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Revisiting Oliver Nelson - Help Appreciated


JazzLover451

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Why not? Sylvester had chops, and his impact on today's world-at-large is probably exponentially larger than Oliver Nelson's. I'd think one would want to at least know. Knowing his music need not translate into liking it, but...I think he should be known as a musical talent and as a cultural figure.

In some ways, this guy was Prince before there was Prince (and Little Richard after there was Little Richard, etc. this guy did not exist in a total vacuum)...and in other ways, lots of other ways, he wasn't. But I can tell you that when Prince first started hitting, comparisons to Sylvester were not uncommon. Prinve eventually (soon, really) showed a much broader skill set and palate, but still, Sylvester had already gotten to at least some of there, and people who knew noticed.

in terms of moving the bar culturally, Sylvester mattered. And as a singer, most of us wish that today's pop/R*B singers had half (or even some) of the skills this guy did.

Now when it comes time to choose between Oliver Nelson & Sylvester, I'm going with Oliver far more often than not. But I will listen to some Sylvester from time to time, yep. .

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Did you catch Terry Hinte from Fantasy Records? Sylvester's big hit "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" was on Fantasy. People think they made all their money off of CCR and then just lived off of that to do jazz, but no! Their was a whole sub-culture of funky/disco-y music on Fantasy going on the the 70 as well, and with that one Sylvester thing, they had a hit. Maybe not a huge national "breakout" hit, maybe a somewhat "underground" hit (people forget how disco was underground before Travolta & Bee-Gees exploded it out, and the best - yes, there is such a thing as really good disco music - remained underground, too hardcore for pop, it was) but still, definitely a hit. So there was some money coming in from that as well as from all the McCoy Tyner records and 24000 2-fers. Who knows, maybe Sylvester's sales funded the launch of the OJC line? Or maybe not, but the point is just that he brought the label income, that much you can be assured of.

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Yes indeed I noticed Hinte!

There was some tv series over here on funk and soul, and it went on to disco, Donna Summer etc. - and yeah, plenty of it was downright fascinating to me! I never really bothered to find out much about it previously ... growing up in times of euro-dance crap (my sis listened to that stuff all too often and it hurt my ears ... she in turn considered me elitist), I never quite realized there was more to disco, but indeed there is.

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I like how this Oliver Nelson thread has morphed into a discussion of disco. I'm there!

For me, one of the finest disco records is Arthur Russell's 24-->24:

Arthur%20Russell%20-%2024%2024%20Music_0

If ever there were a case argued for "avant disco," this would be the record I'd put before the judge.

Any fans of Russell here?

333.jpg333.jpg

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Vaguely familiar with Arthur Russell...more familiar with Arthur Baker. YouTube research for Russell has me hearing him as maybe part of the "No Wave" scene, same vibe as James Chance/White, and some of the Ze Records crowd? Disco as conceptual music, not dance music, first? I had started moving out of an "active" interest in Disco around the time that scene came around, but what I got of it was interesting...haven't really revisited or re-investigated, though.

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  • 5 years later...
On 2/28/2014 at 5:32 PM, JSngry said:

 Who knows, maybe Sylvester's sales funded the launch of the OJC line? Or maybe not, but the point is just that he brought the label income, that much you can be assured of.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to this woman and this album for many many Blue Note reissues being funded:

Image result for norah jones come away with me

Evelyn Champagne King's "Shame" has always been THE disco record for me, though I basically enjoyed the whole genre (knowing the scorn that statement will bring me).  Also definitely not correct, but certainly necessary.

 

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On ‎2‎/‎28‎/‎2014 at 5:32 PM, JSngry said:

Did you catch Terry Hinte from Fantasy Records? Sylvester's big hit "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" was on Fantasy. People think they made all their money off of CCR and then just lived off of that to do jazz, but no! Their was a whole sub-culture of funky/disco-y music on Fantasy going on the the 70 as well, and with that one Sylvester thing, they had a hit. Maybe not a huge national "breakout" hit, maybe a somewhat "underground" hit (people forget how disco was underground before Travolta & Bee-Gees exploded it out, and the best - yes, there is such a thing as really good disco music - remained underground, too hardcore for pop, it was) but still, definitely a hit. So there was some money coming in from that as well as from all the McCoy Tyner records and 24000 2-fers. Who knows, maybe Sylvester's sales funded the launch of the OJC line? Or maybe not, but the point is just that he brought the label income, that much you can be assured of.

It was Linus, Lucy and Charlie Brown that moved unit sales for Fantasy.  Just two years ago, 'A Charlie Brown Christmas received 4X platinum sales certification by RIAA.

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A couple of years back, Quartet Records in Europe released the film soundtrack to Last Tango in Paris.  The LP that was released concurrently with the film, as was typical at the time, was a re-record.  Because it came out under Gato Barbieri's name, it naturally focused on his contributions.  The CD gives us a full picture of Oliver Nelson's contributions also.  It is a really great album, although it had many short tracks with lots of space between.  I had to load it into Audacity and crossfade many of the shorter tracks to make it listenable.

The Oliver Nelson albums that get the most play around my pad are Zig Zag, Skull Session, and Blues and the Abstract Truth (minus the dreadful yee-haw track).

Still waiting for his Six Million Dollar Man music. 

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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36 minutes ago, duaneiac said:

They can reissue it.  They have the technology.  They can make it better, faster, louder . . .:P

I realize that they have spectral analysis software now, but I'm not sure that that will make mono stems sound like new stereo mixes from the multi tracks. :(

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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On 4/7/2019 at 2:38 PM, JSngry said:

I want to know if there is a full session with Oliver Nelson and King Curtis sitting around somewhere. That one cut is very nice. Seems odd to have a big band in place and just cut one single, a B-Side at that.

This. Anybody know?

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  • 1 year later...
On 2019-04-07 at 3:38 PM, JSngry said:

I want to know if there is a full session with Oliver Nelson and King Curtis sitting around somewhere. That one cut is very nice. Seems odd to have a big band in place and just cut one single, a B-Side at that.

On 2019-04-16 at 0:21 PM, JSngry said:

This. Anybody know?

https://www.discogs.com/King-Curtis-Theme-From-Lilies-Of-The-Field-Amen/release/5144161

Can't find any audio for this, but maybe "More Soul" is from this session?

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