Bob Belden - Three Days Of Rain (OST)

[JSngry]

As they say, "moody", only significantly more than "they" tend to understand when they say it.

I long ago lost interest in Joe Lovano, so it is not lightly that I say he plays great here.

And yes, Joe Chambers.

 

[Teasing the Korean]

Never heard of this.  Did you ever see the film?  It has only a 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  

[JSngry]

I watched the movie last night. It's not very good and they chop the music up into bits. So disregard the movie. 

The album itself is magnificent, truly magnificent 

[Rooster_Ties]

I’ve seen this disc come up a time or two on Dusty, but I’ve been to slow to pull the trigger on it each time.

How’s it compare to the whole Black Dahlia suite thing?? — which I assume(?) could be its closest cousin, in terms of other releases with Bob’s name on the spine.

I often quite like Black Dahlia, but sometimes I’m a little lukewarm on it too — seems to vary from year to year (I’ve almost gotten ridden of the disc a couple times, but always seem to come around to keeping it).

[jazzbo]

I haven't spun this in a long time. It's different than the Black Dahlia release. . . Less agenda driven I'd say, but I remember it as being very good but a bit disconnected for me as it's a soundtrack album more than I'd like. I'm not a fan of those.

[JSngry]

It's a perfectly cohesive stand-alone jazz record and is, I believe, best appreciated as such.

Watching the movie for the first time last night, I was actually angered by how the music was used. It's just not good. Neither is the movie.

The record by itself, though, is magnificent.

[jlhoots]

My favorite Belden is still Turandot - my CD is a Japanese issue, not sure it ever had a US release.

[danasgoodstuff]

Turandot was Japan only, IIRC.  I've never seen a copy anywhere.

[JSngry]

Something about the Puccini estate blocking it iirc?

[danasgoodstuff]

Puccini estate - that's what I remember.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Belden once told me that "Black Dahlia" was meant to be heard in surround sound. He spent many hours on those mixes. He was really getting into surround sound right before he died. He saw it as a great way to get his music into the hands of people who would otherwise never listen to it.

[jlhoots]

36 minutes ago, danasgoodstuff said:

Turandot was Japan only, IIRC.  I've never seen a copy anywhere.

I had a friend who was teaching English in Japan at the time & bought a copy for me.

[JSngry]

Last I heard, he was working on surround installations for public interactions. No buying a record and taking it home, no, you'd go into a gallery or some other space, and the sound would just be there, invisible in every way but totally present in all the air.

[Milestones]

I will never tire of Joe Lovano and I will be seeing him in concert in June.

With Lovano you find little gems like this (Three Days of Rain) with some frequency.  There is much to enjoy here. The title track features Lovano in fine ballad form.

 

[JSngry]

What I really like about this record is how Bob took three of his formative influences (Wayne, Herbie, and Gil) and fused them into a single voice for small and smaller groups. I don't think there's ever more than a quintet here, and yet it's orchestrated beautifully, for just those few pieces.

And the tempos are just right, languorous might be a way to describe it 

[Teasing the Korean]

8 hours ago, JSngry said:

I watched the movie last night. It's not very good and they chop the music up into bits. So disregard the movie. 

The album itself is magnificent, truly magnificent 

Thanks for hipping us to this album.  I am listening now on YouTube.  It is indeed sublime.  I will be sure to avoid the film; I have made the mistake before of falling in love with a soundtrack, and then watching the film, only to find that the film is truly terrible.  It sometimes takes years to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

5 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I often quite like Black Dahlia, but sometimes I’m a little lukewarm on it too — seems to vary from year to year (I’ve almost gotten ridden of the disc a couple times, but always seem to come around to keeping it).

I love Black Dahlia.  When I saw the film, with a forgettable score my Mark Isham, I wished the score was as good as the Belden album.  Of course, Belden is meant to celebrate Elizabeth Short's short life.  I admit, though, Black Dahlia it is not an album I play often.  I have to put myself in the right mood.  The money cut for me is "Dream World." 

 

[JSngry]

6 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I’ve seen this disc come up a time or two on Dusty, but I’ve been to slow to pull the trigger on it each time.

How’s it compare to the whole Black Dahlia suite thing?? — which I assume(?) could be its closest cousin, in terms of other releases with Bob’s name on the spine.

I often quite like Black Dahlia, but sometimes I’m a little lukewarm on it too — seems to vary from year to year (I’ve almost gotten ridden of the disc a couple times, but always seem to come around to keeping it).

 Nothing at all like that one, not in any way. 

Have no fear, Joe Chambers is here.

[Teasing the Korean]

10 hours ago, JSngry said:

 Nothing at all like that one, not in any way. 

I dunno, it has some characteristics that I hear on the more introspective tracks on BD.

Anyway, I snagged a cheap copy of Three Days of Rain off of the InterBays.

[Teasing the Korean]

This arrived from the InterBays.  Been on repeat.

[Teasing the Korean]

I was inspired to revisit Black Dahlia for the first time in a couple of years.  I am totally digging it and asking myself why I don't spin it more.

[Teasing the Korean]

@Jsngry did you know Bob Belden at North Texas State?

Edited April 18, 2022 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

I did.

[Teasing the Korean]

8 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I did.

Any memories or stories?  Not looking for tabloid stuff, just anything interesting about him as a musician or a person.  Were you friends to any degree?

[Rooster_Ties]

31 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I did.

Yeah, do tell!

[JSngry]

To some degree, yes. Bob was in a different league than anybody (except Lyle Mays once he started to come into his ow), but he didn't start out that way. He came to NT a year before I did, and apparently his attitude and esthetic was more or less fully formed long before his skills were, and not everybody appreciated that. I did, but many did not. But the dude did the work, all of it, and at some point he had to be acknowledged for the talent and thinker he was.

As for our friendship, we were travelling different creative paths for a while, and/but then there was this guy named Paul Holderbaum, an arranger, who had his own library (mostly originals, but some Oliver Nelson charts that he had gotten from ON's widow), and the wanted an "anti-Lab Band" big band, so at some point Bob & I ended up being the tenor players. Bob had been scorned, but his attitude remained intact, so he thought that a fellow tenor player who was into Ayler and Ornette wasn't "serious". But after a few times playing together, he realized that, ok, yes, a different approach, but very serious nevertheless, so we became friends, especially in terms of record collecting and weed consumption. I was never an "A-lister" in terms of his circle, but neither was I looked at as a freak and a stranger either.

Then, of course, Bob left NT and did what he did. Fast forward a few decades, and one day I get an email from him talking about how he'd been digging my postings on the old BNBB, here's my number, call me sometimes and let's catch up. Very un-Bob-like, so I let it pass, just responded to the email and figured that would be that. Well, one day the phone rings, and its Bob. Bob was a talker, so I let him talk. But he did want copies of the Quartet Out CDs, which he played for Tom Evered and told him that THIS was who he should be signing, etc. I laughed at that, because we both knew that that was not how it works. But I got a chuckle out of it because it was so Bob, the cocksure attitude in the face of knowing that nothing was going to happen, but just do it anyway, fuck it. He did say that he really remembered me as somebody who refused to buy into the lab band bullshit about how to do ANYTHING. That was nice.

Over the years, a few more phone calls, plenty of emails. The last phone call was about his gig in Irag(?) or where ever it was, and the unlimited supply of drugs they had at their disposal. I asked him if there were women to match, and he drily replied that they did not want to play into the imperialist cliché THAT much.

All in all, it was a casual friendship, but always pleasurable. And when he talked (which was always, LOL), it was always interesting. Always. Like I said, the guy did the work, and not just with the music, but with the business as well. As a result, he had opinions based on all sorts of "fly on the wall" type observations.

A totally unique character, imo. He's missed, that's for sure.