jeffcrom

Oh, and this is actually chapter 13 in the Ellington-a-thon, not 12. And "Controversial Suite" was discussed back in #6. The pressures of Ellington-a-thon leadership are starting to take their toll on Bev.

Bev, I've never heard of several of the pieces in edition 12 - I hope someone weighs in on "Chant for FDR," "Jet Strip" and Ellington's version of "Poinciana." But I just listened to "Me and You" on an airplane last week. It's an Ellington pop song, sung by Ivie Anderson, and although it's not among Duke's best works, I'm kind of surprised it wasn't more of a hit at the time. It's catchy and very singable - more so than "Sophisticated Lady" or "Prelude to a Kiss." And the band's performance is great - catch Cootie's trumpet at the beginning, with Harry Carney's interjections. Overall a little ordinary for Ellington, but I'm surprised it didn't catch on.

Love that album - mine has a different cover:

Okay, I'll start with the confession that I don't much like the most famous version of this piece. More on that later. Although Ellington often played "Diminuendo" without "Crescendo" in the 1960's, I definitely think of the two as a unit. The original 1937 recording is a masterpiece, and I judge other versions on how close they come to realizing the musical values set forth in that first recording. The titles of each movement summarize what's going on, but that's not the whole story. Yes, "Diminuendo" starts out at full volume and gets gradually softer, but at the same time there's a diminution of the musical density. The same thing happens in reverse in "Crescendo" - the piece doesn't just get louder, it gains intensity and complexity at the same time. On top of this, Ellington plays with the 12-bar structure of the blues. He extends some choruses and drops measures from others, and at times blurs the boundaries between choruses by making the last note of one chorus the first note of the next. And the piece is full of Ellington's wonderful tone colors. To point out one example, listen to the three clarinets playing in unison in their lowest register at the beginning of "Crescendo" - what a cool sound. And both parts swing like hell. It's interesting that, in its original form, there's almost no improvisation in the "Diminuendo and Crescendo." The only real improvised solos are twelve bars by Harry Carney in "Diminuendo" and twelve by Johnny Hodges in "Crescendo." This is a composition, not a blues to blow over. In later versions, Cat Anderson was turned loose to wail over the ending of "Crescendo." The original recording was issued on two sides of a 78, but when performed live the suite needed a bridge to link the two parts. The simplest solution was the one adopted by Ellington on the excellent 1945 V-Disc recording (and presumably at many live performances around this time) - a short piano solo. At the January, 1946 Carnegie Hall concert, Ellington uses his piece "Transblucency" to bridge the sections, making for a nice three-part suite. In later years the responsibility for connecting "Diminuendo" and "Crescendo" was given to Paul Gonsalves, who took advantage of the opportunity to play that famous 27-chorus solo at the 1956 Newport Fest. That Newport version is the one I don't care for, although I'm glad for the effect it had on Ellington's career. The band flattens out the dynamics which are such a large part of the point of the piece. They don't diminuendo that much, and start out "Crescendo" so loud that there's not much room to build. And although I'm surely in the minority, I don't think Gonsalves' famous solo is very interesting. But in its original form, "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" is a masterpiece.

Sure. Ideally, I'd like there to be twelve months between two blindfold tests by the same person, so let's see how the schedule works out. Any other potential BFT presenters out there? After April, 2011 is open for volunteers.

Jeff, I'm curious which hotel if you don't mind saying? And do you have any hope of flying back soon? Winter storm headed for Atlanta, if the weather reports are accurate. We got a Lufthansa flight out of Frankfurt on Christmas Day. It was scheduled to leave at noon, so it left around 2:30 - not bad, considering that this trip has been full of "adventures." My wonderful niece picked us up at the Atlanta airport, in spite of the snow, and we were home by 8:30 PM on Christmas, Atlanta time. Of course, our bodies were still on German time, so it felt like 2:30 AM. Rostasi, it was a new hotel - the Park Inn. It seems to be the only completed building in what will be a big development near the airport - Gateway Gardens. Anyway, Happy Holidays to all.

It's a little bit of a strange Christmas Eve. We've been visiting relatives in Germany - the plan was to fly back to Atlanta today and spend Christmas with my father and siblings. As it is, our flight was canceled, and we're stuck in a hotel near the Frankfurt airport. The airline has apparently booked the entire hotel, so all of the "guests" are sharing the same odd, Purgatory-like existence. The rooms are decent, although plain, and we are fed a very plain meal three times a day - sorry, no refills on the Coke. But my wife and I are together, and I've got plenty of music on my iPod. So Merry Christmas, all!

Happy Birthday!

Has Schuller's opera The Visitation ever been recorded? Max Harrison has spoken highly of it, but I've never seen it or heard the music.

His real name is Troy Andrews - his brother James and cousin Glen David Andrews are musicians (trumpet and trombone). Troy and James are the grandsons of Jessie Hill, who recorded "Ooh Pah Pah Doo," a favorite New Orleans R & B song.

That's a deal! I bought it as soon as it came out, for around three times what you paid, and it's been a cornerstone of my collection since.

Yes, I realized that sentence could be read two ways, but decided to leave it. I guess I liked the ambiguity.

Bix Beiderbecke - Complete, disc 3 (IRD) Some great stuff on this disc - "Riverboat Shuffle," "Clementine," "In a Mist," etc. Louis Armstrong - Satchmo: A Musical Autobiography, disc 1.

Thanks for posting this; it inspired me to pull out my copy of The Otis Ferguson Reader. I read all of his pieces on Bix Beiderbecke over the Atlantic Ocean last night, and thought they were insightful and beautifully written. One mistake, I think - Ferguson refers to Bix's solo on Paul Whiteman's "After You've Gone" in two of the essays. The only problem is, I don't think such a thing exists. I've got the IRD edition of the complete Bix recordings in my iPod, and there isn't any such track. I'm 4000 miles from my discographies, but I'm guessing that there's a recording of "After You've Gone" by Whiteman featuring Andy Secrest or some other Bix follower, and that it was attributed to Bix in those early days of jazz scholarship. Anyway, I'm really enjoying becoming reacquainted with Otis Ferguson.

Thanks for the report, smashingthirds.

I've never like the sound - more like a tenor than an alto, but without much body. Allen likes his, so what do I know?

Kid Howard and His New Orleans Jazz Band at Zion Hill Church: Great Spirituals (Nobility)

Okay, folks, it's time to sign up for BFT #82, the January, 2011 edition. There's no theme - just a bunch of music that I like and think is not well known, for the most part. I'm making the final selections now, but there will be something for everyone: organ grease, swinging big bands, wild avant-garde-ish stuff, woolly early jazz, and more. Of course, that means that hardly anybody will like all of it - there will be something for everyone to hate. But I can pretty much guarantee that there will be some interesting music you haven't heard before. And I might even include something from my 78 collection. Hope to see a lot of you sign up.

Finally got around to writing down some impressions of disc 1. I feel like I don't have a lot to say about it, partially because the general tone/feel of much of the music wasn't really to my taste. Everything was very well done, but it was all kind of pretty and clean for me, and it was mostly medium-tempo. After awhile I was craving some organ grease, or a growl trumpet, or some uptempo bebop, or a nasty, overblown saxophone. But that's just me, I guess. Anyway, I haven't read anything in this thread. 1. Sounds like it might be Joshua Redman, but I don’t really know. I like this well enough, but I kept expecting/hoping that it would go somewhere else. 2. Beautiful soprano sound. The mellow, “static” quality doesn’t bother me here, because the solos are so well constructed. Yeah, some fireworks might have been nice, but this is good. I would have liked to hear more of the trombonist. 3. First of all, I love any ensemble sound that makes you work to identify the instruments involved. Very cool sonority at the beginning. I like the way the pianist plays with the time during his/her solo, and signals the ensemble with a bit of the melody. Good alto solo, although it wasn’t as interesting as the piano. I like this one. 4. I think it’s Anat Cohen, a clarinetist whom I want to like, but don’t, very much. It’s Coltrane’s “Lonnie’s Lament,” and it’s way too pretty for me. Even the more intense sections don’t work for me – it just doesn’t have any fire. 5. I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to this kind of Latin jazz, but I like this, particularly the trumpet (or is it flugelhorn?) solo. No idea who it is. 6. Well, I like the accordion, in spite of all the accordion jokes I make. And this is very accomplished – excellent guitarist and trumpeter. I just don’t have any desire to hear it again. 7. “Filles de Kilimanjaro,” but once again, no idea who it is. And once again, I wish it went somewhere else. It’s probably partially the nature of the piece, but it was awfully laid-back. Good enough, but I wanted more. 8. Okay, this is pretty cool. I wouldn’t have thought it would work – this Beatles song doesn’t seem like it would lend itself to free-ish jazz improvisation. But this is really nice. Again, it doesn’t really work up a head of steam. But I like it, for what it is. 9. A bunch of familiar-sounding players, although not familiar enough for me hazard a guess, except that the first guitar soloist sounds like John Scofield to me. Good playing all around; I enjoyed it, although it didn’t have that extra something to make it really memorable. 10. Again, everyone sounds vaguely familiar. I like the tenor player – he plays with some intensity and gets beyond the amiable swing the piece generally has. I’m guessing that it’s the alto player’s date, but I don’t know who it is. 11. This would probably have been a lot of fun to hear in a bar. On record, well, I never thought I would hear such a polite version of this rock anthem. (Or anthems - there's some Santana in there in addition to Deep Purple, isn't there?) Again, I wish I had more to say. This was good music, but a lot of it didn't really speak to me. I'm not sure I'll be able to participate with disc 2 - I'm leaving town, and two discs are kind of a lot for a blindfold test, in my opinion. Thanks for this one, though.

Dixie Dregs - Night of the Living Dregs (Capricorn). I don't listen to much rock, but I have a soft spot in my heart for the Dregs, who opened for the Gary Burton Quartet at the first or second jazz concert I attended, back in 1975 or 76. This is their third Capricorn album, from 1979. For those not familiar with them, I would describe the music as Southern-fried instrumental prog rock, if that makes any sense. And somewhere I have a tape of a much younger version of myself playing bassist Andy West's "Chinese Monkeys" with Mr. West and Rod Morgenstein, the rhythm section of the Dregs.

Happy Birthday! Keep that G# key clean!

BFT Grand Pooh-Bah is now Jeff, and he's compiling BFT # 82 as well (see here). Yep. Signup thread will start in a couple of days.

Don Ellis - How Time Passes (Candid/Barnaby). I had only read about this one, but I found a copy a week or so ago. Not one for the ages, maybe, but I'm glad to finally hear it.

Looking through my "new" CD purchases, I see that many of them came out in 2009 - I usually stay about a year behind. Out of the 2010 releases I've picked up, I'll nominate half a dozen, some of which have been mentioned already, and some of which haven't: Paul Motian - Lost in a Dream (ECM) Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green - Apex (Pi) Evan Christopher - Remembering Song (Arbors) Mose Allison - The Way of the World (Anti) Dave Holland Octet - Pathways (Dare2) Matt Perrine & Sunflower City - Bayou Road Suite (Threadhead). And for good measure, a non-jazz album which has unexpectedly given me a great deal of pleasure since my wife gave it to me: Galactic - Ya-Ka-May (Anti). This one, by the New Orleans funk/jam band, features some distinguished New Orleans guests, including The Rebirth Brass Band, Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty, Bo Dollis, and several exponents of the city's "Sissy Bounce" hip-hop scene, all chopped and remixed in the studio. It's a lot of fun.

I'm straight, but am pretty useless.