jeffcrom

Chick Corea/Gary Burton - Crystal Silence (ECM) I don't like this one as much as I did 30 years ago, but I needed some musical comfort food tonight.

This is by one of my favorite cartoonists, the great George Booth. The bassist is based on his mother, who was an amateur musician (and a cartoonist herself).

Oh lord. Please let it not be a C-melody, because then I'd be forced to listen to this track again! Not a C-melody; you're off the hook.

String Trio of New York - First String (Black Saint)

Shelly Manne Quartet featuring Lee Konitz - French Concert (Galaxy)

Sam Rivers - Crystals (Impulse)

That's the one I was thinking about.

I don't think so, but if I had access to my LPs I'd check. Can someone check please? Well, Worrell's name is not on the old single-disc Hues album. There was a two-LP issue of some of Rivers' trio stuff at one point - I don't have that. I don't know whether this means anything, but in the notes to Crystals, Rivers thanks a long list of musicians who were not on the record but had performed or rehearsed his pieces. Worrell's name isn't there.

This is certainly a tune Getz might have played. But... I hinted at this in post #61 above: the saxophone is neither an alto or tenor. I almost didn't include this musician in my BFT, but now I'm really glad I did. His sound is so distinctive that I thought he would be instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with him. The fact that nobody has named him yet tells me that (1) he might be more of a minority, "underground" taste than I thought, and/or (2) my evil scheme to pull the wool over everyone's eyes by presenting him in an unusual setting has worked.

Horace Silver - Doin' the Thing (BN NYC stereo) I have both the mono and stereo pressings of this. I think I prefer the mono, but it's fun to listen to both.

Marion Brown - Solo Saxophone (Sweet Earth)

Nope - it's someone stylistically "older" than Bauer, although I just looked up their birth dates; our guy is only two years older than Mr. Bauer. Mr. Bauer was born 1915. Who is even older than Billy and played jazz guitar? Then it could be George Van Eps. I need to pull out some recording of him to compare to your selection. Nice work! It's George Van Eps. He's never a "hot" guitar player, but he's so tasty.

Nope - it's someone stylistically "older" than Bauer, although I just looked up their birth dates; our guy is only two years older than Mr. Bauer.

I just got word that Dixieland cornetist Ernie Carson died on Monday in his native Portland, Oregon at 74 years of age. He was part of Atlanta's Dixieland scene in the 1970's; he was based in New Orleans in the 1980's and 90's before moving back to Portland. During his New Orleans years, he played on Pud Brown's Jazzology album Palm Court Strut; the title tune, written and sung by Danny Barker, was a local hit in 1992, and is still played by many bands in the Crescent City. Other than the news from a Facebook friend, I can't find anything about Carson's passing on the web, and that saddens me. He was one of those journeyman musicians that form the backbone of jazz. By all reports, he was quite a character as well as being a great cornetist. So long, Ernie Carson.

Ernie Carson - Brother Lowdown (GHB)

Teddy Edwards - Heart & Soul (Contemporary OJC)

That might have been the first Blue Note album I ever bought, back in 1976.

I don't think so (oh, but yes, it's smokin! - my introduction to the jazz organ, this single). The personnel I have for this 45 is Mack Johnson (tp) David "Bubba" Brooks (ts) Cornell Muldrow (org) Phil Upchurch (g,el-b) Joe Hadrick (d) I don't know who Cornell Muldrow is but I don't think he's James Booker. (Hadrick, by the way, went on to become Willis Jackson's drummer and stayed with him until Gator's death. He was called Yusef Ali, on later Gator LPs.) MG Joe Hadrick is who told me that Booker played that date. For some reason Cornell Muldrow didn't play the date. Muldrow was an organist from Baltimore (Joe's hometown) jand with the exception of Booker this was the backup band for Dee Clark. Hmm.... Last night I had a 45 RPM listening session. At one point, I played the Boyd 45 of "You Can't Sit Down," followed by two of Booker's Peacock singles, recorded around the same time. This morning I picked out sections of the Upchurch record with prominent organ and compared them to parts of "Gonzo" and "Cool Turkey." All I can say is that the organist on "You Can't Sit Down" doesn't sound like James Booker to me. Booker's sound is consistent on the Peacock records - he uses the drawbars to emphasize the higher harmonics. (I don't know what terminology organists use, so forgive my ignorance.) The organist on "You Can't Sit Down" has a very different sound - fatter and more "modern." And since Muldrow has co-composer credit on the tune, it seems odd to me that he wouldn't have played on it. I don't know what else was recorded at the "Can't Sit Down" session - could Booker have sat in on some other tunes? All this is based on my ears, of course, which have failed me before. But it doesn't sound like Booker to me.

Sonny Rollins - Easy Living (Milestone)

Hmmm, well, they're similar in that - and this is just my opinion, of course - Dexter and Sonny are both playing good enough, but not stretching themselves. I don't want to use the word "coasting," because that's overstating it. But on both versions, the tenor playing is, well, just fine. Not much more than that, to my ears. Of course, Dexter is playing with an inflexible studio band and Sonny is playing with a real rhythm section, but even Sonny's band don't seem real responsive on this track. I think I like Dexter's record better. I guess what I'm saying is that I like second-tier Dexter more than second-tier Sonny. Now, when Newk is on his game, that's another story. I'm listening to Easy Living on vinyl right now, and for what it's worth, it's an album I always want to like more than I do. And "Isn't She Lovely" is probably my least favorite track. I do remember hearing it on Atlanta's AM R & B radio stations back in the day, and thinking how cool it was to hear Rollins on AM radio.

Not by me! I'm with Alex - one of my favorites.

It's Chuck Israels BTW. A singular player but a 'plural' name... I know that, but I seem to be incapable of typing a simple post without at least one mistake.

It's funny - I only buy downloads when I can't get the material any other way, like the recent mp3-only issue of James Booker's German albums. Or one of the tracks on my current blindfold test. (Possible hint.)

Here's the chart Evans wrote out for Chuck Israel, reproduced in the complete Riverside booklet.

You so crazy!