mikeweil

This is in the top ten on my wish list ...

Forgot to comment on Disc 1, Track 15: Hamp it could be, like several of you suggested. I know he did these sessions for his own label with Candido playing conga on some, but have never heard this. Not quite my cup of tea. I screw up at least one on each Blindfold Test, but it cools me down I'm not the only one to mistake JB for a woman ... I played this to a 16-year-old girl (with German/Mozambiquean parents) that helps us around the house to upgrade her pocket money and sings in a choir - she said after one note it was a man! And when I think about the very first track: Horace Silver, that's the piano concept, crystal clear. He has some touches of Ellington and Monk, of course. But Monk's tunes are built in a totally different way! I have them all here in a very recommendable book, all 70 of 'em. Some phrases, yes, but not the tune. Silver had Harrell and Berg in the band for a while, so that makes sense ... Have yet to think about some tracks, didn't read the commentary about those ... this is some bunch of work to do!

No, that ain't Clarke/Boland! They never used an electric bass, and I'm not sure about a guitar, but certainly not one as fuzzy as this! And it's not Boland arranging style!

It was two tracks on the LP.

No, definitely not - I have this LP and that ain't the one!

I start in the middle of disc two, more to come. 2-4: The Carla Bley / Steve Swallow Band - from the first of the Watt Lps they made. I vividly remember how I excited I was about this when I heard it a the place of a friend when it was brand new, and went out the next day to buy it. I kept only the next two albums of this band because I liked them better, saw them live in Frankfurt. That was a great take on slightly decadent groove music. Has to be taken with tongue a little in cheek. 2-5: Probably The World's Greatest Jazz Band from their first Atlantic LP. I have this, but I am too lazy to check ... They were better than most Dixieland bands of the 1970's, in fact they were the best! I remember some unkind words about Gus Johnson being buried in a dixie band during those years, but I thought they were great. 2-6: The Clare Fischer Big Band playing "Lennie's Pennies", with Warne Marsh, Gary Foster, Larry Bunker. Fischer did some great big band writing during that time. That was the first time I heard and appreciated Warne Marsh, a highly individualistic player. Bought the LP out of curiosity, I wanted to know what kind of music that bearded gentleman on the cover made - and what a find it was! I went shopping with my parents once a week as we lived in the country, and one shop in the center always had Atlantic LP sales - I discovered a lot of stuff at the time. Still have it - and the Discovery CD reissue. Very good big band! 2-7: Anthony Braxton - Creative Orchestra Music. I LMAO when I heard his take on marching music on that LP, and heard him do some with the Globe Unity Orchestra a year later - hilarious stuff! Peter Kowald and Peter Brötzmann duelling on tuba and bass sax! Even better than this album. Braxton is another musician that never quite got the credit he deserves. Can't listen to that all the time, but important music for sure, expanding boundaries. 2-10: Is this Percy Mayfield? The voice reminds me of him. 2-11: Arthur Blythe? Could be him, and I know he had a band with trombone, tuba, two guitars and percussion. The drummer overplays a little during the solos for my taste, he should have played closer to the level of the African drums instead of hitting full throttle with every fill. His patterns are nice, but the fills are too loud. He should have used real timbales instead of the electronic drums. I like the idea and concept and groove very much, and all of the horn players. More on the other tracks to come.

Here's what I've dug up so far - in the depths of my brain and my collection and computer: 1-1: Very nice piano intro. But this is certainly not Monk's "Ask Me Now" as some have guessed, although one line resembles it. This might be something Cedar Walton wrote - and played. Trumpet sounds like Freddie Hubbard, but only his lyrical side, without the bite. Tenor - now I know there's a record with Walton, Tom Harrell and Bob Berg - Berg it could be. Not sure. Sounds like early 1970's. Like the relaxed manner in which they play it - I think I know these guys. 1-2: This is HIP!!! I sure would like to have this one!!! No idea who it is, but I dig this stuff with hand drums and African-derived rhythms because it exemplifies the close relationship of Jazz to African music - much closer than many would like to think. That piano has traditional and modern elements, and the rhythm. There should be more music like this. 1-3: Another 1970's recording - post hardbop with modal elements. Reminds me of the stuff Woody Shaw played with his band at the time. What I like about the piece is how they stir up the excitement and go down again for the next solo, inspired playing. I probably know these cats too, but .... 1-4: I'd guess a later Woody Herman Big Band piece. Nice baritone. Don't have any of that stuff, but that's what it sounds like to me. 1-5: My disco says Irene Reid and LaVern Baker did that song, I don't know their voices enough to tell (bought my first Irene Reid CD only a few weeks ago, don't have Baker's Bessie LP any more to compare). From what I remember Baker's voice sounds like - but I could be wrong. A singer with a lot of experience, power and self-consciousness. Yeah! 1-6: I like this better than most singers-with-strings dates I have heard, but have no idea who this is. Her intonation on the phrase "Come back to me" sounds a little strange to these ears. 1-7: "Monk's "Little Rootie Tootie". For my taste, the connection between the theme and the outside playing could be closer, a continuous blend from inside to outside playing - although they go a little in that direction. I'd like to hear someone who takes smaller steps between the two extremes. - A little sleuthing reveals this might be Jane Bunnett and Don Pullen - sure could be Pullen - I always missed the middle ground in his playing. 1-8: Again, like in the previous BTs, a tenor that sounds very familiar. But this turn I took my time to listen and think about it a little more. My guess is an LP I always wanted to hear: James Moody and the Hip Organ Trio, with Mickey Tucker, Roland Wilson and Eddie Gladden. One of the few Tucker LPs from that time I don't have ... This is a slighty different take on organ/tenor playing - would like to hear more of this! 1-9: Another hip drum thing - sounds like some New Orleans influence. No idea who this is, but again would like to have it. 1-10: Baby Dodds!!! Knew this after a few bars! Reminds me I have to get that CD reissue of his Asch/Folkways recordings - this is probably from these sessions. I have a similar solo on an anthology. Great stuff. There was only one Baby Dodds! A high place in the pantheon of jazz drumming. 1-11: Probably some New Orleans Brass Band stuff: I know there was some on the Baby Dodds CD reissue - so ..... This i very rootsy music. I have to check this out. 1-12: The Art Ensemble of Chicago, that was a BYG LP of the late 1960's, one of the first 100 Jazz Lps I bought, but I don't have it any more. I listened to it a hundred times and knew every note, learned a lot from it - I started out - as naive as could be - with free style playing, and this showed a connection to tradition as well as some theatrical element. One of the most important small jazz groups of all time. One cannot give them enough credit. I wouldn't listen to or play this way all the time, but this is very important stuff 1-13: Finally we get our much awaited JSngry take on the Getz clone! I can't tell all these "Brothers" from one another. All are great players, great swing, I like that alto player. Have to listen some more times to this one to tell more. 1-14: Another Getz clone! Has a Basie vibe. A little too pedestrian for my taste. Don't like the drummer - doesn't do much during the solos, and the quadruple time stuff in the drums breaks is not sophisticated enough for the gentlemanlike playing that precedes him. I probably know some of these, but I'm not sure, have to listen closer. So much for disc one.

This is what's listed for that release: VJ*-1096 - Love Me With All Your Heart - Victor Feldman [1964] Love Me With All Your Heart* I Left My Heart In San Francisco Fly Me To The Moon Valerie Walk On The Wild Side Hello Dolly* The Girl from Ipanema* A Taste Of Honey Green Dolphin Street Moon River Anna New Delhi Some differences - marked *. Maybe they had unreleased material or whatever. Bruyninckx also lists the VeeJay LP but does not connect the two. The personnel on the VeeJay LP only says "Victor Feldman and his Instrumentalists" according to Bruyninckx.

Buddy Collette (flute, tenor sax) Victor Feldman (piano, vibes) Leroy Vinegar (bass) Ron Jefferson (drums) A Taste of honey Valerie New Dehli John Brown's Battle Hymn Clifford Scott (tenor sax, flute) Laurindo Almeida (guitar) Victor Feldman (piano, vibes) Al McKibbon (bass) Frank Guerrero (drums) Theme from 9073 Moon River On Green Dolphin Street Anna Nino Tempo (tenor sax) Victor Feldman (piano, vibes) Bob Whitlock (bass) Colin Bailey (drums) Fly me to the moon I left my heart in San Francisco Walk on the wild side

What's so bad about an all greazy disk? ... as long as it's stuff I don't know yet ...

Bruyninckx does not give more accurate details - but it sounds interesting, with Buddy Collette, Clifford Scott etc.

You're added to the list!

Yes, I agree. I too think this is Tina Brooks' weakest Blue Note album, for several interconnected reasons: He was the ringer on this date and as shy a person as he reportedly was, even less assured. The others must have sensed this and sound to me as though they wanted to show the youngster where the hammer hangs - they do some powerplay that a little overbears Tina's more subtle approach, and Blakey plays a major role in this. With more simpatico players Tina was better - just as everybody is! The notes to this session in the Mosaic Box made a similar statement.

This online Kenny Dorham Discography has an index that serves nicely as a timeline for his activities. It underlines my assumption that his illness slowed him down considerably in the late 1960's.

Amazon France stills seems to have it, although they state it's a release from BMG Germany: If I don't succeed, I'll get back to you, couw!

Brownie or couw, is that double CD still available? Could you post an issue number? I only have the soundtrack and like it very much!

I forgot the Riverside date Dorham did with Ernie Henry. I suspect that the idea to have a band without a piano was discussed between Dorham and Roach, as they both practiced that at the same time! The Roach Dorham band recorded without piano for the "Max Roach plays Charlie Parker" LP (part of the Mosaic, but only partially released at the time), all dating from November/December 1957, with Mobley on tenor - the album was completed in April, 1958 with Dorham and George Coleman, who stayed with Max after Kenny left. Dorham died in 1972 at age 48, of kidney failure - it seems his illnes took its toll several years earlier, after the band with Henderson. I suspect that he and Alfred Lion didn't get along very well, despite the half-dozen albums as a leader for Blue Note - there is the possible disagreement (imagine the royalties Dorham would have got from "Blue Bossa" alone!) about song publishing, the one unreleased 1961 session ...

You wanted to say "Roach", didn't you? I read after my last post that he disbanded his own Jazz Prophets band with J.R. Monterose (which he led AFTER the Jazz Messengers) to join Max after Clifford Brown's death - that also may be a reason why the 2nd ABC LP remained unissued. That was the period when that Argo LP was recorded, a Rollins date for Prestige and then the first EmArcy sessions in the Mosaic, most of them with a Dorham/Rollins frontline that is also on a Dorham Riverside session. After leaving Max he had a band with Charles Davis that recorded two fine LPs for Time Records. "Whistle Stop", the unreleased Blue Note session with Charles Davis and Grant Green and the band with Jackie McLean that recorded for United Artists and Pacific Jazz also fall into this period before the quintet with Joe Henderson. He always had something going, that Kenny Dorham, if you count all his record dates, that's quite a number coming together ... with a great list of equally important players. Art Blakey appropriately called him "The King" on the Café Bohemia sessions! Claude's 1999 Kenny Dorham disco should clear some aspects of his career; I will get that next years if it's still available.

If these titles were recorded at the same session on a single day, these are take numbers for individual songs. That means they needed 17 (!) takes to complete a satisfactory version of "When Lights Are Low". All false starts and aborted takes were counted in this system, even if it was just an opening chord. Matrix numbers were placed before these takes numbers, when used. Blue Note used a system counting all takes of a session, no matter what the song title was, in one row, from beginning to end, so their take numbers are an indicator of the position at which a track was recorded during a session. But this is not the case here; Blue Note's system was the exception. Positions of tracks on LP sides are encoded with a system like this: A-1, A-2, etc., B-1, B2, etc.

Seriously, I love it! I'm really surprised there's five tracks on these two discs I instantly recognized. I get something out of every track and dig the diversity of styles - there are some tracks I'd really like to have! More details to come tomorrow - I just spent two hours at this f....ing machine trying to repair some acidentally deleted file and need some sleep ....

Got my copy today, had a listen to both discs. Some initial reactions:

The last few posts point into a direction that seems right to me: I wanna have some fun, 'cause I simply LOVE Blindfold Tests - they're always the first I read when I get a new copy of down beat or Jazz Times. I do that with a good friend regularly. (And I pass the disc on to him when I'm done.) I KNOW I will have fun just because I love it so much. And everything I heard so far is interesting in some way or another. Getting to know stuff I don't know about, yeah, testing myself, I can second all statements above. I can get something out of every type of music, and speaking frankly, I sometimes think this board can take a look or two over the Blue Note fence ...

About time for a jazz addicts's corner ... most of us will have a confession or two to contribute! -_-

If Claude cannot answer these questions, who can? Some speculative thoughts: Kenny Dorham appears to me as a pretty self-conscious man who wants to make sure he gets his due credit. He was the first to break out from the original Jazz Messengers after the first two Blue Note 10" LPs. Conflicts about leadership. His band was called "The Jazz Prophets". One of their albums for ABC remained unissued, the tapes are lost - bad luck sure was involved. The common practice of giving publishing rights to the labels' own company might be a reason. He was a good writer. He played with Max Roach's quintet after Clifford Brown's death, before Booker Little. He wanted to be his own man, and not be put into a bag. Too individualistic for your typical Blue Note pool of players. But the band with Joe Henderson, that worked! Five LPs, but three of them under Joe's name! Everybody remembers it was Joe's albums, but Kenny wrote the hit tunes! He never got the credit he deserved. Always was placed a notch below Dizzy or Brownie or Miles. Maybe he was not quite as great, but he certainly was his own man and was one of the top five bop trumpets!

R.I.P. Ruben and thanks for your playing and personality. As much as I like him, to put him in a league with Monk (a Cuban Monk, as Ry Cooder put it) does not show a deep knowledge of either Monk or Cuban music, and to call him the greatest Son pianist, is with all due respect, a little exaggerated. You have to put these names before him, and he would have been the first to admit this: Peruchín (Pedro Justíz) Luís Martinez (Lily Martinez, his predecessor in the Arsenio Rodriguez conjunto) There is another one whose name escapes me right now. These masters of Cuban music were late discoveries to the rest of the world, their "discovery" was overdue, and there are still more, dead and alive. That movie only scratched the surface, and only of Son, not even mentioning the other musical styles of Cuba - this is my main complaint about "Buena Vista Social Club".