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Keepin' it greazy!!!


Big Al

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I was looking through the "$1.00 lp Bin" at Amoeba Records this morning and I can across a lp entitled: Plas Johnson with the Grease Patrol: L.A. '55 on the Carell Music label. Well, with a name like that staring me in the face, how could I pass it up? Turns out to be a great session with Plas on Tenor; Art Hillery on B-3, Jimmy Smith, drums; and Billy Rogers on guitar. Really a nice, funky, greazy session, which recaptures the sound of a Los Angeles bar band of the mid fifties. Johnson has a great tenor sound that is smooth, yet soulfull as anything you ever want to hear. Hillery, whom I never heard before, has a style that is light and is able to use the pedal is a creative manner. Rogers and Smith are rock solid. The liner notes even come with a definition of grease!

grease (gres). n. that essence which each jazz musician applies to the music, allowing it to slide around and between the notes and rhythms, imparting elements of spontaneity, emotion and personality which defy written notation.

So, there ya go! That's what grease is! It's a great lp that I'm sure isn't on cd but look for it if you have a turntable, and groove with it. B)

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I just got into listening music by Barbara Dennerlein.  If I understand this right she is German and plays the B3 and synthesizer.  Maybe not greasy, but damn she shure is funky!  Can do without the cheesy synth at times but she writes very good compositions.

All that, plus she's easy on the eyes:

dennerlein.jpg

She may not be as greasy as Shirley Scott but she can get funky with me anyday B)

SS

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Speaking of Paul Bryant, just this morning I found his lp Something's Happening, his first record on the Fantasy label. Nice stuff but recorded "hot", there's a lot of organ distortion on this lp. Part of the line up includes Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and he rips off a couple of good solos. Plas Johnson makes an appearance also, so it's a happening lp to look for. Another obscure L.A. organist whose lp I also pick up is Charles Kynard: Reelin' with the Feelin' that very groovy. Interesting part of the album is Joe Pass plays in the session but he solo's only four times, out of six cuts!!?? He's kind of under utilized here, to say the least. However, Kynard is a powerful organist, and Wilton Felder has some very good moments. These two get a :tup from me, if you find them, don't be afraid to buy 'em. I think I'm getting hooked on these obscure L.A. organ sessions, it makes your day when you find one.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just got the Curtis Amy Mosaic Select. Disc One with Paul Bryant on organ is highly greasy stuff! This is plush, fat-assed organ playing- a world away from ,let's say, Larry Young, and doesn't have the virtuoso quality of Jimmy Smith, but if you like big plush high-calorie organ sounds, check this out.

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  • 3 weeks later...

What timing: this thread gets revived just as I pop Boogaloo Sisters into the system for a much-needed revisit!

Y'know, I hadn't really had that much interest in the Amy set...... until ss1 and you guys started singin' its greazy praises. DAMN!!! And I thought I wasn't gonna buy anything for awhile!

DAMN!!! :P:g

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I just got my Spanish Blue Notes in yesterday. A pretty greazy package.

Ike Quebec BLUE AND SENTIMENTAL

Johnny Griffin THE CONGREGATION

Reuben Wilson LOVE BUG

Freddie Roach DOWN TO EARTH

Couldn't tell if my hands were greazy from handling these disc or the fried chicken we had for supper. Either way it was all good!

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Did any of you guys pick up This is Billy Mitchell last year? Sure some GREEEAZE on a few of those tracks! And even the tracks without the organ are fine and dandy as well!

Agreed!

I'm still hoping for a copy or reissue of the rare self-produced session of the Al Grey-Jimmy Forrest group with Don Patterson on organ!

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Listening again to the Jimmy Smith Mosaic, and I happen to think it has great music on it. I know a lot of people dump on it, but to my ears, the music is nice and funky. A big difference for me has been getting the set in lp format, the cd set sounded kind of murky to me. Still, this is a great Mosaic set, and well worth the $$$.

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Jimmy was doing some things back then that he never really touched again. I think this is the stuff that haunted Coltrane. Before he went to his more blues-based playing, he was experimenting with the organ, seeing what he could do with it. Some of the tracks on that Mosaic are wild, unlike any organ playing since.

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Jimmy was doing some things back then that he never really touched again. I think this is the stuff that haunted Coltrane. Before he went to his more blues-based playing, he was experimenting with the organ, seeing what he could do with it. Some of the tracks on that Mosaic are wild, unlike any organ playing since.

Can you elaborate on that a little, Jim? Any particular tracks worth hearing for those experiments?

I don't have the Mosaic set, but I've got a lot of the old stuff on individual cds. Which cds do you think has a lot of his early experimenting?

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Me too!! Because of this board I went from not really wanting the Curtis Amy Select to feeling my life is not complete without it!

That reminded me of my wife's previous opinion that the BNBB was made up of Blue Note employees who were there to generate interest and get suckers like me to buy their music.

Edited by scottb
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