Guest akanalog Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 as i sold some discs lately i was able to place a dustygroove order... things i liked are... ramon morris "sweet sister funk"-far more than a standard funky album. i really like the use of e-piano rather than organ and it is played by al dailey, someone i always have an interest in hearing. usually i don't like early 70s groove merchant stuff, but like the larry willis "inner crisis" album, this rises above expectations. leroy vinegar "the kid"-this is from 1975 or something and has dwight dickerson on keys and carl burnett on drums. the guitarist and percussionist are not known names to me and i don't remember them. the remastering is not top notch-obviously from an LP source-but this adds to the spacy sort of trippy quality of this album. not excessively funky and not excessively jazzy or deep. a good mellow album with some surprising synthesizer squiggles. sort of reminds me of les mccann's "layers" but i am not sure why. similar vibe to the compositions i guess. i think the rhodes piano has the same amount of sustain on it that mccann used on "layers" which i really like. noel mcghie and space spies "trapeze"-our organissimo friend clifford thornton wrote a nice review of this album somewhere online. mcghie has been getting respect here recently for his work on some of those free america discs, but this is a later electric jazz album from i guess 1975 where he leads a group (none of the names were familar to me) through a spacey and mellow batch of compositions. good playing and good compositions. makes an interesting contrast to his work on the america discs-though on the (real) clifford thornton disc, he does get funky at points. this album does not get too funky-i would call it light space funk. jackie mclean "bout soul"-many here probably have this. i have avoided it due to the poetry aspect. and that is indeed a little lame but not as overbearing as i thought. at least the backing music is good. on first listen this album seems a little looser rhythmically than other mcleans of the time which i guess is due to rashied ali on drums. everything sounded good on first listen though i don't imagine this will vault into my top 3 mcleans. "will power"-discussed in the other british reissue thread. don't love this one yet but it is always nice to hear this usual cast of characters (carr, tracey, winstone, gibbs, wheeler, etc...) together in a live setting for two discs worth of music. the horns are used disappointingly little on first listen but i still really liked parts of this album. things i didn't like as much- doug hammond and david durrah "reflections in the sea of nurnen"-i am beginning to think that i find a lot of the tribe jazz and black jazz stuff overrated. this is a tribe jazz reissue. not much to say. most songs seem to short and the vocals absolutely dominate the proceedings. i was expecting the moog stuff to be more integrated but instead the moog is used mostly in two pseudo sun-ra short solo moog diversions. i know some people really dig this album and it was recommended to me ((as was "sweet sister funk" in an earlier thread i started asking for recommendations on various albums) but i dunno. things i'm not sure of yet- AEC "certain blacks"-i am doing relatively well with the free americas so i decided to take a shot on this one before it is sold out. i don't know. i don't like the sound of the harmonica. i kind of like this howell guy's drumming-sort of straghtforward but he mixes it up a bit. what happened to him? i think this album will grow on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ayers Posted November 2, 2005 Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 jackie mclean "bout soul"-many here probably have this. i have avoided it due to the poetry aspect. and that is indeed a little lame but not as overbearing as i thought. at least the backing music is good. on first listen this album seems a little looser rhythmically than other mcleans of the time which i guess is due to rashied ali on drums. everything sounded good on first listen though i don't imagine this will vault into my top 3 mcleans. I find the poem quite droll. Maybe it will grow on you? I think that people put off by poetry in jazz shouldn't skip this album on that account (so a big for taking the risk). OK it isn't a slice-of-avant-garde-history poem, like Malcolm, Malcolm, Semper Malcolm or Black Dada Nihilismus, but it has a little something. I'm unimpressed that Mosaic reissued this album incomplete on the Moncur Select, but they did at least include Soul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybleaden Posted November 2, 2005 Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 The trouble was I think the record itself ( Bout Soul ) has some gorgeous playing and really jutifies the expense....I tend to ignore the words but sometimes when in the mood I do feel it adds somewhat to the overall feeling. )only sometimes though! I do think the jazz on this record is worth listening too.......I wonder what it would sound like if you could lose the vocals....I bet for one it would not be as good Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest akanalog Posted November 2, 2005 Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 well that song for one-i think the backing track to the vocal is sort of loose and free so it would probably sound a little messy without the vocals holding it together. the question would be if the musicians could have placed a burning ten minute instrumental track in the place of the poetry track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parkertown Posted November 2, 2005 Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 Mr. Dudley!?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ep1str0phy Posted November 2, 2005 Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 ...are you swingin'? Head's up--Demon's Dance is now available (Japanese pressing) at dustygroove. Hopefully it'll make its way over here (again, sooner or later). 'Bout Soul is one of my favorite McLeans, not least because I'm a big Moncur fan. All things considered, the band gels extremely well. Rashied is, of course, a dominant force, but Jackie's conception very much directs the proceedings. Moncur is great, and Shaw gets pushed out of his comfort zone a bit (with fascinating results--too bad he didn't do this more often). Special commendation to Holt and Johnson, who are (in retrospect) just about the most surprising rhythm section in all of 60's Blue Note. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest akanalog Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 you ever hear lamont johnson's mainstream LPs from the early 70s? i mean the label, not a genre. he plays some crazy organ. he uses some sort of effect to give the organ this bizarre sound. i like it. i wish more mainstream stuff would be reissued on CD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ep1str0phy Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 you ever hear lamont johnson's mainstream LPs from the early 70s? i mean the label, not a genre. he plays some crazy organ. he uses some sort of effect to give the organ this bizarre sound. i like it. i wish more mainstream stuff would be reissued on CD. ← No, unfortunately, although they look promising. I'm with you, though--most (if not all of this stuff) needs to get reissued. It just magnifies the fact that the younger set is missing out on all sorts of great, obscure musicians--LaMont included. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 If only LaMont had a Blue Note in the 4300 series, life would be complete. 'Bout Soul is not my favorite McLean date by any means, and I really can't handle Barbara Simmons - especially when people like Jayne Cortez were just coming up onto the scene. It would've been nice to hear her read on a "soul thesis" from her loins, as she often does... Re: AEC: I don't know who the fuck Bill Howell is either, but I know I like him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 The Trapeze review is on Paris Transatlantic from maybe a year ago... That is a great album; Itaru Oki is on a number of free sides, and I think Georges Nouel is on other things as well - possibly the Ray Stephen Oche on Esperance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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