jeffcrom

Today I drove the 90 miles or so from Atlanta to Columbus, Ga. to hunt for 78s and do some geocaching. (Google that if you're curious.) I was driving down 5th Avenue and was surprised to see a historical marker proclaiming "Ma Rainey's House." I stopped, read the marker, and stared at the house for awhile. There was nothing to indicate that it was a museum or was open to the public - I wish I had been aware of this thread before my visit. The marker indicated that Porterdale Cemetery, where Rainey is buried, was nearby. I found the cemetery about a half mile away. I asked some guys working near the entrance where her grave was, and one of them showed me. Rainey is buried between two of her Pridgett sisters; each has a concrete slab over her grave. Ma's just reads "Gertrude Rainey" and her dates, but she also has a nice new headstone proclaiming her status as "Mother of the Blues." After visiting the grave, I had the urge to drive back by the house while playing some Ma Rainey music. This was all unplanned, so I didn't have any Rainey CDs with me, but I had brought Allen's Really the Blues? set as road music, so I found "Don't Fish in My Sea" and cranked it up. It was very cool to run across Rainey's house more or less by chance, and to be led to her gravesite by the plaque. I'm planning to go back before too long, and actually visit the museum and take some pictures. At the cemetery, I had a gut-wrenching moment not directly related to Ma Rainey. Porterdale Cemetery was a burying ground for the black residents of Columbus - for most of the South's history, segregation didn't end with death. Near Rainey's grave was the grave of an infant. The headstone was inscribed with the child's given name (which I don't remember), the date of her death (1858) and "Kizzie's Baby." No last names. I thought it was odd, until it hit me - Kizzie and her child didn't have last names. They were slaves. You can't live down here without frequently thinking about the horrible history of the region, but it was a powerful experience to unexpectedly come across the raw evidence of human slavery - not in a museum, not in a book, but while just wandering around.

My copy is worse - just listenable. I traded for a cassette copy almost 20 years ago, and have transferred it to CD.

On to disc 2.

Okay, I've got two backwards birthday presents to give away: 1. The above CD: Bud Powell - Jazz Giant (Verve) Excellent condition. 2. A 45 RPM single which may interest someone, given a recent thread: Ahmad Jamal - But Not For Me/Seleritus (Parrot) With Ray Crawford and Richard Davis, 1954. Nice shape - I'd call it VG+. The only condition is that the same person cannot claim both items - one to a customer. Otherwise, I will send these, free of charge, to anyone in the world. Respond here and/or by PM.

A birthday gift from my wife: Duke Ellington Capitol Recordings (disc 1)

Thanks, all. It's amazing how much has changed since my last birthday, for better and worse. I've had a very nice day - some hiking, a steak dinner (a rare occurrence for me), and lots of music. A couple of weeks ago my wife asked me what I wanted as a present. I'd always regretted not getting the Mosaic Ellington Capitol set when it was in print, so I said that if she found a reasonably-priced used copy, that would be great. Well, she found one, and says that she didn't pay too much. I'm enjoying it now.

This one is based on the chords of "A Good Man is Hard to Find," I think - down to the tag that gives "Good Man" such an odd structure. Not a masterpiece, but very nice. It's another "string of solos" tune - Cootie, Wellman Braud, Joe Nanton and Bigard. Nanton's solo is over a short minor-key section thrown in to give the piece some contrast. To me, the main appeal of "Blue Harlem" is the chorus by the four-piece saxophone section. Ellington had always used a three-piece reed section until this date. Johnny Hodges had replaced Otto Hardwicke in 1928, and when Otto wanted to return to the fold in 1932, Ellington handled the situation in a typically Dukish way - he just added a saxophone to the section. Just about every other big band was using a three-piece sax section at this point; even Benny Carter, whom I had thought of as the father of the four-piece sax section, didn't use four reeds until a year later. And I know that some discographies list just three saxes, but Hardwicke is definitely back.

All the cool kids have birthdays today. Have a great one.

I wanted to go back a step, since I got my copy of Afro-Bossa a few days ago and have listened to it several times so far. As others have said, it's quite an album, and does have a lot of unity. The title tune is really remarkable; it's one of Ellington's altered, disguised blues. It reminds me of "Crescendo in Blue" - it steadily builds, not just in volume, but also in complexity and intensity, while exhibiting constantly changing tone colors. It's a wonderful thing. The point about the tone colors is one of the keys to the whole album, it seems to me. This is one of Ellington's most colorful sets of music. It's amazing what he could get out of a standard dance band instrumentation, although at least half of the story was the amazing group of musicians (with their incredible sounds) that he had. "Pyramid," first recorded in 1938, was the biggest surprise to me. The Afro-Bossa version makes the original sound like a sketch - there's so much more going on, and (again) the colors are amazing. The 1938 version was built around the unique sound of Juan Tizol's valve trombone, and it's great, but the new one seems so much richer. The only low point, to me, is "Eighth Veil." I don't like Ellington's Cat Anderson features for the most part, at least the virtuoso, high-note kind of pieces. I much prefer those pieces when Ellington let Anderson be a jazz trumpeter, like "Jungle Kitty" from the Virgin Islands Suite." But as these kind of pieces go, "Eighth Veil" is one of the better ones. By the way, Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron recorded a version of "Sempre Amore" on their Soul Note album of the same name. They obviously couldn't reproduce Ellington's tone colors, but their version is slow, austere, and beautiful.

Francis Wolff Ferlin Husky Peter Coyote

Tricky Dick Spiro Agnew Spyro Gyra

Yeah, that's a good one!

Marge Schott Russell Gunn Pistol Pete Maravich

Happy birthday, Paul!

I just found out that the great New Orleans bassist Walter Payton died last week at the age of 68. I know that he had a stroke in January, and had not been in great health since. Like many New Orleans musicians of his generation, Mr. Payton was equally at home with modern jazz, traditional jazz, and R & B. He played on the original recordings of Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is" and Lee Dorsey's "Working In a Coal Mine." In recent years, Payton had alternated with Ben Jaffe as one of the bassists in the main Preservation Hall Jazz Band; he can be heard on their last two CDs, "New Orleans Preservation, Vol. 1" and "Preservation." He led his own bands, The Snap Bean Band and The Gumbo Filé Band, and was the father of trumpeter Nicholas Payton. I was privileged to see Mr. Payton perform on several occasions, in New Orleans and elsewhere. His playing was always rock-solid, and his singing and stage presence were very entertaining. So long to another New Orleans great.

Well, I really was listening to stuff that would invite mockery, but my original post and the follow-up were supposed to be humorous. I'm not very funny in person, and I'm really not very funny online. Right now I'm listening to a former employer: Michael J. Smith - Geomusic III-PL (Poljazz) Some free jazz with the great Polish multi-instrumentalist Zbigniew Namyslowski, from 1975.

Happy Birthday!

H.B.T.Y!

Happy Birthday!

Are you sure about that? Both jazzdisco.org and Lord seem to say that Bad! Bossa Nova was the original title, and Jungle Soul the later one. You're right, according to Bruyninckx, Michel Ruppli's Prestige discography (page 133) and Neal Umphred's Goldmine's Price Guide to Collectible Jazz Albums 1949-1969 (2nd edition; page 48) Bad! Bossa Nova was the original LP title. That makes sense to me, given my "hybrid" copy. They would use up their supply of "Jungle Soul" LPs, even if they put them in newer "Bad Bossa Nova" covers. Shouldn't that be the other way around? Bad! Bossa Nova came first, followed by Jungle Soul, or am I misreading your post? Yes, I read it backwards. And my feeble brain is more confused that ever....

This just showed up on Ebay.

How can we hold you up to scorn and ridicule if we don't know what you've listened to. I really just wanted everyone to be impressed with my near-mint deep groove first pressing of whatever it was that I listened to.

More stuff that nobody else here likes and which would open me up to scorn and ridicule (late 50's Mercury deep groove mono)

Are you sure about that? Both jazzdisco.org and Lord seem to say that Bad! Bossa Nova was the original title, and Jungle Soul the later one. You're right, according to Bruyninckx, Michel Ruppli's Prestige discography (page 133) and Neal Umphred's Goldmine's Price Guide to Collectible Jazz Albums 1949-1969 (2nd edition; page 48) Bad! Bossa Nova was the original LP title. That makes sense to me, given my "hybrid" copy. They would use up their supply of "Jungle Soul" LPs, even if they put them in newer "Bad Bossa Nova" covers.

Okay, Alex - you've got BFT #85, April, 2011.