Joe

PS -- the trumpet player on track 2 may be the most important / surprising / remarkable member of that ensemble (though the tenor player is quite a story unto himself.)

5 = you know, that would take some research, but it is very possible that this composition is related to "Where or When". Also, you may not relaize it, but you do have a personal association with this tune (if we stretch the notion of association. As to 13, I could not have said it better myself. Though I might have added the words "psychodrama" or "melodrama". Much grass!

Sonny Rollins. In their BOOK OF ROCK LISTS, authors Dave Marsh and James Bernard include Rollins' "10 Favorite Records." Some interesting choices: #1 is Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace. I'll try and post the full list when I get a chance.

I'm hoping we get something like a "Sister Ray" for the 21st Century.

Thanks for sharing your impressions of these performances. #9 makes me doubt my ears sometimes, and I know who is involved! Most everyone (including yourself) has successfully unmasked one of the tenor players. As to the other, I can only say he's not much of a household name (AFAIK). "Personal voice" is key to #13 indeed. For me, the bridge to this tune is very revealing... check what happens between about 50 seconds and 1 minute and 40 seconds in... Your analysis of #3 is spot-on. Finally, everyone has noted the preponderance of low-register reeds on this BFT. I swear, it was not planned. But the timbres and colors resident "below the treble" on #4 are essential to the identity [in the greater sense of that term] of that track.

Oh man, I remember those days - Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman. Adrian Dantley. Some good ball back then. Remember when we though <Mark aguirre was a "troubled soul"? Then we met Roy Tarpley! No argument from me re: the Team With The Stars On Their Helmets. To borrow a designation from Dr. Thompson, Jerry Jones is the ultimate "greedhead." Great a scorer as he could be, every time I think of Aguirre, I can't help but recall that Randy Galloway's nickname for him was "Alpo."

I'm not sure what this is in reference to. '06 vs. Miami? '07 vs. Golden State? Avery's ouster? Not questioning why you feel the way you do, of course. Just trying to understand the specific context. Just the way the whole 06-07 team/program unravelled. Avery had that team playing GREAT, but they didn't like being pushed like he pushed them, Dirk in particular. They wanted to play their "sexy" basketball, not dirve the lane and play hard defense the way Avery was preaching, in spite of the overwhelming and unquestionable success they had when they did. They flat out quit, rather openly, on Avery in 07, and then Dirk goes to Cuban and says whatever he says, mostly, as I understand it, "I can't play for this guy". At which point Cuban, instead of saying, "you'll learn to play for him, he's got a winning plan", goes all Dirkophile and fires Avery rather unceremoniously. And then began the stretch of "fixing" what was never really broke in the first place, other than players' lousy attitudes & unearned sense of entitlement. A player who backstabs a successful coach is bad enough. A team who quits on a coach with a winning formula is bad enough. An owner who coddles players in the face of failure is bad enough. But to have the whole package was just...more than I could stomach at the time, and I guess I've not yet made my peace with it. They finally got it "fixed" this year, but how much time was wasted? And for how long will it remain fixed? All I hear from the organization is how "painful" 06 was. Nothing about 07. And all I hear Dirk ever talk about is how he keeps working to improve his game (and all 'I hear Jason Terry talk about is bubblehead blahblahblahYEAH!!!). Implicit in that is that if he can't play the game the way he wants to, he ain't gonna give it his all. His actions have proven this. Obviously a sore point with me, but the whole thing still reeks to me of betrayal, of sacrificing the gritty truth for comfort, convenience, and ego. Excuse-making at its most odious never being copped to, no forgiveness asked, expected, or really even desired. And now, hey - it's ok. A ring has been gotten, righteousness of cause therefore proven. Show bizness at its best, sports at its worse. Just not something I can feel good about. My issues and my problem, though. Yea, it was ugly, and Avery deserved better. But he did not help his cause with the panic moves he pulled in Miami in '06. I was much less close to / informed by it all, though; I wasn't living in Dallas at the time, and was following the Mavs from not just an emotional but a geographical distance as well. If sports were rational, they'd be far less enjoyable (and much less a form of delicious torture.)

I'm not sure what this is in reference to. '06 vs. Miami? '07 vs. Golden State? Avery's ouster? Not questioning why you feel the way you do, of course. Just trying to understand the specific context.

I couldn't agree more. Threadgill is a good guess on 11. However, the alto player is not the "leader" here. The Mingus comparison you draw on #4... I'd not thought about that before, but I like that likening, and its making me hear that particular performance with all-new ears.

Can't really find the love, still, for this team and.or organization, so much of the failure has been self-inflicted, so much of it a stubborn refusal to deal with the obvious, and when the proselytes for the deification of Dirk and Terry knock on my door, said door will be roundly and unambiguously slammed in their face, but... BUT... I'd be lying if I said that it was not gratifying, not satisfying, but at least gratifying (which at this point is all I really have a taste for), to see a Mavericks team maintain focus, stay disciplined, follow a game plan to completion, in short, to find a plan that works and stick with it all the way through. Could have happened long before now, should have happened long before now. Also gratifying to watch a Miami team just kinda sit there and wait for their greatness to explode, not realizing that the opposition had them totally figured out and that if they wanted an explosion, they were going to have to dig deep and find a way. Instead they got a coach who was telling them to "stay the course" when they were down by nine in the third quarter of an elimination game. Yeah, stay the course, keep losing, don't make any adjustments or bump your your intenisty with your season on the line, just stay the freakin' course, the course that's got you on the verge of failure. The players actually seemed to believe that bullshit! Any Mavericks fan from 2006 on can tell you where "staying the course" of a clearly failing plan takes you. What will be interesting to see is if the Mavericks organization, finally realizing the follies of their way and finally getting some legitimate help in the middle (and elsewhere) instead of putting it all on Dirk's back, continues to see the wisdom of the changes they have made and continue to use the new model going forth. You'd think they would, but...Dirk has never been, never wanted to be, and never will be "The Man", that's not his game, that's not his mindset, but Cuban has insisted that (i.e. - built the team like) it was - until this season. Mark Cuban's irrational assessment of Dirk's very real talents may well have cost this team more than one championship. It's definitely cost them the respectability that comes from consistently being able to go deep in the playoffs. Anyway, the long-overdue Mavs championship feels to me like a formerly close friend paying back a loan 5 years after it was due. Don't really need the money now, have pretty much moved on from those times, but appreciate the thought anyway, glad you've finally got your act together, and good luck going forth. And Cuban insisting that the trophy first be presented to Don Carter was a truly class act by a man who doesn't always seem to have a class act in his repertoire. Big kudos for that one! I came to the personal conclusion several years ago that the '06 team was undeserving of the love they got from me, and that as much of that pain I felt was on me for wasting my sports affection on a bunch of NBA vamps: lots of gloss and glitter masking an abyss of heartlessness. Rooting for that '06, '07 team was like being in an abusive relationship, but, for me, it was always about that team, not the franchise. Still, I can't help it: the Mavericks are the team of my childhood, and you know how it goes when you've been rooting for a team from back when you still possessed a certain amount of innocence. Ultimately, this goes back for me to the days of Aguirre, Blackman, Harper, the Reunion Rowdies, all that... and the fact that Pat Riley had, until last night, always been able to foil this team by backing up his supreme cockiness. Yes, I take ownership of my ridiculous sports grudge. I don't care that Riles still has, what, 4 more rings than Dallas. This time, we overcame and denied him, and his hand-picked team of "superstars," and with a team effort. So, yeah, there's love here for these little Mavericks.

30 years of heartbreak, frustration, thinking we'd never have a shot at redemption... this is a happy day.

and behind the gatefold... From Terry Knight, the mastermind behind Grand Funk (Railroad):

NIS -- based on what I know of your tastes from your own BFT, I'm a smidgen surprised you did not ID the players on Track 5 right away. And, not to give too much away, but good ears re: 12.

Does Booby Hutcherson qualify?

The (almost-literally) lame dude in the red stockings kills it. And what under the cover is another matter altogether... Anyway, as far as 50's "west Coast Jazz" LP cover cheesecake goes, my heart belongs to The Pink Lady.

From tiny acorns spring vaguely fascistic volksmusic icons...

I reserve the great, pullulating, febrile, Gondwana-like mass of my sports hatred for Pat Riley.

I will probably say little more about this BFT until its time to show you all what's behind doors number 1 and 3 (ZONK!), but... Bill -- good ear for vintage, but you might need to take some new bearings on latitude and longitude To Each His Own -- I only wish I'd had the foresight and taste to put some Amina Claudine Myers on this BFT. Spontooneous -- admittance happily granted.

Nice stuff. As with (seemingly) all of the Mode releases from this era, the tracks tend to be rather short; don't expect a tremendous amount of stretching out. IMO, Sulieman sounds particularly good here.

Streamers: listeners wishing to "spin" these tracks within their web browsers can go here... http://www.slowstudies.net/bft87/ iPeople: there is a download link for the entire BFT (.zip file) on this page, or you can follow this direct link... http://www.slowstudies.net/bft87/downloads/bft87.zip Finally, no real theme or hegemonic aesthetic ideology at work here. Just a mix of some old favorites and some newly discovered (for me, anyway) pleasures. Thanks; best, J

You know, I have that Sean Bergin LP too, and I've probably not listened to it in about 5 years myself. Boeren's bands are always crackerjack units. Thanks much; enjoyed this immensely (and still kicking myself for not recognizing the Maupin.)

Update ya'll... I'll be sending out download directions (and discs) next week, once NIS has pulled back the curtain on BFT 86.