jeffcrom

You recall it right.

Adams was the best thing to come out of Covington, Georgia. The tune is Billy Harper's "Thoroughbred." Thanks for the link.

Claude Thornhill - Dinner for Two (RCA Camden) A "mood music" collection; John Carisi, Brew Moore, Hal McKusick, and Herb Geller are on hand on various sessions, but there's not much jazz. It's what I was in the mood for, though.

Prince Lawsha - Firebirds Live at Monterey Jazz Festival Vol. III (Birdseye) It says "stereo" on the jacket, but my copy is mono.

Evangelist Alessie Barney - Searching (Randy's Spiritual) Sister Barney has a steely, intense voice on this album from 1970 or so. It's about the shortest 12" LP I've ever seen - just over 21 minutes.

Rev. Arthur Dave Sims of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, Augusta, Georgia - The Shepherd and His Sheep (Nashboro) A 1968 Southern sermon.

Defunkt - Thermonuclear Sweat (Hannibal, 1982) Probably the best album by Joseph Bowie's funk band - some tough guitar by Vernon Reid.

So is it Sunny Murray?

Way to go, Allen - ruin a perfectly good myth with facts, reason, and evidence! But you do agree that they probably drove to Memphis in a car?

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers - 'S Make It (Japanese Polygram/Limelight)

Dudu Pukwana DeDe Pierce Idi Amin Dada

I "knew" this, but have never articulated it to myself (or anyone else) this clearly. Great comment. I would guess that many folks here know the story of Willie Kizart's guitar sound on "Rocket 88" by Ike Turner/Jackie Brenston. The band drove from Clarksdale to Sun Studio in Memphis jammed into one car, with the equipment strapped to the top. Somewhere along the way a policeman decided that they looked suspicious and pulled them over; as they pulled onto the shoulder, the guitar amp fell off the roof, damaging the cone of the speaker. The cop decided that they were okay and sent them on. When they got to the studio, they made do with the broken amp - they "fixed" the cone with a piece of paper and rocked.

Tuts Washington Toots Hibbert Dr. Julius Hibbert

Go back further than that - to West African musicians putting beads on their kalimbas and gourds on their balafons to "dirty up" the sound.

Mad King Ludwig Beethoven Symphony Sid

I like Helm, too. Hope you enjoy the CDs.

A friend bluntly, but accurately, described me as "a moody fuck." I was in a dark mood today, but an hour and a half among the shellac was highly therapeutic. I covered a lot of bases, with some old favorites and some new discs. Hot Lips Page - If I Were You/Small Fry (Bluebird, 1938) Page plays and sings with more commitment than these lousy songs deserve. And Benny Waters has a short tenor solo on the first side. Hot Lips Page - Uncle Sam Blues/Paging Mr. Page (Savoy, 1944) The Changing Face of Harlem album uses a different take of "Uncle Sam Blues" - finding lesser-known takes is one of the small joys of 78s. Hot Lips Page - Let Me In/That's the One For Me (RCA Victor, 1951) Genial R & B, with some nice playing by Paul Quinichette. Sacasas and His Orchestra - Mambo/I Cherish a Memory (RCA Victor, 1946) Side one is nice Afro-Cuban - side two is weaker, as you might guess from the title. Illinois Jacquet - All of Me/Pastel (Mercury, 1951) Excellent, with Carl Perkins on piano. Illinois Jacquet - The Cool Rage/Lean Baby (Mercury, 1951) A delight, with Basie on organ. "Lean Baby" is apparently also a rare take. James Moody - Moody's Home/Serenade in Blue (Mercury, 1951) Not as good as he was by the end of the decade, but still very nice. Sensational Nightingales - The Lord Will Make a Way/To the End (Peacock, mid 50s) The more I hear by this group, the more I like them. Sensational Nightingales - Pressing On/View That Holy City (Peacock, mid 50s) "Holy City" is the old spiritual "I'm Going to Cross the River Jordan." I was surprised to learn from the label that Don Robey wrote that old song, which Blind Willie Johnson had recorded 30 years earlier. How 'bout that? Anyway, the Nightingales take it to a pretty interesting place - by the end, the lead singer is riffing about "no more discrimination, no segregation, no North, no South." Sons of Jehova (sic) - Teach Me Lord/High Cost of Living (Nashboro, 1957) I'd never heard of this group, but I found a review of this record in the October 7, 1957 Billboard. (Side one got a rating of 78, side two just 74.) They're rough and very soulful; "Teach Me Lord" has some nasty guitar. Lowell Fulson - Trouble Blues/I Want to See My Baby (Big Town, mid 40s, I think) "Trouble" is rougher and more down-home than I'm used to from Fulson. Very worn record, but nice. Lowell Fulson - I've Been Mistreated/Juke Box Shuffle (Swing Time, early 50s, I think) Another of the joys of 78s is the vibrancy and immediacy of the sound, even with surface noise. Okay, I feel better now.

Isn't that a great album?!?

Part the third: 11. Coltrane’s “Mr. Syms” played by a genial trio. Nothing wrong with it, except that it’s so genial. It’s pretty, but I can’t tell that the tune means much to these guys (or girls). Kind of a yawn for me. 12. I like it. Good, Ornette- and Rollins-influenced music. The tenor plays with enough edge to make it interesting. The bass player has kind of a Haden-esque sound, although it’s obviously not Charlie Haden. Gut strings? I’m not crazy about piano and string players singing/mumbling along with their solos (unless it’s Slam Stewart), but everything else was so good that I’ll forgive that. No idea who anyone is. 13. Nice quartet, with their own sound. Everybody’s good; the piece is good; the concept is good. The bass clarinetist has a beautiful sound, particularly in the high register. I’m looking forward to finding out more about this group. 14. Okay, I’m probably slamming some musicians I like on this one. “Spiritual Jazz” over a one- or two-chord vamp can be such an easy way out. Not to say that there’s not some incredible music in this style, but there’s much more lousy music that comes out of this approach. Nothing here got to me. The piano solo was kind of a mess – all over the place. And I’m probably going to cringe about saying that when I find out who it is. I like the drummer and conga player. But this isn’t anything I’m going to want to hear again. 15. This was too willfully odd for me to get much out of. I kept focusing on how the toms were almost, but not quite, tuned to fit the key of the song. The best thing about it was the very brief organ solo – whoever it was showed some talent. I think we were “supposed” to think this is early Sun Ra, but I’m pretty sure it’s not. Thanks for the BFT. I like most of it, and some of it I like very much. Looking forward to reading the rest of this thread now.

I'm in, and already have the music, of course.

When I was 12 and had just taken up the saxophone, my sweet mom got me my first jazz album, which I still love: Ya! Ya! by Budd Johnson on Argo. The inner sleeve had pictures of dozens of Argo jazz albums, and I spent hours poring over it, trying to figure out this jazz stuff. One of the albums pictured was the JUNK album, and I eventually figured out that it was some sort of joke. It took me years to track down a copy. It's a parody of a JATP - type concert. All I can say is that it's a mixed bag in terms of humor. Some of it is over-the-top slapstick, like "Morris Ferguson's" trumpet, which is speeded up, Chipmunk-style. The Brubeck parody is pretty deadly, and "Sol Desmond" makes me laugh out loud. A comic masterpiece it's not, but I spin it a couple of time a year, and I always laugh a few times. That ain't bad.

Well, I tripled the size of my calypso 78 collection today. As I said in a previous post, calypso 78s seem to be prized among collectors, so when they appear on Ebay, they quickly go out of my price range. I knew that to add to my calypso collection, I'd have to come across a stash or two on my own somewhere. I stumbled on six such records in a stack of 78s in an antique store today - on U.S., British, and Trinidanian labels. There's not a loser in the bunch: Lord Kitchener - Africa My Home/My Landlady (Melodisc) Mighty Spoiler - The Bed Bug/What the Scientist Say (Calypso) I haven't caught all the lyrics to these songs yet, and that's a lot of the fun of these records. I got most of "What the Scientist Say," though, and it's pretty bizarre/funny. King Flash and His Calypso Masters - Confusion Calypso/Black Bird (Monogram) Russell Henderson and His Orchestra featuring Syl Dopson on his Clarinet - Ju-C Jingle/In Ah Calabash (Sagomes) So now I know another calypso clarinetist. I like Syl, but he's not in the same league as Gregory Felix. King Radio (Norman Span) - Brown Skin Girl/Melody (Fitzroy Alexander) - McDonald Almanac (Sagomes) Mighty Spitfire - Post! Post!/Pounding Rice Fine (Sagomes) I told my wife that I was going to ask for my money back on this one, because "Pounding Rice Fine" seems to have very little to do with the processing of foodstuffs. From what I can tell, the Lord Kitchener record was recorded in London, all the others in Trinadad. They're all wonderful - this was a good day in the 78 world.

Part two; # 6-10: 6. Sounds like a European percussionist – or someone influenced by that skittery approach to free jazz drumming. It’s a real dialogue – the bassist’s entrance was a perfect response to what the drummer was doing at that time. But each of the three players is maintaining a certain amount of independence in his/her line – it’s like they’re all going in the same direction, but not always on the same path. I like this approach to free improvisation; it keeps things from getting either too predictable or too chaotic. The trombonist is very melodic, although someone not used to this kind of music might not hear it that way. Thumbs up on this one. 7. Hmmm…. Well, once we’re past the Rodrigo/Sketches of Spain introduction, I like this well enough. Nothing about it really gets to me strongly, except the flute player’s distinctive sound – on an instrument that it’s hard to have an individual sound on. Don’t know who it is. 8. This one drove me nuts for a little while – I knew the tenor player was someone with whom I was familiar, but I couldn’t place him at first. It’s Odean Pope, playing a tune he called “Prince Lasha” on another album. Since that other album also featured Lasha, there’s a chance that this trio recording (which I’ve never heard before) has a different title. Good, strong playing, with an awareness of all the jazz tradition, not just the Lincoln Center-approved parts. 9. Good stuff – a beautifully conceived and played tenor solo. Is it Joe McPhee? Whoever it is, it’s good. 10. A nice swinging, well-organized trumpet solo – an improvised rondo, in a way. There were 15 seconds I didn’t like – the bugle call passage. But I can forgive that – this is a nice piece of music. No idea who it is.

I'm with you on this.

Duke and Tina arrived today - thanks.