jeffcrom

Leroy Jenkins - Solo Concert (India Navigation)

Leroy Jenkins - Space Minds, New Worlds, Survival of America (Tomato) Lucky Thompson - Illuminations (Groove Merchant). Disc one, originally issued as Goodbye Yesterday.

Bach Repurposed: Solo Bach for Clarinet - Margaret Donaghue Flavin (Centaur CD). Some may have qualms about the concept, but the results are beautiful. Music for the Flute - Severino Gazzelloni (Audio Fidelity LP). A one-dollar thrift store find today. Beautifully recorded - it's got that "Severino is standing in my living room" sound.

Summit Meeting (Vanguard). An all-star date featuring five artists signed to Vanguard at the time - Clark Terry, Bunky Green, James Moody, Roland Prince and Elvin Jones. Everyone plays well, but wow - Bunky Green! Kid Thomas Valentine - Thomas Valentine at Kohlman's Tavern (New Orleans). Sweet and hot New Orleans dance music. I doubt that Kid Thomas cared at all whether what he was playing was "jazz." Jerry McCain - Blues on the Move (Robox). Obscure Southern funk/blues from 1979.

Well said. I find it fascinating as well. The band starts and stops, trying different approaches to these tunes, and it seems as if nothing is working; they are not making any progress. Then - boom! When the feel is right, Miles lets them keep going, and that first complete take is usually the released master.

I am one of those who explored jazz more or less chronologically. It's going to make me seem even older than I am (57), but my first two jazz purchases were The Essential Charlie Parker on Verve and Bix Beiderbecke and the Chicago Cornets on Milestone - I think in that order, although I can't be sure now. Around the same time I was exploring more older jazz though a box of 78s my grandmother gave me and then-contemporary jazz through the public library.

Bunky Green - Testifyin' Time (Argo mono). Really nice. Steve Lacy - Prospectus (hat ART). It's been awhile since I've played this. Magnificent - one of my favorite Lacy albums. Swing, Vol. 1 (RCA Vintage Series). Wonderful music. There was never a Volume Two, I don't think.

I totally agree - a product of its time, yet timeless.

Wadada Leo Smith - Divine Love (ECM) The Davis Sisters - In My Room (Savoy mono)

Okay, I'll bite. I actually think the question of what constitutes an album is an interesting one. I'm assuming that each one of us can play his/her own way, and couldn't imagine a list of my favorites without some earlier jazz. So, in chronological order: Louis Armstrong - The Hot Fives and Sevens, Vol. III (JSP). This has all the Hot Fives with Earl Hines. Charlie Parker - The Complete Dial Sessions. If it's "cheating" to choose a four-disc set, there are several single-disc Bird on Dial collections that would suffice. Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners. This edged out Monk's Music because of the presence of Sonny Rollins in his first prime period. John Coltrane - Crescent Miles Davis - Miles Smiles. The limitation to five albums is pretty tough. In my case, I was surprised to notice that my top five choices have nothing more recent that 1966. If I had a few more choices, that would change, of course. But just five is hard - no King Oliver, Bix, Jelly Roll, Duke Ellington, Ornette, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, Braxton, or Roscoe Mitchell, all of whom are among my favorites.

Jeanne Lee - "Newswatch," from You Stepped Out of a Cloud - Ran Blake/Jeanne Lee (Owl). An a capella vocal solo based on news stories. It hits me hard every time I hear it.

Here's a "Quaker query." (Google that if needed.) Have you supported and encouraged other musicians here to the extent they have supported and encouraged you?

Last night was piano night: Teddy Weatherford on Swing (France) and Columiba (India); Mary Lou Williams on Decca, Continental, RCA Victor, and King.

John-Edward Kelly (alto sax) and Bob Versteegh (piano) playing 20th-century music on a Col Legno CD: Maurice Karkoff - Sonatina (1985) Henk Badings - La Malinconia (1949) Miklos Maros - Undulations (1986) Werner Wolf Glaser - Allegro, Cadenza e Adagio (1950) Otmar Macha - Plac Saxofonu (1968) Ernst-Lothar von Knorr - Sonata (1932) I've been listening to a lot of classical saxophone lately, but haven't posted about most of it. This one deserves some attention, though. I hadn't spun it for awhile - I go through periods when Kelly's very dark sound annoys me. Not today - the quality of the playing is very high, and the compositions are excellent, even if the composers are not likely to be familiar to most listeners. Miklos Maros' "Undulations" is stunning; it uses polytonality, quarter tones, and the natural overtone series..

Henry Cowell - Symphony #5; American Recording Society Orchestra/Dean Dixon. From a 1951 American Recording Society 10" LP. It seems to be old classical record night around here.

An old Remington LP from 1953: Henry Brant - Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra; Sigurd Rascher/Cincinnati SO/Thor Johnson Peggy Glanville-Hicks - Gymnopedies & Dane Rudhyar - Sinfonietta; RIAS SO/Jonel Perlea

I agree with the praise for many of these musicians. I just wanted to throw in my opinion that Evan Christopher is perhaps the finest living jazz clarinetist.

Bunky Green - Places We've Never Been (Vanguard). I just found a sealed copy to replace my less-than-pristine copy of an album I really love. Charlie Christian / Wardell Gray - Tribute From Sweden (Fran Staterna). A Boris Rose production, purporting to be from Sweden. Some rare airchecks here, mostly by Benny Goodman small groups from different periods.

Amina Claudine Myers - Poems for Piano: The Piano Music of Marion Brown (Sweet Earth)

George Adams and Don Pullen reportedly met at the Royal Peacock on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta in the 1960s when Adams was playing with Sam Cooke and Pullen was with some R & B band.

When I found the album 15 years or so ago, I figured it out pretty quickly from reading the liner notes. The random silences inserted into the AMM side (and mentioned in the notes) make it obvious.

MEV / AMM - Live Electronic Music Improvised (Mainstream)

Bobby Hackett - Hello Louis! Bobby Hackett Plays the Music of Louis Armstrong (Epic). A pretty interesting album from 1964, featuring tunes written by Louis, well-known and obscure. Steve Lacy is on board; this was the last time he recorded anything resembling dixieland jazz. I've read an interview in which he says that it was pretty late in the day for him to be playing stuff like this, and that he didn't play well. He solos on half the tracks, and I still think he's the most interesting soloist here except for Hackett, who plays with his usual casual excellence. And I had never noticed until tonight that the second strain of "Gate Mouth Blues" is actually the off-color New Orleans Creole song "Kiss My F**cking Ass." It shows up a lot in New Orleans music - "Do What Ory Say," "Get It Right," "Up Jumped the Devil," etc.

Sam Rivers - Crystals (Impulse)

Robert Pete Williams - Louisiana Blues (Takoma) Robert Pete Williams - Goodbye Slim Harpo/Viet Nam Blues (Ahura Mazda 45 RPM single)