jeffcrom

Larry Willis - Inner Crisis (Groove Merchant)

Thanks for listening, Paps. I don't know why yours loaded in the wrong order, and I couldn't always figure out what you were hearing from your comments. Here's what I'm somewhat sure about: Your #1 & 2 are in the correct order. Yeah, that's a great version of "Muskrat," and the tuba player kills. Your #3 might be #4. If so, you're right about the piano player being the leader. I also like your "nicely scripted" comment. Your #4 is probably #5. It's been identified and discussed a bit above. Your #5 is #3. No connection to klezmer, except that it shows the jazz influence on music from another culture - in this case, Trinidadian calypso. (I'm not giving anything away that others haven't already figured out.) Your #7 is probably #7. It is if it's the flute/guitar duet. This one has been ID'ed - see above. Your #9 is probably #9. Not many folks like this. Your #11 is probably #12. Not Melford, Braxton or Berne. The alto player did study with Braxton, I believe. Your #12 might be #13. If so, Boyce is not involved. Not a bad guess, considering that you know how much I like Brother Matthew. Your #13 is definitely #15. This guy is definitely influenced by Rollins here, but he's not usually thought of as any kind of Rollins disciple. the tune is a standard, but not one that has been overdone. Your #15 is #14. People's reaction to learning who the trumpet player is are going to be split between, "Never heard of him," and "Wow - didn't know he could sound like that." Read the rest of the thread and see if you can figure out which of the other tracks are which. Sorry you had technical trouble.

I have three Jean Goldkette Victor 78s from the 20's, but I had never played them all back-to-back. So I did: Remember/I Want to See My Tennessee (1924) - "Remember" is not the Irving Berlin song, unfortunately. Didn't know until I looked it up today that this one was recorded at the same date as "I Didn't Know," which had Bix Beiderbecke sitting in. Bix isn't on this record, which is pretty pop-oriented, in spite of the presence of the Dorseys and Joe Venuti. Dinah/After I Say I'm Sorry (1926) - "Dinah" is more like it; the band's starting to swing hard. Me and My Shadow/I'm Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now (1927) - "Sweetie" is really good. Bix is on this one, but doesn't solo. He plays lead trumpet in one section, though, which gives the band a totally different sound. Bill Challis, who arranged this tune, like to put Bix on top of the brass sometimes for just that reason - to give the section a different color. Steve Brown shows himself to be one of the great bass players of early jazz on this record. And the Victor engineers were the best in the business by 1927 - this record sounds amazing.

Can't help throwing in my two cents, since I'm a big Longhair fan. If I was going to have one Fess CD, I'd get the Atlantic collection. If I was going to add a second CD, it would be Crawfish Fiesta, his last album. Great selection of tunes, with the best-ever version of "Big Chief," and a great New Orleans band, with Mac Rebennack on guitar, Tony Dagradi on tenor sax, and Johnny Vidacovich, one the of the greatest of all Crescent City drummers. I like House Party NO Style, too, but those are my two desert island Fess albums.

Happy Birthday, 2011!

Hip Linkchain - Change My Blues (Teardrop). Raw Mississippi/Chicago blues.

An absolute gem from the dollar bin: Knocky Parker/Omer Simeon - Parker-Simeon Storyville Creepers (GHB). A well-recorded 1949 concert (although there are some tape dropouts) by pianist Parker, drummer Arthur Herbert, and the great New Orleans clarinetist. Really nice, relaxed New Orleans chamber music. I love this one.

Chico Hamilton - The Three Faces of Chico (Warner Brothers mono). Picked this one mostly for the tracks with Eric Dolphy, but it's all pretty good, with the possible exception of Chico's singing. I'm not sure I had ever noticed this: the back cover has a little box with other albums listed, "For your further listening pleasure, may we suggest." Nothing unusual about that, except that of the four albums listed, only one other is a Warner Brothers record, Gongs East by Hamilton. The others are Mulligan's What is There to Say? (Columbia), The Clown by Mingus (Atlantic), and Cross-Country Suite by Buddy DeFranco (Dot). I don't think I've ever seen an album cover which advertises releases on other labels before. Edited because I originally wrote "United Artists" when I meant "Warner Brothers."

On Ebay now.

Black California (Savoy) - Right now, the amazing side two, with those Roy Porter big band sides which are so full of youthful energy.

Right now I'm spinning a couple of vintage LPs I just picked up at a local record store: Shearing in Hi-Fi on MGM (a really nice copy) and The Shearing Spell, his first album on Capitol. I'm enjoying myself, although Shearing still doesn't really impress me as an improviser. Toots Thielemans sure sounds good, as do Cal Tjader and Al McKibbon. In any case, I hope that Big Beat Steve and mmilovan give me credit for being open-minded.

Well, after thinking that the complaints about how hard the CDs are to remove were kind of trivial, I seem to be the first one here to have ruined a disc while removing it from the case. I forgot to be careful with disc 6; it resisted, then came loose suddenly and scraped against the corner of the jewel box, leaving two nasty scratches. I tried playing it, but several of the early tracks were skipping, so I got too depressed to play the rest of it. But I've called Mosaic, they're sending me another disc. Thanks, Scott!

Bothered All the Time (Southern Culture). Mississippi blues, gospel, and commentary from the 1960's, recorded by William Ferris.

The new Ellington set, disc 5. I'm finally starting to "get" "Reminiscing in Tempo." Some music takes years to reveal all of its secrets - to me, anyway.

Marion Brown - Duets (Arista Freedom); the duets with Leo Smith.

Some bebop/early modern today: Eddie Safranski and the Poll Cats - Sa-Frantic/Bass Mood (Atlantic, 1947) Eddie Safranski and the Poll Cats - Turmoil/Jumpin' for Jane (Atlantic, 1947) These are Kenton guys - Ray Wetzel, Eddie Bert, Art Pepper, Bob Cooper, Shelly Manne. Pete Rugolo plays piano and did the charts, presumably. Lord Nelson and his Boppers - Stardust/Ratio and Proportion (King, 1948) This is a reissue of a Sonny Stitt record from the Sensation label. Musically, it's great, but it sounds as if it was dubbed from a 78, rather than pressed from the original master. Howard McGhee - McGhee Jumps/McGhee Special (Modern Music, 1945) A killer record. Side one has solos by Vic Dickenson (I think) and Teddy Edwards. Side two is all McGhee. Med Flory - The Fuz/Straight Ahead (Emarcy, 1954) Nice big-band sides; charts by Flory and Al Cohn, & Doug Mettome is on trumpet. Fred Dale and His Orchestra - Mean to Me/Laura (Coral, 1954) This is a little-known one. Fred Dale had a big band at Indiana U. with a bunch of the guys there - David Baker, Jerry Coker, Al Kiger, etc. They won a college big-band contest, and part of the prize was a recording session with some ringers like Doug Mettome and Urbie Green. "Mean to Me" is a great side; Baker did the arrangement.

Clare Fischer - Thesaurus (Atlantic stereo). Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Sangrey.

Bob Wilber - New Clarinet in Town (Classic Jazz). Looks like this one has been reissued on CD, much to my surprise.

"U.M.M.G." was one of the two brand-new tunes that appeared on the Bethlehem album Historically Speaking, which was otherwise composed of older pieces. This didn't make any sense, but was the kind of thing Ellington liked to do - remember "The Twitch" on The Popular Duke Ellington, the greatest hits collection he recorded for RCA in 1966? Anyway, "U.M.M.G." was credited as an Ellington composition on the Bethlehem album, and my CD issue still credits it as such. But it reappeared credited to Strayhorn on Columbia's Jazz Party in 1959, and again on His Mother Called Him Bill, Ellington's 1967 Strayhorn memorial album. These days it's recognized as one of Strayhorn's best pieces, and has been "covered" a fair amount. "U.M.M.G." has a remarkable, long-phrased, flowing melody. I've read in several places that you can sing the words "Upper Manhattan Medical Group" to the first phrase. I don't quite hear it, but maybe some others hear will. In any case, it's a real thing of beauty. Strayhorn or Ellington seems to have had a "modern" trumpet in mind for the piece - Willie Cook is the main soloist in the original version, guest star Dizzy Gillespie is featured on the Jazz Party version, and Clark Terry takes over for the 1967 recording. Harry Carney keeps his short solo spot in all three versions, which (a few tweaks aside) are all recordings of the same arrangement - Strayhorn's, presumably. The chart builds to a nice climax at the end. The earliest "cover" of the piece (I think) is an unusual 1960 version by Bob Wilber, with Dave McKenna and Charlie Byrd, from Wilber's Classic Jazz album New Clarinet in Town. It's a good one, from an interesting albun that shows Wilber at a level far beyond the Sidney Bechet imitator some people still think he is.

It's the title cut of this one. That's it, of course. I'm actually floored that it's still in print - I thought it was long OOP. I guess it's so obscure because it's on what's primarily a classical label.

Mundell Lowe All Stars - TV Action Jazz (Camden stereo). This one has been mentioned several times here recently, so I though I'd give it a spin. Donald Byrd sounds really good. And did Eddie Costa ever record a solo on marimba anywhere else?

I've been distracted by the new Mosaic Ellington set, which has been very enlightening for me - I thought I knew Ellington's output for these years pretty well. Nope, as it turns out. But I went back and listened to "Dusk," one of my favorite minor masterpieces from the 1940 Victor sessions. It had the bad luck to be recorded during one of Ellington's most prolific periods - if "Ko-Ko," "Concerto for Cootie," "Cottontail," "Never No Lament," "Harlem Air Shaft," "All Too Soon," "Warm Valley," "Across the Track Blues," etc. hadn't been recorded in the same year, we might remember "Dusk" better. But it's a great little piece, using the "Mood Indigo" sound (middle-register muted trumpet, high-register muted trombone, low-register clarinet) for the main theme. Rex Stewart plays an unusual cornet solo that is very similar on both takes - it may have been written by Ellington as part of the composition. One of the most striking moments comes during the trombone trio after the trumpet solo - the saxophones answer the trombones' first phrase with a lovely phrase featuring three mordents. (A mordent is a musical ornament consisting of a quick flip up to a higher note and back.) Two takes of "Dusk" were recorded, and there are minor differences between them - Ellington tinkered with arrangements even while they being recorded. But the first, originally issued, take has better balance and is a more well-played performance. "Dusk" is a little gem.

No, you're off the hook on that one. It's after the Wynton era. I chose a Blakey track for a couple of reasons - the simplest being that I like this album, and it doesn't seem to be well known. But I also was curious about the reaction to the drumming on a track which most people wouldn't recognize as being a Blakey track. I love Blakey, too, but I don't think "heavy handed" is an unfair description of his playing, much some of the time. (I intentionally left in my first word choice.) I think it's significant that, from the Hubbard/Shorter/Fuller band on, his young sidemen seldom hired Blakey for their own albums. I had a moment of soul-searching on a recent BFT, when I slammed a solo piano version of a Monk tune; the pianist turned out to be Ran Blake, whom I respect a great deal. When I found out it was Blake, I went back and listened to the track again, very carefully. And I think that I was right in that case - he totally missed the boat with that recording. Back to track 6, it's from my favorite late Jazz Messengers album - not that I've heard all of them.