mikeweil

Yeah, great to have all this in one place!

This is great reading - his comments on the Keith Jarrett trio in particular.

Ah, c'mon Jim, you're just envious Wallace Roney is married to Geri Allen ....

This is Burrell's tune, but I couldn't find it in the discographies of these three guitarists, and it does not sound like any of them to me. Neither Burrell himself.

Bingo! The guitar professor strikes again! I have that on a Savoy twofer anthology the site you linked to does not mention, and I compared. You got it! That tenor player was in my mind for a very short moment, but I have too little time to investigate.

Foster was born in 1928, this guy in 1955! The tune is an original by the pianist.

Both discs make a fine continuous program - 2 1/2 hours of entertaining jazz! Track 1: One more candidate for the Gene Harris track in this BFT! Great - must have been a lot of fun being there. Summertime Blues, someone used to call this, or My Funky Summertime. Again, like in the opening track of disc 1, a guitarist sneeks in for the out chorusses, but this one here plays rhythm only. ****1/2 Track 2: Bass figure reminds me of Summertime - Bob Cranshaw on electric?. Gene Ammons on sax? Nice and moody. **** Track 3: Oh, I know that tune ... Duke Pearson's "Jeannine". Very nice tenor sax - plenty of good ideas, and he maintains the swinging flow from beginning to end. The pianist was a disappointment after him, heavy underdevelopped left hand, fast runs that are more a display of not so assured technique than soulful expression. Even the drummer, who interacts nicely during the tenor solo, holds back during the piano solo. ** for the piano, ***** for the tenor and the rest of the band. Track 4: The drummer's opening is a little disjointed, but considering the track starts as a funky little treat and switches to insistent driving fast swing for the chorusses ... Better pianist than on the previous track, but this somehow leaves me cold. *** Track 5: Gettin' greazy one more time - there's too little organ on these BFT's - afraid of easy guesses? This one proves there is more unfamiliar Hammond playing that we might think. Nice, straight in the groove, no-nonsense track. I should know that slighty sweet 'n' sleepy toned tenor. The funkier guitar and drum sound places this in the 1970's or later. **** Track 6: Back to mainstream swing - and another familar tune. Strange piano sound, too hard and thin. Oh, some bigger band this time. Benny Carter on alto, I'm pretty sure. *** Track 7: Hammond and piano - I like that combination and wish it was used more often. Some pre-Smith registration on the organ - a late career Basie small group? ***1/2 Track 8: Some more blues changes. I might have heard that before. Oh - at last one I have! Opening track from (this CD). I like this rather under-recorded tenor guy very much, and even a friend of mine who is very critical about neo-con musicians, appreciated him in a blindfold session where I used one his tracks. He really feels and plays within that style than simply imitating, and selects great tunes. There is a new recording out with him on the same label I still have to get! Solid rhythm section and some underrated veteran trumpet player. **** Track 9: This tenor leaves me clueless. Well, well, I hear ya, brother! I'll probably slap my forehead when his identity is revealed. Bassist is Major Holley! **** Track 10: "Willow Weep For Me". That upward sweep is so familiar! Some late Hawkins? No! His phrasing and vibrato gets a little on my nerves. Paul Gonsalves phrases like that often, but plays not that loudly. No idea, but I probably know him well. On an average, a litle too pedestrian. The rhythm guitar is superfluous. Oh, no - a fadeout!?!? This BFT would have deserved a natural ending! **1/2 Dan, this was fun - in fact it still is! Thanks a lot for these deep looks into your collection!

I just remembered there is a Stanley Turrentine session with Kenny Burrell - maybe the one track is on this too? I don't have that record right now - I know it is part of the Mosaic box. Anyone have this to check?

"Dexter Calling" and "Doin' Allright" are close calls - this is a tough choice to make!

I voted for "Clubhouse" - I dig Dexter's laid back phrasing and Barry Harris so much on this one! I'd have preferred his only sideman date, Herbie Hancock's "Takin' Off" on the list instead of "The Other Side of Round Midnight", to keep things in the 1960's. "Landslide", BTW, like "Clubhouse", was a vault issue, but "Landslide" combined material from two aborted session with an outtake from an earlier session. These two were planned as a reunion of Dexter with his old buddy from the Billy Eckstine band's "Unholy Four" sax section - Leo Parker - who died shortly before the session. That would have been the one ...

I too thought of George Coleman - he seems to haunt these Blindfold Tests!!! But that is not Maupin, who BTW played just as much tenor sa he did bass clarinet. The second horn is an alto, to these ears.

Dan, thanks a lot for this well-programmed pair of discs! I recognized many tunes, but only few of the soloists, although many of them sound familiar - ten years ago I would have faired better in that respect - my listening habits gardually turned away from that style of jazz. As far as the theme is concerned, on disc 1 I think many of the tracks are either blues forms or have blues and/or gospel inflections. But it could have something to do with cover versions of famous tunes just as well. Track 1: Nice opener, I'd say not one of the top innovators of swing tenor, but some B+ player. I was surprised by the guitar chorus - wish they had integrated it more into the arrangement, which sounds more like a jam session. But the soloists are all fine but not stunning - no idea who. *** Track 2: Some Websterish tenor, but it is not varied enough to be the master himself. Another B+ player. *** Track 3: "Chelsea Bridge", my favourite Billy Strayhorn tune. Some seasoned tenor again playing his profound take on this great tune. Nice, but no idea - maybe someone like Harold Ashby?. **** Track 4: "Things ain't what they used to be". I didn't know there were so many B+ tenors ... We're deep into Ellingtonia at this point of the disc, either tunes or players. *** Track 5: The gospelish chord changes of Horace Silver's "The Preacher" are in fact somewhat more sophisticated than this obviously barrelhouse rooted pianist wants to make us believe. This spoiled my idea that it was a tenor sax BFT ... I thought of Gene Harris, but he would deliver more variety. Too long for what he has to say. ** Track 6: I knew after the first two chords this would be "After Hours", the Avery Parrish blues classic. Well, the Erskine Hawkins band said more in three minutes than these cats do in nine ... neat little crossing of jam session and miniature big band - the longer the track runs, the more horns seem to leave the dressing room . I prefer the original. ** Track 7: Sounds like some Jazztet record, but there is no Benny Golson. Curtis Fuller? The trumpet sounds more like Kenny Dorham than Art Farmer. Tune sounds like it was derived from "One Mint Julep" - I think I heard it before. Like the trumpet and the drummer, good series of fours. **** Track 8: Another nice trumpet player! Like Woody Shaw on the lyrical side. This is neither Shaw nor Hubbard, but someone who has listened to Freddie. I have to admit I do not miss Freddie's mannerisms. Pianist plays the hard bop textbook, but to me it sounds too much like he is simply aligning phrases. *** Track 9: This is Clifford Jordan playing his tune "The Highest Mountain", and is pretty close to his arrangement, but is different from the version on the band's Milestone CD, and a little sloppier in execution - and this is not Vernel Fournier on drums. Hmmm .... you got some other demo or live recording, Dan? Sure would like to have it! **** Track 10: Maiden Voyage with an organ? Why not ... but this is not nearly as evocative as Herbie's version, which was a veritable tone poem, and the horns do not quite play in tune. Another tenor I should recognize. Would have liked to hear the organist soloing. *** Track 11: Reminds me of the Jazz Messengers, probably a tune composed for them - tune sounds very familiar, but I didn't keep too many of their albums. I'd say that is not Blakey, but there is at least one Messenger in the band. Good players. **** Now off to other members' foolish replies ...

Fully agreed! Redman was in top form during those years, and made Jarrett's excursion into Colemanisms credible.

Yes - I always found this is one of her musically most satisfying albums.

Of course they didn't - careful research of dedicated jazz lovers is the last thing those reissue producers seem to care for. The liner says "recorded in 1956" - as I said, it was August 1953! (If in doubt, follow the link in the quote.)

In the liner notes to the GRP Decca selection CD of McKusick's LPs for that label, the writer points out how many great Russell arrangements were recorded with McKusick in the band, on three Russell LPs for Decca and RCA, and three McKusick LPs for Decca and RCA. Farmer and Evans on much of them. A great admirable body of work, and among the few I try to get a complete collection of.

Well, Mingus saw himself as a composer as much as he was a performer, and I have the impression that he was at peace with himself, the music and the orchestra when this was rehearsed and recorded. No small achievement for the hot-headed man. A bassist friend played that to me 30 years ago, and he admired the orchestral textures and the spirit of musical freedom he heard in it at the same time. If anyone succeeded in integrating improvisational freedom into big bands, it was Gil Evans and Mingus.

Not a jazz album cover, but silly nonetheless. "Papillons" means "butterflies", enough to make the designer's fantasy go crazy.

Was this aimed at me? Haven't been here for a week ... Thanks for the hint - I have most of the Atlantics that interest me. Among the Verves I ordered, the Nat Adderley turned out to be the greatest in the bunch - Roy Haynes plays magnificently on it! Were there CD issues of Cannonball's two EmArcy Lps with larger groups that are not on the Quintet's 2 CD set?

Got my share of Verve Master Edition CDs today: Duke Ellington - Soul Call (great live orchestra!) Ellington & Hodges - Side by side dtto. - Back to back Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt - Blues Tenors in Orbit (much better than I thought) The Modern Jazz Sextet - Gillespie, Stitt, John Lewis etc. Nat Adderley - Introducing N.A. the latter is a killer, Roy Haynes plays magnificently here - I'd recommend this disc for him alone! ..... and: Paul Bley - Circles (love it!) Denis Colin Trio (after a recommendation in the bass clarinet thread)

Strange thing is, I keep hearing a Turrentine sax sound when I memorize that tune. If I'm on the right track, it was re-recorded under a different title .....

Got that Twofer CD today - sound is excellent, very fine remastering job by Kirk Felton, every detail is audble - the Milestone LP had a slightly muddy sound. They omitted "Mr. Joy" from the Synthesizer Show LP due to time limitations. That, BTW, was the first LP to use the synthesizer in creative improvisation, as Michael Cuscuna (!) writes in the original notes. The tunes are by Annette Peacock or Carla Bley, and Bley's synth sounds much less dates than most from that era. I recommend it - his multiple keyboard concept on "Scorpio" is great!

Forgot to mention... I don't follow you here, Mike. Which two tunes are you comparing- "Mark l" and... ? -_- ... sorry, seems I confused some tunes here. I would have bet my hat "Mark One" was on another album, but I just can't find it. Maybe I simply like that track a bit too much.