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What vinyl are you spinning right now??


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Stepney was into electronic music as well as pop and jazz.

https://prince.org/msg/8/169991

"For The Record: Charles Stepney"
by Edwin Black, Article reproduced with kind permission of Downbeat Magazine.
Originally printed November 26, 1970.


"As an arranger-composer-producer, Stepney maintains a musical stockpile that ranges from R&B images for the Dells to the electronic images of Mother Nature's Son. Although Stepney operates widely within the electronic field his approach is unusual. At a time when the rage is the synthesizer, Stepney cranks out a great volume of material using alternative methods. "I had been anticipating working with the Moog for about 10 years before we did Mother Nature's Son on one," recalls Stepney. "Frankly, I wasn't that turned on. That may have been because right now, there's only one Moog in Chicago and the rent is so high every breath costs a fortune. But here I had been expecting all kinds of wonderful and beautiful sounds, and found that the Moog produced no more than a new version of what we had before. Right now, they're very limited."

"I really prefer," he says, "what some might call the old-fashioned means, but what I consider the more resourceful and inventive means of producing the sounds we accept as electronic. I can get excellent effects by altering and distorting legitimate sounds with tapes and stuff. If you keep up on the latest developments in acoustics and electronics - you know, subscribe to various international engineering magazines, you can pick up all sorts of techniques."

Stepney's effects for Ramsey Lewis are mainly derived from a rare, out-of-print volume, New Musical Resources by Henry Cowell. Page after page of that book defines revolutionary (at least in Cowell's day) piano concepts, including techniques for elbow and forearm, cluster overtones, and resonant muting. Stays Stepney, "There are other sounds worthy of musical organization besides the conventional, sonorous ones. So we can take a cluster and know which overtones to expect, score that for divided strings and winds, and the difference sounds electronic. Sort of like Lygeti's Requiem. Or Atmosphere is another one, where a whole new quality of sounds is scored for natural voice and instruments. We do the same for Ramsey and instill that electronic texture, although, like I said, we did use the Moog on Mother Nature's Son."


 

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8 minutes ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

That reminds me of what Griffin said about Jaws. Something like I dunno how the fuck he gets those sounds.

MG

I guess it descends through the generations! Eric Alexander asked much the same of Griffin and got the answer "subtone".

 

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25 minutes ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

That reminds me of what Griffin said about Jaws. Something like I dunno how the fuck he gets those sounds.

MG

What Griff was referring to (or at least once did) was that Jaws actually corked some of the keys on his horn shut so they wouldn't be usable. Griff says he asked him about this and Jaws just said something like "I don't use them, so what do I need them for?"

I've hear a few other tales of the same thing, but I can't say that I've seen any video confirming this. Still, it's something that apparently was a thing.

Which would explain how he got "those sounds" - he must have had some alternate fingering system that would only work if certain normal fingerings would not work becuase those keys were not available to him.

I would love to find video or other visual confirmation of this.

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16 minutes ago, JSngry said:

What Griff was referring to (or at least once did) was that Jaws actually corked some of the keys on his horn shut so they wouldn't be usable. Griff says he asked him about this and Jaws just said something like "I don't use them, so what do I need them for?"

I've hear a few other tales of the same thing, but I can't say that I've seen any video confirming this. Still, it's something that apparently was a thing.

Which would explain how he got "those sounds" - he must have had some alternate fingering system that would only work if certain normal fingerings would not work becuase those keys were not available to him.

I would love to find video or other visual confirmation of this.

WOW!!!!

MG

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13 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Still rolling with Basie:

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:tup

11 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Now:

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Up next:

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These two LPs both derive from one 1976 recording session.  

IMO, no. 2 is better than no. 3 -- but they're both good fun.   Jaws, CT, and Al Grey sound inspired.  :) 

 

:tup :tup

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5 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Do you know the other Buddy Collette Latin album on Crown called Bongo Madness by Don Ralke?

No. I'd have noticed the name Don Ralke because he arranged 'Jennie Lee' by Jan & Arnie, which was THE anarchic Mr Bass Man recording. And if I'd seen it, I'd have snapped it up to see if this was wildly anarchic. Bet it isn't :)

 

MG

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4 hours ago, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

No. I'd have noticed the name Don Ralke because he arranged 'Jennie Lee' by Jan & Arnie, which was THE anarchic Mr Bass Man recording. And if I'd seen it, I'd have snapped it up to see if this was wildly anarchic. Bet it isn't :)

MG

Ralke later did The Savage and the Senuous Bongos for WB, and he did the arrangements for William Shatner's The Transformed Man, which I think is an absolutely brilliant album despited its irony hipster red.

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35 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

I feel like there's an infinite pool of great Grant Green albums.

Indeed, and a great balm for the troubles of the world they are too.  I need to dive into the pool more often.  I particularly like his recordings with Larry Young whoever's the leader.

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Now spinning:

R-1298820-1583352049-7336.jpeg.jpg

Oliver Lake - Gallery (Gramavision, 1986)
with Geri Allen, Fred Hopkins, Pheeroan Aklaff, and (on one cut) Rasul Siddik

Outstanding.

 

23 hours ago, mjazzg said:

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Ron Jefferson - Love Lifted Me [Pacific Jazz, 1962, mono]

One of Bobby Hutcherson's earliest appearances on record. :tup 

 

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15 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

Now spinning:

 

One of Bobby Hutcherson's earliest appearances on record. :tup 

 

Yes, I read your blog about it, thanks.

I'd discovered Jefferson through the fabulous Choir album reissued by Sam Records so was looking for others by him. BH's presence sealed the deal on this one.  Nice session, LP's a bit battered but we'll get along together I think.

I have that Lake somewhere too, many moons since I've had it on the TT though

Edited by mjazzg
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