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Blindfold Test #1 - Discussion


Dan Gould

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Besides #11 (now solved), I've been thinking mostly about #3, #7 and #14. With regard to 14, I haven't really attempted any serious searches (and I'm pretty sure I don't own this version), but a few names have come to mind. I'm not close to really knowing their work, but thinking about modern piano chopsmeisters- and now adding in the possible theme factor for this blindfold test- what about Makoto Ozone or Gonzalo Rubalcaba? Anybody very familiar with them? I've seen both of them in videotaped concert settings, and was impressed (at least) by the chops. Of course, there are surely many other hot pianists out there that I ain't hip to as of yet, but I thought I'd just toss those names out there...

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the disk has not yet reached european shores so it seems. My postbox was empty... :(

The disc reached me about 30 seconds ago, and it's now in the CD player. I've avoided this topic on purpose until I've had a first listen; there seems to be much to catch up with in this discussion, but I hope to be back shortly.

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Based on a lot of what has been written, I can tell I will be completely stumped by every selection.  To be honest, I'm more interested in hearing the sounds DrJ chose than figuring out who's playing--when I find out who is playing it will just be the icing on the cake.  Is that against the rules? :unsure:

I'm in the same boat as you NOJ ,(my disc arrived today) but i do definately know one track-

TRACK 2 - I bought the disc(s) about a month ago & have been playing it to death ever since .

I breathed a hefty sigh of relief when it started.

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TRACK 2 - I bought the disc(s) about a month ago & have been playing it to death ever since .

Hmmm....according to Gary's post in the "Boxed set" forum, he went with J.J. Johnson, the AEC box and a Sonny Rollins disc. Let me see if I can figure this out now... ;)

Crikey - i thought i was the only one to remember my posts on here!

Youre very good at the sleuthing Jazzmoose - yes its definately AEC :D:D

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JSngry Posted on Sep 2 2003, 09:47 PM

  Hey Mr. Ties - thanks for the scope on that cut w/Joe. I didn't even know that such an album existed! But that doesn't answer the question I posed with my first guess - what the hell happened to Wallace Roney? 

Click here to find out

Oh wait, that was someone else... :w

(Before I get a bunch of angry retorts, IT WAS ONLY A JOKE, I dig Roney)

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One of the two or three best live jazz thangs I ever heard was a Wallace Roney gig here in Kansas City in about May of 1996. I had heard Roney once before, in St. Louis, maybe about 2 years earlier (so around '93 or '94), with his brother Antoine on Tenor. Wallace was good in St. Louis, but I thought his brother Antoine was much better - and really stole the show (at least that night).

So, the Roney brothers are in Kansas City, but this time Antoine is sick at the last minute before the show --- so it's suddenly just Wallace plus his regular piano trio. And without his brother there to carry him, he totally blew his ass off, all night.

I've NEVER heard him play like that on record, not before, and not since. But that night, I swear it was like listening to Miles in 1969 or 1970, fronting a quartet with Chick, Dave, and Jack -- with Chick on accoustic. One of THE best nights of live music I've ever experienced.

So yeah, what the hell happened to Wallace Roney??

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Regarding track 3, I've been thinking about a european tenor who recorded for Jazzland (shared the leadership of the session). I won't mention the title, but the LP had a yellow cover. I don't think it was ever issued on CD (Japan, maybe?). Still, I'm not sure this was recorded in '58...

... and I'm not really sure I'm awake yet... ^_^

Edited by Jim R
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Now that I'm a little more awake (I think), it occurs to me that since I'm only guessing/speculating here, I should feel free to be more specific about #3. I haven't heard that record in 20 years, but the cat's name is Bernt Rosengren. The LP I mentioned, "Bombastica", was probably released after 1958, but I'm not sure of the recording date.

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Put the call back in - that Jazzland side was recorded in 1960, not 1958. http://www.jazzdisco.org/rv1960-dis/c/#495

The only Wilen I can find from '58 that fits is a session for a soundtrack that's got Bags on PIANO(!!!!), Percy Heath, & Klook. Howeveer, a percussionist is listed in the discogrphy, and I don't hear one on here. Otherwise, it fits my initial impression perfectly (ok, SORTA perfectly :g ), except that I don't know Wilen's work hardly at all, he's NOT Frank Foster, and who knew that Bags was such a badass pianist? (yeah, I know, SOME of you did ;) ). but other than Wilen's totally authentic bebop phraseology which he didn't learn on 52nd St, it fits the bill of "cats who were there". Assuming that it IS Wilen.

And if it's not, hand me a bottle of SOMETHING. I give up!

Edited by JSngry
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John, are you telling me that "The Andy Griffith Show" doesn't travel well in TV syndication land?

Well, "The Andy Griffith Show" was a very popular show of the sixties which featured Andy Griffith as the sheriff of a small town-Mayberry, with Don Knotts as his moron deputy, Barney Fife, and a very young Ron Howard as his son, Opie.

Yes, they really named the kid "Opie".

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hey somebody explain to me what this Mayberry deputy stuff is all about?

Oh, and what exactly made you think Barney Wilen, Jim?

"While in" Mayberry, I'll call the "deputy".

The Andy Griffith show was a popular American TV comedy in the '60s. Andy Griffith plaed the lead, Sherriff Andy Taylor, and Don Knotts played his bumbling Deputy, "Barney" Fife. It's another one of my "cryptic crossword" things. Don't hate me for being a geek, ok? ;)

What made me think of him? The age thing, basically. I knew that Wilen was a gifted player at an early age, and the playing here is not out out of character with what little I've heard of him from around this time. A LITTLE more idiomatically "boppish", but not enough to be implausible. Then I looked at AMG for his birthdate, and it fit.

I got a scare when I looked up Bernt Rosengren - he was born the same year!

Told you I take these things seriously! :g:g:g:g:g

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I'm not playing either, but Barney Wilen was one fine player. Never heard anything by him that wasn't very good. If I had to choose, I'd say he was definitely more of a natural than Tubby Hayes, who as good as he could be usually sounded to me like he was working too hard at it. Also Wilen, like Wardell Gray, was one of those guys whose soul seemed to be perfectly attuned to the instrument -- it's like the tenor saxophone rolled over on its back and put its paws up in the air for him.

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