jeffcrom

Happy 40th!

Sonny Boy Williamson & Memphis Slim - In Paris (GNP Crescendo mono)

Bill Henderson/Horace Silver - Senor Blues/Tippin' (Blue Note 45)

Clifford Brown/Max Roach - Live at the Bee Hive (Columbia) Sides 2 & 3 - "Walkin'" and "Cherokee." I really like Sonny Rollins on this. Incidentally, re the recent "how much can fit on an LP side" thread - side one of this album has exactly 31 minutes of music on it.

What Cylinder Recording Are You Listening To Right Now?

Yes, I own it and generally I like it. The performance is very good. I must say that I find some of the newer Ducal compostions on it not quite as substantial as his earlier works (eg. The Great Paris Concert from '63, probably my favorite live performance by the Ellington band). I agree. It was a good concert (I wish I had been there!), but it's not among my favorite Ellington albums. The version of "Rockin' in Rhythm" is very hot, but not quite as good as the Paris version. Part of the difference, to my ears, is that Rufus Jones wasn't as good a drummer as Sam Woodyard.

Keeping up with current events around here: Fisk University Male Quartette - Little David Play on Your Harp/Steal Away to Jesus (Columbia) Andy Kirk featuring Pha Terrell - I'm Glad for Your Sake/Downstream, In My Wildest Dream (all Decca) Don't have any 78s by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

Well, nobody's touched Fugue-a-ditty/Fugueaditty/Fugaditti/Fugue (I've seen all of these titles) yet, so I'll jump in. It was the second movement of A Tonal Group, a suite consisting of Melloditti, Fugue-a-ditty, and Jam-a-Ditty, that Ellington played at some of his 1946 concert appearances. Only "Jam-a-Ditty" seemed to have "legs" - Ellington recorded that piece in the studio for Musicraft. I really want to like "Fugue-a-Ditty." As far as I can tell, it follows the "rules" of a classical fugue to the letter. It's intriguing, as far as it goes. But just when Bach (or John Lewis, for that matter) would have been getting warmed up, it just stops. I get the feeling that once Ellington went through the "correct" steps a couple of times, he didn't know what else to do, so he wound it up. The movement I want to explore further is "Melloditti." It's over twice as long as the other movements, and there's a lot going on. I'll need to listen a few more times before I can really digest it. The two concert recordings I have of A Tonal Group are from Carnegie Hall and Chicago, both from January, 1946. To get personal for a moment, I stuck the Christmas gift tag from the wrapping paper onto the jewel case of the Carnegie Hall set. It was one of my last Christmas presents from my late mom.

Beautiful post.

According to the Lord discography, Ellington recorded "Ain't Misbehavin'" three times. The one I haven't heard is a 1933 recording made for British Decca during his first British tour. He made a radio transcription of the tune in 1943 that's available on a Circle CD. It's a feature for trumpeter Harold "Shorty" Baker, who is really tasty. The background arrangement is nice, too - there's a cool clarinet trio - but Ellington probably dashed it off in a few minutes. The Ellington "Ain't Misbehavin'" that's a real hoot was not known to be an Ellington recording for many years. It was recorded in 1929 by Bill Robinson, accompanied by Irving Mills and His Hotsy Totsy Gang, which turns out in this case to be the Ellington orchestra. Like I say, it's a hoot. Bojangles does some fine tap dancing and does a spirited vocal, in spite of the fact that he doesn't know the words. This one is on the Decca/GRP Early Ellington set.

HB, JT!

Wow! I've had this stuff for years - swapped another collector back in the old cassette days. But the sound is pretty rough on my copy. Someone buy this and report back on the sound.

Mmilovan and Big Beat Steve - I'm lifting a glass of Kentucky bourbon in your honor tonight. To music - cheers!

Well, I'm not sure that I really follow all the points above, but I'm always happy when people take pleasure in music, even if it's music that I don't particularly like.

"Elos" is probably pretty obscure, but it's a truly beautiful piece of music. It comes from the period when Ellington gave his pieces working titles of four letters; sometimes he came up with a better title, but the working title often became the final name. "Elos" is "soul" backwards, kinda - at least that's what Ellington had in mind. It was apparently written for a film which never came out, and was later used as part of the Three Black Kings suite. It seems to have been recorded only once - it was issued on Volume 9 of that great "Private Collection" series. "Elos" is a moody piece in 3/4 or 6/4 - it sounds like six to me, but that's more or less a technical distinction. It's written for the trombone and reed sections of the band, along with bass and drums. The most stiking element is Ellington's juxtaposition of his two tenor saxophonists - Harold Ashby plays the slow, drawn-out melody while Paul Gonzalves improvises around it. There are also short solos by Johnny Hodges and Buster Cooper, with a touch of Russell Procope's clarinet at the end. Like I say, it's a really beautiful piece. If it had been released on an album during Ellington's lifetime, I'll bet it would have received some acclaim. As it is, it's an obscure curiosity.

Mississippi Blues (United) 1952 sessions by Boyd Gilmore, Charlie Booker, and the mysterious Houston Boines, recorded for the Bihari brothers. Ike Turner is on piano on all the sessions.

Back to "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" for a moment - Historically Speaking arrived today, and this is indeed a fine version of the piece. Note-wise, it's pretty close to the original version(s), but it's played slowly - very dark and moody.

Good question ... Some will probably and automatically reply by stating that "easy going" is synonymous with "not enough depth". Though I'd venture to say not all of those who proclaim to be able to absorb those "deep" and "complex" forms of jazz REALLY DO understand it inside out. They didn't then and they don't now. Nodding one's head in sophistication is one thing but REALLY absorbing it with every fiber despite everything that might just strike you as "far out" is quite another. In fact, IMHO it is more a matter of so many jazz lovers being conditioned exclusively on the jazz of that era performed by those "ANGRY YOUNG MEN" and if being angry (and the music that comes from it) is the key word then "easy going" or even "happiness" is just anathema to it all. Especially as it might very well challenge the very concept of this "angry" sort of jazz if you have to admit that at the same time there were other valid forms of jazz too if you are prepared to listen to it on its OWN merits. Wow - there's a lot here. After telling myself that I wasn't going rise to the bait of post #38, I now find that I can't help myself. The problem with Mr. Shearing's music is not that it is "easy going." Jazz, as well as other areas of music, is filled with music that is pleasant and relaxed, yet which has a core of strength and intelligence. I love Paul Desmond's music, which is as "easy going" (or more so) than Shearing's. It makes very pleasant background music, if that's what you want. But Desmond's improvising also rewards close attention - you can follow the line he's creating and shake your head in wonder. Shearing's playing makes me shake my head in frustration. The more attention you give it, the worse it sounds. I don't mind that it's "easy going," I just think it's poor improvising. One example out of many: listen to "September in the Rain," from his first MGM session. The first 16 bars are played with the classic Shearing ensemble sound, and I say - nothing wrong with that. It's easy going, it's pleasant, it swings lightly - fine. But listen to the bridge. Shearing plays an unbroken string of extremely fast notes that has absolutely no melodic point - it circles around, it rises and falls, it goes nowhere. I wanted to yell at the record player, "Jeez - take a breath; leave some space!" Forget comparisons with Bud Powell; imagine what Dodo Marmarosa would have done with those eight measures. Both of you guys seem to think that everyone's objections to Shearing involves the surface of his music - the overall sound. In my case, anyway, that's not true at all - it's the core of his music that's so weak. I listened to all of the MGM stuff I had yesterday, and over and over again the exellent playing of Chuck Wayne and (much to my surprise) Marjorie Hyams demonstrated by contrast how trite and unfocused Shearing's playing is, in spite of his obvious facility and harmonic knowledge. This, of course, is a subjective opinion, and it's based on incomplete evidence - I haven't heard Shearing's entire output. But as I said before, what I've heard makes me disinclined to explore further. The albums from the 1960s that I have don't really improve my opinion of his playing. Larry and others here have pointed out that there's often some interesting stuff going on in Shearing's recordings. I just don't think much of it is played by Shearing himself. And Steve, I would respond to your first paragraph two ways - first of all, one can respond to music, any music, without "understanding" it. But I also think that the level of knowledge and understanding of all kinds of jazz seems pretty high in these forums. I think I'd like Shearing's playing more if I had less knowledge and experience of jazz.

Tonight I listened to Steve Lacy's "Rockin' in Rhythm" for the first time in a while. It's from his first album, Soprano Sax, from 1957. It's certainly not the masterful performance that Lacy would have been able to give three or four years later, but it's still pretty good. Lacy and his quartet keep as much of Ellington's material as possible with four pieces, but the solos (by Lacy and Wynton Kelly) don't sound Ellingtonian at all - and I like that; Lacy and Kelly just sound like themselves. Lacy is so well known as an interpreter of Monk that it's often forgotten that Ellington was one of his earliest sources of inspiration. Soprano Sax includes two Ellington tunes, as does another of Lacy's early Prestige albums, Evidence. One of his duet albums with Mal Waldron is an all Ellington/Strayhorn program (Sempre Amore), and late in his life he developed a solo program of Ellington's music he called "10 of Duke's" - issued on the Senators album 10 of Dukes + 6 Originals. I'll definitely be talking about Lacy's Ellington interpretations when appropriate in this thread.

Somebody may have more information than I have, but it doesn't look like it would be easy to find. The Lord discography lists LP issues on Stinson and Queen Disc. It seems like this session would have been a natural for the Hawkins "Be-bop Years" Proper box, but it doesn't look like these sides are included.

Steve Lacy - Soprano Sax (Prestige OJC) I actually prefer Lacy's sideman work from the 1950s to this album. But how cool for a little-known musician to have Wynton Kelly on his debut album as leader!

Porter Grainger Percy Grainger Percy Pilbeam

The recent George Shearing thread prompted me to play all my Shearing MGM 78s today. These are all by the Quintet except as noted: September in the Rain/Bop, Look and Listen (1949) Good to the Last Bop/You Are Too Beautiful (trio) (1949) When Your Lover Has Gone/Carnegie Horizons (1949/50) Tenderly/Summertime (both solo) (1949/50) Roses of Picardy/Pick Yourself Up (1950) I'll Be Around/Quintessence (1951) To a Wild Rose/Swedish Pastry (1951) Easy to Love/Wrap Your Troubles in Drums (1953) All of this music was perfectly okay.

I have ordered Modern Times by the TBC BB and The Assassination of American Pop by the Young Fellaz from the Louisiana Music Factory. I'll report back when they arrive. I already love the title of the the Young Fellaz album.