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ajf67

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Posts posted by ajf67

  1. 1360-1.jpg

    Clifford Scott & Les McCann - Out front - Pac Jazz

    I just picked up this Clifford Scott LP yesterday. Nice record! I can't believe it hasn't been issued on CD.

    What a good thread. Several in here I agree with. I will have to do some thinking before I post my thoughts.

    Has "The Piano Choir" on Strata East ever made it to CD? I really enjoy that one.

  2. Wonderful photo!

    I will probably get a turntable for my upcoming birthday. I am tempted to try a couple of these Blue Note 45 RPM's. But the fear is that once I listen to these, I won't be able to listen to the CDs I've amassed over the years. Has something like that happened to anyone here?

    To some degree, yes. I still use the CDs for the car, but if my choice is a nice mono LP and a CD I'll go with the LP every time. Also, I find it difficult to listen to a number of the RVG CDs after being used to BN LPs. But given the prices of the LPs I'll settle for them when I have to or look for one of the older CDs.

  3. Just finished "Death of a Bebop Wife" and it was as advertised above. A definite organizational mess, and it really needed an editor, even if just for punctuation. But it did succeed in painting a portrait of Al Haig, and it seemed very honest and credible to me. Rutan didn't seem to have an ax to grind, and Haig is allowed to emerge through the oral histories with what seems like an authentic complexity. It HAD to be hard to be this guy's friend, but he could play. Also, the oral histories are great for history beyond just that associated with Haig, as they cover what was going on at the time, with good discussion of the music. Definitely order it from Cadence though, because the amazon prices are absurd.

  4. I can't believe I forgot Threadgill and Criss. Sonny's Dream alone is sufficient legacy for the latter. Threadgill, as far as I'm concerned, registers one of the few truly original and simultaneously current musical conceptions of anyone in jazz. Zooid's output has been some of the only real "blow your mind" improvised music I've heard in the past few years.

    Speaking of composer/altos--good ones, but not necessarily favorites--I have been struck by Steve Lehman's octet music. I know that he hasn't gotten the best reception in these and related circles (I recall Allen not liking it), but I'm surprised there hasn't been at least some real discussion, positive or negative, on this music--considering its prominence in some of the mainstream jazz discourse (as of late). I could take or leave the brute theory of integrating spectral analysis into jazz composition, but somehow the prominence of these components in his music draws the explicit jazz aspects (harmonies, "sectional" groupings, the melodic and rhythmic content of the solos) into starker relief. It can get somewhat monotonous, but like Threadgill's music it offers a way out of the neocon/free dyad/morass that is totally constructive in character (which I endorse 100%).

    Oh--and I can't stress enough that, if I'm in the right mood, I can take Dudu and blow everything else to hell. It's that powerful.

    "Sonny's Dream" is awesome. Good call, and I wish I had mentioned him.

  5. All of my favorites have been named, but I did want to put in anther mention of Art Pepper. The sound he gets on the Contemporaries is just fantastic. I like the looseness of his improvising (i'm not a musician, so I don't know how else to describe it). Plus, I like where he ended up in his later recordings, with more expressiveness, such as the Vanguard recordings. He also did what I think is one of the best albums with strings, which is "Winter Moon," if I remember correctly. Love the guy.

  6. Howlin' Wolf: Moanin' in the Moonlight (Chess/P-Vine Japan)

    What an awesome LP. One of the all-time great blues albums.

    Gene Shaw 'Carnival Sketches' (Argo, mono, sand-colored label)

    This is one of the reasons I love this thread. I haven't listened to this one in a long time, and now I'm reminded to get it out. I got it because a friend pointed this out at a garage sale a long time ago and said I should buy it ($2).

  7. I like Billy Strayhorn, read "Lush Life," but haven't seen the PBS show. And incidentally, I am sitting in my house in Pittsburgh a few blocks from the Billy Strayhorn theater (and 2 blocks from Billy Eckstine's house). In terms of Ellington, I think Strayhorn was another instrument in the Duke's massive toolbox, and that doesn't take anything away from either of them. Ellington got a lot from a great many people, and there is no way Strayhorn had it in him to do what Ellington did. Ellington was Ellington without Billy Strayhorn. The same is not true for Strayhorn.

  8. gotta go direct to Cadence for the Haig book, don't worry about those Bozos on Amazon -

    it's $34 plus shipping - their email:

    cjb@cadencebuilding.com

    or I'll sell you my copy for $665 -

    hey, it's the book that sent me into a DEEP depression. So it must be fun -

    Thanks for posting thats its still available at Cadence. I saw those Amazon prices and was disappointed that I'd have to wait a while to ever see that book. Cheapest was $132!

  9. That's too bad, and I hope that was a one night or short-term issue for him. I'm not a musician, so can't comment on the technical aspects of his playing, but i enjoy him a lot. In my early days of jazz listening, a friend recommended Amsterdam After Dark, which i still really love. That and Manhattan Panorama are my two favorites of his leader albums.

  10. Don't know if people watched episode 2 last night. I didn't like it any better than I liked the first episode. I'm not buying the direction they're taking Draper, and I agree with an earlier poster who said the dialog is worse. And can someone please give Roger Sterling an office he might actually work in? The thing I liked least was that I was actually BORED.

  11. But sonnymax, take another look at your list. If that's the best you can do to show that Letterman has an interest in jazz, I think you may have supported dalemcfarland's claim. For someone who is on 5 nights a week, year after year, that is a pathetic list. Add to that the show's location—New York City! You shouldn't have had to stretch like that to come up with a handful of jazz guests.

    Chris, I never claimed Letterman "has an interest in jazz." I only sought to rebuke dale's wild accusations. On the face of it, Letterman appears to have no more or less interest in jazz (or whatever passes for "jazz" in the general public) than do other hosts of similar shows. I agree that it's a dismal situation all around, but to single out Letterman is preposterous.

    And to answer your previous question: "Herbie plays jazz? When did he resume?," it had to be sometime after Thursday, August 27, 2007. I saw him that evening at Chicago's Symphony Center, ironically on what was billed as the opening night of the Chicago Jazz Festival. I assure you, it wasn't jazz I heard coming from the stage, at least not during the first three or four tunes. I can't say after that, because I walked out. Hell, even the representative from the concert's sponsor, the Chicago Jazz Institute, offered an apology for what Herbie did that night :lol: !

    He's coming to Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh and I was wondering what he would be doing there and if I should go. This helps!

  12. back to Jay's post, I consider criticism to be a co-equal art form.

    Good point. Quality analysis of a recording or performance often adds to appreciation and understanding. It doesn't even have to be highbrow. Look at something as available as the Penguin guide to jazz. It's imperfect, and is flawed by only covering things in print (and not all of those), but as an introduction to the music it is very good. I have a whole pile of books that I have picked up over the years that I re-read, sometimes when I'm listening or going to see a particular artist. A well-informed writer also can lead you to things you haven't heard before. The book "Delta Blues" by Ted Goia is a personal example.

  13. I can't see Letterman putting much jazz on his show. Maybe some kind of cross-over thing like Willie Nelson did with WM, but that's about it. As much as I wish otherwise. I don't think TV viewers have the patience to watch instrumental jazz. We're a minority; not a persecuted minority, but a minority nonetheless.

    I'm already on record above, but I thought the "heroin" joke was funny.

  14. Actually, it's been my experience that the Carter/Bradford FD vinyl is getting harder to find. Not that many come on Ebay anymore and when then do they go for $25 and up.

    Sadly, I have found this true as I had a NM copy of it and my wife's cat peed on it. Totally ruined the cover, which is gone, but the Nitty Gritty record cleaner saved the LP. I was hoping replacing the cover would be easy and cheap, but I haven't found that so far. Since I already have the music, I don't want to pay much just to replace the cover.

  15. Gene Ludwig should win the organ category this year. Of course, he's not even nominated so you'll have to write him in. But he should win it. The guy was a true gentleman, a monster player, and devoted to his craft for damn near 50 years.

    Oh and consider voting for my new boss, Janiva Magness, in the blues category. Thanks!

    YES. Glad you are pushing this Jim. He is criminally underappreciated. And I hope it doesn't take you 50 years to have the jazz world give you your due.

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