jeffcrom

Ornette Coleman - Friends and Neighbors: Live on Prince Street (Flying Dutchman). Why haven't I listened to this in a while? This quartet - Coleman, Redman, Haden, & Blackwell - was as good as any band Ornette led.

Never played a circus gig, but I played a week with the rodeo in Athens, Georgia around 1979 or '80. We would play a super-fast circus march until the cowboy fell off whatever animal he was riding, then play a chord. I still know the first strain of a bunch of circus marches* - but only the first strain, since none of the cowboys ever made it to the second strain. *I still love "Rolling Thunder."

I'm in for #73.

Moretti La Rossa

Oliver Morgan Morgan Freeman Number 6

Joshua Redman Brian Blade Emanuel Ax

Any BFTs on the horizon? I'm not sure if I ever got a slot, but I'd like to have one.

George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet - Life Line (Timeless) Picked this one up yesterday at the little record store down the street. It was my last music purchase before my attempt to go through the whole month of August without buying any records or CDs. My brain, wallet, and shelves need a break.

Happy birthday, Mr. Jones. I discovered Hank Jones pretty quickly after I discovered jazz itself. I think he played on the second jazz album I bought - a Charlie Parker collection on Verve.

Hmmm.... Everyone's taste and ear is different, but I wouldn't put Dumaine's band in the same league as Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Based on the records, they were good, but to me the depth of Oliver's band is just not there. Dumaine himself doesn't really swing, even in a pre-Armstrong way, for one thing. Among New Orleans bands of that era, I would take Sam Morgan's eight recordings (warts and all) to a desert island after Oliver's. But to each his own. That being said, the late Dick Allen was in awe of Earl Humphrey's trombone solo on "I Haven't Got a Dollar to Pay the House Rent Man" by Genevieve Davis and Dumaine's band. I'm with you on the Bernhardt book.

Frog Joseph and two of his sons: Charles Joseph Kirk Joseph

Booker Ervin - The In Between. A nice original copy.

Recently picked up two 78s on the Sunset label by Willie Smith and one by Red Callender on which Arnold Ross plays - all from 1945. He solos on three of the six sides, and his playing is really nice in that swing-to-bop kind of way. There's also really nice Howard McGhee and Lucky Thompson on the Smiths and Sweets Edison and Les Paul on the Callender. I now know to keep my eyes open for Ross's name.

Good point. My guess is that the basic style was established by the time Oliver came north, but that it tightened and "toughened" up in Chicago. A. J. Piron's wonderful 1923 recordings may be instructive, although that was a somewhat different type of band. They were smoother and more polite, with more emphasis on the written melody - but they did tend to loosen up during the last chorus or two on their records. Anyone who can find it should read Dr. Edmond Souchon's "King Oliver: A Very Personal Memoir," which was published in The Jazz Review and reprinted in Martin Williams' Jazz Panorama. His description of Oliver's band at Tulane dances makes them sound as if they played in a style similar to Piron's on those occasions. It may be impossible to unravel the early development of Oliver's style at this point, but it's fun to speculate. I really enjoyed your post.

Thanks for posting this. I've always been fascinated by Johnson's symphonic music, particularly "Yamekraw." There is a nice Musicmasters CD of Johnson's works for orchestra (not including "Yamekraw," however) by the Concordia Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop.

I borrowed an 8-track recorder and made a tape of original music for a girl (of course) when I was in high school - around 1975. I even "multi-tracked" by recording on piano, then playing that tape on another machine with a microphone in front of a speaker while I played sax into another microphone. I can't imagine what that stuff would sound like now. I also installed an 8-track player in my first car (1976). It was great because every discount department store (K-Mart, etc.) would have a rack of cut-out 8-tracks for a dollar or so each. (I seem to remember $1.88 as being a common price, for some reason.) I was into jazz even then - some of the tapes I remember buying from the discount racks were Gil Evans' Ampex album, The Best of Horace Silver, a nice Jimmie Lunceford collection (!), and some Herbie Hancock.

Joe Friday Thursday Next Tuesday Weld

Lamar Alexander Alexander the Great Jay Gatsby

I haven't piped in on this subject yet - I'll just say that if CD sales are down, it ain't my fault. I've been buying more CDs and vinyl than I can listen to. After yet another record/CD store visit today, I decided that I'm going to try to stay out of record stores and off of Ebay for the month of August, just to give myself a chance to catch up on all the music I've bought this summer. We'll see if I'm actually able to do it. That being said, there's nothing like browsing through records or CDs in an actual store, especially if it is run by a sympathetic, music-loving proprietor who knows you and knows your tastes. I have to give thumbs up to ghost of miles' post - a good CD store can present you with wonderful surprises that you didn't even realize you had to have. I'm lucky enough to live only a couple of miles from Decatur CD (Decatur is a suburb of Atlanta), which has a jazz section that is just astonishing for its size. I can't begin to recount the amazing CDs I discovered by thumbing through their racks - not from the interweb, not even from this wonderful forum. Today I drove to Athens, about 60 miles east of my home in Atlanta, and walked out of a great store with recordings by Kidd Jordan, Steve Lehman, Freddie Roach, Wayne Shorter, Booker Ervin, John Patton, and Freddie Hubbard. Some of these I could have ordered online, but some are out of print and would cost an arm and a leg online if I was able to find them. I've downloaded music, but like others here, I like having an object in my hands that "is" the music. I'll keep buying CDs and LPs. Hell, I've probably bought 30 or so 78s in the past two weeks. I've got to catch up on those, too.

Russell Crowe Walter Pidgeon Donald Byrd

William Bell Isaac Hayes Isaac Bashevis Singer

Discovering the Ezz-thetics album with Dolphy was one of those life-changing experiences for me - I listened to that one over and over. The original version of "All About Rosie," from the Brandeis Festival Modern Jazz Concert album, is amazing - maybe Russell's masterpiece. And I still remember how excited I was to find the original Swedish issue of The Essence of George Russell, with the first, big-band version of "Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved By Nature." Incredible stuff. I loved how he championed other composers, too - Dave Baker had a tune on many of the Sextet's albums, and I love those odd early Carla Bley pieces Russell recorded, like "Rhymes" and "Dance Class." So long, Mr. Russell.

Clifford Jordan: Hello, Hank Jones (Eastworld direct-to-disc)

I can see that...the only thing I can counter with is that by this time, Miles was "making records" instead of "recording", if you know what I mean. That's a whole 'nother skill, mindset, whatever, and definitely not one that everybody likes or respects (and fair enough about that). But ultimately, he was interacting with a "rhythm section", just not in real time... I know exactly what you mean. But when I talked about "interacting with a rhythm section" I meant the rhythm section listening and responding to Miles as much as vice versa. You're right, though - there are lots of different ways to make records. Sometimes they were deadly dull, but sometimes really exciting. Toward the end of the decade Miles' band often played (presumably at his direction) like a pop band in that everyone (especially the keyboard players) stuck to a more or less arranged part. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but I don't find it very interesting in music which is built around improvisation. To simplify my reaction, I like the live shows when the band (including Miles) cuts loose more, listens to each other, and really plays in the moment. And they certainly did this at times, even near the end of Miles' career. My preference will always be for earlier Miles (which includes the mid-70's acid funk stuff), but I think Miles could create good music, whether it was "jazz" or not, up to the end. And I still listen to Amandla about once a year, for what it's worth.

Johnny Hodges/Wild Bill Davis: Con-Soul Sax. I needed some music that was tasty, but kind of mindless - this fit the bill. I have a German RCA pressing of this. The inner sleeve is pretty funny - it seems to imply that James Last has the only band in Germany, and if you want your party to be a success, you'd better have several of his albums on hand.