jeffcrom

One side each of: Anthony Braxton - Alto Saxophone Improvisations 1979 and For Trio (Arista)

John LaPorta - The Most Minor (Everest mono - before they became a bootleg/gray market label)

Great stuff, Bill. I've got to get that Varner. And I kind of hate to admit that there is one bandleader here I had never heard of....

Chico Freeman - Morning Prayer (India Navigation)

Tonight, an odd one I picked up in Sweden: Arne Domnerus 3 - Songs of Simon (Sonet) Domnerus, Rune Gustafsson, and Georg Riedel play Paul Simon songs, from 1972. It's kind of a period piece, but a well-done, entertaining one.

The tune is "The Peacocks," by Jimmy Rowles. Don't know the recording, though.

If nothing else, you should go back and get it to resell. It's pretty hard to find, and is in demand among Lacy collectors. One side is solo - it's good; maybe not the best solo Lacy performance. The other side is with two members of MEV - Musica Elettronica Viva. This side is not "typical" Lacy, if there is such a thing, and not particularly "jazzy." It is excellent avant-garde (for lack of a better term) music. The synth is used for color, not in any kind of pop/fusion fashion. This is Lacy's music at its most challenging - not for the Lacy neophyte. Like I say, it's a sought-after item. I bought a new copy back in the day, and it sounded like crap from day one - Horo pressings are famously poor. Great minds....

The Klezmorim - Metropolis (Flying Fish)

For anyone interested in New Orleans music (and who uses iTunes), I strongly recommend "It Ain't My Fault," the new single/video download by the Gulf Aid Allstars, consisting of Mos Def, Lenny Kravitz, Trombone Shorty, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. For two bucks you get the single and a pretty cool video of the band performing the old New Orleans song, which takes on a new meaning under the circumstances. Rather than a one-star-after-another, "We Are the World" type of thing, it's a well-integrated performance, with Mos Def in the spotlight most of the time, doing some very pointed rapping and beautiful singing. Joe Lastie's amazing drumming proves that New Orleans second-line drumming is way funkier than anything in conventional hip-hop. Proceeds go to the Gulf Relief Foundation. Sorry if I sound like a paid shill. This track really got to me; I highly recommend it.

Stan Getz - At Montreux (Polydor) The "Captain Marvel" band - four months later and really cooking. I don't know if this has been issued in the States - I picked it up in Sweden.

One reason I'm enjoying my 78 obsession so much is the sense of discovery - you never know what surprises await in the next stack of shellac in a junk store. When I can find them cheap, I buy 78s by dance bands from the 1920s. I do this because: 1) Excellent jazz bands sometimes used pseudonyms on small labels. I have a record on the Melotone label by "Earl Harlan and His Orchestra" that is really Don Redman's band, for instance. 2) Lots of otherwise ordinary dance records had good solos - sometimes from pretty big name jazz players. 3) Truth be told, I kind of like 20s dance band records, even if the above two conditions don't exist. I picked up a few such records from an antique store today, and a couple of them paid off. Nat Shilkret's band doing "That's My Weakness Now" has some nice solos - not by any really big names. But the real surprise was "What'll You Do?" by Johnny Hamp's Kentucky Serenaders. It's just okay until a spectacular trombone solo about halfway through. I thought it must be by some big-name studio guy - Teagarden, even - but from the research I've done it seems to be the Serenaders' regular trombonist, one William Benedict. I can't find any reference to him except passing mentions as the trombonist in this band. I'll be looking for more Johnny Hamp records to see if Benedict was really that good or if he got lucky in the studio that day in 1927.

Jeez - the numbering error is totally my fault. Clifford was going by the BFT number I gave him. I know what happened - it basically comes down to me not being very smart. This will be BFT #77, of course.

Ten years is a long time for band. Best of luck to all.

Not a bad introduction at all - it's some of his best mid-to-late 40's work, rivaled (and maybe surpassed) by the Aladdin and Keynote recordings. I particularly like the boppish 1949 session with Jesse Drake, Junior Mance, and Roy Haynes. (Edited because I can't spell.)

I'm in for a download. Looking forward to it.

Where ya at, Joel? Happy Birthday!

One and a half Sun Ra albums on the Saturn label: The Sound Mirror - Side one is a studio-recorded sermon over the "I, Pharaoh" vamp; side two is from the 1978 quartet tour of Italy. "Hiroshima" - A mid-80s pipe organ solo recorded on "Mighty Mo," the organ at the Fox Theatre, a few miles from my house in Atlanta. The other side, which I didn't listen to tonight, is by the Sun Ra All Stars, with Lester Bowie and Archie Shepp. Both of these are in plain white sleeves; the labels are blank except for the master number for each side written in pencil. The Campbell/Trent Sun Ra discography was very helpful in figuring out what I had.

Haven't seen that one before. A boot of the Milestone Lighthouse recording? Good question, and I don't know the answer. The tunes are: "Invitation," "Lofty" and "What's Mine Is Yours." It's the same band and the same time period, but it's not the same material. Reviews and discographies don't seem to know quite where this material came from.

Tonight: Volume 2: Black Bands in Paris 1929-1930. This one has two good tracks by Eddie South and a couple of interesting poetry-with-jazz tracks (the first ever?) by Jean Cocteau that made me wish I spoke French. But most of the album is taken up by Sam Wooding, whose music is a maddening mixture of quality jazz, bizarre vocals, bad songs ("I Lift Up My Finger and Say 'Tweet Tweet'"), and lame arrangements. He's got some good soloists, though - Doc Cheatham, Albert Wynn, and Gene Sedric. Now on Volume 3: Willie Lewis and His Entertainers 1935-1937. Benny Carter contributes some amazing alto, trumpet, and arrangements.

Woody Shaw - United (Columbia)

I love the Blackhawk album. Monk with more horns that just Charlie Rouse is always interesting to me, and Harold Land give Rouse a run for his money at times. And it's the album I learned "Four in One" from. I like this one a lot. The Italian and French concerts do have a bit of a "same old thing" feel, although the quartet does play some tunes ("Jackie-ing" and "San Francisco Holiday") that Monk neglected later. Monk is almost always good, but I'd say that these aren't essential. And I like the addition of Pee Wee to the quartet at Newport, even though opinions are mixed as to whether it really worked. This is the most complete issue, and I like the 1965 set; even though it's "just" the quartet again, they're in good form.

Duke Ellington - Concerts in Canada (Ellington '87) Side one is from Stratford, 1956; side two (which I listened to tonight) is from Winnipeg, May, 1973 - one of Ellington's last recorded performances. I wish Ellington had made more use of Johnny Coles during the 70s, but Coles was always featured on "How High the Moon," and there's a nice version here. The high point is probably a really good version of "La Plus Belle Africaine," the great latter-day Harry Carney feature.

Tonight: Volume 2: Black Bands in Paris 1929-1930. This one has two good tracks by Eddie South and a couple of interesting poetry-with-jazz tracks (the first ever?) by Jean Cocteau that made me wish I spoke French. But most of the album is taken up by Sam Wooding, whose music is a maddening mixture of quality jazz, bizarre vocals, bad songs ("I Lift Up My Finger and Say 'Tweet Tweet'"), and lame arrangements. He's got some good soloists, though - Doc Cheatham, Albert Wynn, and Gene Sedric.

Happy, happy!

Eddie Miller/Armand Hug - Just Friends (Land o' Jazz)