jeffcrom

Gary Burton - Something's Coming (RCA Victor)

"Harlem Air Shaft" has long been one of my favorite Ellington pieces. I wrote one of my infrequent blog posts about it - here. For those who don't want to read the long version: I love this piece for the way Ellington messes with the big band riff tune conventions of the time. That delicious trumpet riff in the first chorus is combined with a long-lined saxophone melody rather than a contrasting riff, for instance. And the introduction of "Harlem Air Shaft" is a mini-overture - it condenses the entire piece into twelve measures. It's kinda brilliant.

I'm just finishing up a spin of The Hawk Relaxes. I don't hear what Cyrille is doing as "ricky-tick, hotel band manner" at all. Rather, Chilton is on the right track - Cyrille sounds young and rambunctious - a little too ready with the fills on ballads; a little too ready to go into double time, but not consciously old-fashioned . "I'll Never Be the Same" contains his most idiosyncratic fills. I like music where every element is "right," but I also like music where one or more players are somewhat subversive and give the music a little "goose."

The First Great Rock Festivals of the Seventies: Isle of Wight/Atlanta Pop Festival (Columbia). Spinning the third of this three-record set, featuring Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis at the 1970 Isle of Wight fest. All the Hendrix material from the Isle of Wight has now been released, but it's interesting to hear the three tunes that were chosen to be released first, six months or so after the event. Miles' complete set has also been released in audio and video form in recent years, but the edited 17-minute "Call it Anythin'" is what I grew up with (on 8-track tape!), and I wanted to hear it in that version tonight.

Jimi Hendrix - Somewhere/Power of Soul (Legacy/Experience Hendrix). Side A is a mono mix of the song from People, Hell & Angels; side B is a previously unreleased version (with lots of overdubbed guitars) by Band of Gypsys.

Horace Silver - Serenade to a Soul Sister (BN Liberty)

Old time country this evening: Bill Cox - Death of Frank Bowen/When We Sing of Home (Gennett, 1929) Bill Cox - Browns Ferry Blues/Long Chain Charlie Blues (Conqueror, 1934) Bill Cox - Rollin' Pin Woman/Star Boarder Blues (Banner, 1934). These last two are from the same recording session. Kessinger Brothers - Chicken in the Banyard/Devils Dream (Brunswick, 1928) Kessinger Brothers - Midnight Serenade Waltz/Boarding House Bells Are Ringing Waltz (Brunswick, 1929)

This was recorded as "Parlor Social Stomp" for the related Perfect/Pathe labels in early 1926, so it precedes the November, 1926 Vocalion recording date that produced "East St. Louis Toodle-O" and "Birmingham Breakdown." That's the point at which Ellington started sounding like Ellington. Of the Ellington sides before that, the two most interesting are, not surprisingly, the two composed by Ellington - "Choo Choo" and "Parlor Social Stomp." They don't really sound like later Ellington, but there are hints that an interesting musical mind is behind them. Right off the bat, "Parlor Social Stomp has an odd little introduction - six bars long instead of the more normal four or eight. As a matter of fact, it's a little too tricky for the band, who is pretty sloppy on the intro. They get themselves together for the rest of the piece, which swings hard in a 1926, East Coast, ragtimey kind of way. Ellington has arranged his piece with plenty of variety - the colors and textures are constantly changing, and there are lots of breaks, by solo and multiple instruments. Some of the breaks are pretty wacky, harmonically. Ellington has augmented his band and made some substitutions for recording purposes; Don Redman is on hand, and Bubber Miley is not - the obscure Harry Cooper and Leroy Rutledge are on trumpet. It sounds to me as if Redman, not Otto Hardwick, takes the alto solo at 1:56. He might also be the clarinet soloist. And I think the two trumpet solos (at 1:38 are 2:13) are not by the same player; the first solo is stronger, although it's mostly a paraphrase of the second strain melody. This record is not a masterpiece, but it's pretty interesting for its time, and there are hints of later greatness here.

Eponymous G is my favorite rapper.

Colin, I don't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday! Seriously, I don't think it was that expensive - maybe a dollar or two more than the standard record at the time. There's a New York address on the back, along with the Swiss address, so they had a U.S. distributor. I'm not even sure where I got it; I must have either special-ordered it from a record store in Athens, Georgia (where I was living at the time) or ordered it from the Saxophone Sheet - the little magazine which later became the Saxophone Journal. They sold some pretty interesting avant-garde saxophone records back then.

I get that. An Atlanta music writer loaned me an album by Alabama outsider artist Lonnie Holley - Just Before Music is something of an "indie" sensation. It did nothing for me. My friend flat out told me I was wrong. So I listened again. It does nothing for me. As for Bill Frisell, there are so many Bill Frisells.... When he hit the scene, I absolutely loved his music. Whoever that artist was has splintered into many different artists, seemingly. A few years ago, I sat in the middle of a small club in Atlanta, listening to Frisell and Greg Leisz play duets. I thought it was pleasant, unremarkable music, but everyone around me was rapt - it was obvious that it was a transcendent experience for them.

Steve Lacy - Clinkers (Hat Hut). Bought, with great excitement, at the time (1978). There are later Lacy solo albums I now prefer, but this holds up very well. Inside the cover is the one-page Hat catalog of the time, with releases A through J - I guess they didn't forsee more than 26 albums.

Wow - I can really relate to this. I still have dreams about teaching, which tells me that I wasn't ready for my involuntary retirement. But as the US (and the UK, too, apparently) moves further and further away from what education should be, I'm more and more grateful that I'm out of the game. It took me a full year to adjust to retirement. But I love it now. I hope you enjoy it as well. Now back to our regularly scheduled wish lists....

Blue Mitchell - Step Lightly (BN rainbow)

Cecil McBee - Alternate Spaces (India Navigation)

Steve Lacy & Joe McPhee - The Rest (Roaratorio). First listen. Absolutely wonderful music. The sound is less than pristine; I wish that a Nessa-like approach to remastering had been taken.

The next previously unreleased Steve Lacy recording, whatever that may be. (I'm about to listen to the latest.) And Paul, you need Bunk's King of the Blues. You really do.

Elvin Jones - Live at the Lighthouse (BN UA blue & white label); record one, which is to say sides one & four.

Thelonious Monk - Monk (Prestige twofer) Inspired by Larry: Jazz at the Philharmonic - Blues in Chicago 1955 (Verve)

This past Friday and Saturday nights, the Shaking Ray Levi Society staged "The Ever-Loving Astral Etheric Weekend for Dennis Palmer" in Chattanooga. Musicians from all over the southeast and beyond played together in memory of Dennis. I played on Saturday with the 4th Ward Afro Klezmer Orchestra and took a bunch of pictures. Here are a few: Bruce Kaplan, Jack Wright and Bob Stagner: Bob Stagner solo: All the musicians (except me): This candle burned on stage for the entire festival:

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - Goin' to the Meeting (Prestige mono, yellow/black label)

Dave Wilson Otis

Andrew Hill big box - the Black Fire session

I don't remember the details, and can't find where it was discussed earlier here - it was quite a while back. But it had to do with Pierre Sprey recording sessions, holding them for a long time, and then releasing albums without compensating everyone. But like I said, I don't remember the details. By the way, while I was searching for that old thread, I found two previous threads about Clifford Jordan. I kind of understand why some of the moderators harp on that - it would be nice to have all of this in the same place.

Agreed! I know that some folks have issues with the Mapleshade label's ethics, but for those who aren't boycotting them, they have issued Jordan on CD in a wide variety of settings. Live at Ethell's is a fine performance, and is perhaps the most realistic-sounding jazz recording I've ever heard. His album with Ran Blake, Masters From Different Worlds, is unlike anything else he recorded.