mikeweil

Can't confirm Mingus, but found he played with Johnny Otis and a host of other R & B stars, Little Esther (Phillips), Roy Milton, Lucky Millinder, Pee Wee Crayton, Ruth Borwn, Sugar Pie Desanto a.o. in all stages of his career.

Wasn't he one some Mingus album? Edit: Was probably my confusing him with trumpeter Eddie Preston - sorry.

With all respect Jim, this reads impressively, but too many words ..... I'd say he never resolved, he couldn't! Maybe he even didn't want to, but only after he recognized he couldn't. (Very few people can, BTW, ever fewer try, but most do not face ambiguities as wide as Miles did.) This makes him (his music included) so fascinating - or we wouldn't discuss this at such length. And I don't see peace in him, no way - if he had been at peace with himself and his musical ideas he wouldn't have been driven to do all the things he did in his life. He probably would have sounded as dull as couw perceives him.

You better not. Ain't nobody been listening to no jazz records at age 1, except in mammy's womb.

C'mon, let's all pity the poor fellow ... he had to!

This one has been mentioned here, but can anyone give a more detailed impression of that one, please?

Monk on Blue Note was my first, I think when it was just out. Got the Mulligan/Baker, Ammons/Lewis and Art Pepper with the second order. Then I believe it was the Tina Brooks. I intended to get them all, but funds wouldn't allow .....

Blue Mitchell. After that, the Duke Ellington Reprise in its German Spiegel edition, if that counts.

Chops are the one aspect of a musician that is easiest to be judged. But the technique per se does not say anything about the musical qualities as a whole. Chops alone are not what it's about, but the chops you need to do what you hear, and there he was an individual of the highest order. I have to admit this - I don't like his tone that much, just like couw, but I have to give him credit for what he did.

Is (was?) he related to Valerie? She is his sister, still active as a piano teacher in New York. She wrote and arranged a number of tunes for the band in which her brother played in the 1960's, and both syblings recorded a couple sessions for Atlantic back then, but his and one they made together remained unissued and were probably destroyed by the 1974 fire in the Atlantic vaults. Only one album of her was released, without him. He obviously passed away in the 1970's or 1980's, but so far I could not find out when or how. (Edited for discograhical accuracy). Now how do ya like this sax man, I ask once more, JIM????

I think it is impossible to separate the man from the music. More than with anybody else. The character traits that made him nasty show in his music, the contradictions.

I guess so. His ego needed food-a-plenty, of many a kind: cars, women, musicians, funny stuff for the nose (to use an expression from a live Rahsaan Roland Kirk record), and, most of all: money. He used, as we all know by now, many a composition of other people, some were given to him, e.g. John Lewis' Milestones, others he downright stole: Eddie Vinson's Four and Tune-Up, Mundell Lowe's Solar, the parts Bill Evans wrote for Kind of Blue ... He was proud of the guys in his band end envied them at the same time. Same probably applies to his relationship to his influences. I see his life and music as a constant search for himself - the photos in the Jack Johnson box clearly confirm this. He liked to provoke and needed it to define himself, was probably never really satisfied with his music. The spontaneity of his bands is seen as a typical jazz thing, but on the other hand he never indulged in rehaesring as much as Ahmad Jamal, whose trio was much more together in certain ways. I find it hard to write about Miles. His personality is so multi-faceted and complex and encompasses so much of the social and musical scene he was part of that one single statement will always do him wrong. (Besides, my attempt to contribute to this thread was torpedoed by two browser crashes and the board being down during the last two days ... ) There was a time when I was fascinated by his music: When Bitches Brew came out the title track was broadcast in full length several times over local radio stations, which was a rarity! I listened, curiously, bought the album, took it in many times; Live-Evil hit me even harder, I once caught myself playing along and doing the same things as Airto, although I didn't pay any attention to him. But I liked these electric bands always better when he didn't play, he sounded a little predictable to me. The jazz scene would be different without him, that's common sense. But he made it hard for anybody to love him, the way he was. He wanted love it seems to me, but enforced obedience, in a way, or admiration, and that drives many a person away from him. The talk about personal demons is in order here. But without these demons he probably wouldn't have achieved anything important and wouldn't be as fascinating.

Never heard of him .... p.s. this refers to couw's post two steps above - MWTGA and I seemingly posted simultaneously.

Re # 13: I fills me with deep satisfaction that this largely underrated man is judged for being a good player by most participants. I'm talking 'bout the alto sax, of course - he's not the leader, BTW.

Of course it is this track, not another version - it's weird that I sometimes hear sonic differences to the disc or LP I have in my collection.

Sorry to hear this. An excellent swinging drummer whose playing I always enjoyed. RIP

but bigger I bet Be careful: there are khenes up to five or even six feet high!

... but I bet he has more tubes than you had .

The basic principle of free reeds used in Melodicas, harmonicas and accordions was copied from an East Asian instrument family, the oldest of which probably is the khene from Laos. The Chinese sheng and Japanese sho were developped from this. Another khene link with sound sample.

I dig the shit out of it everytime I hear it. Then you will dig the shit of some of the Olatunji stuff I copied for ya ... I have to send it, my God --- don't blame me, gettin' older is hard work

To me the problem is that the 1. flute and vibes, 2. drum set and conga, 3. rhythm guitar, 4. piano, 5. bass all play with slightly different phrasing. The piano tinkling and guitar are simply too much for me - without them it would have been a perfect track. But I don't think anyone here overdubbed.

Before that it's basically a samba. After 2:10 it's a calypso pattern or tresillo the drummer plays, but the trumpets on top play the rhythmelodic pattern of some sacred cuban song for the Oricha Shangó, so the arranger must know his stuff or he just picked it up from some cuban record without knowing what he did. That blues melody - the main theme - sounds familiar to me, but I can't put my finger on it. That drum pattern is a very common one.

Yes, that's a very simple and practical explanation for that hose: It came together with a stand to put the melodica on so it lay on the table like a keyboard, and the hose enabled you to blow into it while playing two-handed like on a piano .... I bought me one of these ditties way back around 1970. The hose and stand was available only for the larger model Jack deJohnette so splendidly used on the DeJonette Complex: But you couldn't get no vocoder effect with this, no way! I still have it.

Some more elaborate comments are in order. # 1: DJ Big Sound meets Maynard Ferguson? This is nicely done, the percussion loops are longer and reveal much greater rhythmical knowledge than usual. I probably wouldn't buy this, but I like it. Wonder who it is. # 2: I sure can understand why Jim thought of the Ray Brown big band, but this doesn't sound like Ray, and the turn to Latin rhythm excludes this, I think. It is the often found weird mixup of Brazilian and Cuban rhythm patterns and instruments that authentic bands wouldn't do, at least not this way. But as a big band track, nicely done and full of good spirits. # 3: Crime time! The conga player turns the tumbao around after 0:45 into the track, and conga and bongo are not really together, so this probably is older stuff from the 1960's. # 4: We're probably wrong when we drop any of the familiar names. Nice alto. Trumpet dtto. (sounds familiar) and piano a little monkish, like him. Something tells me this might be quite a surprise when it is revealed. Drummer resembles some things Donald Bailey did, but I'd rather say it's not him. All are very competent players. # 5: Of course we think of Mulligan when we hear a pianoless ensemble with a pedestrian beat like this, but the bari does not sound like Mulligan to me, sounds a little too big, and solo is much too short - Gerry never would have confined himself to so short a chorus. It's not Shihab with Boland, their groove and Francy's writing were different. Again, very nice. # 6: Plas Johnson on tenor? Very big bass drum sound. Nice arrangement. Good use of lower reeds and brass. Humor and competence. Chino Valdez playing congas? Hollywood, that's for sure. # 7: More familiar sounds, late 1960's, could be I have heard this before, but no, that bari does not sound familiar. Vibist is nice, too. All are good players, good swing. Curious who this is. # 8. More film sound tracks ... Good use of the alto flute. But the rhythm section is a little too loose for my taste, not really together. # 9: Sure this is a Brazilian pandeiro player starting the track. This leaves me wanting more. A very personal saxophone conception. # 10: I have heard this before, but maybe with a different singer. Somehow I think of Jack Bruce's voice when I hear this .... yes, track 2 on this CD is the original version. # 11: More montuno for you, montuno for me. The brass cowbell sound and natural skin timbales place this in the 1960's. Another Hollywood recording, again too short. # 12: see my previous post. # 13: dtto. # 14: Accordion, but no idea, nice blend with vibes and guitar. Did Shearing ever play such a machine? # 15: Sounds like a clone half Getz, half Klemmer. Shorter's alter ego playing soprano. Phil Woods' alter ego on alto. Now will the real players please stand up? They sure are serious about their sentiments and get them across to me. Excellent choice. # 16. Another deep sea diver, electric vibes - or a keyboard with vibes settings? - again faint echos of long forgotten tangos. Very emotional. # 17: More moody string keyboard sounds, almost like a Samuel Barber piece. But soon we're taken back into the reality of a Hollywood studio. Still, a deep performance. # 18: This could be the same percussionist playing on the original Decca single of Peggy Lee's "Fever" - I always wanted to know who this is. Damn, I've hardly written this and it's over - part of a suite or more film music? # 19: Almost like a theme from the Booker Little - Eric Dolphy Five Spot sessions. But, no idea. Again, wonder who this is. # 20: Wonder who? Eddie Who!!! Great segues from one track to another. A very competent insight into the world of mood music. Well, this could be the theme, and it could be that there always is one musician on a track that has a connection to or appears on a previous track. Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!