jeffcrom

This again. Still stunning.

Rev. Johnny L. "Hurricane" Jones - I Came to Preach a Sermon (Jewel). Rev. Jones' sermon is based on two texts: John, Chapter 9, and Ray Charles' "I Don't Need No Doctor."

Arthur Blythe - Bush Baby (Adelphi). The Murray India Navigation album, mixed pleasure though it was, put me in the mood for more 1970s "loft jazz" - the stuff that was exciting and state-of-the-art in my college days. I'm really enjoyed this one, with its very spare alto/tuba/conga instrumentation. Never on CD, as far as I can tell.

David Murray - Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club, Volume 1 (India Navigation). I hadn't spun this one in years, but Amir's David Murray sale prompted me to slap it on the turntable. I can't help thinking that there are three fabulous musicians here, along with one who is just okay. But the Fred Hopkins/Philip Wilson rhythm section is pretty great, and Lester Bowie's solo on "Obe" remains one of my handful of favorites by him - one of those musical statements that touches me deeply every time I hear it.

I've always loved that one.

Gil Evans - There Comes a Time (RCA). If anyone out there doesn't like this, I totally get it. It's dense, noisy, "dated," and all over the place. It came out in 1976, and I didn't think it was anything I would want to hear. But a couple of years later, I was reading European jazz magazines in my college library, and this showed up on the 1976 top ten list of the jazz writer I admire above all others, Max Harrison. That got my attention, and I bought a copy soon afterwards. In the years since, this album has been one of those bodies of music which, like King Oliver's 1923 recordings, keep revealing more and more on repeated listenings - there are layers on top of layers here, and on any one listening, you can shift your attention from one layer to another, and keep finding amazing things. It must have been a nightmare to mix. There has been a CD reissue with extra material, overdubs (layers) removed, and edits restored. I like that one too, but I prefer the original. In addition to the multi-layered complexity of the music, you get amazing solos by Billy Harper, George Adams, Lew Soloff (uncredited as a soloist), and Dave Sanborn - his stunningly intense playing on "King Porter Stomp" is the only solo by him I would take to a desert island. Mine is probably a minority opinion, but this is as good as anything Gil Evans ever did.

I was thinking about starting another thread, but I'll post this here: I'm getting really tired of losing Atlanta musicians to heroin. It just keeps happening. Y'all wouldn't know the latest, who died Friday night/Saturday morning. He was a guitarist with a couple of legendary local rock bands. He was 41, and had a son. As my friend Ben said, "This shit's getting old."

Oh, there's some fabulous stuff there. And there's also "Bunny Hop Mambo." (shudder....)

Seconded. I met Jeff at the Pensacola jazz fest recently. A real Southern gentleman. Okay, this is just weird. I feel like I need to unleash a string of curses just to restore the balance of the universe.

Just got back home from walking the quarter mile or so (!) to Candler Park in Atlanta to catch a free (!) set by Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Mr. Andrews was very impressive, although the overall vibe was too showbiz-y for me to buy into it fully. But jeez, what a fun way to spend an evening. I've got to say that I love my neighborhood.

Annette Peacock - Been in the Streets Too Long (Ironic). Bill Bruford, Chris Spedding, Pete LaRoca, and Evan Parker show up on various tracks. Later: A long instrumental version of "So Hard, It Hurts," recording in 1975 with a bunch of British fusion guys (Bruford, Spedding, Brian Godding, and Steve Cook), is very cool - Ms. Peacock has got them playing out-and-out free jazz.

One aspect of Ran Blake's playing that didn't really become apparent to me until I heard him in person - he may be the piano's greatest virtuoso of the sustain pedal. I'm not making a joke or being sarcastic. He can depress the pedal precisely where he wants, and coordinate it with his fingers, in order to get a wide range of colors and effects. It's kind of amazing.

Wow! I've been trying to find a copy of that for years. I'm the One is a pretty amazing avant-rock album. I recommend it to anyone who is not immediately turned off by the description "avant-rock album." Ms. Peacock's website is so minimal that it's almost unusable. But I'm ordering the new reissue right away.

Enjoyed reading that, Chuck.

I feel almost the same way about Corea. I love his early work. RFT, in all forms, and afterwards - well, I sometimes enjoy it, but the way I usually put it is that I don't "trust" him. I can't tell who he is after that. Which may be my problem. My favorite vignette in the Cranshaw interview is the meeting with Milt Hinton. Milt bought him a bass case without knowing who he was and without having heard him, just because he was a bass player and needed one.

That's kind of silly and arbitrary. There's a Bechet solo, but it ain't "Blue Horizon."

All my Clara Smith 78s, prompted by a new find: Down South Blues/Kind Love Blues (Columbia "Gold Band" label, 1923), with Fletcher Henderson on piano I Never Miss the Sunshine/Awful Moanin' Blues (Columbia "Flags" label, 1923), Fletcher Henderson on piano Don't Never Tell Nobody/Waitin' for the Evening Mail (Columbia "Flags" label, 1923), Fletcher Henderson on piano I'm Gonna Tear You Playhouse Down/You Don't Know My Mind (Columbia "Flags" label, 1924), "Her Jazz Trio" on side one (kazoo, guitar, mandolin), "Piano and Saxophone" on side two (Charles Matson and Ernest Elliott) I Don't Love Nobody/My Doggone Lazy Man (Columbia "Flags" label, 1924), "Her Jazz Trio" - harmonica substitutes for mandolin on side two The Market Street Blues/It Takes the Lawd (Columbia "Viva-tonal" label, 1925, "Clarinets and Piano" or "Saxophone and Piano" - Earnest Elliott and Harry Stevens on reeds, Porter Grainger on piano All of these are worn - the original owners really like these records - but they all sound pretty good except for the last one, which has surface noise equal to the music. I particularly like "You Don't Know My Mind" - I wonder if it was the first recording of this blues standard. January, 1924 is pretty early for this song.

John Coltrane - The Prestige Recording; disc 12 - tracks first issued on Lush Life, The Believer, and The Last Trane.

Oh, and Daryl appears third in "The Lick" video. Google that if you haven't seen it.

Atlanta resident Daryl Thompson has died - several days ago, apparently. He was a guitarist, jewelry artist, and Lucky Thompson's son. I didn't know him, but he was good friends with my pal Ben, who plays with me in the Edgewood Saxophone Trio. Daryl's childhood nickname was "Bo-Bi," and he told Ben that one day when he was about five, he was singing a little melody around the house. His dad asked him who wrote the tune, and he said, "Me!" Lucky expanded it into "Bo-Bi My Boy," from the Tricotism album. Most of Daryl's work seems to have been in reggae. He's pretty bad-ass in this clip with Sly and Robbie; he solos around 3:15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGrJRhkPh-E&feature=youtu.be

Bumble Bee Slim The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Sting

Cool! I've got a soft spot for those 1920s dance band 78s - the best ones, anyway. Yesterday I spun the rest of my Mitchell's Christian Singers discs: Come On Ezekial Let's Go 'Round the Wall/Count out the Angels (Conqueror) What Are They Doing in Heaven/How About You? (Conqueror) Go Ye Prodigal Son/You Rise Up (Perfect) What More Can Jesus Do/Who Was John (Melotone). This disc has the same recordings as the Romeo record mentioned in post #803; it's even more worn, but some passages sound better on this one. Then, some distinctly less spiritual records. I found these together in an antique store in Atlanta: Redd Foxx - Song Plugging/The New Soap (Dooto) Redd Foxx -The Jackasses/The Race Track (Authentic) Redd Foxx -The Two Oars/The Preachers Bicycle (Authentic) Authentic was a Dooto budget label. I had to really dig to find a picture of any of these.

Happy Birthday!

Fats Ford was not a big name, but he played two stints with Ellington - once at the beginning of the 1950s and once at the end. He's on the Masterpieces by Ellington album, IIRC.