jeffcrom

Yes, I've got Interplay - I'll spin it soon. And it's been awhile since I've played that Freddie Hubbard album - it's mighty good. (His last great one? I'm not really in a position to know.) Now playiing: Paul Bley/Bill Connors/Jimmy Giiuffre - Quiet Song (Improvising Artists). One of the most utterly beautiful records I own.

I do, too, even though I have now heard it exactly once. I didn't get the record when it was easy to get, and later just assumed that it would be rare and pricey if I could find it. About a week ago I somehow noticed that there was a CD reissue, and that it was not expensive. It arrived today, and it's wonderful. Better late than never.

Marian McPartland - Ambiance (Halcyon, 1970). While I haven't heard all of McPartland's albums (who has?), this has got to be one of her best. It's definitely the most adventurous of the ones I've heard. The rhythm section is Michael Moore on bass and Jimmy Madison or Billy Hart on drums.

Dave Holland / Barre Phillips - Music From Two Basses (ECM)

JATP/Lester Young - Carnegie Blues (Verve). Good Lester - nothing outstanding, except for the 1957 "Polka Dots and Moonbeams." On that one his playing is weak, but incredibly moving - some of the most fragile music I've ever heard. Art Blakey - The Witch Doctor (BN UA)

Don Pullen - Solo Piano Album (Sackville)

Miles Davis - The 1956 Pasadena concert issued on disc two of the Legacy Edition of 'Round About Midnight. Gene Norman introduces the tenor player as "Johnny Coltrane." Miles Davis - Decoy. A controversial album, but I think about two-thirds of it is quite good, with some really creative playing by Miles. I know many folks who dismiss all of Miles' 1980s music, but I think it's simplistic to view it all of a piece. There was much good music early in the decade, but I do think things started to slide after Decoy - although there were some bright spots all the way until the end. Anyone who hates all of Miles' music after his last comeback should read Max Harrison's essay "Listening to Davis Live in London in the 1980s" in A Miles Davis Reader, edited by Bill Kirchner. Harrison, that most intelligent and undoctrinaire of jazz critics, has very positive things to say about Miles' 1982 and 1983 London concerts, but thought the the quality dropped off in 1984, and moreso thereafter. That's almost exactly how I feel about Miles' last decade. Jacques Gauthe - All Alone With the Rhythm (Jazz Crusade). Finally ready to move away from Miles. I almost got rid of this CD at one point, because the Toronto-based rhythm section is needlessly clunky and archaic. But I've always enjoyed Gauthe, the French-born clarinetist/soprano saxist who studied with Sidney Bechet in Paris and subsequently moved to New Orleans. His playing here is very good, so I can put up with the rhythm section.

Miles Davis Quintet - Village Gate, May or June, 1969. The second known recording of the Lost Quintet. Better sound (still a boot, though), and the band is a little more focused. The set includes "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down."

I've got the two original 10-inch LPs on Blesh's Circle label. There's also a long Danny Barker solo feature from the January 7 date, called "Danny's Banjo Blues," that was added to the GHB Baby Dodds Trio/Jazz a la Creole LP. It's not on the CD version of that album, and seems to be in limbo now. It should have been included on the CD you spun today, unless it's absolutely full, which I suspect it isn't. Playing this afternoon: Miles Davis Quintet - Duffy's Tavern, Rochester; late February or early March, 1969. The band sometimes referred to as Miles' "Lost Quintet" (because they made no studio recordings) fascinates me. This is the first known recording of the group, and at this point they are much more of a straight-ahead jazz band than they became later - adventurous, but in some ways not as much so as the previous Davis Quintet. There's none of the Bitches Brew material that would shortly be introduced - it's all stuff from Miles' 1950s and 1960s repertoire. "On Green Dolphin Street" could almost be from 1961 or so, except the Chick Corea is playing electric piano and Wayne Shorter soprano sax. I've had this material for years, but only bothered to correct the speed of the tracks today - everything was about a half-step flat. It's apparently two sets, possibly from different nights. The sound is murky/bootleggy, and the first set is rough listening, because the recordist was apparently sitting pretty close to Jack DeJohnette's drums; sometimes the horns are just lost. The second set is much better balanced, and you can hear everyone, although the sound is still lo-fi. (A few minutes later): I spoke too soon - I had forgotten that on the version of "No Blues" from the second set, Corea, Holland, and DeJohnette go fully into spacy free-jazz territory for a few minutes.

One of the few Bunky Green albums I don't own. Should I correct that? Just finished: Miles Davis Quintet - Vienna; October 31, 1969. A speed-corrected, nice-sounding version of this very intense performance.

Richard Thompson - Two Letter Words: Live 1994 (Flypaper). Over the past couple of years, I've become convinced that Richard Thompson is one of the best songwriters we've got. I would place his best songs in the pantheon with the work of the best songwriters ever. Some of his greatest songs are here: "From Galway to Graceland, " "Dimming of the Day, " "1952 Vincent Black Lightning," "Beeswing," "Al Bowlly's in Heaven." And how did a Northern Briton write the best zydeco song ever: "Tear Stained Letter?"

Yes, that's the one, with a mostly-empty theater. But I just flashed on a memory - didn't the same band play a year later at the Red Light Cafe about a year later? Or was that the Lacy Trio? Later - I just checked my notes. The March, 2001 Red Light Cafe show (almost exactly a year after the Variety quartet show) was by the trio. I know that I heard Lacy every time he came to Atlanta starting with the 1985 solo show at the old Seven Stages Theater in Little Five Points. That Red Light Cafe Show was the last time he played here. Somewhere around 1989 (give or take a year), the Lacy Sextet had a two-night run at the Nexus Arts Center - which you're probably too young to remember. I was playing with Darryl Rhoades at the time, and we had a two-night gig at the Harvest Moon Saloon on the same nights. So I would go to the Nexus, listen to the first set by the Lacy Sextet, and then go play satirical rock with Darryl.

That's very cool, chewy!

I seem to be going through a period in which Miles Davis' music - and lots of it - is a daily necessity. Today: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 5: Freedom Jazz Dance, disc one. The "Freedom Jazz Dance" segment is just amazing to me. Nothing is working until something Tony Williams plays causes Miles to say, "Triplets!" About two minutes later, the tune goes down in one take. The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: The Final Tour, disc four. Miles in the Sky. I actually went out and bought a used copy of this today, because it's split across two discs in the Quintet box set, and I was getting frustrated at not being able to spin the album as originally programed. I particularly love "side two" - "Black Comedy" and "Country Son." This was one of those "holy grail" releases for me, for the 1962 studio session by the Lacy/Rudd Quartet. The latter-day quartet is great, too (better?). I still have my ticket stub for their 2000 Atlanta concert.

Miles Davis - San Francisco 1970 (Leftfield). Fillmore West, October 15, 1970. Miles Davis - Sorcerer (Columbia)

There doesn't seem to be a thread devoted to New Orleans trumpeter Bunk Johnson - so here we go. A controversial figure and inconsistent musician, his best work is accomplished and moving. Speaking personally, he is one of the few jazz musicians whose (nearly) complete recorded output rests on my shelves. Bunk didn't help his own case by lying to interviewers about his birth date in order to falsely inject himself into Buddy Bolden's band. He also claimed to have taught Louis Armstrong - a claim which Louis was too polite to refute until Bunk was dead. Johnson also repeatedly sabotaged recordings and gigs - showing up drunk, not showing up, or playing badly - when he felt he wasn't being treated fairly, or when he was put with musicians he considered inferior, or when he just felt contrary. But at his best, he played with an eloquence and imagination unlike any other New Orleans trumpet man. I remember the first time I heard "Careless Love," from the American Music CD King of the Blues. I was floored by Bunk's solo - lyrical and abounding with unusual note choices. Another highlight from that album is "Midnight Blues" - a ten-minute improvisation suggested by the exasperated producer Bill Russell at the end of one of those evenings Johnson had largely sabotaged. Max Harrison, in his excellent essay on Johnson in A Jazz Retrospect, wrote about an aspect of Johnson's music which it took me some time to really grasp. Johnson and other New Orleans musicians had, by the 1940s, developed a style of collective improvisation very different from the carefully defined roles of the instruments in bands like King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Roles were continually and spontaneously varied: trumpet, clarinet, or trombone might take the lead at any time, and the other "horns" could fall into second or third parts - and all of this could change from chorus to chorus. If you want to hear Johnson at his best, here are three places to start: King of the Blues (American Music). Some of the best recordings with what's considered the definitive Bunk Johnson band (although Bunk didn't much like them) - George Lewis, Big Jim Robinson, Baby Dodds, etc. The Bunk Johnson/Sidney Bechet Blue Note session. I've got this on the Bechet Mosaic big box, but I don't know what's the best way to get these five tracks now. But they are masterpieces of collective improvisation, and great examples of the subtle, spontaneous changes of texture and instrumental roles Max Harrison pointed out. Last Testament (Delmark). Bunk's last recordings, issued first by Columbia and now on a Delmark CD. This was one of the few times on record that Johnson picked the band and the material. It's somewhat different from the American Music stuff - there are some straightforward readings of rags from the famous Red Back Book, and loose versions of pop tunes. Bunk's solo on "Some of these Days" is as good as anything he recorded.

Joe Henderson - In 'n Out (BN) Miles Davis - The Lost Broadcast: Fillmore West 9th April 1970 (Leftfield). The night before Black Beauty was taped. I like this better - the band was really adventurous.

Mr. Frank Edwards! Duke of Iron - Trinidad's Greatest Calypso Singer (Monogram 10" LP). My wife, in the next room, didn't appreciate this one very much - some of the songs are surprisingly dirty. I thought they were a little juvenile, but amusing.

Anthony Braxton - For Alto (Delmark). Mastered for CD by Chuck Nessa. Miles Davis Quintet - Bootleg Series, Vol. 2 (Columbia). Disc two - Antibes, July 26, 1969. Gerry Mulligan - Re-Birth of the Cool (GRP). It's nice to have these arrangements in such great sound - but this album is a far cry from the original in spirit and substance; it doesn't get played often at my house. Louis Nelson Big Four, Volume One (GHB). Recorded during the George Lewis's second tour (of three) of Japan, if I remember correctly. The great New Orleans trombonist is joined by Lewis, Joe Robichaux on piano, and banjoist Emanuel Sayles. Wonderful New Orleans chamber music.

Ending the evening with all my Sun 78s. All of these are in V+ to E condition, and sound fabulous. Johnny Cash - I Walk the Line/Get Rhythm Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues/So Doggone Lonesome Johnny Cash - Train of Love/There You Go Jerry Lee Lewis - Breathless/Down the Line Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes/Honey, Don't

12" jazz tonight; two complete sessions from 1944: Punch Miller - West End Blues / The Boy in the Boat & Sugar Foot Stomp / Muscle Shoals Blues (Session) Cliff Jackson - Quiet Please / You've Got Me Walkin' and Talkin' to Myself & Cliff's Boogie Woogie / Jeepers Creepers (Black & White) Punch Miller is a favorite of mine. He's at his peak here, with an all-New Orleans-in-Chicago-exile band. The Cliff Jackson date features a very good band; obviously Sidney Bechet's playing is the highlight. All of these records are thin-sounding, with a narrow frequency range even for 1944.

George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet - Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 2 (Soul Note) Miles Davis - "Circle in the Round" from the Quintet 1965-1968 box set. I have wanted to like this piece for years. The editing, done by Teo Macero in 1968, is driving me crazy right now- the splices are all too apparent, and the damn thing is far too long. Miles recorded this in pieces, and I think a killer 15-20 minute version could be put together. I wish somebody would take another shot at it.

I seem to only be able to go 2-3 days of listening to LPs or 78s before the compulsion to change over the turntable to the other format kicks in. Tonight I spun Louis Armstrong records sourced from his 1932-33 Victors. Mississippi Basin / Hobo You Can't Ride This Train (Montgomery Ward) That's My Home / I Hate to Leave You Now (Bluebird) I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues / Hustlin' and Bustlin' for Baby (Bluebird) Basin Street Blues / Dusky Stevedore (Bluebird) Maybe this 78 thread is the wrong place to talk about this, but there is something special about Armstrong's 1932-33 Victor recordings. On the best of them, his trumpet playing achieved a soaring, majestic eloquence that he never reached anywhere else on record. The best of his earlier Okeh recordings were amazing in a different way - they were full of youthful virtuosity, in every element of music - technique, rhythm, melody, harmonic imagination. And there plenty of peaks later, of course. But the feel of what Louis accomplished on the best of these Victors has little equivalent in the history of music; maybe Beethoven's late quartets are the closest emotionally, although the scale is very different, of course. The Bluebird take of "That's My Home" (different from, and far superior to the original Victor issue) and "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" are the best recorded examples of this sweeping eloquence, and are among my favorite Armstrong recordings.

Peter Ind - Looking Out (Wave). Inspired by Larry's thread about Sheila Jordan's recording debut on this album.

Mr. Hampton B. Coles (Ret.), aka Bruce Hampton - One Ruined Life (Of a Bronze Tourist) (Pine Tree). Col. Bruce is at his most surreal on this 1978 LP, his first since the breakup of the infamous Hampton Grease Band. This is a seriously weird record.