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BFT #154 Sign-up, Discussion, Answers


tkeith

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4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Late to the party, sorry, kind of an "eventful" month. But here were are, the usual thanks and disclaimers firmly in place, so let's play!

TRACK ONE - Son (or grandson) Of "Bijou". A very Woody-esque sound to the chart, except there's altos. If that's a working band, they're really together...I don't know that it is, this sounds like it comes from the time when all the older working band players had become studio players and already knew how to play like a working band. The drummer is kicking like it's Tiny Kahn, almost...only Tiny never lived to get that quality of studio sound. A Chubby Jackson band, maybe? I hear chatter during the piano, Mister Cheerleader? Anyways, it's got spunk.

TRACK TWO - "Ill Wind". KD-ish trumpet, Jordan-ish tenor (tonally, anyway, otherwise, pure Bird). Gorgeous arrangement, the solos get a little arbitrarily double-time-y for my taste, but a gorgeous arrangement, and the melodies are all played just right. I like it.

TRACK THREE - That's nice. Doesn't really seemed to be geared towards "listening", so I think I'd probably enjoy hearing it more in a room with people dancing, but hey, you take what you can get these days. I never could dance worth a damn myself, so I always enjoyed being in a band where people could (band and audience alike!).

TRACK FOUR - I'll take "Warm Valley" and stop the guessing there! That's nicely fluent and coherent from start to finish. Sounds like somebody who needed the bigger horn to not get silly with the chops/licks. I mean, they come close, but that big horn keep 'em real! And the pianist is soooo tasty! a-HA! Seek and ye shall find: http://www.allmusic.com/album/roamin-with-richardson-mw0000177242

I'll stand by the comments about the bigger horn. Jerome has always been a great player, but his definitely matured with time.

TRACK FIVE - Chico? Nah. "You Go To My Head". I'm kinda funny about that tune, it's perfect as is, one of those standards that don't need any real help. Leave it be, it can handle it by itself. This version seems kind of neo-Shearing in intent as it goes along, only it's the guitarist's date. Can't say that I'm really feeling this one. Kudos to the drummer, though, for the mallets chops, he/she know how they work, not all do!

TRACK SIX - No idea. I really dig that tenor player. Everybody else, hey, they don't fuck up the tenor player, so they can stay.

TRACK SEVEN - Again, no idea, but I really like the way the composition develops. Sounds like some mid-60s Polish stuff, maybe. Soloing nicely, if sometimes barely, avoids Modal-y Impressionistic Wandering, and much happiness about that. Nice.

TRACK EIGHT - I Dig Rock & Roll Music. And I love to get a chance to sing (and play) it! Ok,, soling begins, that's better. MUCH better! But you know, if they really say it, the radio won't play it. So they have to lay it be-tween the lines.

TRACK NINE - Well, that's some bass. Can't say that it really does avoid Modal-y Pastoral Wandering, but there was a time when that was all the rage, and for there to be all this bass doing it, I'd guess it was from that time.

TRACK TEN - Well, this I recognize. They weren't really in the studio at the same time, were they? For Miles, it must have seemed like a return to Jack Johnson, for Hooker, it must have seemed like a return to the bank after the check came. I like it if I don't try to make it mean more than it means, because if I do that, I'll stop liking it pretty soon. But, you know, it's Miles and Hooker doing movie music, that's means what it means, and really, ain't that enough?

TRACK ELEVEN - Bass flute? I never could understand how anybody plays those things, I mean, I had enough of a hard time getting past the hyper-ventillating when learning regular flue, never mind one of these ginormous tube things. But this is very, very nice. And again, exquisite piano playing, that seems to be a recurring theme of this collection,

TRACK TWELVE - Sounds like John Klemmer with a David Murray vibrato. And then he growls! Mind if I pass?

TRACK THIRTEEN - whoa....Elos, sloe/slow/sole/soul, damn. DAMN.

That last cut, the Duke, that's truth. I enjoyed almost everything else, but I will lay down my eternal soul for that Duke cut without a moment's hesitation or doubt. Thank you, sir, for that one.

 

 

#1- "Spunk" it has! Personally I dig the arrangement. Your comment of older working band players playing like a working band is spot on;

#2- Not K.D. or Cliff, but Ill Wind is one of those songs that almost plays itself. This is "just right".

#4- You're the first to get Richardson. Best track I've heard from him; #6- I love the tenor, one of the greats! #7- Everybody seems to like this one; #10- Miles & Hooker- it works;

#13- "Duke, that's truth" (amen!). Great tune with Hodges, Gonsalves, Ashby, Procope from '68. This is so hip!!

Thanks for listening.

 

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22 hours ago, JSngry said:

TRACK EIGHT - I Dig Rock & Roll Music. And I love to get a chance to sing (and play) it! Ok,, soling begins, that's better. MUCH better! But you know, if they really say it, the radio won't play it. So they have to lay it be-tween the lines.

I dig Donovan in a dream-like, tripped out way
His crystal images, hey, they tell you 'bout a brighter day
And when The Beatles tell you
They've got a word "love" to sell you
They mean exactly what they say

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That Duke cut was unfamiliar to me until this but once I found out what it was, I ordered the CD. Agree that the "workshop" tapes are all worthy of investigation, and sometimes contain real gems, as this one. That tempo, that band...deep, at least to me.

But...

It appears the "Elos" ended up as the "Martin Luther King" movement of "Three Black Kings" and....; listen to this...seriously? I mean, maybe this is how Duke wanted it to end up for posterity, but...

Anyway, I remain deeply suspicious of posthumously revisionist Ellingtonia, I don't care who it's from. But it's a credit to Duke that they had to wait until he was dead before they could even begin to try to box him in.

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About track 3: me too, I was initally guessing one of Arthur Blythe's Columbia-period albums, but the guitar is too clean (certainly no Blood Ulmer) and there's no cello (Abdul Wadud plays on most of those records). Checking Bob Stewart's discography learns that this is a much more recent track: "Nubian Stomp" from his 1996 "Then & Now" album, with Carlos Ward, Graham Haynes and Jerome Harris.

About track 7: I have many of Shelly Manne's 50's and early 60's quintet/sextet albums (including this one) and I like them a lot. Just recently I stumbled upon a copy of "My Son The Jazz Drummer", also from 1962, where the band, with Teddy Edwards and Shorty Rogers, improvises on traditional Jewish melodies. Great stuff and they played this 30 years before Zorn started Masada.

The David Holland/Barre Phillips duet is lovely and once again a reminder of why I dearly love those early ECM albums. 

Edited by corto maltese
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3 hours ago, corto maltese said:

About track 3: me too, I was initally guessing one of Arthur Blythe's Columbia-period albums, but the guitar is too clean (certainly no Blood Ulmer) and there's no cello (Abdul Wadud plays on most of those records). Checking Bob Stewart's discography learns that this is a much more recent track: "Nubian Stomp" from his 1996 "Then & Now" album, with Carlos Ward, Graham Haynes and Jerome Harris.

About track 7: I have many of Shelly Manne's 50's and early 60's quintet/sextet albums (including this one) and I like them a lot. Just recently I stumbled upon a copy of "My Son The Jazz Drummer", also from 1962, where the band, with Teddy Edwards and Shorty Rogers, improvises on traditional Jewish melodies. Great stuff and they played this 30 years before Zorn started Masada.

The David Holland/Barre Phillips duet is lovely and once again a reminder of why I dearly love those early ECM albums. 

You're the first to correctly i.d. Carlos Ward (such a personal sound) with Bob Stewart. Love his alto work with Ibrahim.

Shelly is so spare and precise and always drums for the group. His Contemporary quintets hold up well, a bit restrained, but very musical.

I'm no expert on the "complete" Dave Holland, but I've never heard him have an uninteresting performance- (from a bass-nut).

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BFT #154 Revealed:

#1. "Ponce" (Noro Morales), Elliot Lawrence Swings Al Cohn & Tiny Kahn -1/56

      Elliott Lawrence Big Band; Lawrence, piano solo (Al Cohn,ts, prominently featured on the original album).

#2. Ill Wind (Arlen/Koehler), Howard McGhee: Sharp Edge -12/61

      Maggie,tp/ George Coleman,ts/ Junior Mance,p/ George Tucker,b/ Jimmy Cobb,d

#3. "Nubian Stomp" (Carlos Ward), Bob Stewart: Then & Now -3/96

      Stewart,tu/ Graham Haynes,tp/ Carlos Ward,as/ Jerome Harris,g/ Buddy Williams,d

#4. "Warm Valley" (Duke Ellington), Jerome Richardson: Roamin' With Richardson -10/59

      Richardson,bs/ Richard Wyands,p/ George Tucker,b/ Charlie Persip,d

#5. "You Go to My Head" (Coots/Gillespie), Ed Cherry: Second Look -4/94

      Cherry,g/ Steve Nelson,vb/ Kenny Barron,p/ Andy McKee,b/ Yoron Israel,d

#6. "Up Above My Head" (trad), Sammy Price & Lucky Thompson: Paris Blues -7/57

      Lucky,ts/ Price,p,voc/ Jean-Pierre Sasson,g/ Pierre Michelot,b/ Dave Pochonet,d

#7. "The Isolated Pawn" (John Williams), Shelly Manne: Checkmate -10/61

      Conte Candoli,tp/ Richie Kamuca,ts/ Russ Freeman,p/ Chuck Berghofer,b/ Shelly Manne,d

#8. "Hucksterman" (Khan Jamal), Khan Jamal: Dark Warrior -9/84

      Jamal,vb/ Charles Tyler,as/ Johnny Dyani,b/ Leroy Lowe,d

#9. "Song For Clare" (Dave Holland), Dave Holland/Barre Phillips: Music From 2 Basses -2/71

      Holland/Phillips,b

#10. {Improvisation}, John Lee Hooker/Miles Davis: Music from "The Hot Spot" -'90

       Hooker,g,voc/ Miles,tp/ Roy Rogers,elg/ Tim Drummond,elb/ Earl Palmer,d

#11. "Madeline" (Hank Mobley), James Spaulding: Escapade -4/99

       Spaulding,bsf/ John Hicks,p/ Ray Drummond,b/ Kenny Washington,d

#12. "Nu Kingdom" (Zane Massey), Zane Massey: Brass Knuckles -11/92

       Massey,ts/ Hideiji Taninaka,b/ Sadiq M. Abdu Shahid,d

#13. "Elos" (Duke Ellington), Duke Ellington: Private Collection Studio Sessions Vol. 9 -12/68

       Willie Cook,tp/ Money Johnson,tp/ Chuck Connors,tb/ Buster Cooper,tb/ Lawrence Brown,tb/

       Johnny Hodges,as/ Russell Procope,as,cl/ Paul Gonsalves,ts/ Harold Ashby,ts/

       Harry Carney,bs/bc/ Duke,p/ Jeff Castleman,b/ Rufus Jones,d

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