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A Brief History of Ragtime to 3/4 aka A Waltz Through the Cosmic Thought Process
by Mort Weiss
Opening!Screaming through the quagmire of being, I see--nay, feel--justification of the heat of singularity of thought. Yearning of (and for) all energies spinning--not only in the dance of Shiva, but in the fulfillment of a manifest destiny of understanding and love that gives forth its eternal fires of hope and the many tomorrows that can & will exist in the immutable paradigms of reception and order, thus bringing together the complete schism of an entity of pre- and/or ...
Continue ReadingMort Weiss: A Giant Step Out and Back
by Sammy Stein
A while back, flamboyant and forthright clarinetist Mort Weiss sent an email saying he was going to make a free form album. Frankly, it was hard to believe as no-one had been more against free form jazz than Weiss. For around two years he had been taking free form apart, decrying many players and the genre, implying it was, “Emperor's New Clothes" or worse, and now, finally, had he really come round to liking it and even performing free form? ...
Continue ReadingMort Weiss: In Twilight... Not!
by C. Michael Bailey
If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams... --Yann Martel, The Life of Pi The Internet has done a bang-up job of bringing everything and everybody closer together. An immediate effect of this “closeness" is that I have become acquaintances and even friends with many of the jazz artists and other industry professionals appearing in ...
Continue ReadingI Hear a Clock ... Ticking
by Mort Weiss
Hello, once again. Still above ground and taking nourishment while most any of my contemporaries who haven't left the building as of yet are listening to smooth jazz, taking their Lithium and writing with crayons. Having shared that thought with you, last month I had my 78th birthday--another strange custom (why do people celebrate one's arriving at a year closer to their death?).But I digress, having said that, I guess I could be thought of as an elder ...
Continue ReadingI Was Too Stoned to Perform: A Love Story, Kinda
by Mort Weiss
It was some time in the early 1960s and this story finds me, still Mort Wise, and my band--still named the Wisemen--having just signed a contract with World Artist Management services, a very happening company whose roster had names like Red Skelton, Ray Charles, Jacqueline Fontaine and many others. I would be one of the many others to begin with, at the time, after working the toilets and rough and tumble out of the way places like the Bank Club ...
Continue ReadingMort Meets the Mob
by Mort Weiss
Hello again. This remembrance takes us back to the early 1960s when I went under the name of Mort Wise and my band's name was The Wisemen. Go ahead and Google Mort Wise And The Wisemen, and you'll probably come up with the recording we did (on a 45 rpm) called “Wild Boy." Also, you might read the AAJ article/profile Mort To Come, which takes one back to a literal “What Makes Morty Run" experience (knocked me out!). So, at ...
Continue ReadingMort Weiss: I'll Be Seeing You
by C. Michael Bailey
Clarinetist Mort Weiss is a character. That much is readily evident by reading his All About Jazz column, The Mort Report. He is opinionated and passionate, both driving forces that easily season his playing in such a way that when Weiss plays, he's readily recognizable. Since returning to recording in 2001 after nearly 30 years away, Weiss has recorded a number of well-received CDs bringing him to what he considers his most fully realized release, I'll Be Seeing You.
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