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BFT164 Answers


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Well, here we are, a new month and some answers.

01 Big Jay McNeely – K&H boogie – Exclusive 122X

 

Big Jay McNeely (ts), Bob McNeely (bar), Jimmie O'Brien (p), prob Prince "Candy" Stanzel (g), Theodore Shirley (b), Leonard "Tight" Hardiman (d) Los Angeles, Apr, 1949

 

I thought this would fool a lot of you. But Jimmy O’Brien was damn good, I think. He didn’t record much; a session with Buddy Colette in ’48, then worked with Big Jay until ’52.

 

I took this from the CD ‘The Deacon unabridged’ issued by Big Jay’s own label, Swingin’.

P 01 Big Jay McNeeley - The Deacon unabridged vol 1.jpg

 

 

02 Wild Bill Davis – See see rider – RCAVictor LPM3314

 

Wild Bill Davis (org), Clayton ‘Bob’ Brown (ts, fl), Dickie Thompson (g), Jimmy Hopps (d) NY 22 Sep 1964

 

This one’s just in here because I like it. I didn’t expect many wouldn’t get Wild Bill. It’s from the RCAVictor album ‘Free, frantic and funky’.

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03 Ray Bryant – Gotta travel on – Cadet 767

 

Ray Bryant (p), Walter Booker (b), Freddie Waits (d) NY 18 Feb 1966

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04 Phineas Newborn – Harlem Blues – Contemporary 7634

 

Phineas Newborn (p), Ray Brown (b), Elvin Jones (d) LA 12 & 13 Feb 1969

 

I thought it would be interesting to see what people made of the last two. Same tune by very different pianists with different approaches.

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05 Earl Grant – Sweet sixteen bars – Decca 74299

 

Earl Grant (p, org) unknown band Basin Street East, NY 1962

 

Well, Earl Grant’s an organist and pianist I rather like and not many others are bothered about now. He was a decent singer in the Nat Cole style but his most successful recordings were lounge instrumentals but usually with something extra to them.

 

This is from the Decca album ‘Earl Grant at Basin Street East’.R-8598998-1464868203-2203.jpeg.jpg

 

 

06 Lou Johnson – A time to love; a time to cry – Big Top 101

 

Lou Johnson (voc) unknown acc NY 1965

 

I’ve liked Lou Johnson since I bought ‘Always something there to remind me’ in 1964. Ace issued a CD covering his recordings for Big Top/Big Hill in 2010 but I never heard about it until last year. As ever with Ace, the sleeve notes are chock full of into about a guy who’s had a surprisingly interesting career, as a gospel singer and organist (who wiped out Rev Maceo Woods at a concert in Cleveland), a jazz pianist and organist, a soul singer and, in his later years, a member of the Inkspots, with whom he was still performing when the notes were written (and you thought the Inkspots were a thing of the past).

 

This record was a Cash Box R&B #16 hit in 1965, during the time Billboard wasn’t publishing an R&B chart. But it also made #59 on the Billboard pop charts; the last of his four hit singles.

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07 Gildo Mahones – Water blues fall – Prestige 16004

 

Gildo Mahones (p), George Tucker (b), Jimmie Smith (d) RVG 3 Sep 1963

 

Some people don’t seem to make it, no matter how much they deserve to.

 

 

Prestige’s 16000 series seems to have been created for Ozzie Cadena’s pet projects, though only three were issued on that series (the other handful were reissues). It was supposed to have been reissued on NJ8299, but that apparently didn’t issue (though I’ve got a photo of the sleeve with an NJ sticker on it). Instead, most of the tracks were reissued on the two LP set PR7339 titled ‘The soulful piano of Gildo Mahones’. Goodness knows what the price of a two LP set NOT on the PR24000 series would have cost, but, with an issue history like that, small wonder Gildo’s albums never topped the R&B album chart J

 

He made an album for Interplay in 1990 as a leader and those three are his only leader issues. But he was a prolific sideman with 77 sessions between 1949 and 1995 with many of the greatest jazz musicians of the period, including Lester Young, Booker Ervin, Frank Foster, Bennie Green, Sonny Stitt, Frank Wess and Willis Jackson, as well as a lot with singers: Lambert Hendricks & Ross, together & separately, Spoon, Dakota, Rawls, Joe Turner and Lorez Alexandria. So he SHOULD be someone many of us recognise. He was born in 1929 and is, apparently, still alive.

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MG

 

 

08 Shirley Scott – How sweet – Prestige 7440

 

Shirley Scott (org), Joe Newman (tp), Oliver Nelson (ts), George Tucker (b), Roy Brooks (d) RVG 22 Aug 1961

 

This tune was later renamed ‘Blues everywhere’. This was its first recording, as part of Shirley’s ‘Blue seven’ LP. They played ‘Wagon wheels’ for 12 minutes, so something, this Wild Bill Davis-type of tune, which Shirley played Wild Bill style, too, had to go. It was included in the LP ‘Now’s the time’ with a bunch of leftovers from 1958 to 1964. The CD issue of ‘Blue seven’ reinstated it in its proper place.

 

It’s worth remembering that Shirley was playing organ in Philly before Jimmy Smith changed things. In 1955 she was in a trio with Tootie Heath and John Coltrane. (Pity it was never recorded.) But Wild Bill and Jimmy are both clear influences on her and this ain’t no joke.

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09 Sonny Stitt – Bachianas Brazilieras no 5 – Cadet 60040

 

10 Sonny Stitt – Funky interlude (Bachianas Brazilieras no 5, pt 2) – Cadet 60040

 

Sonny Stitt

 

LP collective pers: Sonny Stitt (as,ts), Waymon Reed, Ernie Royal, Marvin Stamm (tp,flhrn), Gerald Ray Chamberlain (tb), Seldon Powell (fl), George Marge (fl,hrn), Pee Wee Ellis (as,ts,el-p,synt,arr,cond), Patti Bown, Sir Roland Hanna (p,el-p), Sam Brown, Hugh McCracken, Billy  Butler, Jonathan Scholle (g), Wilbur "Dud" Bascomb, Jr, Will Lee, Ron Carter (b,el-b), Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (d), Ray Mantilla, Gilmore Digap (cga) + strings New York, 1974

 

Sonny’s Cadet albums from the seventies are pretty interesting. This is from the LP ‘Never can say  goodbye’. It illustrates what Bob Porter told me about Sonny, that if you let him make an album with his old friends, you’ll get the 97th version of ‘the Sonny Stitt album’. You’ve got to put him on unfamiliar ground. Of course, sometimes that approach gives you a big bunch of crap. So here he is in an imitation Deodato track. I was delighted Jim took so long to get it.

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11 Ramsey Lewis – I remember the starlight – Argo 715

 

Ramsey Lewis (p), Eldee Young (b), Red Holt (d) Chicago 1963

 

I included this because I didn’t think there were enough ballads in this BFT, so Ramsey, as a pianist not much associated with ballads, was an obvious choice. It’s from the LP ‘Pot luck’ made a year before he hit the jackpot.

 

The tune is by Puccini and is ‘from Tosca’.

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12 Hampton Hawes – Go down Moses – Prestige 10088

 

Hampton Hawes (p), Allen De Rienzo, Snooky Young (tp), George Bohanon (tb), Jackie Kelso, William Green, Jay Migliori (saxes,fl), Al Vescovo (g), Carol Kaye (el-b), Spider Webb (d), David Axelrod (arr,cond)  Berkeley, CA, July 18 & 19, 1974

 

13 Hampton Hawes – Sierra morena – Prestige 10088

 

Hampton Hawes (p), Allen De Rienzo, Snooky Young (tp), George Bohanon (tb), Jackie Kelso, William Green, Jay Migliori (saxes,fl), Al Vescovo (g), Carol Kaye (el-b), Spider Webb (d), David Axelrod (arr,cond)  Berkeley, CA, July 18 & 19, 1974

 

I like Hampton Hawes a lot. Sure, his Contemporary albums, particularly those he made in the mid sixties and later seventies, are my favourites, but this album is a pretty nice one, despite Axelrod, who I don’t care for much. I like the Ramsey Lewis approach of ‘Moses’, and the drama of ‘Sierra Morena’.

 

These two are taken from a Japanese CD reissued in 2014 (so Concord aren’t twiddling their thumbs as far as that market is concerned).

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14 James Moody – Don’t let me be lonely tonight – Paula 4003

 

James Moody (ts), Tennyson Stephens (p), Jodie Christian (p,tamb), Richard Evans (b), Marshall Thompson (jazz-d,cga), Andre Fischer (rock-d) Chicago, Illinois, 1973

 

I’d always known Moody was a big influence on Hank Crawford but until I got this album, ‘Sax and flute man’, I’d ever heard it so plainly.

 

Will someone please tell me what the hell rock drums are, as distinct from jazz drums? And which are they supposed to be on this track? I guess Paul Serrano knew.

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MG

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5 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Had a quick conversation with Stan Getz at that very spot.

 

And you didn't say hello to Mr Moody?

MG

9 hours ago, Hot Ptah said:

I am embarrassed that I could not identify Wild Bill Davis and Hampton Hawes. I have seen that Northern Windows album cover in used record stores hundreds of times, but never bought it. I should have!

awes sleeve very m

Thanks for a great Blindfold Test, fun and enjoyable from start to finish!

Glad you enjoyed it Bill.

I like that Hawes sleeve a lot.

Wild Bill Davis is often quite hard to identify; he had as wide an influence as Jimmy Smith, though it's not recognised.

MG

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12 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Had a quick conversation with Stan Getz at that very spot.

 

May have mentioned them here before (I'll try to check), but I had two fairly interesting conversations with Getz, one on the phone, one in person, both of them kind of crazy in a very a la Stan manner.

BTW, Chuck, did your Getz encounter take place while he was at the London House with the "Captain Marvel" band? I saw them there with Terry and Ann Martin, band in great form.

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5 hours ago, aparxa said:

Gildo Mahones, that's a new name to me! Browsing quickly  the 55-65 RVG sessions on Wikipedia early this week was of no avail to identify this track, but it's well and truly there!
Thanks for the BFT!

 

 

Yeah, I don't know why sometimes a really talented geezer gets sidelined, but it happens.

MG

5 hours ago, Hardbopjazz said:

I have a number of these but I didn't figure any of them out. 

Nice collection of music in the BFT.

Glad you liked it.

MG

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2 hours ago, Hot Ptah said:

It is very interesting to hear Earl Grant. I have seen his albums often in used record store bins over the years but never bought any. I don't think I had ever heard his playing before this Blindfold Test. Thanks for sharing his music.

2 hours ago, Hot Ptah said:

I    

I remember when he was on the Hit Parade. 

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3 hours ago, Hot Ptah said:

It is very interesting to hear Earl Grant. I have seen his albums often in used record store bins over the years but never bought any. I don't think I had ever heard his playing before this Blindfold Test. Thanks for sharing his music.

I put one of his in BFT 150 :)

Track 18, Azure (the WIld Bill Davis tune).

I know you heard it because you commented on several other cuts.

And you were the only one, I think, to get 'Goldberg boogie@.

MG

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2 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

My apologies to MG for not getting back into his BFT after my first post.  Not sure if I'd have done any better but on the positive side his "pianists who should have made it but mostly didn't" is influencing one of my track selections for January. :g

I'll be into that, Dan.

MG

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