jeffcrom

I don't post nearly as much as I used to, but visit every day. I kicked in last year and will certainly do so again this year. A schedule, or any method that's agreed to is okay by me.

Albert Ayler at John Colrane's funeral - July 21, 1967. From the Holy Ghost box set. So lo-fi that you can't even hear my favorite bassist, Richard Davis. No matter - this is six and a half minutes of beautiful, intense melody.

I got it as soon as it came out (of course). I'm across the country from my records and CDs and can't refresh my memory with a new spin, but I would say that it's good, but probably not great. Lots of good music, and a few pieces that are not to be found elsewhere, but overall not my favorite solo Lacy album. And I find the Hedges suite with a dancer just kind of odd as an audio experience. There are just too many hints that we're getting little more than half the performance. Essential for Lacy near-competists like me, but not for anyone else, probably.

The Definitive Roswell Rudd (Horo). Solo/overdubs, with multiple trombones, piano, bass, percussion, and vocals.

Just an aside to say that I love reading your stories, Chuck - or, like this, not even stories, just little snippets of jazz and blues history.

There's a lot I haven't heard, but here are my ten favorite new releases and exemplary reissues from 2107. Not just jazz, and annotations included when I thought they would be helpful. Roscoe Mitchell - Bells for the South Side (ECM) Steve Lacy - Free for a Minute (Emanem) Nick Mazzarella/Tomeka Reid - Signaling (Nessa) Bill Pritchard - Amplituba (Amplituba). A virtuoso Atlanta tuba player improvising with loops and electronics. Scary and awesome. Thelonious Monk - Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 (Sam) Bill Evans - Another Time: The Hilversum Concert (Resonance) Lester Bowie - Numbers 1 & 2 (Nessa) Bent Frequency Duo Project - Diamorpha (Centaur). Atlanta "classical" new music saxophone/percussion duo. Randy Newman - Dark Matter (Nonesuch). His best album in many years. Allman Brothers Band - The Fox Box (Peach). First "real" CD issue of a set previously available as a download or "instant" CDr. Three nights in Atlanta in 2004 - a high point by the final lineup of the band. And how about some lagniappe: Preservation Hall Jazz Band - So it Is (Legacy). Thoroughly contemporary New Orleans music, touched by R & B and Cuba.

Most of my New Orleans musician friends are being tight-lipped about this. The ones who will express an opinion all have some sarcastic variation on "It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."

Happy belated birthday!

Cool! I downloaded the first two volumes, but tend not to listen to downloads much - a function of my age and preferences, I guess.

John Hurt definitely qualifies as a songster. The Piedmont guys vary - Willie McTell was a songster, with a wide repertoire of ballads and non-blues. Buddy Moss was pretty much strictly a bluesman. And of course, these classifications are fluid, and certainly didn't matter to the musicians.

Oh, jeez, I love Blind Blake. His work/legacy might fall into place if you think of him as a songster, rather than a bluesman. For those who don't know the term, "songster" generally means a late 19th/early 20th century African-American musician who performed a variety of vernacular songs (not just blues) with guitar accompaniment. (Think Leadbelly or Frank Stokes.) That's what Blake was, but he was also a virtuoso guitarist. I love his Paramount recordings with Johnny Dodds. And check out "Southern Rag," where he displays familiarity with the Gullah/Geechee dialect and musical style of the Georgia/South Carolina Sea Islands. (The Sea Islands, like the Mississippi Hill Country, were one of those places where African-Americans lived in relative isolation until the 20th century, and where musical traditions changed more slowly.) He wasn't a "deep" bluesman. But he was amazing.

Some late-night Ellington - Mood Ellington, a Columbia 4-record album from 1948. (I also have the 10" LP.) "The Clothed Woman" (side six) is one of Ellington's masterpieces. Gunther Schuller described the solo piano passages as atonal, but he was wrong - it's the blues, old man.

In kinda chronological order: King Oliver's 1923 Creole Jazz Band sides (Preferably the Off The Record issue. Well, really, preferably the original 78s, but I've only got three of those now.) Can I do boxes? I have the IRD Complete Bix Beiderbecke set - I would probably use my misfortune as excuse to upgrade to a more recent complete Bix box. The Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens, or at least the stuff with Earl Hines. A collection of Charlie Parker's Dial sides. Duke Ellington - The Great Paris Concert Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come Miles Davis - Miles Smiles John Coltrane - Meditations Anthony Braxton - Creative Orchestra Music Steve Lacy - 5 x Monk 5 x Lacy Jeez - no Ayler, no Sonny Rollins, no Roscoe Mitchell, no Monk, no Lester Young, no Jelly Roll. Limiting it to ten is painful. And that's just jazz. I listen to other things, too.

Today's vinyl, so far: Eugene Rousseau Plays Saxophone (Coronet). Very good (but not great) classical saxophone. Jimmy McCracklin - My Answer (Imperial mono) Jimmy McCracklin - Shame, Shame Shame/My Answer (Art-tone single) Chick Corea - Trio Music (ECM). Record one, all improvised. Probably my favorite post-Circle Corea. Record two, the Monk pieces, not so much. Sunny Murray - Apple Cores (Philly Jazz) Max Roach - Lift Every Voice and Sing (Atlantic)

Just wanted to opine that I think we can increase James Booker's discography by one item. This morning I listened to this 1961 LP - Fats Domino Presents Dave Bartholomew and his Great Big Band on Imperial. It's a fun album by a crack big band of great New Orleans musicians, performing tunes associated with Fats. The main soloist is an organist named on in the credits as "Bobby James." I did a good bit of poking around the internet and in my copy of Ruppli's Imperial discography today, and Mr. James seems to have only existed for this one session. Since James Booker played on just about every Bartholomew recording during this period, I think we can safely assume that Bobby James and James Booker are one and the same. This album was made during the "Gonzo" period, when Booker was under contract to Peacock. He recorded frequently on New Orleans R & B sessions during this period, but almost always for singles, on which there would be no personnel listings on the labels. This album was different - the personnel is listed on the back.

The French newspaper Libération is reporting that drummer Sunny Murray died yesterday at the age of 82.

Three very different LPs tonight, spun in the correct ( ) order: Derek Bailey/George Lewis/John Zorn - Yankees (Celluloid/OAO). I don't have as much patience with "non-idiomatic free improvisation" as I used to, probably because there's so much of it in Atlanta and it's almost always terrible. I hadn't spun Yankees in probably five years, but dang! It's great. I love how Zorn usually chooses to act as a foil / goad to the other players rather than taking a cooperative role. Curtis Amy - Mustang (Verve mono). Tonight's spin of the fun, unimportant album was prompted by the fact that I just found out the "Eva Harris" who sings Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love" is in reality the great Merry Clayton, who was married to Amy. I'm kind of slow, I guess. Preservation Hall Jazz Band - Run Stop & Drop (The Needle). At one time I would have been horrified by the way Ben Jaffe has turned the main Preservation Hall touring band into something of an R & B band. At this point in my life and the life of Preservation Hall, I think it's a pretty cool development. And for good measure: Fats Domino - Have You Seen My Baby?/Make Me Belong to You (Reprise single). Randy Newman wrote "Have You Seen My Baby?" for Fats - it's in Domino's style, but with just enough Newman oddness to be a bit of a stretch for Fat. It was recorded during the 1968 Fats is Back sessions, but not included on that album.

I mentioned in the 78 thread that I was going to make a blog post about Curtis Amy's first record, made at the age of 19 or so for the Gold Star label in Houston. I thought that it might be interesting even for those who don't look at that thread, so I'm putting it here. Enjoy, and feel free to poke around my 78 blog. https://78rpmblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/curtis-amys-first-record.html

Yes, they're acoustics. That's not the original sleeve. When I come across a vintage sleeve that seems right for a record I already have, I put them together. In retrospect, I didn't do so well with that pairing. The National Recovery Administration logo dates it to 1933 or after.

DId a particularly geeky 78 collector thing tonight and played both issued takes of Fletcher Henderson's 1925 "Then I'll Be Happy" back to back - take one on Banner and take two on Oriole, which was the McCrory's dime store label. Joe Smith's trumpet solo is very similar on both takes. Coleman Hawkins takes a great solo on each, starting with the same phrase, but then going in very different directions. Then for good measure, I spun Fletcher's 1924 "How Come You Do Me Like You Do" on Regal, with some hot Louis Armstrong.

That's the one I've got. It has a vaguely cheap look, but sounds just fine.

While cooking dinner (and cleaning up): Panorama Jazz Band / Panorama Brass Band - Good Music for You. This is the Panorama's never-ending digital album - one track to download each month for subscribers. I think it's up to 45 tracks now. Tonight I listened to the past year's worth, more or less. Now: Steve Lacy - Sortie, from Free for a Minute (Emanem)

Spontaneous Music Ensemble - Quintessence (Emanem). I'm listening to the entire February 3, 1974 concert - something I don't think I've ever done before. Some of the most stunning improvised music ever recording. I might even continue on into the 1973 odds and ends.

When I first heard the live recordings with Bird, my reaction was, "Wow - who is that guitarist?" I picked up his 1959 TV Action Jazz album for a buck, thinking it was going to be a silly, campy, hoot - but it's really good.

Mundell Lowe - Porgy & Bess (RCA Camden). RIP, Mundell Lowe.