mikeweil

Fran Warren, Singer in Big-Band Era, Dies at 87

Reissue-wise, it can't get much worse ... and I doubt this will affect the distribution deal with Universal.

R.I.P. The Sam Rivers date sidewinder mentioned was my first encounter with him, and then Dave Holland's Quintet. I always thought "Why isn't there more of this guy?" .... very interesting drummer. He had his own thing.

I have all of Whitfield's Warner and Verve CDs and really like his playing. I have the impressions that the attempt to do parallel work in a mainstream jazz style in the Marsalis wake and fusion didn't work particularly well in his case. There isn't so much room for so many jazz guitarists at the top, but Malone etc. made it. I have a VHS video with that smooth jazz stuff - bland indeed! Now what is Whitfield doing right now?

Re that Roach/Brown GNP cover - it reminds me of the graphic style of cubist painters. Many designers probably were heavily influenced by modern art whenever they used graphics - or they were active artits, like Warhol.

James, your blogs are a great read and a highlight among the chatter found in most blogs. Your research is impeccable!

Words fail me when such a master passes ... R.I.P.

That's how I will always remember him. R.I.P.

I love the percussive attack of the bass notes on some tracks!

I'd like to post some more comments but I am having some weird graphics display problems which appeared off and on after some background graphics driver update. I uninstalled, and all was fine for tzwo weeks, but know it's all back and a graphicas driver update didn't improve things. I hardly can decipher what I am typing. It seems I need a new graphics card, will check with a spe3cialist on Monday.

Geez, great expectations! A first runthrough didn't reveal any other immediate identifications ....

2. This is a bit rough, but with a lot of authenticity - never heard this track before, and have no idea. I'd say it is from the 1970's. They're all hitting rather hard. 3. This tenor player sounds familiar ... Impressions it's moving into. Sorry, the name won't pop up .... nice drummer who does not overplay. 4. Blues in The Closet, played a bit fast for my taste. But they're good, the trumpet player is nice and knows his trade. Sounds like someone rooted in swing stylistics but open to more modern developments, a guy from the generation of Woddy Shaw and the like. Mildly conservative taste with a slightly more modern sound. The piano player sounds more mainstream and less individual in comparison. tbc

Dan talked me into posting some comments - these are my first thoughts without peeking. Whenever I had a definite guess in mind, I checked my record collection, much to my surprise the very first track was a hit: 1. is the opener from this album - a friend played a CD of this drummer-leader to me many years ago, which made me buy three of his, which I lke not only for the music but also for the recorded sound, which is very natural, just the was I like it, as if the band stands in front of you in a club. This is solid no-nonsense hardbop, much fun to listen to, if played like this it keeps the musical style alive, and that's alright with me. I pull his discs every now and then as I do the others from the label - audiophile discs with excellent music. More to come, will have to prepare something for supper first ... (edited for a typo)

The James Bond in charge here is bassist Jimmy Bond ... Buddy Collette (f, ts), Harold Land (ts), Bobby Bryant (t), Joseph Parnello (p), Jimmy Bond (b), John Guerin (d)