Joe

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A couple of large group classics from the 1970s that remain sadly out of circulation... Roswell Rudd's NUMATIK SWING BAND http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numatik_Swing_Band And Clifford Thornton's GARDENS OF HARLEM http://www.discogs.com/Clifford-Thornton-Jazz-Composers-Orchestra-The-Gardens-Of-Harlem/release/604664

I've always wondered what those Paul Knopf LPS on the Playback label sounded like...

It would be nice to have the complete set of Marion Brown's mid-70s Impulse dates -- GEECHEE RECOLLECTIONS, SWEET EARTH FLYING and VISTA -- returned to circulation.

Fascinating musician. Glad to know he's still around and doing his thing.

Herbie Nichols' Blue Notes, Miles' FILLES DE KILIMANJARO and Sonny Rollins' FREEDOM SUITE.

Applause, maybe?

Agreed (at least for comparison purposes) and .

Isn't Mingus' "Gunslinging Bird" based (in part) on phrases culled from Parker solos?

For the curious, a good demonstration of Sandke's abilities can be heard on: =160&tt_products[backPID]=5&cHash=753c3aa9f1681b5df6884d9d449e4c8f"]INSIDE OUT (Nagel-Heyer) and OUTSIDE IN (Evening Star)

About 2 years ago, I saw Wayne Hancock give what I believe was the single most inebriated performance I've ever seen by a professional musician. And you know what? It as still a great show.

If I'm not mistaken, FREE FORM was licensed by Riverside / Jazzland for the US market. The same may be the case with SOUTHERN HORIZONS, but I've seen no evidence to the contrary (i.e., how was this session, engineered by Joe Meek FWIW, originally issued in the UK?) Also, a quick search of Amazon.co.uk reveals that the SOUTHERN HORIZONS tracks are available for MP3 download courtesy "Harrison James Music" ??? Harriott is definitely an artist deserving of some major retrospective treatment, whether by Mosaic or some other party. Let's make it happen! EDIT: Found this Harriott discography on the web. Can't vouch for its accuracy or completeness, but it appears all the Jazzland material was originally recorded for Columbia UK. http://vzone.virgin.net/davidh.taylor/harriott.htm

Fairly obscure, but alive and active nonetheless... Joseph Scianni.

What about Amiri Baraka (though approachability questions abound)?

Burton Greene, Sunny Murray, Milford Graves, Perry Robinson.

I'd be happy to do another BFT in May or -- better for me -- June of 2011.

I can't comment on any differences in mastering, only the musical qualities of the session itself. Its far from perfect; there's a kind of tentativeness to the whole thing, as if the musicians are still grappling with all the implications of Massey's charts (I don't just mean the compositions, but the arrangements as well). But as a piece of documentary evidence, it is, IMO, invaluable. On the evidence of this recording, Brodie was, along with Bill Barron, one of the earliest / first tenor players to successfully "process" a strong Coltrane influence. Watkins is, as always, both elegant and incisive. Bown is not particularly well-served by either her instrument or the recording, but she does the best she can, and really digs into Massey's harmonies. There never enough G. T. Hogan to hear. As for Massey himself... he's no great virtuoso, or maybe he was having specific difficulties this day. But he has a distinctive voice on his instrument, and its fascinating to hear him elaborate on his own themes. Addendum: you might be surprised at how different Massey's take on "These Are Soulful Days" is compared to Morgan's.

Read the porton of Ira Gitler's "Swing To Bop" that deals with the subject and see what you think. Ah yes; I've not looked into that book for a long time. Ditto Spellman's 4 LIVES, which is another one I've been thinking of returning to lately.

Wanda's battling a bout of pediculosis, but, other than taking a blow to her vanity, is doing just fine. As ornery as ever. And, yea, Shihab was a carver par excellance. I agree about the rap on the Prestige jams. Waldron is often a common factor / the glue (see several of the aforementioned Ammons dates for additional e.g.) Ditto Teddy Charles, who oversaw some of the label's more interesting conglomerations (COOLIN' with Idrees Sulieman and John Jenkins; OLIO with Thad Jones; Trane's DAKAR.)

I recall first picking this one up back in the days (ah, the mid 90's) when I could afford to be something of an OJC completist. Despite the patchy reputation -- only somewhat well-earned, IMO -- of such Prestige jam sessions, I decided to give this release an audience due to the presence of Mal Waldron, acting here too as musical director, which I suppose means supplying charts, and perhaps more (?). In any event, contrary to what Scott Yanow has to say in his AMG write-up, the four altos here are farily easy to distinguish from each other: Woods, thanks to his tone, accents and fluency; Stein for his tone as well, almost tenor-like, and rhythmic conception, sounding too like a translation of an approach to a larger horn; Quill, who, when he drops into the lower registers, introduces a kind of breathy, maybe even sotto voce quality to his playing; and Shihab, because -- IMO -- he's the most consistently inventive and least conventionally Bird-inspired of the soloists here. Take his solo on "Kokochee" (you can guess its derivation): after some expertly constructed bop choruses from Woods and Quill, Shihab crafts a solo that has an almost palpable shape to it, building from fractured phrases to some convoluted melodies that land on the beat laid down by Louis Hayes, then commandeer it. All with this almost rip-sawing tone... or maybe its both sweet and hot, like that tamarind/chili candy... and he's not afraid to thrown some honks in there, either. Or his double-time phases on the bridge on the opening "Pedal Eyes." Or the way he bustles sideways through the rhythmic suspensions on his choruses on the closing "Staggers." Waldron must have been impressed, too, as Sahib participated -- on alto exclusively -- on his MAL/2 sessions later in the year. But this is the record that made we wonder: "Why aren't there more recordings of Shihab on alto sax?" Two other virtues of this recording: 1) Given the number of soloists to accommodate, the performances are rather lougueur-free. The horn players get three to four choruses apiece, at most, and have to make the best of them. Not all the chases escape sounding obligatory (getting the right blend is a matter of some delicacy), but the best are exciting, and feel like natural extensions of the dialogue begun in the solos themselves. 2) Tommy Potter. Saxophone-fu, Charlie Parker-fu, Bob Weinstock-fu, Four Little Brothers-fu. No decapitations, zero breasts, alarming absence of exploding cars and / or trucks. Still, four stars. Joe Bob says check it out.

You might also like: NANCY WILSON / CANNONBALL ADDERLEY

While I agree with your take on the Jazz Loft book, I don't remotely understand where you find a creepy, vampire-like tone in the article. You may be right that this author doesn't have the jazz knowledge to do a Sonny Clark bio justice (at least as rabid fans like us think it should be done) but then again there's no one else out there even conceiving of one, is there? I think we should just be hopeful that his research sees some sort of release and we learn more about Sonny Clark. The creepy tone I refer to stems from several things. First, the focus on whether the body that was buried as Sonny Clark's actually was his. Either it was or it wasn't, and if it wasn't it may well be a sign of social-racial indifference or worse on the part of the relevant authorities, but this is a primary piece of info about Sonny Clark? Second, the fact that Stephenson says he may write a biography of Clark. I know -- not creepy in itself perhaps, but given the junky-life associations he understandably leans on, I sense, as I said in my previous post, a neo-hipster orientation in Stephenson, which IIRC was also present in "The Jazz Loft Project," and I almost always find that creepy, though YMMV. I'm thinking he'll give us, if he gets around to it, something along the lines of James Gavin's Chet Baker bio, "Deep In A Dream." Finally, there's something about Stephenson's account here that doesn't quite track; and if so, that gives me a queasy feeling. He says that he heard Clark's music for the first time by chance in a Raleigh, N.C., coffee shop in 1999, but he also says that at this time he had been working on what seems to be what eventually would become "The Jazz Loft Project." Then, some unspecified but apparently short time later, Stephenson discovers that the Sonny Clark whose music he had heard and been moved by in North Carolina not only was a habitue of Smith's jazz loft but was also at the center of one of the more bizarre episodes that Smith captured on tape -- almost dying from an overdose in the company of Lin Halliday. Maybe I'm pushing this too hard, but that seems to leave us with two options: 1) Stephenson not only had never heard Clark's music until he just happened to encounter it in that N.C. coffee shop in 1999, but he also at that point had never heard of him at all; or 2) he was already aware of Clark's name from his work on the Smith material but hadn't yet bothered to check out his music. Option 1) is not impossible -- it doesn't violate the physical laws of the universe -- but unless I've misunderstood what Stephenson says, it seems like a whopping big coincidence to me that he would be entranced by Sonny Clark's music out of the blue and then discover that Clark not only was a habitue of the place he'd been researching but also was at the center of one of the more sadly dramatic events that took place there and that W. Eugene Smith would capture on tape. Option 2) seems a tad more likely and also seems to me to fit the rather loose way the music and the musicians are treated in "The Jazz Loft Project" IMO, but I don't like that sort of looseness; it feels exploitive to me. And if option 2) is the case, what does that do to the N.C. coffee bar story? The opening to Stephenson's piece is pretty run-of-the-mill NEW YORKER-school "portrait" writing, but no less creepy / junkie-prurient for partaking of those cliches. A sincere question: has a really good, honest account of heroin's role and function in the world of modern jazz been written?

Another vote for the European Rhythm Machine material. In addition to the 2 releases cited above, there's also this one on Atlantic: AT THE FRANKFURT JAZZ FESTIVAL Also, I'll go out on a limb and recommend this late-ish period Woods session... As much for Tabackin and Jimmy Rowles as for Woods (who plays clarinet on one track.)

Not so recent (1977 or so), but I've always enjoyed Tete Montoliu's CATALONIAN FOLKSONGS recital on Timeless.