jeffcrom

Jimmy Giuffre 3 - 7 Pieces (Verve mono)

Modern Jazz Festival (Harmony) Okay, Jeffery's a happy boy. I bought this obscure album about 10 years ago, mostly because it has a rare early sideman appearance by Steve Lacy, who is one of my musical heroes. He plays on a track by Joe Puma; until the Fresh Sound Early Years CD came out, this was one of the toughest early Lacy tracks to find. There are also selections by Randy Weston, Paul Quinichette, Zoot Sims, Mat Mathews, Tony Scott, and The Jazz Modes. So I was really happy to find this one a decade ago. Except that it has always sounded like crap. But I feel like I just got this album back - with my new mono cartridge, it sounds pretty good. Not great - it's pressed on hard plastic, like some Decca issues from the time, instead of vinyl. But it does sound pretty good. I haven't listened to it for awhile, because it sounded so bad. So I had forgotten that Lacy's solo on "Give Me the Simple Life" is brilliant. Not bad for a mostly unknown 21-year-old soprano sax player.

The California Ramblers - Volume Two (The Old Masters) I'm liking my new mono cartridge.

Yeah, that's on my to-do list.

John Dankworth - Zodiac Variations (Fontana mono)

Richard "Popcorn" Wylie Wylie Post Amelia Earhart

The Cowsills Gov't Mule Lee Horsley

A nice addition to the family, she looks like. Does she like jazz?

Globe Unity Orchestra - Pearls (FMP) Interrupted halfway through to catch a minute of Kermit Ruffins and Trombone Shorty with the Dave Matthews Band during the Saints/Vikings pregame show. I don't care anything about Dave Matthews, but I likes me some Kermit and Shorty.

Very sorry to hear this news.

Documentation:

Very cool album - I'd say essential for anyone interested in Dorham or Joe Henderson.

At home, my listening is pretty evenly divided between CDs and LPs, with some 78s thrown in. Like (I imagine) others here, my turntable gets as much of a workout as my CD player. I download music when I can't get it any other way, and I love the convenience of my iPod when I'm away from home. I like my 78s, though - you can't beat the convenience of a bulky, highly breakable medium containing six minutes of music.

A couple of years ago I found a nice mono copy of Dodo's Back by Dodo Marmarosa on Argo in the little record store down the street from my house. I think I paid ten bucks - I know it wasn't any more that that, although it may have been less. It's a great album, and I knew it was hard to find, but I just finished watching an Ebay auction of this album - it went for $338.88. To be fair, my copy is probably more like VG+ than M-.

Two slightly different big band records: Stan Kenton - Birthday in Britain (Creative World) Globe Unity Orchestra - Improvisations (JAPO)

"Yemenite Tanz," the new single from the 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra, is available for download from Amazon. This is our version of an old Jewish Yemenite tune. I am responsible for the arrangement and alto sax solo. I've been so close to the writing, recording, mixing, and mastering that sometimes I can't hear anything but the flaws, but I hope some of you might enjoy it. For those who would prefer a physical issue of this, it will probably be issued as one side of a 7" record in the not-too-distant future.

Found a cool two-pocket album today - Pine Top Smith: Boogie Woogie Piano on Brunswick. The album book is pretty battered, but the records are in very good shape. The label has come off the front - I'll probably glue it back on, but I scanned it in the meantime. This was an early collectors' album - they used an unreleased take of "Jump Steady Blues," so this is the first issue for that one. Great stuff. I also played: Corky Corcoran - What is This Thing Called Love/Minor Blues (Keynote, 1945) Corcoran was a decent Hawkins-influenced tenor player. This is a pretty good record, with Emmett Berry, Willie Smith, and Dodo Marmarosa - you can't have too much Dodo. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys - Osage Stomp/Get With It (Vocalion, 1935) From what I can tell, these are the first two sides recorded by this band. This is the only Bob Wills on Vocalion I've seen; all the others I run across are on Okeh or Columbia. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys - Steel Guitar Rag/Swing Blues #1 (Okeh) Nice!

Down at the bottom of the forum you'll see "Click here to show filter options," which will give you the ability to go back further.

Great stuff!

In recent years there's been tension between clubs and neighborhood residents. In New Orleans, everything's mixed together; once you get away from Bourbon Street, clubs and bars, with or without music, are often in residential neighborhoods. Neighborhood residents, often new arrivals, have been fighting new, or even existing, music clubs. The Little Peoples' Place, a neighborhood bar in Treme, had music for years, until that section of Treme started to get gentrified; complaints from newer residents got live music taken out. I don't know all the details - I'm not sure The Little Peoples' Place had the proper license. But in any case, they had provided music to the neighborhood for years. Even now there's a neighborhood organization in Faubourg Marigny, the neighborhood containing Frenchmen Street, that wants to have at least some of the clubs on Frenchmen closed. (For those who haven't been to New Orleans for awhile, Frenchmen Street has become the musical heart of the city.) I can see being upset at moving into a quiet neighborhood only to have a disco open next door. It's another matter to move into a neighborhood and expect it to change to suit you. I don't know how all of this is going to shake down, but there are plenty of elements in the city who realize that music is the most important resource New Orleans has. It's what keeps guys like me and you visiting and spending money.

Sigh....

Depressing news for all of us who love New Orleans music: Donna's has closed its doors for the last time. Donna and Charlie have had enough, for reasons given here. There are now no music clubs on historic North Rampart Street. Donna's opened sometime in the early 1990s, and I have spent many hours on a barstool there since. It was always a warm, welcoming place - you felt like family when you walked in. And I heard some amazing music there - Tom McDermott, Evan Christopher, Wendell Brunious, Kermit Ruffins, Bob French, Davell Crawford, Henry Butler. Donna's was known for brass band music - I heard the Algiers, Pin Stripe, Chosen Few, Mahogany, Treme, Hot 8, and Hurricane Brass Bands there. In the early days you had to walk through whatever brass band was playing to get to the rest rooms. You never knew who would show up to sit in - Leroy Jones, Nicholas Payton, David Torkanowsky, Kermit, musicians visiting from Europe. One night Tom McDermott was playing with the young band Loose Marbles when veteran trumpeter Jack Fine came in and sat at the bar. He stayed there all night with his horn on the bar, and whenever he felt like it, he'd pick up the trumpet and join in from his barstool. There were periods when it seemed like the city was trying to close down the joint on one pretext or another, so Donna was always sensitive to accusations of drug use in her club. I was there when a young man took Kermit Ruffins' song "Light Up" a little too seriously and lit up a joint. Donna, who was not young even then, came over the bar like some kind of action hero and had the guy out the door in seconds. Donna's husband Charlie manned the kitchen. I still think his barbecue ribs were the best I ever had. North Rampart Street is back to being a wasteland. I'm very sad today - RIP Donna's.

Two very different vocal albums: Helen Humes - The Talk of the Town (Columbia) A 1975 recital with Ellis Larkins, Buddy Tate, and George Benson. Andrew Cyrille/Jeanne Lee/Jimmy Lyons - Nuba (Black Saint)

I've had the Columbia vinyl for years. It's a good latter-day Bechet performance. He can't just run all over the band, like he could with his young French proteges; Buck Clayton and Vic Dickenson don't take any crap from the old man.

I'm very surprised. And now that I know who it is, I can't let my statement stand - I can't bring myself to say that Ran Blake doesn't understand Monk's music. His essay on the Blue Note recordings alone proves otherwise. But I will say that, in my opinion, he made some unfortunate choices here. Among other things, he rhythmically decimated Monk's piece. I love Ran Blake, but I don't like this.