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Roger Farbey

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Posts posted by Roger Farbey

  1. As part of the London Jazz Festival there will be a tribute concert to the great trumpeter, composer, writer and broadcaster Ian Carr, who has already received two major music awards this year (Parliamentary Jazz Awards and BBC Jazz Awards, both for Services to Jazz). Among those participating will be Julian Joseph who was one of Ian's pupils when Ian was an Associate Professor at the Guildhall School of Music. The concert will comprise of works by Ian Carr and will be held at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama on Tuesday 14th November. Tickets are available to purchase now from The Barbican Centre Box Office and priced at £15.

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    Just listening to the 'Warm Smiles' LP. I would say that anyone who liked 'Flare Up' will probably enjoy this one too. It has a typical early 70s vibe with John Taylor featured quite a bit on electric piano. Not the greatest of recordings though by RCA - a bit mushy.

    Beckett is his typically lyrical self throughout. More 'mellow' though than on 'Flare Up'.

    Yes I'd go along with this - definitely worth getting but has a different, more laid-back feel than Flare Up.

    I'd go along with Clifford, was expecting more of an (early) Graham Collier but Warm Smiles is really growing on me now (3rd play). Gets better on every listen. Fega (1st cursory hearing) is interesting too.

    This is a 'must have' two-fer.

  3. 8430.gif

    Just listening to the 'Warm Smiles' LP. I would say that anyone who liked 'Flare Up' will probably enjoy this one too. It has a typical early 70s vibe with John Taylor featured quite a bit on electric piano. Not the greatest of recordings though by RCA - a bit mushy.

    Beckett is his typically lyrical self throughout. More 'mellow' though than on 'Flare Up'.

    Yes I'd go along with this - definitely worth getting but has a different, more laid-back feel than Flare Up.

  4. No, don't get me wrong--I'm well aware of Bruce, Baker, and Hiseman's respective histories, not least their contributions to British jazz as an institution. I think it's questionable, however, that any one of them should be characterized as a 'jazz' musician--especially because the three of them (apart and together) have spent as much time (probably more) performing and recording 'non-jazz' music as they have playing in jazz contexts.

    ep1str0phy - some said that very same thing about Miles! :g

    Seriously though, I am ploughing my way through the first Beckett Vocalion (Warm Smiles) and find it so far very different to his first (Flare Up). I'll need to play it a couple more times to formulate any kind of opinion.

  5. hey roger-i am listening to this one now. i like it but am not sure if i love it.

    compared to your avatar-i think this is a better set (obviously much longer) but at some point past "roots" i feel like the band became too much carr and smith/bertles and rhythm section. more of a typical fusion group.

    i still love my favorite nucleus albums ("labyrinth" most of all) but i have been souring on some of their work lately.

    i also recently got the "hemispheres" disc. i really like the second half but the first half doesn't do it for me. strangely enough i think i have the same issue with eary nucelus as i do with late nucleus-sort of boring repetive riffs.

    but speaking of MLP-i really like the soft machine live 1975 or 1976 release from last year. so much better than the "floating world live" reissue which came out right after. even with etheridge in on guitar. he smokes it.

    Yeh I can understand your POV, my favourite Nucleus album is actually Solar Plexus but the new UK Tour '76 has a much more human feel to it than the one on my Avatar which I like but is a bit 'cold' compared to the new one. It's also good to hear more of Kenny Shaw who I have not previously heard enough of in the Nucleus studio albums.

  6. I'm a huge fan of Bruce, especially the first few solo albums (Songs for A Tailor, Harmony Row...)... but I'm extremely wary of his acoustic jazz material. I sometimes feel as if the arena rock thing winds up imprinting in the end--and, for the life of me, I have yet to hear an acoustic Bruce album where he doesn't sound like he's trying to pummel the instrument into the back rows. A sense of 'lightness' is important for a lot of modern improv contexts--not so much 'light toned,' though, as 'flexible'... it's something that doesn't always register for stadium-tested, electricity-driven bassists like Bruce (and a lot of guys who've had to cope with coming out of rock or jazz-rock contexts--post-Colosseum Hiseman, for sure... and look at post-Lifetime Tony Williams!). That's my two cents, anyway.

    On the other hand, I do enjoy the Lemer ESP that Hiseman plays on (it sounds like a less groovy Andrew Hill), and there's something endearing about Things We Like. Maybe, then, I will check out the big band and the Mike Taylor...

    Jon Hiseman is actually a jazz drummer who plays jazz rock. He shouldn't be underestimated for his style. He's a precisionist in the Rich vein but has his own style and technical is pretty much flawless. You should hear him on any of the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble albums. Or on the NJO's Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe. Also Bruce is a jazz musician (Things We Like, Escalator Over the Hill, Turn it Over) who makes his money by playing rock. In much the same way Ginger Baker does. Except that Baker has made it clear he despises rock music. Hiuseman is more circumspect. Bruce and Hiseman have made substantial contributions to jazz.

    Baker, Bruce, Hiseman, Heckstall-Smith and McLaughlin all cut their teeth with the Graham Bond Organisation which was a pivotal nexus between jazz and rock. Incidentally, although it is termpting to dismiss Colosseum as just another jazz rock band, I haven't heard many other (any actually) of these bands attempt to play Mike Gibbs Tanglewood '63 and do it that well.

  7. And they include a double Harry Beckett (Warm Smiles/Themes for Fega); New Jazz Orchestra (Western Reunion - 1st ever issue in stereo) and Michael Garrick (Home Stretch Blues). There's also a John Surman (How Many Clouds) but that was reissued previously about 5-6 yrs ago by Universal (when they were still Polygram)

  8. One of the few brass players to find great inspiration in and to build positively and individually on the legacy of Booker Little ! :tup

    Still playing very nicely at NorthSea this year, in tandem with Norma Winstone. Hope they tour the UK again soon.

    Saw Kenny play at the 100 Club benefit gig for Ian Carr last week. He's beginning to look his age a little now but he certainly still plays wonderfully and his band played three KW compositions. Sheer magic. Awesome.

  9. I prefer the one after this, on Philips, called "TCB."

    It has been reissued on CD.

    I love TCB too but it was only reissued on CD in Japan - a true crime! However, Dankworth and Wheeler's (let's not forget it's Kenny's material here) 'Tilter' is fantastic. Easily the best jazz album made in the UK (oh oh, I can feel the flames even now!). Seriously it is excellent and anyone who likes Kenny or John Dankworth will appreciate this album I don't find it lightweight either - a very considered and well-balanced album. It is due out next Spring which I imagine is to coincide with Dankworth's 80th birthday. By the way, his quartet of albums from the sixties have been issued on CD but not distributed outside of his own company (QNote) and they don't publicise this fact. They are all excellent albums too and very very underrated. Dankworth's arrangements have certainly influenced the likes of Wheeler and Mike Gibbs to name but two. Incidentally, and as we're talking Brit reissues you may be interested to learn that Ogun have just reissued for the first time on CD the Skidmore/Osborne/Surman classic 'SOS'. Lovely digipack product too.

  10. Hello,

    I was just talking about Ian Carr with a friend. Why is there a benefit. And for those of us outside of the London area, is there a place to send donations?

    Thank you,

    Marla

    Hi

    Ian has not been in the best of health for some while now and is looking a little frail. He is now not able to play the trumpet and I believe (perforce) has given up practising. This is extremely sad as he was one of

    the greatest trumpet players the UK produced and he led two of its most important jazz groups. There isn't currently anywhere you can send money tobut attendance at the benefit gig would be appreciated particularly as I have just learned that both Kenny Wheeler and Stan Sulzman will be playing in the final set!

    http://www.geocities.com/icnucleus

  11. 26 Sep 2006 7.30pm - 11pm IAN CARR BENEFIT GIG - 100 Club, London.

    FIRST SET - Norma Winstone with Don Rendell, Henry Lowther, Mike Garrick, Dave Green & Trevor Tomkins - SECOND SET - Jacqui Dankworth with John Etheridge, Alec Dankworth et al -

    FINAL SET - Members of Michael Garrick Quartet and Big Band

    Mem £10 adv & door / £8 conc. Non-mem £10 adv & door / £8 conc.

  12. The bulk of the import archtops are made by Samick for Epiphone, Washburn, et al, and as far as the guitars themselves are concerned, they are nice instruments for their budget area, usually around $300 to $600 used. The electronics in them need to be upgraded to some quality stuff to make them a fine gigging guitar. I'd say that is probably what yours is. The high grade import archtops for Gretsch and D'Angelico and their like are made in Japan by the Terada factory, and go for $1500 and up used.

    Thanks Herb for the input

    Roger F

  13. I bought an archtop electric yesterday that looked and played so good I couldn't resist. However, it's difficult to identify, despite the fact it has a 'Blueridge' transfer on the headstock. It has no other identifiable markings such as a serial number and no label visible inside the guitar. Having a quick look on the web I have a suspicion that this is a Chinese guitar that is meant to look like a Wes or Tal Gibson but they chickened out and labelled it Blueridge, who incidentally seem only to make dreadnought guitars. It is brown/gold sunburst with twin gold plated humbuckers and four volume/tone controls over the lower f hole. The single cutaway horn is rounded as opposed to the sharp cutaways of the Gibson ES series as favoured by Pat Metheny et al. I think if it had been a real Gibson is would have cost me around $4,000 but this only cost me approx $300 including part exchanging my Fender acoustic. Any ideas, comments?

    The photo of a Tal Farlow Gibson below is near enough to mine in looks albeit Tal's is slightly fancier (painted scroll etc)

    98tal.jpg

  14. Haven't bought this yet but on the strenth of the few seconds' worth of samples on the (UK) HMV website will definitely be buying this. Scofield sounds great - nice to hear him playing with some attack. The thing about Emergency is that it suffered major technical recording problems hence the raw sound (see sleevenotes for the recent-ish Lifetime Anthology CD). Indeed it's a miracle it was produced at all. No one can come anywhere near to the sheer electricity that Lifetime generated, but the Trio Beyond have a good stab at it and I think it will probably stand up on its own merits. Now I must shut up and BUY the damned thing!

  15. I really liked this release. I have a BBC radio broadcast of Isipingo which had different tunes but was perforce shorter, as was each tune. This is much better and I would unhesitatingly recommend it. Two comments though, Tippett seems a tiny bit down in the mix (though this doesn't spoil the overall effect) and I would dearly love to know what was happening to Ozzie's alto - it sounds as if he is either playing a wooden one or his reed has split, but as a non-horn player I have no idea what I'm talking about here! Would still appreciate other opinions on it though.

  16. I am advised that 'Cleopatra's Needle' Japanese Reissue LP is back in stock at Dusty, if anyone is interested .. :w

    Do you know if it's a stereo vinyl version or mono? I go caught out by the Japanese (and UK) CD reissue in mono of Tubbs' '100% Proof' so I don't want to get fooled again (as they keep singing on CSI).

  17. I pretty much agree with most of what Guy said. I love the Inner Mounting Flame but felt it was all down hill from there, except for the occasional flicker of brilliance.

    So rather than listen to the later Mahavishnu Orchestra, I prefer McLaughlin's other stuff: the brilliant Extrapolation, or Where Fortune Smiles, My Goal's Beyond

    I very much go along with all of this but would add that as far as the IMF was concerned this was a paradigm shift for jazz perhaps even more than Miles' BB and Lifetime. Trouble is once the floodgates opened for this a lot of stuff that succeeded IMF and not just from JM was more parody than paradigm. Some of it was just awful. The sampler album 'Fusion 101' is an example of utter headache-inducing jazzrockfusion blah blah. Oh, and I like jazz rock fusion by the way (when it's good).

  18. I can take a look at some 1974-76 back-issues of Jazz Journal International this weekend and scan in anything of interest, if that is any use to you? (I don't think their coverage of Nucleus was that prolific but you never know..)

    Sidewinder - anything would be good - many thanks for looking!

  19. If anyone has any photos or memorabilia (eg tickets, cuttings, press releases) of Ian Carr's Nucleus between 1974 and 1976 please could they email me at icnucleus@yahoo.com as these items are desperately needed to enhance the production of an exciting live recording of Nucleus which was made by a radio station around this period and which, it is hoped, will be released as a double CD later in the year on the MLP label. The tapes of this forthcoming CD were rescued from a skip where they were found by an engineer who fortunately realised their value. The tracks are of superb quality but MLP has found it very difficult to source any photos or anything else from this period. Reviews, articles etc would also be useful. Sources will be acknowledged and copyright permissions sought. (I am not connected with MLP but have been approached by them as they are not really a jazz label - they mainly deal with Prog - and I edit the Ian Carr and Nucleus Website: http://www.geocities.com/icnucleus ) Incidentally, the tapes sound great and word has it that there are more jazz treaures they have recently acquired and I want to encourage these to be released. Many thanks!

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