mikeweil

.... I thought you knew what rules are for? Ask deus!

I was just wondering if any fellow boarders here use the random play function of their CD player as often as I do. I like to listen in different playing order, as it sheds a new light on the music. Listening in the same order renders that feeling of familiarity, but develops habits that sometimes get in the way of unpretentious listening - at least this is what I experienced. I also use the programming function to listen in recording order, or eliminate pieces or pick others ... Well, what's your listening method? Always straight from the disc?

That is the main point for me: It has to be challenging. Which makes it a problem when my wife wants to dance with me because I only feel an urge to move when the music is rhythmically challenging, I am not inspired by 4 hits on the bass drum on every beat of the bar ... When I grew up, my father was out of the house working all day, and never listened to music in his spare time, although he told he had been playing cornet in a brass band in his youth (born 1907). My mother (b. 1919) had all Schubert and Beethoven symphonies on LP and loved to play them on Sunday afternoons at coffee time, she had mostly classical music on the radio and got into arguments with my brother (b. 1941) who switched to AFN to listen to Elvis Presley ... This was the very early 1960's (I was born in 1954, the very day Art Blakey recorded his live Blue Note LP at Birdland with Clifford Brown, so that may have set the destination) and I discovered music only to make an impression on my schoolmates, as I learned English pretty fast and was able to understand and write down the names of bands and titles from the radio and bring the latest hit parade listings to school. I listened to the Beatles, but somehow "black music" attracted me more, the rhythms caught my ear. My first LP was by Paul Revere & The Raiders - an unlikely choice for a young German ca. 1968, followed by Cream's Disraeli Gears and the first Pink Floyd LP with that free impro piece, Interstellar Overdrive, which fascinated me. My parents thought that music was crazy, driving me all the more to it. (When I had bought that my alternate choice was a Frank Zappa LP, so I wonder what would have happened, had I changed my mind and bought the Zappa?) At the same time I "inherited" a bunch of singles and EP's from my brother and his wife, who had just married - she had been working in a record shop for a while and brought some things, among them a Dixieland EP, two Parisian Lionel Hampton Trio tracks, and - most importantly - a Metronome EP with the first four Prestige titles by the Modern Jazz Quartet. I listened to that for hours, found that contrapuntal playing so fascinating. Still I was haunted by the Buffalo Springfield, Stephen Stills pieces I still like very much, got into James Brown riffs, but what turned me off was the emotional overdrive of people like Jimi Hinedrix, Janis Joplin or Jim Morrison. Jazz was cooler - I was a shy guy and could not deal with the sexual overtones an all. Soon I discovered a cutout bin at the record shop behind the bus stop where I had to change busses, and bought Herbie Mann's Do The Bossa Nova, Cannonball's Bossa Nova, The MJQ European Concert - that's what got me started. For a while I had the ambition to acquire a representative jazz collection, but gave up on this many years later, due to lack of funds and space, and keep only records that I really dig or think to be really important. I was turned off by sloppy local jazz players for a while, and sytematically explored the history of European classical music with my partner at the time, along with the blossoming of period instruments performance, which I prefer to this day. I always had a friend or two to exchange records, listen together of conduct Blindfold Tests ... Today I listen to jazz as much as classical of all periods, latin music, ethnic music from around the planet ... But the improvisatory freedom of jazz, if it is balanced by an awreness for structure and composition, remains at the core of my musical heart.

hhmm ... reads a little like a "recent aquisitions" thread ... Mine are: Duke Ellington Uptown Masterpieces by Duke Ellington Andrew Hill - Passing Ships Karl Denson - Chunky Pecan Pie Rodney Jones - Right Now Miles Davis -Complete Jack Johnson Sessions Grant Stewart - More Urban Tones Christian McBride - Family Affair Peter Gabriel - Passion Sources Gerardo Nunez - Jucal Ronnie Mathews/Roland Alexander - 1961 and 63 Prestige Sessions Herbie Mann Jasil Brazz DVD

I saw them live once, must have been the late 1970's. A nice band, a real band, not just a "project". They had their own personal thing going fusing jazz with rock influences in a very peculiar way. And they bridges generations, there were twenty years of age between the tenor saxist and the drummer (David Sundby). But their records were hard to get even then - I don't remember if they sold any on the gig. Nice to hear they're still around!

They explained this in the CD credits: In one of its several incarnations the LP included the Liberian Suite. This is due to their sticking to the Lp issues as reference point. I luckily have the French 6 LP box set covering everything except the Uptown and Masterpieces LPs, so I now have the complete 1947-1953 Ellington on Columbia. Guess they could make the rest a nice Mosaic Select ... The sound of these reissues is, as JSngry likes to say in-fuckin'-credible! Al Hibbler stands right there in my living room!

B)

Of course it has similarities to the Ornette cover. Given it was intentional, what's wrong about it? It's a reference or homage to a classic recording and cover design, not stealing. Most anything in design today is at least in part derivative - 'cause it's all been there before! That aside, only us few jazz buffs will get the point, and it was done for our amusement, not provocation!

The Joe jackson cover was intentional, but this might as well be a standard procedure used in graphic design.

Truly a scary movie about a scary subject, with a use of images illustrating very well what might go on in the brain of an addicted person - and the humiliations one goes through to get a shot. I bought the DVD 'cause I dig Jennifer Connelly, but couldn't view this a second time. The same - that it is sufficient to scare people off using drugs - has been said of William Burroughs' books. I doubt this. Consider how difficult it is to stop smoking! Or would you feel comfortable without a glass of beer or wine for too long? The potential for addiction seems to be part of human nature, it seems to me. Would be interesting to know how many heroin addicts were over the years, and the percentage of jazz musicians or other artists - I think it is an old prejudice they fall for it easier than other people.

Ocium has started covering the Verve New Testament band, 2 Cds so far if I remember correctly. A Verve/Mosaic box of that band including the Joe Williams sides would be fine. Seems I overlooked a page while typing, thus the Beatles Lp was missing. I edited my post above.

Anyway, this reads like an interesting session: Wilbert Baranco & his Rhythm Bombardiers: Howard McGhee, Karl george, John Burks (=Dizzy Gillespie), Snooky Young - tp Vic Dickenson, Ralph Bledsoe, Henry Coker, George Washington - tb Willie Smith, Marvin Johnson - as Lucky Thompson, Fred "Lou" Simon - ts Gene Porter - bs, cl Wilbert Baranco - p, voc, arr Buddy Harper - g Charles Mingus - b Earl Watkins - d ca. late January 1946, Los Angeles BW 183-2 Night and Day Black & White 41 BW 184-2 Weeping Willie - BW 185-2 Everytime I think of you Black & White 42 BW 186-2 Baranco Boogie - All titles on Solid Sender (12" LP) SOL 513 Small label gems of the Forties, Vol. 2 Chuck, did you ever have an opportunity to listen to these sides?

Duh! Wanted to listen to these Baranco sides and found out that they are on Vol. 2 of the Lp series, and I have only Vol. 1 & 3 ....

I can follow everyone's points here, but I think there is a minimum of respect for the audience every artist should have, no matter how crappy the place, the circumstances or the audience are. There have been many musicians of his stature that took gigs at old age and still commanded respect and all. Milt Hinton, Ray Brown, Doc Cheatham, Benny Carter ... If he abuses alcohol, it is, after all, his personal responsibilty. Same goes for his stage behaviour. Your personal frustrations do not belong into the music or on stage. Just my opinion as a musician of minor importance - the older I get, the more relaxed I get and the less an issue I make of non-attentive audiences etc. We'll talk about it again 30 years from now, when I'm turning 80 ....

According to The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, there doesn't seem to be much definite knowledge about him, not even his birthdate - ca. 1912. It says he played with drummer Curtis Mosby ca. 1933-34, then ceased full-time performing. He played during army service and then obviously belonged to that elusive circle of modern musicians in California; Vic Dickenson, Dizzy Gillespie and Willie Smith are said to have played at reduced fees with his band, the Rhythm Bombardiers. He had a trio with Ulysses Livingston in California in 1947 and is said to have worked as a music teacher there in later years. I have a Solid Sender LP with the four Rhythm Bombardiers titles, seems I'll have to dig this out and have a listen ... actually the Grove has its info from Dieter Salemann's liner notes to that LP - he's one of Germany's greatest experts on early bebop up to 1950.

Well, for more about Barney Wilen, follow this link. The extensive discussion here may be the reason this track did not generate as muich excitement as it should. I remember I was totally thrilled when I bought this, it was the first Wilen I ever consciously encountered. For a record with the same youthful excitement, I'd say hunt for his Vogue debut, Tilt - seems the BMG CD reissue is OOP again.

The latter is a beautiful album! There is a number of albums on SteepleChase, what I have heard is nice. That Thomas Dyani, BTW, is his son with a Danish wife.

Well, apart from his own sessions as a leader his discography is not that large. His first as a leader was on Prestige and is available as OJC CD or a new 20-bit remastering. He did two for Helen Merrill on EmArcy, which are wonderful, the second is a remake with exactly the same tracks, but it works! He did arrangements for Kenny Burrell (Guitar Forms) and Astrud Gilberto (don't know the album) on Verve. There was an album with a Japanese orchestra led by Masabumi Kikuchi that I cherish, Billy Harper has a few excellent solos on this. If you dare follow his post-Miles development, go for the LPs on Ampex (reissued by Enja) and Atlantic (Svengali, an essential one); the RCAs with Hendrix material etc. are a little confused at times (to these ears) - but he took a lot of chances back then. Take any of his later live sessions for a sample of what his later bands sounded like. If you want to explore his very roots, go for the arrangements he did for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra in the late 1940's.

Silver's fine with me too, I have most of them.

A look into Bruyninckx tells me (in chronological order of recording): Sinatra/Basie Reprise 91008 10-62 On my way and shoutin' again Verve 8511 11-62 This time by Basie/ Hits of the 50's & 60's Reprise 96070 1-63 More hits of the 50's & 60's Verve 8563 4-63 Li'l ol' groovemaker Verve 8549 4-63 Ella and Basie Verve 8783 7-63 Basie Band Verve 8597 10-63 It might as well be spring Reprise 91012 6-64 w. Sammy Davis Jr. Verve 8605 9-64 Pop goes Basie Reprise 6153 12-64 Basie picks the winners Verve 8616 1-65 Basie's Best Verve 8687 10-65 w. Arthur Prysock Verve 8646 12-65 Basie meets Bond United Artists 3480 12-65 w. Sinatra Live at the Sands Reprise 91019/22 1-66 Basie's Beatles Bag Verve 8659 5-66 Basie swingin', voices singin' ABC 570 6-66 Basie's Way Command 905 8/9-66 Basie's Way Command 912 12-66 Basie's Best Verve 8687 2-67 Basie's in the bag Brunswick 54127 8-67 The happiest millionaire Coliseum 51003 10-67 Half a sixpence Dot 25834 11-67 Board of directors Dot 3838 11-67 Manufacturers of soul Brunswick 54134 1-68 Annual report Dot 3888 7-68 Straight ahead Dot 25902 9-68 Kay Starr & Count Basie Gold Star 1500006 12-68 Satznding Ovation Dot 25938 1-69 Evergreens Groove Merchant 2201 10-69 Basie on the Beatles Happy Tiger 1007 12-69 High Voltage MPS 15054 2-70 Afrique Flying Dutchman 10138 12-70 Live bootlegs not included. Hope that helps. Don't ask me why he switched between labels so often, I justed typed it up ...

This was indeed a compilation with only this one track of the Montgomery Brothers. It probably was an audition session for Columbia, who didn't sign them - they ended up recording their first albums for Pacific Jazz. There were probably more titles recorded that remain unissued. A nice track, but not indispensable.

To keep the "AOW past & present" thread clean I rather start a new one. I find the George Russell Jazz Workshop album an excellent choice and would take part in a discussion on this one. I can't afford to buy specific CDs for this discussion at the time but would participate if I had the CD in my collection, like this one.

It makes me kind of sad this very entertaining Blindfold Test Disc doesn't get more feedback here - but maybe you just didn't have enough time just like me. I would like to add some more comments on the Latin Jazz Quintet, which was a fine band, but the liner of the Prestige reissue states they had problems to maintain a stable personnel due to lack of gigs. Conga drummer Juan Amalbert (who later changed his name to Emanuel Rahim and recorded with John Coltrane and others before moving to Scandinavia) founded the band, obviously inspired by the Cal Tjader groups. Prestige gave them a chance to record some albums after two sessions as backup band for Shirley Scott (Mucho Mucho) and teamed with Eric Dolphy (Caribé). The first session stayed in the vaults for almost a year until part of it was released in combination with tracks from the next session, which had alto saxophonist Bobby Capers added to the group. Another mix album from these sessions and another one followed, but it seems they didn't sell much. A different personnel with some members of the first records recorded another LP with Dolphy for United Artists; Amalbert took a shot at a more Latin Soul oriented approach with Pharoah Sanders as guest soloist. Capers had played but not recorded with Max Roach before joining the LJQ and went with Mongo Santamaria in late 1962 after they disbanded. Trumpeter Marty Sheller and Saxist Pat Patrick of Sun Ra Arkestra fame were his front line partners in Mongo's band, Capers played tenor, Patrick alto and baritone, but Capers adopted the latter role when Hubert Laws replaced Patrick in 1964. He stayed with the band until 1966. It seems he attempted a band with his piano playing sister Valerie (who wrote many arrangements for Mongo over the years and remains active as a piano teacher), but a session they did together and an earlier one with members of Mongo's band, both for Atlantic, were not issued and were probably destroyed by the fire in the Atlantic tape storage facility in 1974. Capers did a handful of sessions as a section man, he soloed only with the LJQ or Mongo. I find him a no-nonsense soloist, modern bop with a good feeling for the Latin rhythms. For a player of his level, he's severely under-recorded. He is no longer with us, but so far I could not find out the date or circumstances of his death; any information would be greatly appreciated. The Latin Jazz Quintet LPs: 1 - Prestige 7182 Shirley Scott - Mucho Mucho 2 - New Jazz 8251 The Latin Jazz Quintet + Eric Dolphy - Caribé 3 - Tru-Sound 15003 The Latin Jazz Quintet - Hot Sauce 4 - Tru-Sound 15012 The Latin Jazz Quintet - The Chant 5 - New Jazz 8321 The Latin Jazz Quintet - Latin Soul 6 - United Artists UAS 5071 The Latin Jazz Quintet (w. Eric Dolphy) 7 - Phoenix LP PLP-8008 Pharoah Sanders with the Latin Jazz Quintet - Oh! Pharoah Speak Latin Jazz Quintet CD reissues: Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-819-2 The Latin Jazz Quintet + Eric Dolphy - Caribé Palladium PCD 145 The Latin Jazz Quintet (UA LP) P-Vine (number ?) The Latin Jazz Quintet ? The Chant Prestige PRCD-24128-2 The Latin Jazz Quintet - Hot Sauce (incl. 3 & 4) Prestige VICJ-23132 The Latin Jazz Quintet - Hot Sauce (incl. 5 & 4) Prestige VICJ-23146 Shirley Scott - Mucho Mucho Mongo Santamaria LP's with Capers: Battle BM/BS (9)6120 Mongo Santamaria - Watermelon Man Battle BM/BS (9)6129 Mongo Santamaria - Mongo At The Village Gate Riverside (9)3523 Mongo Santamaria - Mongo Introduces La Lupe Riverside (9)3529 Mongo Santamaria - Mongo At The Village Gate Riverside (9)3530 Mongo Santamaria - Mongo Explodes Riverside S-3008 Mongo Santamaria - Mongo At The Village Gate Columbia CL2298/CS 9098 Mongo Santamaria - El Pussy Cat Columbia CL2375/CS 9175 Mongo Santamaria - La Bamba Columbia CL2411/CS 9211 Mongo Santamaria - El Bravo! Columbia CL2473/CS 9273 Mongo Santamaria - Hey! Let?s Party! Columbia CL2612/CS 9412 Mongo Santamaria - Mongomania Mongo Santamaria CD's with Capers: Milestone MCD-9210-2 Mongo Santamaria - Mongo Introduces La Lupe Milestone MCD-47075-2 Mongo Santamaria - Watermelon Man Milestone MCD-47038-2 Mongo Santamaria - Skins Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-490-2 Mongo Santamaria - Mongo At The Village Gate Columbia Legacy 498708-2 Mongo Santamaria - Greatest Hits

But it's good to see there are at least some members here with a classical education ...

You should rather ease Jim Dye's pain instead of yelling "obey the fist"!