WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE

[DrJ]

Sorry for re-posting this, but it's buried in the thread about the new Kenny Barron and Mulgrew Miller CDs, so I wanted to post about it here.

This new release is a gem. I found this filed under "Kenny Barron" (not just in the bin, the computer tag) at Borders. Kenny Barron helped organize and lead the date with trombonist McIntosh, who is the actual leader (so you might also find it under his name), formerly of the Jazztet as many will know and contributor of some really classic tunes in the jazz pantheon ("The Cup Bearers" for example).

Big thumbs up for this one so far, which features some fine playing by Benny Golson, James Moody, Barron, Roger Kellaway, Richard Davis, Stefon Harris, and McIntosh. It's on the IPO label, the same one that issued several fantastic Roland Hanna albums shortly before his death.

It's a really well-done, honest session, a bit rough at the edges in some of the ensembles and with some fluffs left in, but very appealingly so. Everyone plays well. On initial impressions, I'm most taken with Golson's playing here. He uncorks a classic, classic solo on track 2, a great new tune McIntosh wrote for the date in tribute to Dizzy Gillespie (don't recall the track name). I hit the repeat button SEVERAL times when listening in the car on the way home from the store, a real great example of his "inside out" approach. What he's doing won't jar or sound "out" but when you get down to it, he's based his whole solo on extended harmonies - it isn't so far away from the type of thing Eric Dolphy did, but with a smoother sound and phrasing it's almost subversive rather than in your face.

A beauty.

Edited July 15, 2004 by DrJ

[Spontooneous]

Sounds good. McIntosh shouldn't go unsung.

I catch myself wishing for a reissue of a James Moody LP on Chess called "The Great Day," with four out of seven tunes by McIntosh. With Johnny Coles, Bernie Leighton, Jim Hall, Richard Davis and Mel Lewis.

And we'll get a little McIntosh in the impending Jazztet Mosaic!

[DrJ]

You know spontooneous, I was just thinking the same thing about reissues of Moody's Chess/Argo material. I recently picked up the new Verve reissue of JAMES MOODY, which features one tune that was arranged (and beautifully I might add) by McIntosh as well as his fine trombone playing throughout.

I'm a big fan of Moody's playing from around this period also although I haven't been able to hear all the Chess/Argo stuff (including the date you list, which sounds like a doozy).

Perhaps a Mosaic compiling all of Moody's Chess/Argo dates would be a possibility, now that it seems they are beginning to mine those deep vaults with the Jazztet set.

[Dan Gould]

Or certainly a Moody Select!

[JSngry]

There was a Moody date (w/McIntosh ) on Scepter that KILLS.

[brownie]

Also 'Moody And The Brass Figures' on Milestone. Tom McIntosh arranged and conducted the orchestral sections on that record.

Brass on the session were Joe Newman, Jimmy Owens, Snooky Young, Jimmy Cleveland and Don Butterfield.

An old favorite album.

[jazzkrow]

MOODY ALERT....

James Moody is doing a FREE set as part of this weekend's Cathedral Park Jazz Festival under the St. John's Bridge in Portland this Sunday at 6 pm.

Worth a drive to Portland for fellow Northwesterners.....

[Shrdlu]

I love that Brass Figures album, too. You beat me to it, Brownie.

James Moody always sounds good, and that album, with McIntosh's arrangments, is a beauty. They tried to make James play only tenor on it, but he still managed to sneak in a fine flute feature.

[Chuck Nessa]

If it has not been mentioned, all interested parties should check out Diz's

Something Old, Something New. This April '63 date was my intro to Mr. McIntosh.