jeffcrom

Among other 78s, I spun Memphis Minnie's "Please Set a Date" tonight. When I Googled it to see what year it was issued, Google suggested that I schedule a meeting with Memphis Minnie. I'd love for that to be possible!

McCoy Tyner & Bobby Hutcherson - Manhattan Moods (BN) Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack (BN). Donald Bailey's drumming on the title track is a wonder.

British improviser Alex Ward has a blog (with only a few entries so far) which I find fascinating. I've always thought of Taylor primarily as a composer, even though he disdained that description. His compositional processes have remained mostly mysterious to me, though, especially since he seldom recorded the same piece more than once. But apparently he did. Ward has explored Taylor's recorded output - official and otherwise - and found instances of the same composition occurring multiple times, often under different titles. This is the key blog entry so far: https://alexwardmusicblog.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/list-of-recurring-compositions-1962-1986/ This bit caught my eye: 1985, One Night With Blue Note: “PONTOS CANTADOS” = 1986, For Olim: “THE QUESTION” = 1986, April 10th, Workshop Freie Musik, Academie Der Künste, Berlin, Germany: piece 1 = 1986, Olu Iwa: “B EE BA NGANGA BAN’A EEE!” so I listened to the three released pieces mentioned. The second part of "Pontos Cantados," subtitled "Point Two: Question," does indeed seem to be the same piece as "The Question." I'm less sure about "B Ee Ba Nganga Ban'a Eee" - the context of this septet performance is so different from the two piano solos that it's hard to tell, although I do hear similarities in the melodic material. In any case, this blog promises to give me much to explore and think about.

John Carisi / Cecil Taylor - Into the Hot (Impulse). I just re-read Leroi Jones / Amiri Baraka's review of this record from back in the day. He rightly praises the Cecil Taylor tracks and discusses them at some length. He then dismisses the beautiful John Carisi tracks with one sentence. He also is pretty condescending toward Gil Evans, whose decision to turn his second Impulse album over to Taylor and Carisi probably cost him his contract with that label.

Dave Holland - Emerald Tears (ECM)

Gary Burton - Duster (RCA). Roy Haynes, yeah.

I love that album. It's so moving to me to compare the two versions of Bach's Chorale Prelude BWV 662, from 1952 and 1962. The second version was recorded only three weeks before Feinberg died, and it sounds like he knew it would be the last time he played the piece. He lingers over every phrase and cadence in a way that's just heartbreaking. The 1962 version ends up being almost three minutes longer than the 1952 recording.

Elvin Jones - The Main Force (Vanguard). Some nice moments, but this doesn't compare to his Blue Note stuff.

One of my top ten Lacy albums.

Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra (Crown). What a wonderful band and wonderful album.

Red Garland - Moodsville Volume 3: Red Alone (Prestige/Moodsville mono). Perfect for just after midnight.

Ottawa 40

Eight more minutes of Randy Newman before bed - this 2017 45 RPM single: Putin / A Few Words in Defense of Our Country (Nonesuch)

Randy Newman - Live (Reprise). As I understand it, this set of piano/vocal recordings from The Bitter End was released in desperation by Reprise when work stalled on the album that became Sail Away. Sail Away, when it finally came out, was worth waiting for - a minor masterpiece - but I've always like this intimate little record.

Jazz at the Philharmonic - Norgran Blues 1950 (Verve). Lester Young is good here, but for the most part this concert is kind of disappointing. It doesn't help that the audience goes wild whenever any musician plays anything the least bit repetitious.

You inspired me - I hadn't listened to these sessions in quite a while, so I'm spinning this CD now.

Allman Brothers Band - Whisky A-Go-Go, Hollywood; January 24, 1970. The best-sounding bootleg I've heard from the Duane era. According to the ABB website, they were opening for Ten Wheel Drive; one of the bands must have been running stereo tape from the board.

The Beatles - Yesterday and Today (Capitol mono). I'm not a Beatles fan, particularly, but lately I've been thinking that I at least ought to have some of the Fab Four on my shelves - maybe Rubber Soul and/or Revolver. While in Nashville last week, I found this beautiful mono copy of Yesterday and Today. I was so ignorant about the band that I didn't know that this was a US-only album of tracks that Capitol cut from several British albums, including the ones I mentioned earlier. In any case, I'm enjoying the music and the record sounds great. It's about perfect for a casual Beatles listener like me. And no, there doesn't seem to be a "butcher" cover under the front cover slick.

New and old 10-inch LPs: Lee Morgan - The Roulette Sides (Stateside). 2017 reissue of Morgan's half of a split Roulette album. Louis Armstrong - Vol. 1: New Orleans Days (Decca). From 1950, the first Armstrong LP to be recorded for that format; previous LPs were collections of his singles.

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia 2-eye mono)

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Zulu's Ball / Workingman's Blues (Biltmore). So here's the story - only one copy of Gennett 5275 by King Oliver has ever been found. All subsequent issues derive from that one copy. Biltmore 1028 was the first reissue, dubbed directly from the one Gennett copy. I found a mint copy of the Biltmore at a bargain price, and thought it would be cool to have the closest to original issue of "Zulu's Ball" as I could get. Well.... OMG, this is a terrible-sounding record. It's a really amateurish transfer, even for the time - distorted, distant sound, uneven speed, and too fast. (I have Creole Jazz Band 78 reissues on Hot Jazz Club of America and British Rhythm Society that sound very good.) I'll keep this for the historical value, but Off the Record it ain't.

I heard Little Bill Wallace perform in a steamy theater (in August) in Clarksdale, MS around 1995. He was very good.

Gil Evans - Voodoo Chile (Jazz Door). Malmö, Sweden, July18, 1974.

Richard & Linda Thompson - Pour Down Like Silver (Carthage). "Dimming of the Day" is one of my favorite songs of any genre.

Paal Nilssen-Love & Frode Gjerstad - Nearby/Faraway (PNL). Very good, indeed - some of the best Gjerstad I've heard. Thanks to Chuck for passing along his extra copy to me. Milt Jackson - High Fly (JLR). Recorded live at EJ's in Atlanta on July 4, 1980. The 21-year-old version of me was there. And EJ's (which lasted about 10 years) was located on site of the apartment house where my parents lived when they were first married.