jeffcrom

Festival du Jazz Moderne (Guilde du Jazz). An interesting hodgepodge of tracks, including a rare Steve Lacy appearance from 1956, "Indian Blanket" by the Joe Puma Quintet. I had been looking for this for awhile, since "Indian Blanket" was the only track from the first ten years of Lacy's recording career that I did not have in physical form. This is the French version of a Jazztone album called Modern Jazz Festival, but that one must be extremely rare - I see Jazztone albums all the time, but have never come across that one, and I've been looking for many years. This French LP, which I recently found online, is in nice condition.

Two nights ago - Saturday, January 9: The Panorama Jazz Band was on fire at the Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans. Clarinetist/leader Ben Schenck has a pool of about 35 musicians who know the book, but this was the "A" team in every position, including Matt Perrine on sousaphone, Charlie Halloran on trombone, and Aurora Nealand on alto. Their last set was followed by the coronation of the royal court of the Krewe de Jieux, the irreverent Jewish Mardi Gras krewe. Then a small version of the Panorama Brass Band accompanied the krewe on a two-hour ramble through the French Quarter and Marigny. The call this the Running of the Jieuxs. It was extremely weird - the strangest thing I have ever seen in New Orleans. In the manner of the Zulu krewe, the Krewe de Jieux reclaims and magnifies every negative stereotype about Jewishness and adopts costumes and personas to reflect that. It was horrifyingly offensive, joyous, and very funny.

Philly Joe Jones - P.J.'s Beat (UK Atlantic)

Doc Evans - Traditional Jazz, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 (Audiophile). One reason I like my current audio setup is that I can play records like these two 1953 issues as intended - at 78 RPM in mono, but with an LP stylus. Ewing Nunn, founder of the Audiophile, was a recording genius; these records really sound magnificent. I guess he's not much remembered today because he was mostly interested in traditional jazz. As I've said before in these forums, his 1971 Audiophile album by the Olympia Brass Band is by far the best-sounding New Orleans brass band album out there.

My sweet mom used to love rummaging in junk stores, and would bring home anything that looked like a jazz record for her music-obsessed 15-year-old. She brought me the 10" LP pictured above, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what that strange sound was. In those far pre-internet days, I went to the library and combed through jazz books until I came across a reference to Slam singing along with his bowed solos, and the light bulb finally clicked on. And by the way, that nice habit of my mom's is the reason I first heard Albert Ayler. I certainly didn't know enough to seek him out on my on.

Stan Kenton - A Presentaion of Progressive Jazz (cover) / A Concert in Progressive Jazz (labels) (Capitol). Whatever it's called, it's a little dated, but mostly pretty great. Tabby Thomas - Rockin' With the Blues (Maison de Soul). The great Baton Rouge bluesman in 1984, with his son Chris Thomas King on guitar and Henry Gray on piano.

Gene Ammons - Funky (Prestige trident mono with a later cover)

Steve Lacy & Steve Potts - Live in Budapest (West Wind)

Borbetomagus & Shaking Ray Levis (Agaric 10" LP). Wild, but well-structured noise improvisations from a summit meeting of two groups. Cover art by the late Dennis Palmer.

I have a couple of Poljazz LPs with very generic covers - I think one Michael Smith LP has the catalog number written by hand - but this is a cool one. A second pressing, I think. Charlie Mariano - Modern Saxaphone (sic) Stylings (Imperial 10" LP). Really nice music from 1951 or so, with Herb Pomery and Jaki Byard. But the first sentence of the liner notes hurts: "Quality, quantity and youth in Jazz today is a rare commodity indeed." Later, during side two: There's a no-nonsense directness to Byard's piano playing at this early stage that is in some ways more appealing to me than the eclectic, whole-history-of-jazz-in-every-solo approach he adopted later.

Gil Evans (aka Synthetic Evans) (Poljazz). Live in Warsaw, 1976.

I spun a stack of R & B 78s last night. One of them was Imperial 5213, "Atom Bomb" / "Windy City Hop" by the great Texas/California saxophonist Joe Houston. I didn't know it at the time, but I played that record around the time Houston died at age 89 in an assisted living facility in Long Beach, California. A friend of Houston's said, "89! In blues years, that’s like 1,000 years old,” RIP. http://www.presstelegram.com/obituaries/20151229/joe-houston-legendary-saxophonist-dies-in-long-beach-at-89

Yes. The improvised portion of the first track, "Weal," is a saxophone duet by Lacy and Steve Potts. Lacy's contribution consists of a harsh multiphonic blast, endlessly repeated without variation for the entire length of the duet. It was perfect for me tonight, and put me in a place where I could then move on to more "normal" music.

No - the three quartet tracks are "Ode to Trane," "If Ever I Would Leave You," and "Angel Eyes." But Vick just smokes on every track. This album must have been a great disappointment to the folks at RCA, who were obviously trying for a pop-jazz album, but got something too good.

Harold Vick - Watch What Happens (RCA). I picked this up a couple of years ago, and listened to it once. I was put off by the overblown arrangements (including a female choir) on most of the tunes, so I put it aside to give it one more chance. Two years later, I just gave it another chance. And damn - Vick's playing is so strong on every track that I can forgive all the other musical transgressions. I'm keeping it.

I feel kind of bad - hope I wasn't too mean - except that it got you to listen again. Now playing: Steve Lacy - Flakes (Vista). I don't listen to this Italian album much; the music is dense and jagged and the recording is brittle. But it fits my mood tonight.

Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino (Imperial). Fats' first album, which in his case meant a collection of his singles, including the stunning 1949 "The Fat Man."

I James Blood Ulmer - Odyssey (Columbia). I've never known what this album "is," exactly, but it got under my skin the first time I heard it many years ago. It's doing the same thing tonight.

Derek Bailey/Steve Lacy - Company 4 (Incus)

And every Woolworth's and SS Kresge had a rack of cut-out LPs. With patience, you could find some amazing stuff. Now playing: Sam Rivers - The Quest (Pausa). This could also go in the "Great LPs which never made it to CD" thread, but there's already several Sam Rivers mentions there. In any case, I would hate to have to pick a single Sam Rivers album to take to a desert island. But if I did, this might be it. Maybe.

Introducing Jimmy Cleveland

Red Callender - Swingin' Suite (Crown)

I was feeling tired and logy, so I decided to spin a bunch of jazz 45s - singles and EPs - to get me stirring and on my feet every three to six minutes. It worked, and I heard some great music. Chico Hamilton (Sesac Repertory). A 1959 EP with Eric Dolphy. Tony Scott - Swinging in Sweden (RCA). A nice little EP I picked up in Copenhagen. Some of the best work I've heard from Scott. Benny Carter - Cruisin'/Lullaby in Blue (RCA Victor, 1952) Shorty Rogers & His Giants (RCA Victor). Excellent music in excellent condition, from 1954, with Giuffre, Jolly, Counce, and Manne. Edmond Hall - Edmund Hall with Gustav Brom Orchestra (Supraphon). Hall in great form in 1960 with a Czech big band. But I hope Brom's band was never asked to swing their way out of a wet paper bag. Edmond Hall (Argentinian Columbia). An even better EP with a good Argentinian rhythm section, recorded in 1957 while Hall was on a South American tour with Louis Armstrong. My copy is inscribed (in pencil) by Hall to his doctor, O. A. Fulcher. George Lewis with Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band (Storyville). Lewis is near the top of his game on these 1959 Danish recordings, and Papa Bue's band could nearly pass for New Orleanians. Ken Colyer's Jazz Men (Storyville). A 1953 EP by the classic early lineup of Colyer's band, with Chris Barber and Monty Sunshine. I found this in a tiny record store in a city I really love, Malmö, Sweden.

Joanne Brackeen - Ancient Dynasty (Columbia/Tappan Zee)

Steve Lacy - Outings (Ismez/RAI). Solo/overdubbed soprano sax from 1986. Later, toward the end of side two again (sorry): Side one, "Labyrinth," is very good. Side two, "Island," is just amazing.