Smith, Davis valued rigorous methodologies; but unlike the trumpeter, whose Rhythm Units were gateways – as opposed to road maps – to improvisation, Davis’ first recordings as a solo pianist, a collaborator with flutist James Newton in duo and quartet settings, and as the helmsman of his own quartets, distinguish him as a more conventional composer.                                                                                                                                                                Whereas in Smith’s music, any honest improvisation is valid, regardless of its distant or intangible relationship to the written material, Davis etched clear inviolable parameters.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            While Davis’s early recordings are rife with brilliant uses of compositional techniques – his use of canonic form on “Estraven” (Of Blues and Dreams; Sackville; 1978) and the aptly titled “Hocket in the Pocket” (Hidden Voices; India Navigation; 1979) are particularly noteworthy – it is the emergent Balinese influence on Davis’ “Wayang” series that would elevate the description of Davis’ music as neoclassical from passing comparisons with Ellington or John Lewis to a recognition of musical values that were truly beyond category.                                                                                                                                              However, it is the eponymous 1981 debut of his Epistēmē ensemble (Gramavision) where Davis’ music took on a new stature. Upon its release, his use of what he called “clashing repetitive structures” reflexively prompted reviewers to triangulate Davis’ music using Minimalism and Ellington.                                                                                                                                                  With the clarity of hindsight, however, it is music’s dramatic content that makes this album and its successor, Hemispheres (Gramavision; 1983), a double watershed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Now that there are three on CD, it is now possible to trace how elements of his solo music and his music for Epistēmē present in Davis’ operas.                                                                                                                                                          It is a lexicon that stands in sharp contrast to his jazz usage in the pool hall and ballroom sequences of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Gramavision; 1989)and the love duet between Betty Ford and Fidel Castro in Tania (Koch; 1998), based on the Patty Hearst affair.                                                                                                                                                                                                Many of the themes Davis wrote for Epistēmē explicitly reappear in X, the most poignant example being “A Walk through the Shadow,” a piano solo built upon slow unfolding arpeggiated phrases that Davis orchestrated to depict Malcolm’s pilgrimage to Mecca.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The album’s ensemble tracks provide a more common template. The various 3:2 ratios of odd and even metered phrases Davis sets into motion continuously send sparks flying.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  At the same time, Davis sends multiple motives through the sections of the orchestra, so that material first heard in one section or in a specific pitch range soon reappears in another section or register.                                                                                                                                                                                      The result is both mesmerizing and invigorating, which is essential if a jazzcentric listener is going to sit through what is, bottom line, an opera.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            With Amistad, a retelling of the 1839 slave ship revolt that resulted in one of the more searing legal trials and moral tests in US history, Davis’ approach is at its most streamlined.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                While most of his score could stand alone as concert music, it still, for all its bristling rhythms, counterpoint and textures, selflessly serves Thulani Davis’ pungent, no-frills libretto. This is attributable to how the composer has mastered the art of the ostinato and pens figures that are never overplayed to the point of being domineering or boorish.                                                                                                                                                                                            The result is that Davis’ vocal parts, despite its twists and voltage spikes, glide over the orchestration; it also is a measure of how well conductor Dennis Russell Davies steers the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Orchestra and Chorus.                                                                                                                                       When you take the stage action into consideration – some of the most treacherous lines are sung by the sterling tenor Thomas Young, who plays the Teiresias-like Trickster god, while climbing the ship’s rigging – the ease with which the voices mesh with the orchestration is repeatedly astounding.                                                                                                                                  Additionally, the streamlining of Davis’ lexicon reinforces his unique melodic sensibility, which frequently bypasses the traditional paradigm of recitative and aria.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Additionally, Davis is remarkably effective in producing an alloyed vernacular when he incorporates hymns and traditional secular music; even though Davis cites Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk as sources for his writing for the Trickster, there are no echoes of “So What” or “Work” to be heard. Though he has always been sparing in his use of period genres, Davis’ usage in his previously issued operas approaches pastiche, compared to Amistad...                                                                                                                                     http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD20/PoD20MomentsNotice.html

[fourfurlongs-blog]

“Desire is the most important factor in the success of any athlete.” - Bill Shoemaker American Pharoah with Georgie Alvarez up.