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Clifford Brown


JohnS

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31 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

I'm sure he's an "artiste" who is of no interest and will never come close to approaching the quality of Clifford Brown's compositions and recordings. It is puzzling why so many young artists persist in filling their CDs with originals. Every once in awhile, one of them surprises me, but all too often, they come off as either knockoffs or run of the mill songs that don't stick in one's mind. I've heard that some of their mentors encourage them to write a lot, because they aren't making royalties from playing other's compositions. But if the CD ends up in the 99 cent cutout bins, they won't be cashing in on royalties. Even veteran artists who are prolific songwriters usually include a hefty amount of standards and/or songs by fellow jazz artists when they play concerts.

Ken, I am in complete agreement. When I see an album by a  musician with ALL originals, and with no track record as a composer, I am highly unlikely to be interested in wanting to aquire that recording.

A good friend who was a fine jazz piano player once said to me that only a limited number of people have the "composer gene".

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8 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

I'm sure he's an "artiste" who is of no interest and will never come close to approaching the quality of Clifford Brown's compositions and recordings. It is puzzling why so many young artists persist in filling their CDs with originals. Every once in awhile, one of them surprises me, but all too often, they come off as either knockoffs or run of the mill songs that don't stick in one's mind. I've heard that some of their mentors encourage them to write a lot, because they aren't making royalties from playing other's compositions. But if the CD ends up in the 99 cent cutout bins, they won't be cashing in on royalties. Even veteran artists who are prolific songwriters usually include a hefty amount of standards and/or songs by fellow jazz artists when they play concerts.

Before the pandemic, the "hipper than thou" made a decree that you can't play jazz standards in NYC clubs anymore. All you'd hear by the usual suspects were these modal originals with abstract, unmemorable attempts at melodies, with stacks of fourths as harmony, unrelated to any discernible home key.

The decree stated that if you did play standards, they would have to be in complex time signatures like 11/8, 17/4, etc... A friend of mine played me a stream from Small's with a pianist playing "My Romance" as a ballad in 7/4. I asked him if he could count it out, and he said no. I asked him if he could feel the ONE, and he said no. I told him I thought it sucked, and asked him what he liked about it. He said it was different. Next week it would be something different.

They're taking jazz, a difficult type of music for non-jazz musicians to listen to in the first place, and making it even more difficult to listen to, all because of this endless fetish they have with 'originality'.

I can understand if they write contrafacts of a standard to avoid paying for the rights to play on the changes to a song they like, but they're too hip to do that now....

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11 hours ago, JSngry said:

Genius if for nothing more than Richie Powell's intro.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that June 26 is also the date that we lost Richie Powell (and Nancy, his wife). Just when I think that Richie Powell is perhaps not a very interesting pianist, he always surprises me with a turn of phrase that I previously didn't pay very close attention to. I wonder how much he and Bud sat at the piano together.

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Well, I just checked Powell's Wiki entry, and the second sentence claims that Richie received no assistance in his musical development from his older brother. Instead, apparently, Richie was influenced by a New York pianist named Bob Bunyan; he also studied under Mary Lou Williams. I found this Wiki claim interesting: "His relatively heavy touch and use of left-hand fourths influenced fellow pianist McCoy Tyner."

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On 6/28/2022 at 8:49 PM, Late said:

In the midst of an impromptu Clifford Brown Memorial Celebration, this one is now spinning, the ballad feature "Once In A While" an absolute gem:

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The BN Works Series has some staying power.

I wonder how old Lee Morgan was when he first heard Clifford Brown. Listening to Brown, you can almost hear the teen Morgan putting together how he was going to sound as a soloist. Morgan was 17 when Brown died. 

Love those album covers. Wish they were issued like that in the US. 

Edited by Holy Ghost
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14 hours ago, Late said:

I always found it interesting that A Night At Birdland got three different covers!

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14 hours ago, Late said:

I always found it interesting that A Night At Birdland got three different covers!

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And seemingly, by three different graphic artists! Besides Reid Miles above, I can't see/determine (print too tiny) who designed the other two jackets. 

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21 hours ago, Holy Ghost said:

And seemingly, by three different graphic artists!

No WONDER why all these titles have confused the fuck out of me over years — they’re all the same!! :wacko:

I’m nowhere near a Blakey completist — not even close — but especially not his 50’s output.

This is(?) the same material as the 4cd Complete Brownie on BN & PJ set, right? (That’s how I have the material, if that’s right.)

Edited by Rooster_Ties
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So, why did the A Night At Birdland releases get not just two, but three(!) different contemporaneous sets of cover designs?

I’m not sure I can think of any other similar sorts of examples of even just two designs like that, specifically from around the same timeframe (cue Chuck, to point out some really obvious example I’m not thinking of ^_^).

I swear, I think I’ve known and forgotten as much of this minutia, as I’ve retained over the years (and I think I knew it better off the top of my head 10-15 yrs ago).

But seriously, why were there three(!) different cover designs??

=====

Ok, the first set of 3 covers were for (shorter) 10” releases — I figured out that part (once I remembered there were three vols, and not just two).

So that explains TWO sets of the designs (one of the other sets were for 12” LP reissues of the three 10-inchers.

Two down, one to go/explain…

Edited by Rooster_Ties
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On 7/1/2022 at 5:36 PM, Bluesnik said:

I would say John Hermansader and pics by Wolff. At least that's what I can guess.

As far as I can tell by zooming on images of the "bird" cover, Design by Reid Miles, Drawing by George Wright. But it's hard to make out and I could be wrong.

George Wright is credited for Painting on the bird cover of Vol. 2: https://www.discogs.com/release/3378729-Art-Blakey-Quintet-A-Night-At-Birdland-Volume-2

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8 hours ago, T.D. said:

As far as I can tell by zooming on images of the "bird" cover, Design by Reid Miles, Drawing by George Wright. But it's hard to make out and I could be wrong.

George Wright is credited for Painting on the bird cover of Vol. 2: https://www.discogs.com/release/3378729-Art-Blakey-Quintet-A-Night-At-Birdland-Volume-2

Don't know this dude; has Hermansader done anything else? I like this though, it kinda reminds me of the Partridge family birds in a way, something that Contemporary Records were doing with their Hampton Hawes jackets. 

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1 hour ago, Holy Ghost said:

Don't know this dude; has Hermansader done anything else? I like this though, it kinda reminds me of the Partridge family birds in a way, something that Contemporary Records were doing with their Hampton Hawes jackets. 

I use the discogs site to research album art credits, though I don't trust them 100%.

Hermansader is credited for design of (at least one release) of Volumes 1, 2 and 3: https://www.discogs.com/artist/1915387-John-Hermansader?page=1

and has many Blue Note credits.

George Wright has only four Blue Note credits according to discogs (and the Freddie Roach seems questionable): https://www.discogs.com/artist/2421433-George-Wright-7

Edited by T.D.
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I've been wondering about George Wright before, just a handful of credits, usually involving paintings... somebody's artist friend? My initial hunch before looking at credits had been Andy Warhol for the birds cover...

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