jeffcrom

Just listened to Sequences 72 & 73 by Paul Rutherford and Iskra 1912. I don't know if it's "essential," but it's pretty damn good - two long Rutherford compositions featuring some of the cream of British free music, separated by a short trombone solo piece.

maybe it's because I'm not a musician but I've never noticed any flaws in this album. It remains one of my favourite Mobley sessions . good charts and instrumentation different from the usual post-sidewinder fare. I don't know if my point was clear - it's that the flaws are there, but ultimately unimportant. This is one of my favorite Mobleys also.

Via Facebook, a couple of pictures from the 'tit Rex parade, featuring two of my favorite New Orleans musicians, saxophonist Aurora Nealand and tuba player Matt Perrine: This is a satirical parade featuring tiny "floats": Petite Rex/'tit Rex - get it? Aurora plays with the Panorama Jazz Band and with her own Royal Roses. With all due respect to Howard Johnson, Bob Stewart, Kirk Joseph, etc., I think that Matt Perrine is the best tuba player on the planet.

Kid Howard's New Orleans Band - Sam Morgan Re-Visited (Jazzology). This album is fabulous, musically, and it means a lot to me personally. This was one of two records I bought on my first visit to Preservation Hall, many years ago, when they had a bin of records in the carriageway. A group of musicians was assembled in 1962 to record the music of the great Sam Morgan band, which recorded in New Orleans in 1927. Two of them, Andrew Morgan and Jim Robinson, were on the 1927 sides, and most of the others played with Morgan later. The six issued tracks as hot and exciting as the originals, although they lack some of the sweetness and eloquence of the older recordings. The LP is filled out with four 1960 tracks by Kid Thomas Valentine's Algiers Stompers.

Hank Mobley - A Slice of the Top (BN Classic "Rainbow"). A beautiful thing. Whenever I listen to one of the Blue Note sessions which was not released at the time, I always wonder why it was held back. I can hear why this one was withheld - there are a few musical flaws - when Howard Johnson is really blowing, he goes sharp, and there is some really sloppy playing behind the trumpet solo on the title tune. And there's something weird going on technically - the recording level goes up and down during Lee Morgan's solos. But so what - this album is a beautiful thing.

I listened to Snakeoil yesterday and today, and I think it's excellent music. Berne's compositions always go somewhere. When a melody returns, it's never just restated - the instrumentation or texture or tempo or feel is altered, so that the "recap" is fresh. I wondered about the lack of bass, but the piano writing, and/or Matt Mitchell's realization of it, is so good that the bass isn't missed. Coupla thumbs up from me. And has anyone else noticed that the very "ECM-ish" cover photograph is by Berne himself?

Tonight, The Hearth, with Evan Parker and Tristan Honsinger. This is one of the relatively few recordings on which Taylor doesn't completely dominate.

Great! We're are all set for 2012. Thanks, everyone.

Another spin of this one. "Take You' Meat Out My Rice" is still my favorite song here. The cover of my copy is almost the same as the one pictured here, but it has an older-looking RCA Victor logo, not the 70's-style logo, and doesn't say "International Series," since it's the original Trinidadian issue.

Cecil Taylor in Berlin '88 (FMP) - Remembrance, CT & Louis Moholo This is one of my favorite box sets, bought for 200 bucks in 1989, when it was issued. That was a huge sum for me at the time. It goes without saying that it was worth it. Later: What a beautiful performance. You'd think a Taylor/Moholo duet would be unrelentingly aggressive, but there's so much variety of dynamics and texture here.

Late last week it was R & B/jump blues, with some tasty tenor sax on most sides: Varetta Dillard - You Are Gone/Them There Eyes (Savoy, 1952)). George Kelly adds the tenor to "You Are Gone." Calvin Boze - Safronia B/Angel City Blues (Aladdin, 1950). An R & B hit in 1950, with Don Wilkerson on tenor. Amos Milburn and His Aladdin Chickenshackers - I'm Gonna Tell My Mama/Bad Bad Whiskey (Aladdin 1950). More great Wilkerson tenor on side one. Amos Milburn and His Aladdin Chickenshackers - Let's Have a Party/Good Good Whiskey (Aladdin, 1953). A few years later, and Noble "Thin Man" Watts is on tenor. Ed Wiley - Cotton Picker's Blues/My Heart Is Going Down Slow (Sittin' In With white label promo, c. 1951). Pretty raw R & B from Texas tenorist Wiley. Sonny Thompson Quartet featuring Eddie Chamblee - Late Freight/Sonny's Return (Miracle, 1948) Buddy Banks Sextette - Banks' Boogie/I Need it Bad (Sterling, c. 1945). Banks is the tenorist; the most well-known name is probably pianist Eddie Beal. Today is was white gospel time: Smith's Sacred Singers - Jesus Prayed/Life's Railway to Heaven (Columbia, 1926/7). J. Frank Smith's group was from Braselton, Georgia, between Atlanta and Athens. Smith's Sacred Singers - Shouting on the Hills/The Eastern Gate (Columbia, 1927) Smith's Sacred Singers - We Are Going Down the Valley One By One/If I'm Faithful to My Lord (Columbia, 1927) Gordon County Quartet - Walking in the King's Highway/Beyond the Clouds is Light (Columbia, 1930). Another Georgia group, better known as the Georgia Yellow Hammers when playing secular hillbilly music. Bela Lam and His Green County Singers - Row Us Over the Tide/See That My Grave is Kept Clean (Okeh, 1927). Wonderful raw gospel from Virginia, accompanied by a banjo tuned low. The Original Sacred Harp Choir - Greenfield/Hallelujah (Brunswick, 1922). The first recordings of "Sacred Harp" shape-note singing. McDonald Quartette - We'll Reap What We Sow/Rocking on the Waves (Conqueror, 1932). I've been unable to find out much about this group, except that it was led by R. F. McDonald and that they recorded a lot, for a bunch of labels.

There was another Don Cherry album - Multikulti. Not as sublime as Art Deco, but very nice in spots - a variety of groups and solo performances. There are two absolutely wonderful Sun Ra albums in the series - Blue Delight and Purple Night. The latter has Cherry sitting in with the Arkestra. Edit: Somehow I thought that I'd overlap someone's reply on this.

Chief Ebenezer Obey - Je Ka Jo (Virgin)

I've got a couple of weird Prestige hybrids - my copy of Glide On by Bill Jennings is a yellow-label Prestige pressing in a Status cover, both with the same catalog number: 7177. My blue-label copy of 7257 by Gene Ammons has the yellow Bad! Bossa Nova cover with Jungle Soul (Ca' Purange) back sheet and labels. I guess Prestige didn't waste any stock and used up all covers and labels on hand, even when they changed the name of an album.

Gene Ammons - The Twister (Prestige blue label mono). Prestige certainly did things its own way. This is a 1960-ish reissue of Jammin' in Hi-Fi with Gene Ammons. But it was apparently reissued with two different covers - all the images I could find online are of a yellow and red cover with only text, no picture. But my cover features a closeup of Ammons with the album title and his name in a hip '60's font at the top. But the music is wonderful. And, relating to comments in two other threads, I'll say that the almost-flawless Prestige blue-label pressing and the recording by Mr. Van Gelder sound great.

Charlie Mariano - Modern Saxaphone Stylings (sic) (Imperial 10"). Early-fifties music by Boston guys, including Herb Pomeroy and Jaki Byard.

Thanks, guys. Now we just need someone for June.

You can finish this.

A poem by one of my favorites, David Budbill. He recorded a wonderful duet album with William Parker. This poem is from Moment to Moment. The First Green of Spring Out walking in the swamp picking cowslip, marsh marigold, this first sweet green of spring. Now sautéed in a pan melting to a deeper green than ever they were alive, this green, this life, harbinger of things to come. Now we sit at the table munching on this message from the dawn which says we and the world are alive again today, and this is the world's birthday. And even though we know we are growing old, we are dying, we will never be young again, we also know that we're still right here now, today, and, my oh my! don't these greens taste good.

Steve Lacy - The Kiss (Lunatic). This is often the time of night when I turn to the blues, but I needed more Lacy. This was an inspired solo concert recorded in Hiroshima in 1986, pressed on almost noiseless vinyl.

I'll put you down for May.

Steve Lacy - The Crust (Emanem). As far as I can tell, only two-thirds of this music has been reissued on CD - on two different Emanem CDs, at that. I've always like it, and it really fits my prickly, unsettled mood tonight.

We have four months open for blindfold test presenters in 2012, and two of them are coming up fairly soon. We need presenters for May, June, October and December. Ideally, there should be twelve months between BFT presentations by the same person - I hope that the pool of presenters is not getting so small that we have to abandon that policy. If you've never presented a blindfold test, or if it's been awhile, this is your chance to get a slot without too long a wait. If you have questions about how to do a BFT, read the blindfold test FAQ and/or send me a PM. To request a slot, post here or in the signup thread and send me a PM. I'd love to see some "fresh blood" in the blindfold tests.

Oh, jeez - what great music Emanem has put out over the years. I placed an order a few days ago (the two new Steve Lacys have got me excited - or one new one and an expanded edition of an old one), and it got me thinking about the Emanems in my collection. The Lacy/Rudd School Days record, first issued in the 1970's, is one of the most important archival issues in the history of jazz records. (How's that for hyperbole?) For many years, this important band was unheard except for those few lucky enough to be at one of their performances in the early 1960's. And for many years after School Days, this record was the only documentation of the group. (There are now 25 minutes on Cuneiform.) I think maybe Hat owns this material now - Emanem lists this album as "withdrawn." Just sticking with Lacy for a moment - two more of his most important records are on Emanem. They issued his first solo concert, from 1972, first as Solo Concert, then on Weal & Woe, and now the expanded version - Avignon and After - 1. Lacy's solo music reached higher levels after this, but this first concert was pretty important in his development. And there's still nothing else like Saxophone Special in Lacy's discography - prickly saxophone quartet music (Lacy, Evan Parker, Steve Potts & Trevor Watts) over a bed of guitar (Derek Bailey) and synth weirdness. The current issue of what has been described (probably not accurately) as "the first British free jazz album" is on Emanem - Challenge by the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. It looks like you can pretty much follow the development of the SME through Emanem recordings - I've got a couple coming in my order. Another favorite of mine is Roswell Rudd's Blown Bone, first issued on Japanese Philips. It's a great session, with Steve Lacy, Tyrone Washington, Sheila Jordan, Paul Motian, and others. I love the John Carter/Bobby Bradford duet performances on Tandem. I have Vol. 1; Vol. 2 is coming in my order. I see that most of my favorites are by American artists. That makes sense, I guess, but I like the British stuff I've heard, too, especially the SME. I'll stop there. But Emanem is one of those labels I would explore in toto if I had the time and money to do so, which I don't.

Miranda July August Strindberg Miss Julie