Big Al

BTW, anyone dare to invade their BBS? The whole site is a laff riot anyway!

Re: the "screamer" So THAT'S what Bon Jovi sounds like when someone kicks him in the nuts! Re: the "goth chick" Hey, it's no worse than the Cranberries! [[[[[[iNCOMING!!!]]]]] Chris O, yer welcome!

That was released in MONO? Wow! Never knew that! My dad has a couple of his early Takoma albums (Blind Joe Death and Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites), both of which smoke the CD reissues. In fact, the CD reissue of DOD lops off the first strum of one of the tracks, can't remember which one.

Yeah, but it sure would give new meaning to the term "organ trio."

Oh MAN ain't that the truth!!!

Anyone else out there automatically assume that Clare Fischer was a woman (without having seen any pictures or read anything about him, only just seen the name)? Yes, I admit it: I'm dumb! I only know of his work on Hubert Laws In the Beginning, which has some extraordinary keyboard playing by MR. Fischer! B)

Probably the squarest Christmas album ever...... as well as my absolute favorite!

Another non-vote for The Real McCoy for the same reasons listed by impossible. And I also never got into Out of the Blue.

"Blues in Maude's Flat" is what it's all about, baby!!! The greeeeaze has knocked a wall over! Who knew Brother Yusef Lateef could be so greeeazy? Any other examples of Lateef in an organ combo?

E-mail sent! I can't wait! WHEEEEE!!!

Ohhhhhh, that brings back a VERY bad memory. Back in my pizza delivering days, my assistant manager had a big box of 78s that she loaned to me for a couple of days. One of the 78s was Ellington’s “Perdido,” which I got to listen to on my parents’ record player. I lost track of time and realized I was running late. I grabbed the Ellington record off the turntable and ran it over to the box. I SWEAR: the record was maybe one or two inches above the other record when I plopped it into the box. The next four seconds seemed to last a lifetime as I watched the record land and shatter into about 800 pieces. I called in late to work so I could stop crying. The assistant manager was very forgiving. However, I was never allowed to even LOOK at her record collection ever again. -_-

Yes, I took it a couple of days ago. Nice!

Can I get BACH to you on that? I tell ya, after reading everyone's posts, I guess I'll inform BMG of the error. Heck, maybe they'll send the correct disc and forget about the "error!" Worth a shot, and either way, I get some prime Monk out of it!

That's a nice picture to stare at while listening to the song. Not being from NY, is that Central Park?

I loaned my parents' copy of Simon & Garfunkel's BOOKENDS to a friend. When I got it back, I noticed that the inner sleeve was missing. When I asked him about it, he said, "Oh yeah, sorry 'bout that; I spilled bong water on it." Oh well, at least the record wasn't IN the sleeve when it got spilled on!

I am SO glad I'm not the only one who was dumb enough to do that at one time (wait a second: I wasn't the one who showed you this, was I?) -_-

Got my first shipment today, only to discover that they sent me Monk's UNDERGROUND instead of IT'S MONK'S TIME (which I ordered). Not that I'm complaining! I mean, at least they got the artist right: they could've accidentally sent me MARSALIS PLAYS MONK instead!

That's a great point, one that I'd never considered before. I think I hear what you're saying, that music doesn't necessarily have to be "melodic" to paint a picture. I'll have to try and listen to this with the ears attuned in that direction. Your whole post was terrific, BTW. Thanks for jumping in here!

Heh heh.... oops!

Happy birthday to a fellow Texan.

Very sweet, very greeeeazy! I would love it if you guys did a whole CD of Christmas & holiday tunes!

JSngry, did you get my e-mail? I hope it's not too late to get a copy. (I just tried to PM ya, but got the "PM Box is Full" message). Thanks!

In between the time I announced that Out to Lunch would be the AOW and now, I checked out the RVG from the library. I have owned this album in various CD incarnations previously, and have traded them away after getting too frustrated to keep them around. I’ve listened to it nonstop now for about five days; not so much with the intent of TRYING to like the damn thing, but just to try and listen with new ears, and maybe perhaps in documenting it, can find out what it is that rubs me the wrong way. Before I start, I want to make clear two things: one is that I highly respect all of the opinions supporting this album, even though I likely disagree with a lot of them; second, I hold no animosity towards those who champion the avant-garde because, letsfaceit, jazz is/was avant garde to begin with; I just wonder about the ferocity with which some people champion it. Now, after quite a few listenings, I’ve come to find a few things I like about this album: -The heads. I like Dolphy’s writing and arranging skills. He has a very unique way with melody and counterpoint, and uses harmony in ways that still sound fresh all these years later. It’s the “free” parts that I have trouble enjoying, which will be discussed in further detail. But I enjoy the melodies; heck, some of them are even whistle-able. -Freddie Hubbard. It constantly amazes me how well he fits in on ANY session, be it hard bop, post bop, or free. And this album is no exception. His solos are melodic, almost to the point of redefining the song in which the solo is played. -Tony Williams and Richard Davis. Individually and together , these guys were a powerhouse of subtlety (if such an contradiction is possible). Their telepathy, especially on “Hat and Beard” is unreal. (And I’d like to stop here for a second to point out one of the gripes I have against this album: what I perceive as the mistitling of some of these songs. “Hat and Beard” is allegedly a tribute to Monk, but nothing in this track reminds me of ANYthing Monk may have conceived; and granted, Monk was as individualistic as they come. BUT, Monk was also melodic, and Hubbard’s solo notwithstanding, there’s nothing that I find melodic in this tune. ESPECIALLY in Dolphy’s solo, where at some points he sounds as though he’s strangling a cat (which leads me to a thought that scares me about Dolphy: I don’t question his technical brilliance for a second. What scares me is the thought that every single one of those “notes” was planned. So when it sounds like he’s trying to dislodge the reed from the horn via a crescent-wrench, that’s PRECISELY the sound he was aiming for. And that scares the hell outta me!) “Something Sweet, Something Tender,” as another example, features some beautiful playing for the most part, until Dolphy starts soloing on his bass clarinet, and turns it into something far darker than the title indicates. Again, if that was his intent, than that scares the hell outta me. AGAIN!) But getting back to Davis and Williams: as with Hubbard, was there any genre these guys COULDN’T play? Y’know, I’ve always dug Ron Carter and Tony Williams as a team; y’ever wonder what the Miles Davis Quintet might’ve sounded like with Richard Davis in place of Carter? Something definitely worth pondering. “Gazzelloni” is probably my favorite track, but I think it’s by default. I enjoy Dolphy’s flute playing, but his solo here (and all over the album) makes me question why Dolphy never held any notes longer than a sixteenth note! There’s beauty in pacing, y’know. Most of the solos on this album, he sounds like a man possessed, or at the very least, very pissed off. Now, I know some people dig that. Someone please tell me WHY! I really fail to see anything remotely “musical” in any of this (and again, if this was his intent…..) I guess what really irritates me about this album is that it seems like there’s a joke going on here, and the joke’s on me. And I’m not laughing. This manifests itself in the liner notes, where the intent (or at least the picture) of each song is explained. I’m sorry to say that the explanations don’t help me; fact is, any music that needs explaining isn’t “music” to me; it’s art, with a capital “F.” (To borrow a phrase from Andy Partridge) And I guess if we’re gonna be visual, I’m reminded of a story I read in a medical journal years ago in a doctor’s office. It seems that there was a playoff game, two outs bottom of the ninth, and the batter hit’s a routine fly ball. If the fielder catches the ball, the game is over. So the crowd wills the ball into staying in midair. And it never comes down. And as long as the people will the ball to stay in the air, the game cannot end. Meanwhile the fielder stays in his position, daring the crowd into taking their focus off the ball so he can catch the ball, end the game, and get on with life. Well, I’m the fielder, the crowd is the fans of this album, and as long as that ball continues to hover up there where I can’t grasp it, I’ll probably stay put until I can. [Okay, that was a bit of a stretch. I’m going to bed. Hopefully, I gave y’all enough fodder to debate while I sleep. I’m sure I’ll remember more stuff as the week goes on. Fire away!]

Welcome aboard, Selim! From a fellow Texan (I sent you a PM about that, BTW)