jeffcrom

I regretted it almost instantly when I sold my Douglas 2-LP set. I think I was thinking about how nice it would be to program the tracks of the CDs in different ways - to get all the quintet tracks together, for instance. I replaced the records with the separate CDs of Iron Man and Conversations that came out in 2001/2002 on Fuel 2000/Varese Sarabande. They sound pretty good and purport to be legally licensed - I hope that's true.

Reading Ed Bland's passage above a day later, it seems clear to me that Bland was responding to an interviewer's list of solos, not listening to the album at the time. That's probably why the attribution of the solo on "What Makes the Limbo Rock" is wrong. And the reed solo on "Loop de Loop" sounds like Marshall Allen playing his creation, the morrow (a wooden flute with a single-reed mouthpiece), rather than a soprano sax. In any case, it's a weird, fun little album.

I'm in a weird mood, so I'm listening to a strange one: Roz Croney (Queen of the Limbo) - How Low Can You Go? (Dauntless mono) This record was produced by Tom Wilson; Ed Bland was the arranger/musical director. Wilson hired veteran guitarist Lawrence Lucie and rock guitarist Snags Allen, along with several members of the Sun Ra Arkestra - John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Pat Patrick, and Ra himself. It's a silly little album, but there are several solos by the Arkestreans - my favorite is John Gilmore's bass clarinet on "It's Limbo Time." I found Bland's recollections of this date online and posted them below. I think he's wrong about "What Makes the Limbo Rock" - it sounds like Gilmore on tenor, not an alto. This is my recollection of a recording that Sun Ra and various members of his band participated in with me. It was done on Audio Fidelity Records or Dauntless Records (Dauntless was a subsidiary of Audio Fidelity). Tom Wilson was the producer. Curly Williams who wrote "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" was a participant along with Wilson. "The Limbo Queen—How Low Can You Go?"—Roz Croney, The Limbo Queen. I conducted and arranged, may have written a song. Circa 1963. Side one: (solos noted and by whom as best I can remember) 1. It's Limbo Time (bass clarinet). Gilmore played it. 2. Limbo Like Me (guitar, steel drum, flute). Guitar Snaggs Allen, if it was a rock or R & B solo. If it was a Carribean type solo, it would've been Larry Lucie. I don't recall a steel drum or a steel drum player. 3. Bagpipe Limbo (flute, guitar). Flute probably Pat Patrick, guitar Lucie or Snaggs Allen 4. Doggie In The Window Limbo (Gilmore's soprano) 5. The Limbo Queen (guitar, flute). Flute probably Pat Patrick, guitar Lucie or Snaggs Allen 6. Everyday Limbo (piano, guitar). Piano Sun Ra, guitar Lucie or Snaggs Allen Side two: 1. Kachink Limbo (guitar, flute). Flute probably Pat Patrick, guitar Lucie or Snaggs Allen 2. Loop De Loop Limbo (piano, soprano sax, guitar). Guitar Lucie or Snaggs Allen, Sun Ra piano, Gilmore soprano. 3. Bossa Nova Limbo (guitar, organ). Guitar Lucie or Snaggs Allen, Sun Ra organ. 4. How Low Does Lulu Limbo (guitar). Lucie or Snaggs Allen. 5. What Makes The Limbo Rock (alto sax). Maybe Marshall Allen. I don't remember Marshall for his soloistic ability during that time 6. Whole Lot Of Shaking Going On (organ, guitar). Guitar Lucie or Snaggs Allen, Sun Ra organ. Earl Williams was the drummer. He was the son of Paul Williams who wrote "The Huckebuck." I'm quite sure Ronnie Boykins was on Bass. The backup vocals were by Joe Lewis, George Tipton, Joli Gonsalves, and possibly others. The sessions took place at Mastertone Studios on 42nd Street between 6th and 7th Avenue.

Billie Holiday - Lady Day: Complete Columbia 1933-1944; disc six, a mix of gems and lesser tracks. My favorite moment so far has been Lester Young's solo on "The Man I Love" - I really hear the Bix influence here.

Herbie Hancock - Complete Blue Note Sixties Sessions; The Prisoner, programmed in original order from disc six.

Sam Rivers Complete Blue Note, disc one - Fuschia Swing Song with all the alternate takes.

It's a cheap-ass digital camera. I probably understand and use more of its features than most folks, but it's still a cheap digital camera.

Sidney Bechet - Recorded at the Brussels Fair, 1958 (Columbia 6-eye mono)

The spring, 2012 issue of Georgia Music magazine includes one of my photographs to illustrate an article about Georgia musicians' graves. It's a rather boring picture I took of Ma Rainey's grave in Columbus. I had hoped that they would use a much more interesting picture I took of Fletcher Henderson's grave in Cuthbert; they used some of the information I sent them about Fletcher's grave in the article, but not the picture. They sent me a copy of the magazine, but I haven't gotten my check yet. From what they told me, it should cover the cost of the new Hank Mobley Uptown CD as well as the Off the Record complete Wolverines disc.

Erroll Garner - Campus Concert (MGM mono). I don't feel the need to hear Erroll Garner very often, but when I'm in the mood, he sure sounds good. I woke up wanting to hear this album.

I love Doc Pomus - "Lonely Avenue," "There Must Be a Better World Somewhere," "A World I Never Made." Johnny Adams Sings Doc Pomus: The Real Me is a fantastic album. The opening track, "Imitation of Love," is one of the great New Orleans R & B recordings, and maybe my favorite Johnny Adams performance on records.

George Lewis at Home (Dan). One of those fantastic Japanese Dan LPs from the 1970's which featured previously unreleased American Music recordings. There are several tracks which still have not appeared in the AM CD reissue series, including a couple of takes of George's unaccompanied clarinet renditions of the spiritual "My Life Will Be Sweeter Some Day," an unaccompanied flute solo, and a great quartet version of "Closer Walk" with Jim Robinson on trombone. Edited to say that it still amazes me that, 47 years later, I heard one of the musicians on these 1943/44 sessions on my first visit to New Orleans - the great bassist Chester Zardis. I had never heard of him, but was mightily impressed with his strong playing in 1990. I later found that he played with the legendary Buddy Petit by 1920; he died a few months after I heard him.

Herb Geller Plays (EmArcy). A fairly battered copy, but it still sounds pretty good with a mono cartridge.

Another spin of this, inspired by Ubu's all-German blindfold test. A year later, I still can't find a picture of the cover online. The two tracks with Mangelsdorff are among his earliest issued recordings. And the title still hurts....

Albert Mangelsdorff - Now, Jazz Ramwong (PJ stereo). Prompted by King Ubu's recent blindfold test. I've had this record for years, but didn't realize until today that the Pacific Jazz version actually consists of three tracks from the German CBS Now Jazz Ramwong and four tracks from Tension. James Blood Ulmer - Are You Glad to Be in America (Artists House). Jazz is the teacher; funk is the preacher.

My 78 spins: Three by Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, a band that's often overlooked, but which was really excellent when at their best: No Name Jive, parts 1 & 2 (Decca, 1940) Come and Get It/Mirage (Decca, 1940) Memories of You/If I Love Again (Decca, 1937/1946). A later issue which pairs two trumpet features recorded almost a decade apart. "Memories" features Sonny Dunham; "If I Love Again" is Bobby Hackett's show. Then a three-record RCA Victor album recorded in 1949: Charlie Ventura Plays Duke Ellington. (Mine is not a white-label promo like the picture.) The discographies I've seen list George Russell and George Williams as the arrangers of this big band session. Russell definitely arranged "Caravan," which RCA apparently thought was too weird to be included here. (It was issued separately later.) The introduction of "Sophisticated Lady" sounds very much like Russell's work of the period; the rest of the chart is more conservative. I haven't been able to find out for sure if Russell arranged more than "Caravan" on this date - anybody know? The original Harmony label died out around 1932. Columbia revived it in the mid-1940's, I believe. I don't know how long it lasted - I've got a few Harmony LPs from the late 50's or early 60's.

Nice haul! The Columbians were a studio group; Rust didn't know the personnel. I've got a couple of their records. For those who don't know, here's the story on the 1920's Harmony label. In 1924, Columbia bought the most up-to-date acoustic recording equipment for their New York studio. The next year, of course, saw the introduction of electrical recording, which Columbia quickly adopted. However, they had just invested in a bunch of acoustic equipment, and didn't want it to go to waste. So they started Harmony, a budget label which issued acoustic recordings only - long after nobody else was doing so. Most of the Harmony line also appeared on Diva, which was the W.T. Grant stores' label.

Wow - Interesting BFT! I see why I was so in the dark, but I want to go back and listen again and learn something. And in a time-honored BFT tradition, I missed a track I have in my collection. I have a U.S. Pacific Jazz pressing of Now Jazz Ramwong, but I haven't heard it for awhile and didn't recognize it. At least I said positive things about a track featuring one of my favorite trombonists. Thanks for this BFT.

PM sent on Jaki Byard.

Slavic Soul Party - New York Underground Tapes (Barbes red vinyl) Johnny Coles - The Warm Sound (Classic Records reissue from Epic) and "Babe's Blues" from the Johnny Coles session, but not released until 1983, on Instrumentalists: Almost Forgotten (Columbia) Then I switched to the mono cartridge for: Jimmy Smith - Bucket (BN NY mono)

I'm really late to the party! I listened to half of the tracks last week, and the rest today. This was an odd BFT for me - somehow I expected to love every one of Ubu's selections, but several of them left me cold, even though there was nothing "wrong" with them - they just didn't get to me. On the other hand, there were several I found very intriguing - I'm looking forward to finding out more about them. And usually I recognize some of the music on a BFT. But I didn't know any of this, and only made on feeble guess. 1-3: All of these tracks were just fine, but none of them “grabbed” me, and I find that I have nothing much to say about them. 4. Excellent big band; interesting that there’s no chordal instrument in the rhythm section. I particularly like the “vocal” saxophone solo and excellent trumpet; the trombone and bari were okay. 5. This bari player has a personal sound and style, but to my ears/brain/heart, this piece fails because he or she keeps using the same licks over and over. Didn’t work for me. 6. Sounds like West Coast cool bop crossed with freer tendencies. Could the alto player beJoe Harriott? In any case, I like it. 7. If you’re going to do “Caravan” one more time, you’d better have something pretty interesting, or at least different, to say with it. And these guys do. Unusual sound from the soprano sax – or that an instrument like the saxello? Nice work from the two basses. 8. Very, nice – moody in a Mingusian kind of way. Good solos all around – the alto player seemed at least aware of Dolphy. 9. Good, but I don’t feel compelled to hear it again. 10. This, on the other hand, caught my attention right away. Compositionally, it’s simple, but interesting. Good, individual playing all around. 11. I like the clarinet player’s big sound, and I like the track, too, although I wish the rhythm section had loosened up a little more. 12. I got bored long before this track was finished. Sorry. 13. Wow – pretty interesting weirdness going on here. Sun Ra is the only free-jazz pipe organist I know, but it doesn’t sound like him or his associates, although the indifferent recording quality is like something he would put out. 14. Nice! Cool composition with nice dissonances, good improvising, lots of personality, and enough variety. I like. 15. More cool weirdness. A little bombastic, but still fun. Nice to hear some good French horn playing. 16. Another odd and interesting track. I liked it more each time I heard it. Thanks for the interesting BFT, even though it made me feel a little stupid. Not only do I not recognize anyone, I didn't have a lot to say about the music, for some reason.

That's one of my favorite Monk albums of the 1960's. Once he formed the quartet with Rouse, I liked that group best when there was one wild card in the deck, like Thad Jones on the 5 x Monk x 5 album, or Pee Wee Russell at Newport 1963. Steve Swallow was one of the best wild cards Monk encountered. He knows the music pretty well, but adds some wildness to the proceedings.

Pretty Baby: Music From the Soundtrack (ABC/Paramount) I've probably said it here before, but the soundtrack album of Louis Malle's 1978 film is one of my favorite New Orleans albums. Kid Thomas Valentine, Louis Nelson, Raymond Burke, and Louis Cottrell are among the great New Orleans musicians who appear. The New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra gets seven cuts, including great versions of "Creole Belles" and Joplin's "The Ragtime Dance." Bill Russell played violin with the NORO, and Lionel Ferbos was the trumpeter - he still plays once a week at the Palm Court Cafe on Decatur Street at age 101!. Bob Greene does some very nice interpretations of Jelly Roll Morton tunes, and you can't be a James Booker completist without this album - he sings Jelly's "Whinin' Boy." And this album is an illustration that the influence of a producer is sometimes welcome. There's no way that Kid Thomas would have thought to open "Honey Swat Blues" with two choruses of unaccompanied trumpet. That was presumably Jerry Wexler's idea, and the effect is striking.

Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra - Monday Night (Solid State)

Art Blakey - Jazz Messengers '70 (Catalyst). A nice one, recorded in Japan, with Bill Hardman, Carlos Garnett, Joanne Brackeen, and Jon Arnett. While looking for a picture of the the cover, I came across this interesting document.