jeffcrom

Folk Dances of Greece (Colonial mono). This 1959 album has some amazing clarinet playing on it - by Gus Gadinis and Dave Tarras, among others.

Russell Crowe Raven-Symoné DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKight

M.C. Hammer Hank Aaron Aaron Burr

Bravo, Big Al! Any BFT that generates that much discussion is a good 'un. There are several things I'm going to pick up - God help me, my very first John Klemmer album is already on the way.

I'm really enjoying this set, as I knew I would. I watched the DVD of the Berlin concert this morning; I've had a copy for years, but of course, the quality of this issue is much better. Apart from the sometimes astonishing interaction of the quintet, I've always thought that 1969-1970 represented Miles' absolute peak as a trumpet player - same for Wayne Shorter as a saxophonist.

Miles Davis - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 2 (Columbia). I'm really tickled - this is one of my favorite bands of all time.

Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in north Georgia this afternoon - damaged/destroyed homes and overturned cars on the highway in Bartow and Gordon Counties, north of Atlanta; some deaths reported. Heavy storms right over my part of Atlanta right now. I have a 6:00 PM gig on the north side of town; not looking forward to the trip.

The payment slip from my credit card company has blocks to fill in to indicate the amount of your payment. There are seven blocks to the left of the decimal point.

Picked it up at my favorite Atlanta brick-and-mortar CD store today. Fabulous!

I'm in for a download.

Noted. And your reply made me realize that I spelled his name wrong - I must have been thinking of the composer of "Just Friends." Corrected in my original post.

That's the one I have - sub titled Vol 2 : Modernism to Postmodernism. (Man sell) 2000, I have found that to be a valuable book, but less consistently excellent than the earlier one. Stuart Nicholson, in my opinion, brings down the average - his writing is just not up to the level of the others, I'm sorry to say, and some of the odd album choices seem to be his doing. (Does Michael Brecker's first solo album really belong in the pantheon?) But, of course, there are Max Harrison's comments on albums he didn't write about in the first book. With all due respect to a couple of people here, his section on Albert Ayler's The Village Concerts is the best thing ever written about Ayler. The first and last paragraphs give me chills and a lump in my throat - something that doesn't often happen with critical writing.

Art Farmer Quartet - Interaction (Atlantic/Warner Japan)

Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra - Monday Night at the Village Vanguard (Solid State)

Like many others, I enjoyed his playing with Rahsaan. I heard him once in person, the night Hamiett Bluiett fired Don Byron; it was a strange, uncomfortable experience at the time, although it's pretty funny, thinking about it now. It was the spring of 1988 - I went to hear what was billed as the Hamiet Bluiett Big Band at Carlos I. It was actually a medium-sized band, nine or ten pieces, including Rahn Burton, Victor Bailey, Don Byron (on clarinet and alto), and Joe Daley that I remember. There were only about seven people in the audience, but the band played as if there were 200 people in the club. That is until, during one of Bluiett's solos, Don Byron started talking to the tenor player. Bluiett cut the band off and started chewing out Byron; he pointed to us in the audience and said, "Every one of these people is more into the music than you are!" He got more and more wound up, and really started preaching. So Rahn Burton started playing gospel chords behind him, and the rest of the rhythm section fell in. Bluiett started listing the playing credits of everyone in the band: "Rahn Burton: Rahsaan Roland Kirk! Victor Bailey: Weather Report!" When he got to Byron, he pointed to him and said, "You: no one!" He then left the bandstand, and the rest of the band followed, except for Byron, who sat there looking shocked; he eventually started putting his instruments away My wife and I waited around for 30 minutes, and finally walked out. Joe Daley was standing outside, and I asked him if they were going to play more. He didn't know, and was kind of in shock himself. Rahn Burton turned a very uncomfortable situation into a (somewhat) humorous one; I'm glad I experienced that. RIP.

Not too embarrassed, really. I mis-guessed Blue Mitchell and Grant Green, but so did others. (My first guess was actually Kenny Burrell, but I talked myself out of it.) I've never paid any attention to The Mastersounds, but that needs to change, apparently. And damn - am I now actually going to have to buy a John Klemmer album?

Three "new" ones; two Reds and a Duke: Red Nichols' Stompers - Make My Cot Where the Cot-cot-cotton Grows/Sugar (Victor, 1927). Lame vocal duets on both sides, but otherwise pretty swinging - solos by Pee Wee Russell, Adrian Rollini, and Tram. Charleston Chasers - Five Pennies/Feelin' No Pain (Columbia, 1927). Very nice! More Pee Wee, and "Feelin' No Pain" is by the always interesting Fud Livingston. Duke Ellington - Ring Dem Bells/Three Little Words (Victor, 1930). My earliest Duke, and a good one. And congrats on your first Paramount, Clunky! I've got a couple of good ones, but they're not easy to find even on this side of the pond.

PM sent on Such Sweet Thunder - I only have the screwed-up version.

It's a listing, with reviews, of what "the committee" considered the best/most important 200 jazz albums up to 1970. They didn't worry about whether they were in print at the time or not. What sets it apart from other such "best"/"essential" guides is: 1. The quality of the writing. 2. The excellent taste of "the committee." 3. Their deep knowledge of recorded jazz. This led to the inclusion of some unusual, obscure albums that were pretty unknown at the time. (The CD era has made some of them better known.) 4. The writers place the albums in historical/musical context, so a larger picture of what was happening in jazz during those years emerges. I became aware of many of these records through this book, which I borrowed from the library over and over again until I got my copy. It was a goal of mine to get all of the albums listed; 35 years later, I'm pretty close - not sure if I'll ever have the self-produced Don Pullen/Milford Graves record included. Any "best of" guide is open to dispute, but think of Modern Jazz: The Essential Records as a well-written, intelligent guide to 200 great albums. And it has some of Max Harrison's best writing; that alone is enough for me.

I waited until the very last minute, didn’t I? I imagine most things have been identified by now. Y’all know that I don’t like long blindfold tests, but in the spirit of “everybody participates as they want to,” I decided to give all of the tracks a try, but only stick with the ones that grabbed me somehow. I’m sure I missed some good music doing it that way, but I ended up with about an hour’s worth of music I felt compelled to comment on. 1 (Side 1, track 1): Some unusual chord changes here, along with changes of feel. I liked this more and more as it progressed. Compositionally it sounds like something Teddy Charles would do, and the vibes sound like him a little bit, but it’s not any recording I know. Whoever it is, it’s pretty interesting; I want to hear it again. 2 (Side 1, track 2) I like the muscular tenor playing. The player sounds familiar to me, but I can’t quite put tone, articulation, and style together and come up with a name. Not brilliant, but very nice. 3 (Side 1, track 3) Cool groove and instrumentation. I hear several different woodwinds in there oboe and saxophone – same person? I don’t know who anyone is, but it’s nice. 5 (Side 2, track 1): Very individual flute sound – I like it. And nice medium-slow groove. The best I can do is state who it’s not, but I won’t do that. I like it, though. 8 (Side 2, track 4): I didn’t like anything about this except the guitarist, but he kept me listening – a talented guy doing a dirty job. 10 (Side 3, track 2) Oh, hell, yeah! What a great groove. That’s Tommy Turrentine’s little brother on the tenor sax, and he sounds fabulous. Could be Misters Mitchell and Green on trumpet and guitar. Part of what makes this groove so irresistible is that everyone in the rhythm section plays their part – no one strays much beyond their assigned role. In any case, why don’t I have this? 12 (Side 3, track 4) Sonny Stitt doing what he does best – just blowing. At least, I think it’s Stitt – the sound, style, and vocabulary are his (down to the tag at the end), but the articulation doesn’t seem quite right for him. Could be the way this is recorded. Anyway, it’s mighty tasty – good work from everyone. 13 (Side 4, track 1) A very interesting track, and more importantly, it got under my skin. Someone’s equally adept at electric piano and organ, and got into some very cool, slightly out-there stuff. And the rhythm section grooves hard, changing things up just enough to make it interesting. I like. 14 (Side 4, track 2) What the hell is this? I almost skipped on to the next track after a few seconds, but something made me keep going. Then – is that Bob Brookmeyer? Really? What is this? 16 (Side 4, track 4) “Intuition” by Lennie Tristano and the usual suspects, supposedly the first free improvisation recorded by jazz musicians (or maybe by anybody – I don’t really know). I’ve known and loved this recording for years, but had forgotten that Billy Bauer almost ruins it with that corny whole-tone scale passage at the 45 second mark. (If I ever write a book on improvisation, it will contain the commandment, “Don’t play whole-tone scales, unless you’re Coleman Hawkins, and you’re not.”) But it holds up pretty well 64 years later. 17 (Side 4, track 5) Just beautiful. When you have a sound like this, all you have to do is play the melody. The tenor playing is so spare that I actually had a hard time deciding between late Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, but there’s enough there that I think it’s Ben. Don’t know the song or the album. Thanks for a good 'un, Big Al. I'm looking forward to finding out more about several of these. Now to read the thread and see how embarrassed I should be....

Paul Desmond - Pure Desmond (CTI)

Jeremy Steig - Monium (Columbia)

A mainstay of my library. I have John S. Wilson's old copy.

Uncle Lionel Batiste: Lionel Hampton: Hampton Hawes:

Grace Slick Thomas Jefferson Sally Hemings