jeffcrom

Nice to be back home in Atlanta after a trip to San Francisco. I immediately pulled out some vinyl: John Lewis/Albert Mangelsdorff: Animal Dance (Atlantic stereo). Brilliant. Dave Brubeck Quartet: Jackpot (Columbia stereo). Brubeck live in Las Vegas, on a really unpleasant-sounding piano. RIP Joe Morello.

Can't add much, but wanted to add my best wishes for all the prople of Japan.

I really admire Nancarrow for what he did with the resources available to him at the time, even if I don't objectively like the actual music that much. And while I was 95% sure that was Rivers on the first track, his playing on track 14 jumped out at me as obviously, 100% sure, no doubt Rivers. I'm not sure how to articulate how I recognized Rivers - how do you recognize any jazz musician? Sound, vocabulary, phrase construction, etc. And I've listened to Rivers a lot, in both "inside" and "outside" settings. Anyway, great BFT.

I see that #11 does have Earl Hines on piano. I'm looking forward to finding out about this track.

I've been sick and I'm leaving town tomorrow, so I haven't been able to put as much time as I would have liked into this BFT. There sure is some good music, but I hope I don't say anything too stupid. As usual, I haven't read any of this thread. 1. My first thought was that this was going to be too slick for my taste, but the high quality of the improvising got me past the little bit of “sheen” quickly.I don’t have this track in my collection, but I believe that I have another album by this gang. It sounds like Hilton Ruiz, with Sam Rivers on tenor. From there I’ll assume that it’s Lew Soloff on trumpet, Rodney Jones on guitar, and maybe Dick Griffin on trombone, just because they were in the band around that time. Of course, if I’m off base on Rivers and Ruiz, I’m way off base on the whole deal. In any case, it’s pretty hot, with good solos; I especially like the guitar solo. Good stuff. 2. The left-hand ostinato is so complex that I first assumed that this was a duet. Pretty impressive pianism here. Great interplay between the hands throughout. No idea who it is, but I’m impressed. 3. Is this a Conlon Nancarrow piano-roll piece? It’s impressive, but it gives me the willies. I’m going to have to listen to a Paul Desmond album after this. 4. Recognized this one right away, although I did go to my CD shelf to check myself. It’s “Cathedral Blues” by Tiny Parham and His Musicians. I love Parham’s records – they’re simpler than Jelly Roll Morton’s, but he was working on the same thing: giving some compositional structure to improvised jazz. Here it’s just a matter framing of his soloist and putting them in the right order. There were two trumpeters who recorded with Parham, Ray Hobson and Punch Miller. Miller’s solo here was not immediately impressive to me, but it really grew on me with a couple of listening. Primo stuff here. 5. My first thought was that this was played on an early electric piano, but I think the noise reduction/filtering is changing the sound of the piano. I don’t like the sound, but I like the piece, for what it is – a lively, untutored player who changes chords whenever he damn well feels like it. Don’t know who it is, but I’m looking forward to finding out. 6. “Animal Dance” by John Lewis and Albert Mangelsdorff. This is a great session; this and some other records from the 50's and 60's show what a fantastic straight-ahead/cool trombone player Mangelsdorff before he started exploring the further reaches of the trombone and jazz. Lewis’ playing and composing is really good here. 7. Very much of its time, but good. I could do without the swirly phase-shifter effects on the piano. It sounds like the trumpet (or one of the trumpets) is Woody Shaw. And the tenor soloist sounds very familiar to me – is it Bennie Maupin? Like I said, of its time, but in a good way, for the most part. 8. I felt that the intro was working its way toward a Monk tune before the melody was stated. It’s “Bye-Ya” by a an excellent, quirky pianist. I really like his “sideways” approach to the tune. The drummer sounds European to me; other than that I have no guesses. 9. The Erroll Parker Tentet playing “Old Man River” from the Night in Tunisia album. Among the musicians are Philip Harper, Donald Harrison, and Bill Saxton. Parker never liked to have just one solo going at a time, so there are usually two improvisers at once on this tune. He was a unique musician; he didn’t sound like anyone else as a pianist, drummer, or composer. 10. Well, the singer is good, but the “rhythm section” makes this one. I put that in quotes because the phrase “rhythm section” is totally inadequate to describe what they do here. A very creative approach to an overdone tune. 11. The piano player reminds me of Earl Hines, but I don’t know of any of his big-band sides that have a violin solo. So I don’t know who it is, but nice swinging arrangement, good violin, and great piano. 12. No idea what it is, but it’s cool! The bass clarinetist (or is that alto clarinet?) is strongly Dolphy-influenced. Creative, interesting music that goes through a lot of changes, but still hangs together. I like it. 13. Very stirring anthem with a Rudd-ish trombone, but don’t know who it is. The bass playing jumped out at me the second time through. I like it. 14. Well, it’s definitely Sam Rivers here, but I don’t know the setting, unless it’s Ruiz again. Just gorgeous tenor playing – the piano is great, too. Thanks for a really enjoyable BFT.

I have a bunch of Stan Kenton 78s - by chance, not by design. I inherited a stack of Kentons from my uncle, and have picked up others when buying boxes of records, or when I find interesting-looking dollar 78s. Many of the selections are tracks I don't have on CD or in any other form. Today I played half a dozen Kenton Capitols: Everytime We Say Goodbye/Are You Livin' Old Man? (1944). The mediocre Gene Howard sings a great song, and the great Anita O'Day sings a mediocre song. Blues in Riff/Mardi Gras (1950). Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers, and Bob Cooper solo on the first side. Love for Sale/Be Easy, Be Tender (1950) Bags and Baggage/Delicado (1952). Features for bassist Don Bagley and guitarist Laurindo Almeida, respectively. 23 Degrees North, 82 Degrees West/Invention for guitar and Trumpet (1952). I guess I'm still young enough that it seems strange when I hear one of my still-living modern heroes coming out of the grooves of a 78, like Lee Konitz on the first side. Baia/All About Ronnie (1953). "All About Ronnie" is an interesting song with a great Bill Russo arrangement - and Chris Connor!

Since I'm not bright, it took me awhile to find the "bootleg/archive" downloads on the Braxton site, but I've now downloaded several. Tonight I listened to the first two, chronologically speaking. The Quartet (Paris) 1969 DL consists of one 20-minute piece, played by Braxton, Leo Smith (not yet Wadada, I don't think), Leroy Jenkins, and Steve McCall. Sound is good bootleg/broadcast quality, and the music is excellent. I think I like it better than any of the studio recordings by this group, although I haven't listened to those albums for awhile. Then I listened to the 1971 French solo concert, which is also musically top-notch. You know what to expect if you've heard Braxton solo, although I don't think I had ever heard him play "They Say It's Wonderful" as one of the standards he always throws in among the challenging originals. Sound quality is not as good - there is noticeable tape/broadcast distortion - but it's quite listenable.

Rose from my bed of sickness wanting to hear some Chu Berry, so: Chu and His Stompy Stevedores (Columbia Special Products reissue of the Epic album). It took me years to find a mono copy of this - for years, all the ones I found were in fake stereo. The Complete Lionel Hampton 1937-1941 (RCA/Bluebird). Record 3, on which Chu is prominently featured. "Sweethearts on Parade" swings as hard as anything I've ever heard. And ended with my Okeh 78 of "Ghost of Chance" by Cab Calloway, featuring Mr. Berry. Wow - that's hard to believe! Happy birthday, Brotzmann.

Fletcher Henderson & The Dixie Stompers 1927-8 (EMI/Parlophone). Henderson's band (sometimes reduced in number) recorded as the Dixie Stompers for Columbia's cheap-label subsidiary Harmony, who were still recording acoustically in 1928 (and even later). I was struck with incredible Coleman Hawkins was by the fall of 1927.

Sidney Bechet in Paris (Brunswick mono) - 1956 recordings with Sam Price's band, including Emmett Berry and Herb Hall.

You talking about the Echoes Of An Era series? Yeah, they issued them like they were still 78s...I never understood that. But that is some of the purest, most fully realized bebop ever recorded, especially "Dizzy Atmosphere". Things had to be simplified if it was ever going to become the province of more than a handful of virtuosos, but hearing this most complex music realized in full flower at this level is startling, exhilarating, and profoundly humbling, at least for me. That's the one I had. It was a life-changing album for me as a teenager, not only for the Carnegie Hall tracks, but for the randomly selected, often mistitled selection of Bird's Dial output that was included.

The Roulette vinyl, which I had many years ago, had the edited-down version of the 1947 Carnegie Hall tracks. The BN issue mentioned by Brownie has them in complete form.

45 RPM night at the jeffcrom house. Started out with some jazz: Horace Silver Quintet with Bill Henderson - Senor Blues/Tippin' (Blue Note) Bill Henderson with The Jimmy Smith Trio - Ain't No Use/Angel Eyes (Blue Note) Leo Parker - Low Brown/Parker's Pals (Blue Note) Dexter Gordon - Isn't She Lovely (Columbia promo) Then some Caribbean records: Conjunto Matamoros - Camaron/Mari-juana (!) (RCA Victor) (Cuban) The Mighty Zandolie - Goat Thief/Stickman (National) (Trinidadian calypso on a Trinidadian label) Crystalites - Call Me Trinity/Trinity Version (Crystal) (Reggae on a Jamaican label) On to some Louisiana swamp blues by Slim Harpo on Excello: Baby Scratch My Back/I'm Gonna Miss You Little Queen Bee/I Need Money I'm Your Bread Maker, Baby/Loving You Then a little tribute to the late Eddie Kirkland. These two records, from the 1960's and 1980's respectively, represent Mr. Kirkland performing for his natural audience, rather than for white blues fans. I Need You Baby/I Must Have Done Somebody Wrong (Fortune) Pickin' Up the Pieces/Disco Mary (Fantastic) Ended the evening with some varied R & B: James Carr - That's What I Want to Know/You've Got My Mind Messed Up (Goldwax) Denise LaSalle - Keep It Coming/Trapped By a Thing Called Called Love (Westbound) Clarence Carter - Sixty Minute Man/Mother-In-Law (Fame) Great stuff - I'll probably spin some more 45s tomorrow night.

Is it $13 a month? I don't know what "$12+1 a month" actually means. It certainly would be pretty easy to write $13 a month. It's a joke, based on a construction which Braxton uses a lot. When he inserts material from one of his numbered compositions into a recording of another composition, the label reads "Composition No. 107B (+96)" or something like that. Similarly, when he includes pieces which don't fit into the theme of one of his albums, he'll indicate that in the album title: Eight (+3) Tristano Compositions 1989.

Thanks for posting this. I downloaded and listened to Septet (Pittsburgh) 2008 today, and it's excellent. It's one hour-long piece, Composition 355, well-played and well-recorded. It doesn't have the "plodding" quality of much of Braxton's Ghost Trance Music - plenty of color and rhythmic variety. And I recognized an old friend about two-thirds of the way through - Composition 23C from New York Fall 1974. Since Braxton often inserts parts of his older music into his longer compositions, there are probably bits of other Braxton pieces in there, too. Anyway, I highly recommend this one.

Omer Simeon (Ace of Hearts). A great collection of 1929-30 Chicago jazz. This was a 1965 British release, and subsequent research indicates that several of the tracks have the little-known, but excellent Cecil Irwin on clarinet rather than Simeon.

Back when I had a cassette player in my car, I would pick up cassettes when I found good ones in the one- or two-dollar bin. I had quite a few Blue Notes, including No Room for Squares and A Caddy for Daddy. A few years ago, I gave a bunch them to a friend who was driving an old hoopti that still had a cassette player. But before that: back in the 1970's, my first car had an eight-track player. Every Woolworth's and K-Mart had bins of 8-tracks for a buck or two, and I picked up some great stuff, including a few Blue Notes: Elvin Jones' Coalition, The Best of Horace Silver, and Moto Grosso Feio by Wayne Shorter were three that I remember. The sound quality wasn't great, but I learned a lot from cheap 8-tracks.

Joe Venuti - World's Greatest Jazz Violinist (Decca 10"). This is a duet album with Russ Morgan on piano. I've had it for a couple of years, but I can't find anything about it; it's not listed in the Lord discography. Anybody know when it was recorded?

Sorry to hear the news - Mr. Kirkland was a good 'un. I was already planning on spending an evening with my blues 45s later this week. I'll be sure to include the couple of Eddie Kirkland singles I have.

Regal 1200 & 1201 by Papa Celestin and His Original Tuxedo Orchestra. 1200 - Hey La Ba/My Josephine 1201 - Marie Laveau/Maryland, My Maryland I bought Regal 1201 in New Orleans a couple of years ago, and just tracked down the other disc from this 1947 session. It's a good one; Celestin's trumpet playing is rough, yet accessible, and I've always loved Paul Barnes, both on clarinet and saxophone - he plays alto here. Clarinetist Alphonse Picou is on board, and everytime I hear him I'm touched - he's a link to the very earliest days of jazz.

Alton Purnell - Funky Piano New Orleans Style (Warner Bros. mono) A fun, not particularly profound album by George Lewis' longtime piano player. Plas Johnson, Red Callender, and Earl Palmer are on board on this 1958 LP.

Three mono LPs: Gerald Wilson - Moment of Truth (Pacific Jazz) Duke Ellington - One Night Stand At the Steel Pier July, 1964 (Joyce). A good performance, but the tape was running too fast when transferred; all the music is a half step too high. George Shearing - In Hi Fi (MGM). I have expressed my reservations about Mr. Shearing's improvising in another thread, but it seems strange that he's no longer with us.

Leadbelly (Capitol). A fake stereo pressing; I'm listening with my mono cartridge, which helps. It's still not a great-sounding record. Does anyone have the CD issue of this?

Earlier today: George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet - Life Line (Timeless)

I knew that #2 was something I had heard, and probably had in my collection! Yep - on the old Folkways double album. Damn! Lots of nice surprises here - Arthur Jones, yeah! And I never would have guessed Art Hodes on "Tennessee Waltz" - sounded like somebody from another tradition altogether. Thanks for a really excellent and enjoyable BFT.