jeffcrom

What Chuck said. Frenchmen Street is the musical center of the city these days. Lots of trad jazz, played (and danced to) by younger folks, but Snug Harbor usually has more modern stuff.

Poke around here and you'll get some idea. For example, I heard John Butcher, Thomas Lehn, and Gino Robair play with the Shaking Rays at the Barking Legs Theater a few months ago. They sure didn't play Atlanta. For those who don't know the Shaking Ray Levis' music, here are a couple of clips from the SRL website which represent them better than the Derek Bailey video. They represent the yin and yang of the SRLs - "Mind on Heaven" is almost random and kaleidoscope until near the end, when the late Georgia folk artist and preacher Rev. Howard Finster speaks. "Big For My Size" is from the out-of-print Incus album False Prophets or Dang Good Guessers. It represents what happens when the SRLs would occasionally give in to their impulses, which were always skirting around the edges of their music, to break into a bizarre hoedown or other-worldly funk. I don't know about "Mind on Heaven," but "Big For My Size" was recorded with no overdubs - part of Dennis' rig was a digital delay, which he called "The Hidden Hillbilly," the unpredictable third member of the group. Mind on Heaven Big For My Size This music will not be to everyone's taste, and it's not jazz, by any stretch of the imagination. To me, it's strangely joyous, or joyously strange. I'll miss it.

Dennis testifying at Eyedrum in Atlanta, 2009; photo by the great Atlanta music photographer Vincent Tseng.

Well, it's allegedly Mobley - he's listed as the tenor player on these sides in discographies, like this one. Discography not being a perfect science, I posted the tracks so folks could listen and form their own opinions. The label of "Each Time" reads "Whistling by Bill." Who Bill was, I don't know, but he's the only person other than Gayten who is identified on the labels.

Thanks for that link, Clifford - I hadn't seen that video.

Dennis Palmer, half of the improvising duo The Shaking Ray Levis, died unexpectedly last night. He sent me a Facebook message at 6:00 PM and all was well; Bob Stagner, the other half of the Shaking Rays, sent me a message at 3:15 AM that Dennis had died. That's all I know right now, but Dennis had had heart problems in the past. The Shaking Ray Levis had the distinction of being the first American artists to record for the Incus label. They collaborated with many American and European improvisers and have a wonderful CD with Derek Bailey, Live at Lamar's. I was bringing them to Atlanta to share a bill with my Edgewood Saxophone Trio in two weeks. Looks like it will now be a memorial concert. Dennis played synthesizer, but that doesn't begin to cover his contributions. His unpredictable playing largely shaped the group's performances, and at any time he might pull a microphone close and start singing some sort of outer-space hillbilly breakdown, or launch into a surreal sermon. It was clear that some of the European improvisers the SRLs collaborated with had never run into anything quite like Dennis; it was fun to see/hear their reactions. Dennis (along with Bob) was a minor hero of mine. Through the band and through the non-profit Shaking Ray Levi society, they've made Chattanooga a cultural center far beyond what you would expect from a city that size - in many ways, Chattanooga is hipper than Atlanta, and that's largely due to Bob and Dennis. Dennis was also a painter, and his Facebook profile picture never lasted more than a week; he was constantly putting up his latest painting. RIP to a very creative spirit.

Hale Smith Olympia Snowe Rainn Wilson

I too am grateful that I saw Satch pitch, in an "old-timers" game in Atlanta. I don't remember how he did, but I remember thinking that he sure was cool. I learned this one at the time, long before the internet: "If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts."

Stanley Turrentine - Mr. Natural (BN "rainbow")

Charlie Parker - The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings, disc four. Listening to this set is such an odd experience - sublime Bird solos among mundane playing, fragments that are too short to have much meaning and segments with such poor sound quality that they're practically unlistenable. But that's always been part of the appeal to me - you never when one of Bird's solos will strike you as particularly brilliant.

Today I found a copy of Regal 3312 on 78 - Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!/Each Time by Paul Gayten. These are the two tunes mentioned above as having tenor solos. The "Yeah!" solo is indeed pretty anonymous, but the tenor on "Each Time" sounds more Mobley-esque. I wonder if the Ace CD mentioned above has a different take of "Each Time"; Mobley duets with a whistler (!), not with Gayten's piano. Strictly for research purposes, I've digitized and uploaded these two sides from my 78. Listen and see what you think. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Each Time

So what shellac have I been spinning lately? Lots. Over the past few days, I've played all my California Ramblers sides. Since I last did so last April, I'm up to 20 sides by the Ramblers, on 13 records. (Some have other bands on the flip side.) Here are the new ones since that last post: The Sheik of Araby/Georgia Rose (Vocalion, 1921). Their first record. Hot Lips/Nobody Lied (Vocalion, 1922) as The California Wonderer's (sic) - Rememb'ring/Wood's "Bijou" Orch. - Sleep (Gennett, 1923) Moonlight Kisses/What Do You Do Sunday, Mary? (Columbia, 1923) as Golden Gate Orchestra - After You've Gone/Willard Robison and His Orchestra - Dew Dew Dewey Day (Perfect, 1927). I love this one. "After You've Gone is very hot, with good solos by trumpeter Chelsea Quealey, longtime Rambler Bobby Davis on alto, and Adrian Rollini. as Ford Britten & His Blue Comets - All My Life I Have Dreamed/Hotel Pennsylvania Music (really Jack Albin's Orchestra - Little White Lies (Clarion, 1930). Not great, but more good Bobby Davis. The Ramblers were a dance band, not a Jazz band with a capitol "J," but jazz was part of their bag of tricks. Even the sides with little overt jazz content are hipper than most dance bands of the time, and are fun to listen to.

What's with the severed head? Who is the severed head? They were going to play "Confirmation," but not everyone knew the head.

Lamine Konté - La Kora du Senegal (Arion). The back cover has a stamp from "La Maison du Livre et du Disque" in Dakar.

Spirtual Starlites - Long Black Limousine (ASL - Atlanta Soul Liberation). One of my favorite Atlanta gospel albums, from around 1979 or so. My cover is better shape than the one in the only picture I could find online, but I'm glad I found a picture, with the Starlites looking sharp in front of that long black limousine.

Again tonight. I have a soft spot for Jesper Thilo since spending an evening (as part of an audience of six) listening to him in a little club in Copenhagen.

Jazz For A Sunday Afternoon (Solid State). Marvin Stamm, Garnett Brown, and Joe Farrell with a rhythm section of Chick Corea, Richard Davis, and Elvin Jones.

Lee Morgan - All That Jazz (UK DJM). Ridiculous title and cover art, poor sound quality, but outstanding music by the "Lighthouse" quintet. Chick Corea - The Song of Singing (BN Liberty)

Spero Spyros - More Golden Songs of Greece (Prestige Near East). I've been trying to determine if Spyros is the excellent clarinetist on this 1962 album. I think so, but I can't find any firm confirmation. I've been fascinated by the eastern Mediterranean clarinet traditions lately, and I'm really enjoying this album. No Van Gelder stamp, though....

James Moody - Last Train From Overbrook (Argo stereo)

The Grammy appearance is part of the "rebranding" of the PHJB undertaken by Ben Jaffe over the past few years. Jaffe is the son of the late Allan Jaffe, the longtime owner of Preservation Hall; Ben is the curly-haired tuba player with the band. (He's also a very fine upright bassist.) Jaffe has worked to make the band part of the contemporary music scene, not just a museum piece. It works sometimes, and it doesn't sometimes. The Grammy appearance was an example of Jaffe's efforts not working, in my opinion. The Gulf Aid All-Stars version of "It Ain't My Fault," which came out after the Gulf oil spill and which combined members of the PHJB with Lennie Kravitz and rapper Mos Def, worked fabulously. A prime example of what Jaffe's trying to do is the 2010 album Preservation, on which the PHJB is joined by guest artists from other musical worlds - pop, rock, country, folk, etc. It mostly works, although there are few tracks where I thought, "This person should never have been allowed near a microphone."

Mighty Sparrow - King of Calypso (MGM)

I didn't think that worked at all -- their backing The Black Keys. Not that the song was horrible but what they played was generic horn comping and not at all representative of what they are about. I agree. I didn't watch the Grammys, but when I saw the mention of the PHJB in this thread I found the clip on the web. I only made it halfway through.

John Huston The Man Who Would Be King Prince Charles

Oliver Lake/Julius Hemphill - Buster Bee (Sackville)