jeffcrom

Damn! Just damn!

Cool selection of music. I know several of these, so don't read further if you don't want to know.... 1. This is probably somebody pretty good (it sounds vaguely Ellington-ish), but it reeks of show biz. I didn’t much care for the constant backbeat and repetitious riffs. 2. I’ve never heard this before, but by process of elimination I think it must be from Kenny Garrett’s first Atlantic album, the one with Miles Davis guesting. The writing and playing is excellent and imaginative, but the simplistic bass line and hyperactive funk beat wore me down. Can’t have too much Miles, though. 3. This is more like it. James P. Johnson playing “You’ve Got to Be Modernistic.” I like the way he starts very energetically, but still manages to build up even more steam by the end. Fabulous! 4. This is a great blindfold test selection, because a lot of people are going to hear this and think they know who it is. And most of them will be half right. It’s “Somebody Loves Me” played by Django Reinhardt, but not Stephane Grappelli. It’s the great Eddie South. South had a rounder, richer, more “classical” tone than Grappelli, even if he didn’t swing as hard. I love all the modulations. This is just lovely music. 5. You got me. This strikes me as a good, but not great pianist who has a good awareness of the history of jazz piano. Pretty heavy foot on the sustain pedal. 6. Interesting, in a kind of highly processed way. The put-together-in-the-studio feel of this turned me off. It’s just a prejudice of mine – samplers, drum machines, and sequencers are just musical tools, as are trombones and saxophones, but in my experience the more of the former type tools you use to create a piece of music, the less alive it tends to be. I miss a sense of human interaction in this. The trombone player is excellent, even if the setting detracts from what he is doing, in my opinion. Lots of nice colors in this one, though. And if anyone says that my reservations about this are just my own hangup, I’m not going to argue with them. 7. “Crepescule With Nellie,” but not by Monk – someone with a smoother technique. It’s nice, though. Playing Monk is a balancing act – the music has to retain its Monastic quality, but you also want to put your own personality into it. This is beautifully done. 8. Interesting, fun music. Great electric bass. (Or basses – there are two. ) I have no idea what the overdubbed sounds are about. Don’t know who it could be. 9. My first thought was the Microscopic Septet. (But where’d that guitar come from?) Excellent bari solo and fun multi-section piece, whoever it is. All the saxists sound good. 10. Sun Ra on one of his cheesy keyboards. The trumpet solo might be by Michael Ray, and the tenor is definitely John Gilmore. A basically simple piece, as many of Ra’s best tracks are. 11. Nice enough, but doesn’t really reach me. I would have liked to hear this build to something else. These are excellent musicians, though, playing tastefully. 12. One of the great late-twenties big band records: Charlie Johnson and His Orchestra playing, “The Boy in the Boat.” Jimmy Harrison is on trombone and Sidney DeParis is doing that nasty plunger trumpet. I don’t remember who the clarinet soloist is. Primo stuff. 13. Wow – this is great! I don’t know who or what it is except that it sounds like Lester Bowie on trumpet. Very cool rhythmic stuff during the piano solo – the whole piano solo is fabulous! 14. Jeez – what the hell is this? Could it be a contingent of the Kenton band or something like that? Odd and interesting. 15. Don’t have a clue. Is this a Western swing band rather than a conventional jazz band? Nice enough; not earth-shattering. 16. B.B. King of course, with a studio big band. I know there was session billed as B. B. with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, but it’s not really, of course. Don't know if this is from that session, but it's mighty tasty. I love the sax section lick about four minutes in – the Ray Charles “Rockhouse” lick. I wish they had let B. play his guitar, though. Enjoyed listening - even the ones I don't really like are interesting. Thanks especially for track 13. Looking forward to part two.

Mamie Eisenhower Lady Bird Johnson Tadd Dameron

Jo Jo Gunne Pistol Packin' Mama Mama Cass

This is just what I needed after a couple of stressful and distressing days at work. I'm enjoying listening. And about track four, all I'm saying right now is - you think you're pretty clever, don't you? But I'm on to you, dude....

The Sensational Nightingales is one group I never got around to, for no reason I can remember; just never bought any when I had the opportunity. Never even heard anything of theirs. This one is cheap on Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sensational-N...9510&sr=1-1 What's it like, Jeff? I see it's Peacock material. There was also a lot of stuff on Nashboro and later on Malaco. How does that stuff compare? MG This 78 is the only thing I have by the Nightingales - Peacock 1765: Burying Ground/In My Mind. I see that the first side is on the "Best of" collection. All I can say is that this is a really nice six minutes of music - strong shuffle beat; strong lead voice with group responses, including a falsetto tenor; bass voice doubling the bass line. It's more like the Blind Boys of Alabama than any other group I can think of right now.

Doc Souchon Doc Evans Nurse Ratched Okay, I was beaten to the punch by Brownian Motion, but in the "great minds think alike" department, my entry was going to be: Doc Souchon, Johnny Wiggs, Dolly Parton.

Dinu Lipatti's recording of the waltzes is often cited as the best collection. They are from the fifties, but the CD is well mastered and sounds good.

Isn't that the Ramsey Lewis album with Steve McCall on drums?

Just wanted to add that Disposability is one of my favorite Lacy albums - don't overlook this one. It catches him at an interesting moment - he's still playing "tunes," and really interesting ones - Monk, Cecil, Carla Bley, but exploring free improvisation. And it includes his first recorded composistion, although it doesn't sound much like we expect a Lacy tune to sound like. The trio is excellent, and the quality of Lacy's improvising is really high.

Yes.

Stan Getz at Large (Verve). SG in Copenhagen, 1960.

Started out a 78 listening session with some early Fletcher Henderson on Banner, Regal, and Domino. Nothing to get excited about - Fletcher's sides weren't much better than the studio dance bands on the flip side of each. Moved on to four sides (Columbia and Emerson) by an interesting pre-1920 group - the Louisiana Five, with New Orleans clarinetist Alcide Nunez as the lead voice (no trumpet). It's not not a great group, but it is an interesting one, and I can't hear too much New Orleans clarinet. Finished off with two Peacock gospel records I picked up a while back, but just got around to cleaning and playing - Reverend Cleophus Robinson and the Sensational Nightingales. Both are smokin'!

Ouch! Hang in there and listen to lots of music.

There are half a dozen or so pieces he recorded for Blue Note which were not released until the Mosaic set - not alternate takes (there are some of those, too), but different compositions.

Louis 1935-1946

Sam Rivers - The Tuba Trio, Vol. III (Circle)

Cecil Taylor - Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! (Pausa)

Lars Gullin - Fine Together (Sonet). What a great player.

Thanks all - I'm glad I found this place. And thanks for the Conan scan, JSngry. I've been telling my wife "Crom is your god" for ten years, but she is less than totally convinced. The big birthday score - my wife gave me a book I had looked at in the bookstore but rejected as too expensive: Music of a Thousand Autumns, about Japanese Gagaku music, which I love, but don't "understand."

PM sent on: Herman, Woody at Carnegie Hall 1946 MHS/Verve 12 2-cd jewel case insead of digipak Braight, George Complete Blue Note Blue Note 15 2 cds

Lonnie Smith - Think!

Welcome to the half-century club. I like it just fine.

Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang: Swing Me With Rhythm (British Decca). Back when he was a jazz guy, with Pee Wee Russell, George Brunies, Eddie Miller, and George Van Eps, among others.

I had one of those - got it when I was about eight. Thought I was pretty hip.