jeffcrom

Le Jazz en France, Volume 1: Paris 1919-1923; Premiers Jazz Bands (EMI) An interesting anthology. The French bands (going back to 1919) sound about five years behind American developments - which is understandable, considering what had been going on in Europe. The visiting Americans are hipper. Mitchell's Jazz Kings sound pretty good for 1921/22; not compared to New Orleans bands, but good in a New York/Johnny Dunn kind of way. And there are three 1923 tracks by Billy Arnold's Novelty Jazz Band which compare favorably to what Fletcher Henderson was doing at the time.

The Coleman Hawkins title was an alternate of "Cattin' At Keynote" (Feb 17, 1944) - was on Meritt LP 25 & is not on the Hawkins 4CD set The omitted Hawkins track was in fact the master take which had been issued on 78. The box (and the subsequent CD set) only contained the alternate, and Dan Morgenstern in his otherwise excellent notes denies the existence of a second take as listed in discographies. Thanks for the info. I've enjoyed the 4-CD Complete Coleman Hawkins Keynote box for years, and didn't know about this missing take. This is when having a 78 rig helps - I just went on Ebay and found the Keynote 78 of "Cattin' at Keynote" for a good Buy It Now price. The seller also had a couple of Don Byas 78s I had been looking for.

I've got a 45 RPM single from that session - picked up at the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago. I agree with your assessment: good, but not earth-shattering.

Collecting 78s takes you to some unexpected places. I just spent an hour listening to Harry James 78s - not because I'm a Harry James fan, but because I acquired eight Harry James records when I bought a collection of 78s recently. I actually debated whether or not to go through the trouble of cleaning and playing them - I thought about just throwing them out. I'm glad I kept them and I'm glad I listened tonight. The records range in date from 1940 to 1953, and I enjoyed them all except for the most recent. James is generally the weakest soloist - he seems to have lost the freshness and directness he had in the mid 1930s - but otherwise the instrumentals swing. There are a couple of nice Jimmy Mundy charts, and James seems to have realized that he had a treasure during the period Willie Smith was in the band - Smith solos on half of the eight sides he plays on. And Harry does play one solo I like - a nice, understated, muted outing on Mundy's "Jump Town." And the vocal/pop tunes are generally well done - one of the sides is "Stella by Starlight," and this was the first recording of the song. Arnold Ross plays piano on a couple of the records, but unfortunately doesn't solo. I also have a 10" Columbia LP of 1940s James material - Trumpet Time, and a Jazz Legends CD called The Jazz Sides: 1937-1947. Amazingly, there is no duplication among my 78s, the LP, and the CD. I think I'll pop in that CD and listen to his quartet sides with Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons next.

Just listened to the session Allen is talking about - on a CD called Luckey Roberts & Ralph Sutton: The Circle Recordings on Solo Art (a Jazzology label, as Allen thought). It's very good, but I do think that the 1958 Harlem Piano album with Willie the Lion Smith on the other side is even better. And among the interesting 78s I brought home from my recent Washington vacation is a 12" Victor record by the Victor Military Band playing Luckey's "Music box Rag" from 1915 - very cool.

Albert Ayler - Holy Ghost (Revenant) Disc four - Live from La Cave, Cleveland, with Frank Wright sitting in.

Michael & Colin have been added to the list.

A strange one to finish my evening: Fletcher Henderson/Bill Harris/Sidney Bechet: First, Last & Only Concert From Kimball Hall, Otterburn - Flint, Michigan (Big Chief-Jerollomo) It's just the issue that's strange, not the music, which is excellent. It's a John Steiner-recorded concert from 1947, from Chicago's Kimball Hall. Also on hand is tenor saxophonist Otis Finch, who was playing with Henderson's big band at the time and who was drummer Candy Finch's father.

Okay boys and girls, lets get reorganized. Here's the current list: # 76 - Bill Barton - July, 2010 (completed) # 77 - clifford_thornton - August, 2010 (completed) # 78 - Hot Ptah - September, 2010 (current) # 79 - Michael Weiss - October, 2010 # 80 - colinmce - November, 2010 # 81 - Tom in RI - December, 2010 # 82 - jeffcrom - January, 2011 # 83 - king ubu - February, 2011 # 95 - Thom Keith - February, 2012 We need some more folks who would like to present a Blindfold Test. I would like to take January - although that's flexible, and I can move up or back as needed. The Blindfold Test FAQ is kind of outdated, so until I have a chance to fully update it, here's a quick and dirty BFT guide: If you want to present a BFT: Post in the BlindFold Test Master Signup Thread and send me a PM. I would prefer that you do both, but if you forget and just do one or the other, don't worry. If you are scheduled to present a BFT: Start a sign-up thread in the month before you're scheduled to present. You can start this thread anytime after the presenter before you has started their discussion thread. I would start your sign-up thread at least two weeks before your test is scheduled to start. Be ready to send out your download links and start your discussion thread on the first day of the month. Physical discs can be sent out a few days in advance for those who need them. Wind everything up by the last day of the month. If you want to reveal your answers a few at a time, start a day or two before the end of the month, so that the next presenter can start on the first of the month. I think the consensus was that each BFT should be no longer than one CD's length. I would like to see this strictly adhered to - if you have more than 75 minutes of material you'd like to present, save some for your next BFT - you'll have another chance. Most of us who participate as listeners prefer to download the BFT through a file-sharing site such as Mediafire or Rapidshare, but there are still participants who prefer to receive a physical CD. Be prepared to share your BFT through both methods. If you are uncertain about how to upload files to a file-sharing site, contact me (jeffcrom) for help. If you feel totally lost concerning the process, you can send me a copy of your BFT CD and I will upload the files. By the same token, if you have logistical or financial problems with mailing out physical CDs, let me know and I can do that for you. Ideally, I'd like for each presenter to wait a year before presenting another BFT. That may change depending on how many folks are interested in presenting. I'll schedule presenters using a variety of factors, such as order of requests received and number of BFTs they've already presented. I'll try to be as fair as possible. If you have never participated in a BFT, consider doing so, as a listener or presenter. It's a lot of fun, and I've been exposed to lots of good music I didn't know about.

I'm the new BFT "manager," Michael - drop me a PM. I've asked clifford_thornton to take BFT #77 - it was originally to be his month anyway. I'll get an updated thread up soon, then we need some more folks to do BFTs - watch this space.

Cecil Taylor's second recording - Newport, 1957, from the Verve Masters of the Modern Piano double LP. This is the only issue I've ever had of this wonderful set. My first impression tonight of Steve Lacy's playing here was that he wasn't quite ready for Cecil at this stage, but then came his masterful solo on "Tune 2." Who else, except for Taylor himself, could have improvised so well on this 88-bar structure?

Well, you've got until the end of the month. A few days before that would be appropriate, if everyone has had their say.

It's been tough to avoid this thread, but I wanted to listen and post before reading anything here. Here goes: 1. Wow! What a great start to this BFT. This is a really nice, swinging piece of contemporary big band jazz. Wonderful colors here. Don’t recognize the tenor sax soloist at all; the trombonist sounds like George Lewis to me, but it might just be someone using a similar vocabulary. Nothing about this music is obvious – I like it a lot. 2. After the last track, this one sounded very conventional at first. But there’s a lot going on here – shifting time signatures, changing textures, great solos. It’s Dave Holland’s group, of course, although I don’t know the name of the tune. I was wondering if the soloists were Eubanks and Potter; then Mr. Holland did me the favor of introducing them. I love the collective improvisation at the end. Really good quality recording for a club. Primo stuff! 3. Well, I sure didn’t know that this was going to be “I Want to Talk About You” from the introduction. Outstanding tenor playing, which is the point of this recording. Is it Billy Harper? Don’t really know what band it is – whether it’s the tenor player’s band or not, but I like it. 4. I wanted to like this more than I did. It seemed kind of schizophrenic to me – all the parts didn’t hang together that well, and some of the sections weren’t that interesting to me. Good players, but it didn’t really grab me. 5. Cool flute section texture at the beginning. After that, this just confuses me. It sure sounds like Stan Getz, but I’m not familiar with the recording at all. It’s very “soundtracky” and episodic. Don’t have a clue about the bari and soprano soloists. The synth solo, if that’s what it is, is a bizarre touch. This is interesting – not great, but interesting. 6. Excellent mix of composition and improvisation. It’s episodic, but the sections flow together very well. I like the trumpet duet, which is one of the main points of the piece. No idea what group this is, but it’s very good. 7. I really enjoyed hearing Steve Lacy, who is one of my favorite musicians and something of a personal hero. This is Anthony Brown’s Asian American Orchestra playing “Pannonica” from the Monk’s Moods album. Well, it’s four of them anyway, since the whole ensemble is not used on this track. Lacy does something really wonderful during his improvisation – he anticipates the chord changes, sometimes by as much as two beats. It’s a great effect – he was such a master at playing Monk’s music. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. 8. Interesting, subtle big band piece. Overall, I like it, but one section, which was a succession of overly regular two-bar phrases, bothered me a little. Really nice plunger trombone. The “hymn” at the end is a cool touch. Nice stuff - I really enjoyed most of it. Thanks for putting this together.

Cal Tjader - Soul Burst (Verve) I picked this up because of Teasing the Korean's recommendation. I like it.

Today's favorite 78 spins, old and new: (Well, they're all old, of course, but some are new to me.) Victor Military Band - Chinatown, My Chinatown/Music Box Rag (12" Victor - 1914) I picked up this record because "Music Box" is a Lucky Roberts composition, and because I love those old concert band records of ragtime. Earl Hines Sextet- Life With Fatha/I Love My Lovin' Lover (Apollo - 1944) A great little pickup band with Ray Nance, Oscar Pettiford, and Johnny Hodges. I guess Hodges' name couldn't be used - he's listed on the label as "J. Harjes." The great Betty Roche does the vocal on the second side. Earl Hines Orchestra - Straight Life/Now That You're Mine (ARA - 1946) The last gasp of the Hines big band. "Straight Life" is really nice, with a killer Wardell Gray tenor solo. Earl Hines Swingtette - Lazy Morning'/Keyboard Kapers (MGM - 1947) Just Hines and a rhythm section - Floyd Smith, Arvell Shaw, and Sid Catlett. Bert Williams - It's Nobody's Business But My Own/Everybody Wants a Key to My Cellar (Columbia, 1919) I wonder how many of the white record buyers who laughed at this one realized what "Key to My Cellar" was really about. Teddy Wilson Quintet - I Surrender Dear/Runnin' Wild (Musicraft - 1945) Outstanding - with Red Norvo and Charlie Shavers. I've got to acknowledge that one line in Harry Hershfield's dated 1920 comedy record "Abe Kabibble Dictates a Letter" made me laugh out loud: "You bought us two tickets to the Metropolitan Opera to hear Mary Garden sing. I ain't goin' - I heard an imitation of her last night, and she was terrible."

Sidney Bechet - King of the Soprano Saxophone (Good Time Jazz) French recordings from the fifties. The standout session is the 1954 date with Jonah Jones and a French rhythm section - Sidney was at his best with a strong trumpet player to keep him in line. And it occurred to me that some here might not know that Good Time Jazz was Contemporary's traditional jazz subsidiary. I wish they had come up with a better name.

I just got back to Atlanta from Bellingham, Washington, halfway between Seattle and Vancouver. I watched Independence Day fireworks in a sweater and under a blanket. It's going to be 96 degrees F here tomorrow.

I guess this is the place to post this: The World of Duke Ellington, Vol. 1 (Columbia) The first of three late-40s/early 50s two-LP sets. In my case I'm listening to them digitized and dumped to iPod, since I'm away from home. Somebody in the world must have issued these on CD, though - iTunes recognized my home-made CDs. There is some absolutely brilliant stuff here from a somewhat overlooked period. The best tracks are as good as anything Ellington ever did, except for a handful of absolute masterpieces.

My first Al Cohn album was a three-pocket 45 RPM EP set - The Natural Thing to Do. I'm going by memory, but I think the personnel is Cohn, Joe Newman, Frank Rehak, Nat Pierce, Freddie Green, Osie Johnson, and (had to look this up) Milt Hinton.

I'm far from home, in Bellingham, Washington, which is halfway between Seattle and Vancouver. I visited an independent CD store in town and was very impressed by their jazz section. Even after putting half of my original stack back, I walked out with these used CDs: Archie Shepp - Steam (Enja) Don Patterson - Boppin' & Burnin' (Prestige OJC) When I had fewer than ten jazz albums, Don Patterson played on one of them - a Verve Gene Ammons/Sonny Stitt. Albert Ayler - At Slugs' Saloon (ESP) Joe McPhee Po Music - Linear B (Hat Art) Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet - The Year of the Elephant (Pi) Don Cherry - Live at Cafe Montmarte, Vol. 2 My favorite Atlanta CD store always has Vol. 1 & 3, but I've never seen Vol. 2. Coleman Hawkins - Big Band 1940 (Jazz Anthology) David Newman - Captain Buckles (Label M) Recommended by The Magnificent Goldberg. Several of these have been on my want list for some time, so this was a fun afternoon.

Classic jazz in two flavors: George Lewis at Dixieland Hall (Nobility) A 1965 recording from Preservation Hall's short-lived competitor. The little-remembered New Orleans trumpeter Josh Willis played with Lewis for much of the 1960s. I love his playing; he was a generation younger than Lewis, and showed an awareness of both Bobby Hackett and Dizzy Gillespie. Lester Young/JATP - Carnegie Blues (Verve) Prez sounds good on the 1946 tracks, fabulous in 1953, and kind of sad in 1957.

She'll always be Ms. "I'm Beginning to See the Light" for me.

George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet - Life Line (Timeless)

Stanley Turrentine - Another Story (BN) This one has been much discussed here lately. It really is a great album - right now it's my favorite Turrentine record, although that can change at any time, of course.

Okay, I had just posted a Roy Haynes album, but mjzee beat me by seconds with this one, so... My first Dave Holland album was Conference of the Birds: Holland, Barry Altschul, Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers.