jeffcrom

Earlier: Dave Brubeck - Jackpot Now: Archie Shepp - Kwanza (Impulse) Happy Birthday. And Grachan Moncur - yeah!

The final rehearsal was pretty intense; I think what we accomplished surprised us all. I'm really looking forward to this gig.

After reading this thread, I stopped on my way home from work at a record store which I knew had a large shelf of Brubeck albums. Sure enough, they had a nice stereo copy of Jackpot. Brubeck's liner notes imply that he was not happy with either the tuning or the action of the baby grand piano, and that he dealt with the situation by having a few more drinks than usual. (That last part could well be comic exaggeration.) The piano does indeed sound bad - somewhat out of tune (although not painfully so), but also just hard and unpleasant sounding. But on several of the tracks Brubeck does sound looser than usual - not necessarily a bad thing. I really like his solo on "Win a Few, Lose a Few." "Rude Old Man" is a nice bass feature, and Joe Morello has a long feature number; if you like long Joe Morello solos, it's a pretty good one. Desmond is his usual wonderful self, and plays particularly beautifully on "Out of Nowhere" and "You Go to My Head." Jackpot won't change anybody's life, but it's a nice album, and I'm glad I got it. I was hoping that the store would have a copy of the I Like Jazz album mentioned by Donald, but no such luck. They did have a couple of copies of the Brubeck/Bernstein record - I'll probably go back and get that one.

Music in which none of the twelve notes in the Western chromatic scale is given any more emphasis than any of the others. In the key of B flat, B flat is the most important note, F is (arguably) the next most important - those notes are given more weight. In twelve-tone music (and this is a simplified explanation), none of the twelve notes can recur until all twelve have appeared. Since none of the twelve tones is emphasized, there's little or no feeling of key center; the music is atonal - which doesn't mean it's cacophonous or chaotic; it just means that there's no key center. In jazz, besides Murphy, David Mack made a really nice album of twelve-tone music - it's pretty obscure. And John Carisi used a modified twelve-tone technique at times. More info here.

The Many Faces of Art Farmer (Scepter)

Richard Roberts Richard Rogers Lorenz Hart

Clifford Jordan - Hello, Hank Jones (East World/Toshiba EMI) 1978 Japanese direct-to-disc, with Jordan, Jones, Reggie Workman, and Freddie Waits.

Yes, but those reasons aren't always clear-cut, and they don't always have to do with the obvious superiority of the take finally chosen as master. Charlie Parker's are my favorite alternate takes; they are plenty of examples of takes on which Bird played a stunning solo, but Miles (or someone else) didn't have the head together yet. There are other Bird recordings where his solo was so good (and very different) on multiple takes that it must have been extremely difficult to choose a take for issue. And sometimes the master take isn't chosen for musical reasons at all. Think about Idle Moments - after the title tune ran to almost 15 minutes, they had to go back and record shorter versions of some of the already-finished tunes in order to get them to fit. The RVG edition has the 13-minute version of "Django" that was originally chosen to be the master. There are plenty of alternate takes that are less than enthralling, but the best ones are as worth hearing as anything else.

I'm listening to the "Funk in Deep Freeze" session now. Beautiful.

Don't have it at hand to check, but did you look at the back of the booklet (producer's note or something like that?) - usually they're quite accurate to note such mistakes, same as on other Blue Note discs, where there are notes about "phasing cymbals" etc... Yes, that's the first place I checked - I agree that they're quite thorough in pointing out problems in the source material. In a weird way, that makes me feel better. I can accept it more easily knowing that it's not just a defect in my copy.

Seymour Butts Moe Syzlak Sam Malone

For anyone close to Atlanta, I wanted to let you know that the Jeff Crompton Quartet will be having one of our infrequent appearances on Friday, May 28 at 9:00 PM at Kavarna in the Oakhurst neighborhood of Atlanta. Free jazz originals and probably some Ornette and Monk will on the menu. And if you don't like the music, Kavarna carries a killer Belgian beer called Le Fin du Monde which will take the top of your head off. Jeff Crompton Quartet (w/ Bill Nittler, Ben Gettys, & Keith Leslie) Friday, May 28; 9:00 PM Kavarna 707 East Lake Dr, Decatur, GA 30030

I'm enjoying my Mobley Mosaic - right now I'm listening to the session with Lee Morgan & Donald Byrd. But on "Touch and Go" (disc one, track 9), does anybody else have a weird electronic noise just after the four minute mark? It lasts less than a second, but is disconcerting. I don't know if I have a defective disc or if there was a mastering error that resulted in this sound on all copies.

Walter "Shakey" Horton - The Soul of Blues Harmonica (Italian Chess/Green Line)

Everyone knows Chuck's birthday. It's a national holiday here in the States. Yes - friends and family get together to eat barbecue and sing Henry Threadgill's solo from "Keep Right on Playing Thru the Mirror Over the Water."

The wonderful and bizarre Slaughterhouse Five is generally considered to be his masterpiece. Although I haven't read Vonnegut for years, perhaps my favorite is Mother Night, about a guy who is a Nazi propagandist, or maybe isn't a Nazi propagandist. The conclusion is "Be careful what you pretend to be, because that's what you are."

Richard Nixon Tricky Sam Nanton Bubber Miley

Kid Thomas Valentine at Kohlman's Tavern (New Orleans) Old-school New Orleans dance music: "Rum and Coca Cola," "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie," "I'll See You In My Dreams," etc. - not a warhorse in sight.

Happy birthday to the CEO* of a great label. *and CFO *and Vice President in charge of marketing *and Creative Consultant *and warehouse crew *etc....

Got no business going into a record store right now - I've have a backlog of unheard music and have gotten three box sets in the mail in the last week and a half. But I couldn't resist stopping in one of my used record/CD spots today, and I'm glad I did. Someone had brought in a bunch of jazz, mostly post-Coltrane. I walked out with: AALY Trio + Ken Vandermark - Stumble (Wobbly Rail) Territory Band -1 - Transatlantic Bridge (Okkadisk) Sun Ra - Horizon (Art Yard) Peter Kowald - Duos: Europa/America/Japan (FMP) I'm really excited about this one. John Cage - Violin Music; Paul Zukofsky, violin (CP2) and the odd man out: Stanley Turrentine - Sugar (CTI) Haven't heard this for 20 years. I suspect that I'll like it better now than I did then - I was quite a snob.

I was thinking more along the lines of Warren G. Harding - plagued by scandal and dying halfway through my term. I'm already working on my first scandal.

Since I haven't heard otherwise, and nobody seems to object, I guess I'm the new Blindfold Test organizer. I haven't been around here as long as most of you, so there may be issues which are obvious to some of you that I'm unaware of. In any case, I'm open to suggestions. Right now, I'd like to propose that Thom Keith's current BFT (#75) be extended into June. Thom's test: 1) Got a late start, 2) Had technical issues which further delayed the download, and 3) Nobody (including me) seems to have had much time to devote to it so far. So how 'bout we have BFT #75 go on until June 20 (but no later)? Bill's BFT will be delayed, but he will also have a longer-than-usual time period, until the end of July. Everyone else who is currently signed up will move back a month, and we'll be back on a monthly schedule. How does that sound? Any objections? Next week I plan (with the help of a moderator) to update some of the BFT threads, like the FAQs. Again, suggestions are welcome.

Just wanted to let you know that, while I haven't had time to do much deep listening to #75, I really like most of what I've heard so far - including a couple of "I've got to have this!" moments. I'll be able to really give it some time next week.

I hardly watch any TV, so while my wife is televiewing in the evening, I usually have my headphones on. (Headphones are not my preferred way to hear recorded music, however.) I do my most intense listening the last two hours before I go to bed.

Just wanted to let you know that I've been on the case, too - with no better luck than anyone else.