Out of character recordings.

[BillF]

4 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Actually, that "pairing" reminds me of Pee Wee Russell's appearance on stage with Thelonious Monk and his "Ask Me Now" LP on Impulse. 

 

Yes, that's a good one for this thread.

[JSngry]

But Pee Wee sounded exactly like Pee Wee...and Monk sounded exactly like Monk...those two guys, could they ever be anything except in character?

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

But Pee Wee sounded exactly like Pee Wee...and Monk sounded exactly like Monk...those two guys, could they ever be anything except in character?

Could also apply to this recording :

[clifford_thornton]

3 hours ago, Simon8 said:

 

From Ethan Iverson's blog: 

"Another rarity: Frank Wright’s Uhura Na Umoja with Noah Howard, Bobby Few, and…Art Taylor!

A.T. plays the New Black Music! He sounds amazing. Now I have to get all those circa 1970 Paris free jazz records too. While I’m pretty sure the drumming community generally sleeps on this transgressive moment, some people already know. When I told Billy Hart that Art Taylor was a great free player he said, “Of course.”

Taylor also opens up on Dizzy Reece's "From In to Out" on Futura. 

I'd also never say that the Braxton standards albums are in any way out of character.

[JSngry]

The Magenta ones were kinda off, supposedly AB was intimidated by being in the presence of Hank Jones, but the earlier In The Tradition sides on Steeplechase are perfectly fine, totally Braxton, totally like what you'd think Braxton playing changes would sound like, fun stuff.

1 hour ago, soulpope said:

Could also apply to this recording :

That's a great record, imo. I guess it wasn't - and maybe still isn't - universally considered so, but there is so much music on that record...

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

That's a great record, imo. I guess it wasn't - and maybe still isn't - universally considered so, but there is so much music on that record...

Didn`t intent to make a negative verdict .... you reminded me of this recording just because mentioning " those two guys, could they ever be anything except in character " ....

Edited December 6, 2016 by soulpope

[JSngry]

Oh, I know, and totally agree.

A lot of this "out of character" thing is actually the result of decisions made at the record-making level. People tend to make one or two (or for somebody like Lou Donaldson types of records, then continue to do so with little variations here and there over the course of their career. But they essentially play the same way every time, no matter where they show up. So when Roy Eldridge & Eric dolphy play together, well, neither play any way other than how they always play, it's just that you don't expect to hear them together like that. But hell, they could have made a buttloadfull of records together, the only thing would have been repertoire.

For, say, Lou Donaldson or Stanley Turrentine, they made a lot of different types of records, but they carried their unique character into pretty much every one of them. For them, an "out of character" record for them would be one in which they pretty much "turned their back on the audience", and I don't know that such records were ever made.

The MJQ record that Scott referenced in the OP, for me, that's not so much "out" of character as it is a deep exploration of an generally overlooked part of the group's character...most of that shit was always in there, they just really, really brought it out and up on that one, and as a result, it's possible to never hear the MJQ in quite the same way again after hearing Space. Or, it's equally possible to hear it as a window only opened once...really no wrong answer to that one.

[Rooster_Ties]

Charlie ("Charles") Rouse's 70's leader-date for Strata East (Two Is One from 1974) certainly isn't like what most folks might expect from Monk's main sideman.

The title track, in particular (but the whole thing, really), is really something else...

 

Edited December 6, 2016 by Rooster_Ties

[Scott Dolan]

On 12/5/2016 at 5:26 AM, Milestones said:

I think this is a tough one, since most jazz most jazz artists are so eclectic and open-minded that we are not terribly surprised by anything that they do.

But I'd be willing to nominate Monk's swan song on Columbia: Monk's Blues.  Definitely out of character in a bad way.

 

 

Wow...

Listening to this one on Spotify as I type this. 

The seemingly misplaced Oliver Nelson arrangements aside, there have already been several times where Monk...just doesn't even sound like Monk. 

The opening to Reflections is an outright abomination. 

If Monk had retired to playing nightly in Las Vegas, I believe this is what it would have sounded like...

[clifford_thornton]

The Rouse record on Strata-East is awesome.

[Scott Dolan]

Holy fuck.

Had to bail after Brilliant Corners. 

That album truly is as bad as advertised. And I didn't even finish it. 

2 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Charlie ("Charles") Rouse's 70's leader-date for Strata East (Two Is One from 1974) certainly isn't like what most folks might expect from Monk's main sideman.

The title track, in particular (but the whole thing, really), is really something else...

 

I have no idea what the fuck this even is. But I like it! I am a huge fan of Rouse when he played with Monk. This is definitely a left turn from that. 

[sidewinder]

Kenny Wheeler and John McLaughlin on trad/mainstreamer Sandy Brown's 'Hair at its Hairiest' session for Fontana. 

On 04/12/2016 at 8:21 PM, gmonahan said:

I think this one definitely belongs on the list. The oddest album Basie ever made.

Freddie Green sounds like he is wondering if he is in the right studio on this one !

[rostasi]

 

He was 'bone to disco...

 

Edited December 6, 2016 by rostasi

[JSngry]

Those Mariachi Brass records really do suck. There were, what, four of them? It's not like, well, the first one was clever, or something like that. No, they started at Suck and never budged an inch.

[mikeweil]

On 5.12.2016 at 5:11 PM, clifford_thornton said:

I'm not sure about "out of character" but at the very least Art Taylor's appearance on a session led by Frank Wright for America Records in 1970 is pretty intriguing. The date produced Wright's "Uhuru Na Umoja" and Noah Howard's "Space Dimension." Taylor acquits himself very well in this context and the music is quite free.

The expat Parisian scene around that time was pretty interesting and also resulted in Shepp and Mobley collaborating on recordings for BYG, for example, and Philly Joe's interest in the avant-garde (resulting in dates for BYG, America, and Vogue), the latter seeming to be at least partly of a political nature.

There is a Noah Howard LP from 1977 with Kenny Clarke on drums! One more example for that open minded Paisian scene.

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

The MJQ record that Scott referenced in the OP, for me, that's not so much "out" of character as it is a deep exploration of an generally overlooked part of the group's character...most of that shit was always in there, they just really, really brought it out and up on that one, and as a result, it's possible to never hear the MJQ in quite the same way again after hearing Space. Or, it's equally possible to hear it as a window only opened once...really no wrong answer to that one.

Plastic Dreams, recorded for Atlantic after the two Apple LPs, is similar as it uses echoplex on one track and various funk tinged grooves delivered by Heath and Kay in an elegant Rolls Royce attitude. John Lewis had a very open mind. He comps like a James Brown horn section on that album.

[JSngry]

I only have Plastic Dreams on a scratchy LP...probably should remedy that!

The Legendary Profile has some of those more "funky" feels to it as well. Of course, with Milt Jackson, how does it not get funky, right? But Heath and Kay (one of the OG Atlantic R&B drummers, let us never forget!), when Lewis decided to go there, they were more than ready to do it. It bears repeating - Percy Heath was the original Ron Carter!

And Rhodes! A Tim Hardin cover! This thing ends up like Ramsey Lewis on a double dose of Whoa, Didn't See That One Coming.

John Lewis...easy to overlook generally, dangerous to ignore altogether.

[JSngry]

Here's one that is totally out of character in terms of the music, but totally in character as far as...Bud Shank. Comparisons to Miles in that they both essentially always played like themselves no matter the context are as potentially improper as they are objectively correct, imo.

Chet's on that one too.

[JohnS]

 

I know David Murray didn't miss a chance to record, for example the Gypsy Cymbalom Band (nice) but this one with a couple of didjeridu players is a bit odd.

 

Edited December 7, 2016 by JohnS
typo

[soulpope]

2 hours ago, JohnS said:

 

I know David Murray didn't miss a chance to record, for example the Gypsy Cymbalom Band (nice) but this one with a couple of didjeridu players is a bit odd.

 

And this one

likely isn`t too far behind (at least regarding "out of character") ....

 

[rostasi]

Sam & Ella poisoning

[clifford_thornton]

8 hours ago, soulpope said:

And this one

likely isn`t too far behind (at least regarding "out of character") ....

 

And he played with the Dead.

[mjazzg]

2 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

And he played with the Dead.

and played The Dead

[johnblitweiler]

Bud Freeman played clarinet with something of a Pee Wee Russell sound on Bud's 1935 sextet session. Sounds very good, too, with Bunny Berigan, trumpet, and Bud also on tenor.

Jerry  Garcia on Ornette's last Columbia is not especially odd considering the spacey guitar solos on some Dead recordings. Also, there are allegedly recordings of times when Ornette sat in with the Dead.

[mjazzg]

I've heard at least one Ornette/Dead concert recording. It worked.

[Al in NYC]

Very interesting thread.  I made something of a weird fetish for a while of collecting such 'out of character' recordings.

Of course, this one came immediately to mind:

 

And then there's this oddity (by guess who):