mikeweil

Sorry - I mixed up the two singles. The one included on Treasure Chest was the Crossings excerpt. Never heard the other one with Mwandishi excerpts, but I doubt it was a different mix. Probably an edit like the Crossings single. Warner Bros. at one time announced a multi-disc CD set with the unedited tracks from these sessions, similat to the Miles box sets, but that remained a dream ... I was so disappointed when they scaled it down to that 2 CD set.

Yeah, Mike Clark forged a style of his own combining the sophisticated stylings of Elvin Jones and Tony Williams with deep funk, opening up a world for drummers back then. And he tried to bring that into jazz with his own band with trumpeter Jack Walrath. He played some uninspired things too. Harvey Mason is a real genius, very versatile, from subtle to powerful, and much more a pro than Clark. One of the very best drummers around.

For the curious: The Horn Blows: Red Prysock

That Red Prysock may be the unsung hero of that style ...

The first to come to my mind are David Van Dyke and Red Prysock on Wynonie Harris' single "Quiet Whisky" - all there is to say in a few bars. I like these guys much better when they had to squeeze everything they wanted to say into a short chorus - on longer sax solo features they often got lost in the exitement. Negative high point: "Whistlin' Joe" by whatwashisname? Al Sears was great, Big jay McNeely - there are plenty good honkers, but they should be taken in small doses to best effect. In the long run, some jazz honkers with R&B inflections win the game - Arnett Cobb, Gene Ammons, Fathead - King Curtis was great, check out his Prestige jazz sides!

The first Curtis Counce Group LP on Contemporary was his recording debut - still astonishing! Not only technically astute, but self-assured and original! He is quoted in the liner as having said "Man, I feel like cooking tonight!" as he set up his drums. Jo Jones found him to be the greatest drummer in the world at that time. He would have been the greatest drummer on the scene, but his drug career placed him in a prison band with Art Pepper, Elmo Hope and Frank Morgan ... He recorded a veritable number of dates for Contemporary - Brownie's remark on his being the house drummer after Shelly Manne is to the point. He gets a bit less inspired towards the end of this time span, probably due to his habit, but his playing is excellent throughout. He played a lot harder after he returned to the scene, judging from his Xanadu albums.

When Indian Hari Har Rao was teaching at UCLA in the 1960's, a number of Californian jazz musicians took lessons in Indian music. The desire to apply their theoretical knowledge to their playing resulted in the (unfortunately unrecorded) Hindustani Jazz Sextet - Don Ellis, Emil Richards, Dave McKay, Bill Plummer, Joe Porcaro, Ray Neapolitan all were members and found themselves in the Don Ellis Orchestra soon. Richards had to split for studio commitments but soon formed his Microtonal Blues Band, which recorded a few very nice albums for Impulse (all OOP). So the learning of Indian rhythm had a lot of influence on the use of the so-called "odd time signatures" (a very odd term, IMHO) in jazz. The Indian system of learning rhythm is a very logical and comprehensive one and probably the best in the world - most traditional musical cultures are more advanced rhythmically than the "Western" world.

Who knows? B-)

Would you share some details for my discographical research?

Really funny: At one point in my studies of conga drumming I noticed how big the difference was between the traditional African/Cuban way of just aligning rhythmic phrases (unless you understand the native language) or tyring to improvise like a horm player, and I chose Hank as a model (!), learned all the Soul Station solos by heart and tried to improvise on the drums with a melodic feeling of this type - highly recommended!

are the 7" versions of Ostinato/You'll Know... just edited versions of the LP tracks or are they different mixes like the Crossings promo 7".? never seen a copy... KD They were edits of the LP tracks - both were included on the Warner double LP Treasure Chest, which was a selection from his three LPs for the label plus that single.

BTW - Bennie Maupin's and Patrick Gleeson's Driving While Black is a lte offspring of that tribe ...

Interesting to read different evaluations of these LPs ... I have most of them, bought them right away when they were issued, and kept them all, there was a German radio jazz station presenting them all as soon as they were out, and a Munich mail order shop that imported them. If you list all of these LPs from that pool of musicians it shows they are pretty much a mixed bag: Herbie Hancock - Mwandishi (Warner) ***** Herbie Hancock - Crossings (Warner) ***** Herbie Hancock - Sextant (Columbia) ***** Eddie Henderson - Realization (Capricorn) **** Eddie Henderson - Inside Out (Capricorn) **** Eddie Henderson - Sunburst (Blue Note) **** Eddie Henderson - Heritage (Blue Note) *** Eddie Henderson - Comin' Through (Capitol) ** Eddie Henderson - Mahal (Capitol) ** Bennie Maupin - The Jewel In The Lotus (ECM) ***** Bennie Maupin - Slow Traffic to the Right (Mercury) *** Bennie Maupin - Moonscapes (Mercury) ? Julian Priester - Love, Love (ECM) **** Julian Priester - Polarization (ECM) **** Norman Connors - Dance of Magic (Cobblestone) **** Norman Connors - Dark of Light (Cobblestone) ** Norman Connors - Love From the Sun (Buddah) **** Norman Connors - Slewfoot (Buddah) * Carlos Garnett - Black Love (Muse) *** Carlos Garnett - Journey to Enlightenment (Muse) ? Carlos Garnett - Let this melody ring on (Muse) ? Carlos Garnett - Cosmos Nucleus (Muse) ? One could add more Herbie Hancock, and the Headhunters, to the list, and Return to Forever, Weather Report, Mahavishnu, Lifetime, and fusion albums from these circles (Alphonso Johnson, Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, etc, etc.) but the above have core members of the Mwandishi band as a common denominator. They range from acoustic free-fusion (Lotus) over next-to-free-form (Magic - Connors was fresh out of the Pharoah Sanders band that recorded Black Unity, which included Billy Hart, Cecil McBee, Stanley Clarke, and Carlos Garnett, all of which are on Magic!), over electro-acoustic free form fusion (Mwandishi et al) over electric fusion with lots of improvisation (the first two Hendersons and Priester) to funk leanings (the third Henderson and second/third Maupins) and bland commercial outings (the later Connors and Henderson LPs). The three LPs of the Mwandishi band are at the core of this, and they were the main inspiration and artistic pinnacle - the first Eddie Hendersons were just a free-form version of them. Everything after was less satisfying - except Lotus, which is a purely acoustic take on the Mwandishi experiments - and it is especially astonishing to see Norman Connors' development from a free form player from the Sanders band into an average funk drummer, or rather singer - he wanted to sell, that's for sure. Love From the Sun is a beautiful album - it's a pity he didn't follow that direction, but that personnel was impossible to take on the road. Carlos Garnett did pursue that path somewhat on his Muse albums. The stars are my personal ratings - the less, the more bland commercial content. The 1970's scene was wild - a large number of players was exploring that wide field between free and fusion, with mixed results, and only few didn't record some fusion or funk inflected album (e.g. Tyner, but he had players from that circle in his band, Alphonze Mouzon first of all). The music was fresh and exciting then, and avant-garde, but the commercialization was to follow very fast.

that's cool... I was 4-6 yrs old when these came out so its interesting for me to see how jazz fans received these albums at the time. KD I was 26 when Mwandishi was issued - I remember having a listen in the local record shop and being totally mesmerized by the first track and listening through all of the first side. After recovering - it was like waking up after trance - I bought the LP, went home, and played it several times. Same with Crossings when it came out. I am some years younger than Chuck, grew up on rock but turned to jazz in my late teens - maybe that's a factor. I found it great, and still do.

Here's what I wrote in my guesses: The only consolation is that Jim didn't get him either! Maupin is one of my favourite tenors!!! There are way too few recordings of this great player. Now let me cure my aching back side ...

That's not quite what I have in mind ...

Just read your completed answers parallel to my guesses - Again: excellent compilation! This makes me wonder I f I can keep that level on my second BFT ...

Recently contemplated about starting a thread asking "Who's your favourite jazz srtaist doing pop tunes?", but this fits in here: Bobby Broom!!! He did verrrry nice covers of pop tunes on several CDs: Bobby Broom Trio, Stand! (Premonition, 2001) Bobby Broom Quartet (w. Dr. Lonnie Smith, Ronnie Cuber & Idris Muhammad!), Modern Man (Delmark, 2001) Deep Blue Organ Trio, Deep Blue Bruise (Delmark, 2004) He covers older tunes from the 1960's and 1970's, but makes me like even those I hated back then ...

Yes there is a second Roberto Juan Rodriguez CD on Tzadik, Bail Gitano Baila - you will like it! (Sorry, noticed your request just now!)

http://www.steelydan.com/lyrics.html Thanks!

Now that's a nice LP, but five stars is a little exagerrated. It adds Derf Reklaw Rahim (= Fred Walker) on percussion, BTW.

- couldn't say it any better!

Avoid that budget LRC CD under all circumstances - there is nothing on it that isn't on the two Blue reissue CDs, which sound a lot better - part of the LRC was dubbed from a scratchy LP!

Plenty of sursprises, so far. - Trovesi: he is a man of many faces! I appreciate they are able to do that much sincere Dixie. - Jacquet: Never liked his alot sound - as if the horn was too small for him. And maybe it's just me being too tired of Satch imitations. - Carnegie Hall Jazz Band: I always wondered if I should regret not buying their Blue Note disc ... - Duke: A litle too sloppy for me, but they einjoyed this for sure. The fun was probably more evident in concert or on the video. - Scherrer: I have a few discs with him, he's great, and this track is, it's only that Hodges' reading is so superb ... - Lewis/Jones: Mraz sounds so great, but not with a pickup, same goes for Jenny-Clark. Lewis Nash almost hides behind his ability to perfectly adapt himself to any context. He was on John Lewis' last album. Great choices ....

That ambrosio stills seems to be working, even in its diminuited form as a name ... Didn't mean to imply any assault as far as the Jazzline issues is concerned, the way you wrote it sounded to me as if you weren't aware of them being re-attributed sessions. B-)