Bill Commerford

Tim Commerford #7

Sketched these at practice

.....Gerry Engleman graphite drawing on vellum

during a visit to Ashford Street during the early 70's

CD and Video boxes

.....Global Warming Conference Covers for Videosphere's documention of Ross Gelbspan's at Tufts University

CD cover includes 3 additional pages of 11pt text,
for ease of reading, here these are used for a Videosphere1 statement by Julie O'neil
and for Bill Commerford's description of his "live action" or performance sketching styles.
Videotape Cover

Patricia Adams has been hard at work and is getting ready to press
the second set CD from Nick Joyce's Ryles Jazz Brunch Choices
from his recording of the sets with Ray Santisi on piano this January 2cnd, 2005.
Here's my rough of a suggested art/design for imprinting on the CD disk.

Sampling:

Europa Variations: since the mid seventies and the variations continue and often yesterday's get painted into
Sanders Hall A great concert hall at Harvard University. Painted many performances here.
Jazz: Jimmy Guiffre at the 1369 club. We're working on an alphabetical list of jazz and other live performance watercolors

.........and then there was painting whenever waitingMidnite train to N.Y.
under the TV Lights Night at the Boston Pops
Cityscape:The children's door/ along the Fenway
............they're happening when we're waiting. Musing. Knitting. Listening. Paintings

Live Jazz Watercolors Hank Jones and Joe Lovano

Usually it's a quiet evening, something good I'm listening to and I'll go through some of the
watercolor shorthand notes and work into them. Here it is almost Thankgiving and now
I've got this deep mahoghany image of Hank.... The lean and sway visible in many of the
of the other 'notes' gave me the feel and others the piano. And an evening remembering.
"Hank never repeats himself, and the first melody sends him into a beautiful meditation
on the song he's playing," says Joe Lovano. "He reharmonizes every chorus."

These watercolor shorthand notes were struck during the evening's tribute to Hank Jones.
Like pianist Ran Blake, who was there, perhaps in his respect less is so much more.

Hank Jones and Joe Lovano at Harvard Sanders Theatre in Thanking Hank:

Tom Everett directs the Harvard University Jazz Bands in A salute to Hank Jones:
"Hank Jones was influenced early on by the independent use of hands of Earl Hines,
the Harlem stride mastery of Fats Waller, the linear motion and effortless playing of
Teddy Wilson, and the technical endowment and harmonic palette of the 'god' of
solo piano, Art Tatum." is how Tom began the evening's concert program notes.

Here are Hank Jones and Joe Lovano with the Harvard University Band finishing up the evening
with a Buck Clayton's 1990 tune commissioned for the Jazz Band "Sittin' in With the HUB

During this same week Ran Blake tucked himself into that corner of NEC's Jordan Hall
surrounded by friends, George Russell others, to listen to his 70th Birthday Celebration

......
to end the evening Ran and Dominique Eade gave us "winter in Madrid"

Two Nadine Chase watercolors
Both were created live at Dalias in Brookline's Washington Square. A Wine Bar
and Bistro where you'd hear Nadine's great Jazz Songbook intimately rendered.
I've come believe chances to hear this brilliant Jazz singing is here in Boston.
What we need is a way, a place, a site where we could hear and see a preview.
Posting the styles,players and choices to create collectives of jazz listeners.
From Zeitgeistian explorations to where in jazz vocals on "A" trains took us.

Wes Matthews, piano, and RAKALAM Bob Moses, drums,
Zeitgeist was the performance place for both these images and RAKALAM wondered 'if?'.
They hadn't.....I've digitally image-ned them together in this CD cover art.
I've cropped and lifted RAKALAM out of the Ragib Hassan performance watercolors.
Wes Matthews from his solo performance in a Zeitgeist piano players night.

The New England Conservatory Jazz Orchestra 10-28-4 has
Ken Schaphorst conducting his own arrangements of Oliver Nelson's
Stolen Moments, his own pieces: Amnesia, Subterranean,
and an arrangement of Cole Porters 'just one of those things' he titles Lacy's Things.

Miles Davis', Last Time in Boston
My son Liam gifted me the tickets for Miles' last time live in Boston.
The wonderful night in the resulted in a series of ink brush drawings.
This is one arrangement of 50 or so individual quick brush strokes representations,
could be more, depending on how I'd count when 2 figures were on one card.

Bob Young's photographer got a shot of me arranging, seeing groups, clusterings,
of the Miles'Sketches. The Boston Herald Jazz Critic wandered by my print display
and was enthused enough to introduce my work to his Herald readers in December of 1993.

ROSWELL RUDD......BARRY ALTSCHUL......DAVE DOUGLASS also Brad Jones on bass
In the early sixties 'JB' [Jack Bernstein] with the MIT Jazz Club brought Archie Shepp
into Kresge Auditorium with Beaver Harris, on drums, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and
Roswell Rudd, trombone. I taxied all but Archie around both towns in my
'64 white Ford Econoline window van during the day of the gig.

......Jimmy Garrison visited for supper at the Ashford Street home and studio.
He loved and I gifted him a small pinkish 2x4wrap raw canvass painting.
On my Koss earphones he closed his eyes and wept while he listened, heard after
Coltrane's death, the recording of their Playing of 'My Favorite Things"
for his first time in our living room. At Kresge, there were delays backstage,
Garrison came out with another brilliant solo intro until Shepp, Rudd and Harris
took the stage and smoothly began to play with him.
We recently had this chance to enjoy Roswell Rudd's braying trombone again
this time with the trumpet of Dave Douglas, Charlie Kolhase brandishing saxaphones, at Harvard's Sander's theatre.

STEVE LACY/ TEN OF DUKES

STEVE LACY and IRENE AEBI at the MFA

STEVE LACY at the MFA,TEN OF DUKES solo

STEVE LACY at the Near East

STEVE LACY plays Chagrin during the NEC Charlie Parker Festival
Cover of the Parker Festival watercolors catalogue.

Welcome to our journey: Midnite Platform

Waiting:
Early Morning Train to visit Tara in New York City

&'ANDS:
" Jack Bernstein creates and manages our digital imagery
production tool mix, defines software clusters. He controls,
maintains and inconstantly improves the digital technology
that enables &’ANDs: and Bill Commerford to adjust, intensify
colors, enrich contrasts and increase the values.
&’ANDS: will be producing the high quality digital manipulations
of BillCommerford’s fine watercolor imagery"

TH'ARTIST'S EYE's:

T.J.Lyons provided the Staring Eye type sort and back then
I was still wearing my older style round gold-rimmed glasses.
TH'EYE: as a logo T.J.’s typographic dingbat first appeared in
Harvard Sq. on the Blue Parrot menu, where Leslie managed
and John Boyd’s his usual indispensable self. I bushed-in
my own eyebrow and circled the eye for my eye-glasses rim.

Pedro Martinez pitches

Pedro from Jus' seat at Fenway.... I got into the park at 5:30, and tried to catch the sweep of the First base side stands all the way from the new "Budweiser" deck, past Pesky's pole, across the seats I sat in with my son Liam and the rest of his Mission Hill Little Leaguers and I've painted from many times before. Past first base and home plate, up and over the Sky Boxes, the sketching in took up until game time and it got colder and colder the early autumn night.

I called Jus ....When he gave me the chance to paint Pedro pitching I suddenly remembered another time. Great seats behind first base and I got a really great painting of the "Rocket" Roger Clemens. The next year he was gone.
we chuckled over the thought when we shared the nightgames' watercolors.
..........left a message. It's happened. two Hall of Famers!

Ian Commerford #52 Holliston Panther tight end

Ian Commerford gets downfield to cover a Holliston Panther punt.
His quick tackle after the catch produces their worst field position.

Watching Holliston Panther defense Ian focuses on their tight end's moves for neat stuff he can learn and use when he gets on the field. He'll try to pick up weaknesses of opponent's tight ends to share with the Panthers defensive end. LIKE: How after first contact at the line of every time their tight end looked in the direction of the play. Whenever he didn't the play was a run coming towards our Panther defensive end. LIKE: be really tall and having good hands, ouch!

These are the four starts I managed to get going during last Sunday's football game. I've worked into all four just a bit. I can learn shapes of pads and how the face mask is made and attatched.