jeffcrom

Does George sing on many tracks? I've always struggled with his vocals and have avoided this album just in case. That line-up's sure to deliver though He sings one one blues - "Got Somethin' Good For You." I like his singing, but everyone's taste is different, of course. I liked it right away - I've probably had it 30 years. It is an album that makes me understand some folks' qualms about ECM's approach to sound. The rhythm section sounds great - clear and detailed - while the saxophones (Heinz Sauer is the other one) are down in the mix and soft-edged. Not a fatal flaw to me, though - I still like it.

I think there was a Tristano school, but I won't get bent out of shape if anyone disagrees. Some characteristics: "Line" over "lick" - improvisation should be melodic invention, not common-property licks that fall under the fingers. Use of a relatively small body of standard chord changes. Supposedly, improvising over changes the musicians know inside out and upside down will result in more real invention than trying to blow over unusual changes - that often results in "running the changes" instead of improvising melodies. Elimination of elements which are "easy" - easily-grasped, superficially satisfying elements of the music, like bombastic drumming, rhythmically repeating notes a la Illinois Jacquet, using "obvious" effects, etc. are to be avoided. The bass and drums should play a strictly time-keeping role, to allow the soloist to accent his line in a complex manner. (Tristano's and Marsh's accents are pretty wild.) Once the changes are familiar, the chords can be extended into some pretty complex forms. Melody has primacy over excitement. Which pretty much sums it up. This is all off the top of my head, so maybe it's bullshit.

Young Tuxedo Brass Band - Jazz Continues (504). A lot of folks here seem to be fans of the Young Tuxedo's 1958 album Jazz Begins. This is their only other album, from 25 years later. Two members from 1958 were still in the band - alto saxophonist Herman Sherman (now the leader of the band) and trombonist Clement Tervalon. This album is not as sublime as the earlier one, but it's pretty good

George Adams - Sound Suggestions (ECM). Chosen because I wanted to hear not only George Adams, but Kenny Wheeler.

Anthony Braxton Quartet, Pepper Adams Quintet, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Maynard Ferguson big band... what a range! RIP.

That's a great one. One of my top 5 favourite Lacy records. I really enjoyed my first hearing, especially side two - "Island."

Okay, I'm cheating a little bit on this one. Miles Davis' July 10, 1991 Paris concert was his next-to-last recorded appearance, not his last; a concert from six days later was included in the Montreux boxset. But that July 10 concert, which has been bootlegged under the title Black Devil, is kind of remarkable. The Man Who Never Looked Back, well, looked back. About half the tunes are by his then-current funk/fusion band, but the other tunes feature guests from his past: Jackie McLean, Wayne Shorter, Steve Grossman, Dave Holland, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin, Al Foster. He does "Out of the Blue," "Dig," "All Blues," "Footprints," "In a Silent Way," and "It's About That Time." (Okay, he doesn't solo on "Dig.") Not everything is great, but there's something very moving about hearing Miles blow over changes in 1991. My favorite track is "Footprints" - Miles, Shorter, Corea, Holland, and Foster; Miles plays a wonderful, short, three-chorus solo.

There was one more recording session, on an album by arranger/pianist Hans Koller (not the saxophonist), but November was the last "Steve Lacy" album. It's a moving performance. Lacy is audibly weak and short-breathed. I don't know how much he knew or suspected about his prospects, but death seemed to be a theme of this concert; included are at least three pieces he wrote as memorials to friends and colleagues who had passed: "Tina's Tune" for clarinetist Tina Wrase, "Blues for Aida" for Japanese promoter Aquirax Aida, and "The Rent," for French critic Laurent Goddet. I may play it later, now that I'm thinking about it. But it's a tough listen.

Looky what the mailwoman brought today: Steve Lacy - Outings (ISMEZ)

This again. I was just typing the phrase "Practically everything Lomax recorded is worth hearing" when I saw that I had already said that back in December.

Pardon me if I've related this story here before. I know I haven't posted my Lessons from Bechet before. While working on my Master's degree (as an adult teaching public school and gigging), I had to take one performing class. Nothing appealed to me except the jazz combo classes - basically meeting once a week and playing tunes for a couple of hours. The instructor was one of Atlanta's first-call tenor players - he still is. After class he and I were talking about influences - he was very into middle-period Coltrane. I said that when I got home after work, I was more likely to relax with Braxton or Bechet. He said that he had never heard any Bechet. After picking my jaw up off the floor, I politely suggested that he might find him worth checking out. Afterwards, I went home and wrote down this list of things I had learned as a musician from Bechet: Know the melody, know the chords, and know how and why they fit together. Don’t try to sound like anyone except yourself. The descending tritone (six to flat three) is a powerful interval. (But don’t overdo it.) Playing with conviction can paper over a lot of cracks. Be your own rhythm section. You can turn a note into a blue note by messing with the pitch, messing with the timbre, or both. Whenever possible, play with musicians better than you. (Sidney was only able to do this when he played with Louis Armstrong, and maybe not even then. But his records with Louis certainly find him more involved than when he recorded with young revivalist bands.) Whenever possible, sleep with Tallulah Bankhead. (Note to self: no longer practical. Ann Hathaway?) Don’t run changes, improvise melodies. Although… Sometimes running changes can be effective. (But don’t overdo it.) Tuning is both absolute and relative. Mix it up – long notes, fast notes, pretty notes, growled notes. Always try to hold the last note of “Saints” longer than everyone else. (Okay, perhaps this is not Sidney’s best lesson.)

As a 15-year-old trying to learn about jazz, I found a copy of Gene Norman Presents a Charlie Ventura Concert from 1949 in a junk shop - as a convenient box set of six 45 RPM records! I loved the Jackie & Roy vocals, especially on "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles." (It's still weird to listen to this album on CD, since I memorized the awkward places where the longer tunes stopped, and you had to turn over the record.) And Jackie and Roy's An Alec Wilder Collection on Audiophile (part of the Jazzology group) is one of the finest recitals of Wilder's songs out there. And I love the cover picture - you can tell from Jackie's face that she must have just adored Wilder. Thanks for the link to Steve Wallace's blog, Ted; not only were the Jackie Cain stories great, but I really enjoyed the others, especially the amazing Benny Carter encounter. RIP, Jackie.

George Lewis' 1950 session for Good Time Jazz: Mama Don't Allow It/Willie the Weeper Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula/Burgundy Street Blues Recorded by the late, great Cosimo Matassa; this session sounds much better on shellac than on the CD issue, which is very brittle-sounding. The second record is particularly good; the ridiculous-sounding title "Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula" turns out to be three minutes of hot collective improvising with no solos. This is the second (of many) recorded versions of "Burgundy Street Blues," the tune that led Bunk Johnson to sarcastically refer to Lewis as "The Composer."

A great musician cannot pay for nursing care.

Rev. Jasper Williams - I'm Black and I'm Proud (Jewel). This tiny picture is the only one I could find online. The Magnificent Goldberg urged me to pick this one up when we visited Wax 'n' Fax record store in Atlanta, which always has a rack of unusual gospel LPs, a few years ago. This is a sermon recorded in 1968 by a master preacher from Atlanta, and it's an amazing performance.

Great minds....

I agree with much that has been said here, but the first album I thought of when I saw this thread was Olio, just another Prestige studio jam session. But what a lineup! And this thread has been revelatory to me - I had no idea that there was a mid-60s Bobby Timmons album with Wayne Shorter. It's on its way to me now.

Albert Ayler - Lörrach / Paris 1966 (hat ART)

I just got a "new" 78 by my favorite gospel group, Mitchell's Christian Singers, so I spun a bunch by them, ending with the new one: Who Was John / What More Can Jesus Do (Romeo) Standing by the Bedside / What Kinda Shoes Do the Angels Wear (Oriole) Count Out the Angels / Come On Ezekial Let's Go 'Round the Wall (Conqueror) Take My Hand / Don't You Want That Stone (Columbia) I Want Somebody to Tell Me / Yes My Lord I Done Done (Vocalion) Up on the Mountain / I Heard the Preachin' of the Elder (Conqueror) This group gets all over me. Their pitch and rhythm are solid, but very flexible, if that makes any sense. They're the most "down-home" gospel group I've ever heard, but at the same time, they're very sophisticated - this is complex music. But that sophistication doesn't adhere to conventional musical values - they've got their own thing going on here, and I've never heard anything else quite like it. (Although if had been around rural North Carolina in the 1930s, maybe I would have heard a lot like it.) For comparison's sake, I followed up with a Bluebird record of The Southern Sons singing the same song with which I ended my Mitchells session. It sounded positively slick by comparison. More to the point, it sounded like part of this world; the music of Mitchell's Christian Singers seems to come from some other world.

Doc Evans - Traditional Jazz (Audiophile red vinyl, 1957). I've said before here that Ewing Nunn's Audiophile label turned out some of the best-sounding recordings of 1950s and 1960s. But since his primary interest was traditional jazz, his sonic brilliance is somewhat overlooked.

Lizzy Miles - Queen Mother of the Rue Royale (Cook 10")

I've been spinning bunches of 78 lately - many classical. But today, early jazz and dance bands. I dug into these two interesting pseudonymous dance band records I recently found, and here's what I came up with. Both of these took some digging to figure out, and I think they're pretty interesting. Master Melody Makers - Show Me the Way to Go Home / N.M.L. Dance Orchestra - Charleston Your Blues Away (National Music Lovers, 1925). National Music Lovers was a mail-order label which leased material from other labels and issued them using pseudonyms. I generally pick up any dance band records I find on this label, since the pseudonyms sometimes disguise some excellent groups. (For instance, there are three Fletcher Hendersons on National Music Lovers - I've managed to find them all.) "Charleston Your Blues Away" is not very interesting; it's from the Grey Gull label, and is played by their studio band. But I recognized Miff Mole right away on "Show Me the Way to Go Home" - an excellent solo. There are also bass clarinet (Alfie Evans or Ross Gorman) and trumpet (Tommy Gott) solos between vocal choruses. It's a group called Perry's Hot Dogs, and the recording was made for the Plaza group of labels (Banner, Domino, Oriole, Regal, etc.). I'm happy to have this nice chunk of Miff Mole. The Paramounteers - I May Be Wrong/If I Can't Have You (Publix, 1929). Publix was Paramount Pictures' label, designed to feature songs from their movies, and sold in theater lobbies exclusively. They drew their material from Harmony, Columbia's budget label. "If I Can't Have You" is by a Ben Selvin group, and it's pretty forgettable. But when I heard the clarinet solo in "I May Be Wrong," I said to myself, "That's Pee Wee Russell!" A few bars later I realized that it wasn't; the vibrato was all wrong, for one thing. It sounded more like Jimmy Dorsey. When I finally tracked down the source of this side, it turned out to be Irving Brodsky and his Orchestra. The clarinet solo is indeed by Dorsey, but Pee Wee was also present, playing tenor sax parts in the reed section. My guess is that Jimmy Dorsey was having a little fun by imitating Pee Wee's style. I wonder if he got a reaction from Pee Wee. Sorry if this is boring to everyone else. This stuff fascinates me - you never know what's going to turn up on these anonymous records from the twenties, and the detective work is a fun challenge.

Yes, that's him.

I kind of hate it that I'm so frequently the bearer of bad news when it comes to the passing of New Orleans musicians, but I try to keep up with the scene there. So... According to a variety of sources, saxophonist Tim Green has died. I don't know any details about when or how. Unless you're close to the New Orleans scene, you're not likely to have heard of him. A modernist in a city filled with traditional jazz, he was a "musicians' musician," held in high esteem by his peers. His playing ranged from straight-ahead post-bop to free improvisation. He didn't travel much, but played creative music when he could and played R & B or Bourbon Street gigs to make a living when jazz gigs were scarce. He played frequently played with bassist James Singleton, as well as with Michael Ray and the Naked Orchestra. I think my favorite that's in my library is cellist Helen Gillet's Runing of the Bells, an improvised trio with Gillet, Green, and drummer Doug Garrison. Here's a news story from Offbeat, including a video clip with some gorgeous playing..