mikeweil

Watch out Al - your BFT track had Cal Tjader play timbales while Eddie Cano played piano! My BFT had him on three tracks, one with piano, drums, and vibes each ... B-) Welcome to the board, Rob! I spend some of my spare time on completing my collection of your father's music, which I love so much and play every week, and try to assemble a discography of his works. May I send the biographical part to you for proofreading? May 5 will have me on stage playing some and acting in a Perceval adaption that will not allow me any references to his music, but I sure will play some of it through the day!

If you're interested in hearing Garzone with a B3, you can order this CD from Cadence:

Best wishes, master of the knots! If I'd be anywhere near ya I'd present ya with a disk wrapped in a beautiful tie! Many more - birthdays, diska, and ties!

There should be one advantage of trying tro play these damn drums yourselves, eh? It is some of the details in the phrasing in his accompaniment. There are a lot of minutely diverging possibilities of rhythmically placing a stroke between straight and triplet feel, and in ballad tempo you can study these like under a magnifying glass. The great drummers all phrase differently on ballads. Like when Elvin plays two strokes on the snare and two on the kick drum on "and 4 and 1" - nobody does that like him.

I know there is a Fresh Sound CD of the Vault LP Ramblin'. There was a Discovery LP reissue of the Atlantic LP under a different title, but I'm not sure about any CD reissue. I will have a look. These were the LPs of the Ayers/Wilson team: Atlantic SD 1406 Jack Wilson – The Jack Wilson Quartet feat. Roy Ayers (LP reissue: Discovery DS-872 - Jack Wilson - Corcovado) Atlantic SD 1488 Roy Ayers – Virgo Vibes (CD reissue: Atlantic 81227 3585-2) Vault 9001 Jack Wilson – Brazilian Mancini Vault 9002 Jack Wilson – Ramblin‘ (LP & CD reissue on Fresh Sound) Blue Note BST 84251 Jack Wilson – Something Personal (CD reissue: Blue Note Connoisseur 52436) There also is a Vault 108 listed in discographies, but I have no idea what format that is.

The Freire was on a 1987 Teldec CD as well - a very good recording. I have the Cirandas and Cirandinhas by Roberto Szidon on French Le Chant du Monde, which I can recommend.

Forgot to add: this is blasphemy! ubu B-) If this is the Ducal band, it's one of the sloppiest performances I have heard. Never heard that Eastbourne concert.

I got them from Caiman through Amazon.

From the site linked in the previous post: Who's "Tex"??? So, no Monk here.

I played these for a while in a trio with my own percussion part composed to it - very nice works but the composer's tempos are a little too fast at times to best display the baeuty of some passages. Still looking for a really satisfying recording.

Got them both, and dig them to death! Like em better than Ribot's! Second, Baila, Gitano, Baila was my avatar for a while.

The Ellington tune on track 9 is clearly Koko! Is that John Lewis playing one of the pianos?

Golson!!! I NEVER get him on these Blindfold Tests! NEVER!!! Read my guesses to previous BTs that he was on! This is the nicest I have ever heard him play - would like to have this. I know that Duke tune on track 9, let me compare!

On to Disc 2, at last ... Track 1: I know there are some excellent trad jazz bands in Switzerland, so I guess this is one of them. Well done, like this. Some famous tune but can't remember the title, do not listen to these things too often. The drummer's really into this, keeping a fine balance between tradition and more modern stylings. Track 2: ????? Track 3: Fake Duke and fake Rabbitt on the sunny side ... sorry - I prefer the original. Something's missing here, more than a little bit, nice effort, but not more. Fake Satchmo handling the vocals - oh no ..... not for me. Track 4: Christopher Columbus. Same as track 3, but not quite as bad. Fake Little Jazz doing the trumpet solo. Track 5: That's how the Duke's orchestra must have sounded with the three horn section tuned to slightly different pitches playing in different rooms, or in pijamas after being pulled out of bed at 4 a.m. after a very late concert. Track 6: More imitators at work ... older styles are easier to do, or some veteran guesting. The trumpet sounds authentic this time. As with the previous tracks, the audience enjoyed it. No idea who this all is. Track 7: King Albert of the European trombonedom doing Mood Indigo. Some details in the drum phrasing tell me this is the late, great Elvin on the drums - they were frequent collaborators. I understand Elvin tried to talk Albert into doing some US tours, but ... I like this very, very much. One thing that usually turns me off with German jazz is that they all take themselves and the music so damn serious about 95% of the time, a real fat and funky groove or deep humour on the less intellectual side is rarely found. They play funky grooves, but a little too fast and not deep. They have problems with the real black groove. If you have ever heard an interview with Albert, he told us why - to set himself apart from certain aspects of German culture - and I can understand this. But if they forget about it all, and this was the case here, the results are hilarious. I have probably heard Albert play live more often than any other board member, living only a few miles from his home town, but I never heard him as humorous as this. Really great, and technically and musically accomplished as well. This is what his multiphonics are made for! Is there more of this concert? If so, I want this!!! NOW!!! The saxist, whoever it is, does wisely to stay in the background. The bassist tries, and is nice, but nobody can match Albert here. I see Elvin grinning and grunting his approval. Great stuff. This is worth keeping this disc alone! Track 8: This existentialist sounding tenor may be a familiar name. Blood Count is the tune, one of Billy Strayhorn's last, and most heartfelt tunes, written in the hospital. Only problem is I can't forget Hodges' rendition on "And his mother called him Bill". Otherwise I might find this tops. Yes, really, very well done. I'm sure I know this tenor ... somehow I hear him play "Soul Eyes" - did he? No idea who the pianist could be. Track 9: Some Duke composition. One of his more arresting tunes, can't recall its title right now. Some tune from the Blanton band repertoire? Nice effort. Pianist tries some real two-handed stuff - or is this two pianists? Track 10: Oh - some Hammond flying to the moon! Very nice and sparingly played. No idea. The style sounds familiar, though. Good guitar solo. Nice climax! This is it! Track 11: A Benny Golson tune - Whisper Not. Again a familiar sound. Very familiar! Oh sh.. this name is on my tongue ... Rhythm section really heats it up here - perhaps one chorus too many by the piano, he should have taken it out after that climax. Could do without the bass solo, but that's how live renditions are. Must have been a very good date. Track 12: Indeed - one more? Body and Soul. This gets interesting. I will probably kick myself for not recognizing that tenor. Where's Jim Sangrey to tell us? Track 13: Know that voice, but ... (same as track 2?) Track 14: Very nice pre-bop. Great closer - who is this? Thanks again, your royal highness - royal job! And now on to the others' guesses .....

... like this: http://www.mbira.org/

I have one of the "commercial" models, though self-made from a set of parts, and a traditional one from Zimbabwe, which is very hard on the fingers due to the heavy steel the tongues are made of. I once saw a Shona musician in concert - amazing! Remember this is called many different names - sanza, mbira, etc. - kalimba is rarely used in traditional African cultures. A web search for mbira will turn up much valuable information.

BTW - I found the book Afro-Cuban Rhythms for Drumset by Frankie Malabe and Bob Weiner very helpful in this respect.

One more advice - do not start by imitating Horacio Hernandez or any other of these madmen - watch someone like like Roberto Juan Rodriguez who keeps it simpler but grooves like hell. Or the old masters like Willie Bobo who just added a bass drum to the timbales - José Claussell in the Eddie Palmieri band still plays like this. I think it is too much when they fill up every fraction of the beat twice.

I would add timbale sticks of any gauge to the stick assortment - the Latin stuff feels differently, and in my impression, better with them. My experience is that most African and Afro-American i.e. Latin American rhythms work much like a module system. Write down a number of patterns - clave, cascara, tresillo, bell patterns - and different beat and off-beat time lines in a proportional notation, and then change only one of them at a time, switch them around to all the limbs - that's what Cuban drummers do. It helps to slow down the tempo so you can think along while playing and starting to hear all the patterns together. You can start with just a bell or cascara in the right hand and a tumbao (beats on 2 and 4) in the left hand like a timbales player and add the feet when this runs smoothly.

... and I forgot to push a cassette into my recorder ... A nice gig, although I don't quite like Ribot's slightly kaputt stage personality. The drums/timbales player, Roberto Juan Rogriguez, is way cool - playing the hottest stuff in a totally relaxed fashion. The vocals by E.J. Rodriguez and his conga playing are a little extrovert, to my taste, and the band vocals border on parody, which, judging from the studio CDs, is intended. Ubu, get the second CD - I think it is even better - more drum solos

He writes Allen "Pee Wee" Tinney, to be exact. I listened to the Esoteric 548 and Xanadu 107 LPs I have - Stompin' at the Savoy clearly sounds like Monk, display some of his characteristic traits that you can hear on his 1944 Hawkins sideman recordings. Swing to Bop aka Charlie's Choice OTOH has some typical swing piano lines out of the Teddy Wilson bag that I never heard on any Monk recording, but Kenny Kersey used on the other Minton recordings. This would mean there's an error in the discographies ... Can't say anything about Up on Teddy's Hill - the piano is barely audible on that track.

Yes, Little Church was one of the studio tracks - perhaps marcello forgot 'cause the instensity of those live tracks overshadows the studio material.

Yeah, he was killin' on Live/Evil - can't wait for the box set of this! I saw some live Miles in Berlin on TV with the next band with other rhythm men and Jarrett, and he was great there, too. Can't accept the funky part of his soul, eh?

So why can't he just say, okay, that was back then, now is now, I was experimenting, and my tastes have changed - most natural thing to occur. I wouldn't have any problems admitting that some things I have played in the past are no longer to my taste. Or is it just those bugging journalists? Or rather him contradicting himself?

This excellent recording on period instruments includes Syrinx and the trio - very beautiful, and not a bit academic. I gave this to a friend who was not so wild about period instrument recordings, but she loved this!