couw

What?! you mean it's the Texan Whistling Smilies? Who'd-a-thunk THAT?! WILD!

and to add to that: if any one single person has a serious positive mindPHUCK because of a track included, it would in my opinion be worth a whole lot of dissatisfied customers. If you don't like it you can skip it, if you do like it and it's somerthing completely new, and possibly something that really makes you flip out BIG TIME. Now, that's truly priceless.

Shepp's later output has been rather erratic. There's a lot of not so good stuff, but also some very nice stuff. I will have to dive into this stuff again before I can give you advice. From the top of my head, there's St Louis Blues on the PAO label (1998) Very intimate playing on this one. Black Ballads on Timeless (1992)

How many birthdays do you have Dmitry? Have a good one!

all of the above. And above all well-informed guesses and discussions as well. The concept of listening without any notion who's playing certainly also objectifies criticism; or discolours it, I should probably say. It's a good thing to wash your ears from preconceived notions about certain players and give the music a fresh listening. In previous BFTs I have been visiting my own collection, cross-checking and re-evaluating it, finding new ways to listen to old stuff. These tests make your ears grow. On more than one level that is. It opens the ears for new players, new styles, new connections. In compiling my own disk I turned over large parts of my collection I do not necessarily visit that often or with the particular concept I had in mind. Making compilations is always a great way to get to know the music on your shelves. I have certainly also got a lot of friendly frustration (like "Damn! I know this tune, but crap if I can call it now! Damn!") and excellent vibes filling my head and living room. Dance anyone?

Dan, reading your comments here in the other thread I am afraid that part of my upcoming selections may be as "offensive" to your ears as some of Jim's choices. I can assure you that I stayed inside the commonly accepted boundaries of jazz (wherever those may lie), but still... I do hope you will keep up the good faith in this Blindfold Institution. And I do hope you will go to the trouble of reacting on all the tracks that come to your ears in this context. Your fervour in pulling this whole thing off cannot be easily compensated and yet we try; we also try to give it our own twist as the very concept demands it, though. So stay with us and keep your good humour.

yeah, whassup with that?!

Okay, back after an interlude. Please note that I have been drinking beer all the while, so this might be more fun than I am willing to admit... DISK TWO Track 1. Some electrically enhanced saxophone thing. Rather annoying at first, but folds out into a nice or at least interesting rendering of Nature Boy. At times this sounds really dated. The drummer (Williams?) burns his pants off. The piano-comping during the first statement: I could do without that. The pianist (Corea?) kicks off into unknown territories with the bass following closely. Though quite good, this still somehow strikes me as a bit of "look what we can do." The tenor (whothefuckisthis?) brings proportions back to enjoyable for me. Still... I am sorry to say, this idiom doesn't really click with me, which is rather strange considering I came to jazz by listening (a lot) to Zappa and his jazz renderings aren't really that far off of this type of stuff. Track 2. Shortly sounded like Eddie Harris, isn't him after continued listen though. Couw likes this shite! After digging the shite out of the unisono stuff, I really like how the tenor and trumpet (or is it a horn?) trade solo space by playing together for a while, and then switching between soloing and comping like trading looks between lovers. This is really good stuff Jim! The tenor has some Shepp-like qualities I like a lot. Though I somehow doubt it is him. Maybe that's just because his tone has changed quite a bit and somehow this sounds like a modern recording, which doesn't fit with a "classic" Shepp sound. Couw wants to know!!! Track 3. Crap Jim! This is toooooo greasy, slick, whatever for me after what you gave me with the preceding 16 tracks. I mean, come on, listen to the damn vocals. Is this guy serious? If he is, he should find someone to make him more attractive for the girls. Who (ooooo-ooooo) is this "baby" they are singing about? Someone you know? Wait a minute... is this Marvin Gaye? Anyhow, Couw's gonna take this one serious and will listen again (word!). Listening again: The spoken intro somehow sounds really amateurish and it spoils what follows. Only around the 2 minute mark this thing starts to gains momentum for me. The lyrics are still not very good. This really isn't the best of its sort, rather bland like most pop songs. Pity ?cause the voice is good. Track 4. The accordion like, reverb horn comping spoils this one for me. Sounds like yet another bad version of Biscaya. This is all too laid back, too slick, too poppish, too bedroom eyes, too (dare I say it?) Kenny G. No go for couw on this one. I always thought this type of music was made ONLY for the movies. Guess it isn't. Sorry. Track 5. The sound is more modern than the tune would like us to assume it seems. I have been enjoying this kind of stuff more and more off late. Preferably it is of course played from noisy ten inch LPs (or 78rpm disks I would think). Track 6. Smooth big band. Sounds like the tune to a telly sports show, so I guess it's the 80s (and would almost guess it's European, but that may just be because I hardly know American telly this close). The pianist is WILD. The alto is very nice, sounds like a guest star somehow. I like these almost chaotic unisono parts that sound as if there wasn't enough time to really practise. Track 7. Yet another one of those telly big bands. A prime time show on Traffic Jams this time. Somehow there's way more than meets the ear here. Weird stuff, like couw likes it quite a bit. I'm gonna be lazy and see what help the others will offer on this one. Track 8. Hellyeah! Is my very first reaction after hearing 5 seconds. Weird and wrong as it may seem, I am gonna go for Lester here. And yes, I know the guy sounds a lot like Hawk, but still. The piano sounds too boogie-woogie for Basie to my ears, but what do I know; not too much about this type of music anyhow. The ensemble sounds like Basie. Just to repeat: HELLYEAH! Track 9. Confirmation? (or one of those Parker tunes) Sounds like Rollins to me. Rolls down like a melted ice-cream. The drummer and bassist smoke (certified!). Track 10. This takes quite some time to warm up but starts emitting heat right after that. I haven't got a clue who this is, but it sure turns out nice. Track 11. Another one that took some time to start happening. It initially sounded rather bland actually, like any steel-drum band; West Indies, Antilles, you know what I mean, but this one sounded slicker; that is, definitely not more real. There's better stuff out there (somewhere on the streets of Amsterdam). The alto made it interesting and worthwhile for me. Now, just listening to that sax, I'd go for Threadgill. That's because I don't know anyone else who's tone sounds remotely like this. I perversely hope this is a hole in my appreciation. And damn, who is this ?bonist? Thank you, Jim, for opening my ears. I'm looking forward to reading the comments others made. From another thread I gathered that there were some problems with respect to the selections you made. I have found none. Although the border of what we or I or anyone may call jazz are certainly crossed on some of the tracks you selected, I still think those fitted nicely into your compilation and that's part of the deal it seems to me. I myself have spent a lot of time optimising the flow of my selections to make them into a real album of sorts. That is not an easy task. I would make other choices and do things differently than you if it came to that and have certainly done so (and would do it again if I hadn't promised myself to leave it as it is). Still, I can follow your ideas to the extent that I can appreciate what you did; I will be playing your disks, will be reading the comments of others, and will be trying to guess the (in my ears ever-changing) theme of the music you selected. There are some hard changes on both disks for me to get my ears around. That's cool, it keeps them looooong and flecxible. I hope I can soon return the favours (you know why the "s" is there) you did me.

I really didn't have time for two disks, but I simply made and took the time. And so, here are my comments on this Blindfold Test #4 (thankyoujim): DISK ONE Track 1. Sounds like Monk's Ask Me Now. The deviations are structural enough for it to be another tune leaning on it though. Woa! There's a whole band involved! They're playing more of the deviations and less of the Monk tune, so I'll stick with my second guess that I don't know what tune it is. The tenor has that certain "Texan" quality: it's very heavy, straight ahead, steam roller. But there are also many rasping sounds bulging forth from the lower part, stuff I associate with players like Harper and Maupin. I hear some Horace Silver mannerisms in the comping, so I guess this may be him. Aside from this comping, this whole thing breathes somewhat of a Strata East vibe. Listen for it in the way-cool trumpet solo; no idea who this is, but very nice flow of ideas. The piano solo is somewhat strange, there's a whole lot of great moments, but there's also silly single finger nursery rhymes. This one will have to grow on me. I have no doubt it will. Track 2. This one had me smiling broadly! Yessss! I have some still-not-listened-to-enough jump style LPs with stuff in this vein. As for the performers, I haven't got a clue. Track 3. As this track lacks a trombone player, I will not guess this is Mangelsdorff's 60s quintet, but the intro sure as hell sounds like it. Sorta like Cool Jazz goes Ornette in Mexico. The ensemble passage that follows puts it closer to a polished version of Mingus's stuff and it stays there, except for the small interlude around 4:30, which again sounds rather baroque. The piano has a 70s/80s sound to it (as I hear it). The tenor sounds like it was being caught off-guard, smearing phrases and tones; it catches up halfway and leaves a feeling of pity: I would like to hear this player giving it ALL. The ensemble parts are tight! Track 4. Hollywood without the screen. Jimmy Carl Black on the drums (just kidding, but hey...). The screaming, talking trumpets are awesome, the hardly heard honky tonk piano comping fits like a glove; if you want to dish up some stereotypes that is. Funfunfun! This baritone saxophonist knows his shite; the guitar is exactly as I expected it to be: slick, surf, beach, Cucamonga! Clarinet has me baffled, this takes guts and he pulls it off like doing the dishes. Track 5. Early James Brown. Dripdripdripdrip. There's a lot of Otis here. We'll sip a little glass of wine (baby) / I'll gaze into your eyes (and find) / let me feel the touch of your lips / pressing on mine (baby) / let me hear you whisper low. I guess you want us to call who's playing the tenor licks: I don't know. Track 6. I used to not like string-dominated shite like this. Somehow I changed. It must be because I started listening to the voice. This is a great voice (if you want a guess: Clooney). The strings are still shite. Track 7. Sounds like a HatArt/-Ology recording. It's a Monk tune, Rootie Tootie (Monk-A-Rena). FABULOUS rendering! All too abrupt ending, is this real? I am very curious. Track 8. The theme statement was rather dull in spite of obvious attempts to the contrary by the tenor. It took a second listen to have my ears skip over that. What's with the bass player? Cool thing he kicks in for a solo, but otherwise I'd miss him like a toothache if he weren't there. The tenor is really good, very relaxed, sounds as if he knows what he's doing. (So why is he having a bass player in his band?) He doesn't really have that little bit extra which makes his sound recognisable (lack of exposition on my part?), he's pushing his notes a bit like Houston Person and has a bit of a Wayne Shorter bite, other than that I have no grass to grab for guesses. Track 9. Winnetoo? Seriously, this sounds like a US native Indian doing his version of the blues. Me likee; doesn't really fit the flow of the disk thus far though. Track 10. Baby Dodds? Sure is cool. Track 11. Propaganda! Great in these times of war of course. Those were the days; when one could simply insert "non-musical" sounds at will and consumers and other people would still be happy. Track 12. Hellyeah. Same text, different music. It works for me. This is fun! I read about this tune in a German book by Ekkehardt Jost (social history of jazz), so I know what it is, but have never before heard it. I'm digging this, is it available? Track 13. I'm tempted to yell out Glenn Miller, but I can control myself; this sounds way more interesting. Alto might be Phil Woods. I'm not much at home with big bands. Aah, it's live! My stupid ass says the clarinet sounds like Pee Wee, better go with my ass if I wanna sit. Tenor has me stumped. Track 14. Almost like being in love. The tenor has a lot of Lester but there's this nagging Hawk (or even Webster) feathery quality to his tone (although this is somehow lost with the track time advancing) and I cannot come up with a fitting name. Too feathery for Getz, I'd say. Guitarists are not my strength as this series has already proven. So I'm not going to venture a guess in that department. This guitarist swings like mad though. I really like how the pianist plays around the theme at the end of his solo, skipping notes and even phrases. In the trading how-many-I-can't-tell part, the tenor sounds like a white Lester-ite. Zoot Sims? Track 15. Fine and Dandy (?). This sounds very compressed. Either it was Jim or someone else throwing a filter over an ancient recording or this is far more recent than the type of music lets us assume (is that an electric bass?). The vibe sounds like Hamp. Some of his big time fun type of vibe is there. I still doubt whether it's him though. This all sounds too sleek, like a pastiche. I'm at a loss. Another disk's awaiting but so is my wife...

Marshall Brown played vtb with Pee Wee Russell's group in the 60s featured a.o. on the recent verve mini LP "Ask Me Now"

who needs hope when we have this board?

click here for pics. As for the sound, I would like to know more myself. How do you hear it's a vtb being played?

google tells me he teaches at the LA music academy: tony inzalaco

I have been away a few days and am not up to date with all the discussions. This thread in particular seems to have taken more turns and twists than my diagonal reading skills can handle. Sorry for that, I'll try to read up.- BTW: that Gumpert I referred to is a recording from 1979, with Heinz Becker, tp, flh; Manfred Hering, as, ts; Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky, cl, ss, as; Helmut Forsthoff, ts; Conrad Bauer, tb; Ulrich Gumpert, p; Klaus Koch, b; Günter Sommer, ds; No small group involved.

... courtesy of the master couwatar, as always. Thanks a lot, couw!!! hey! no subliminal message???

Arrrr, so we did! Every year "international talk like a pirate day."

inserting the subliminal message: :rsly:

asking for it....

damn mike, this is difficult!

HELLYEAH!

happy birthday!

(go rooster!)

my first Brooks album. In this incarnation: Love that cat. Always wondered whether it is the same one that leapt off of the lady's behind on the cover of Poppa Lou's Midnight Creeper.

Found two sets of disks upon return from my short holidays. Mike, you may expect your disks this week. Sorry for the delay.