Kalo

Other birthdays today: Al Grey - 1925 Ted Lewis - 1892 Jimmie Lunceford - 1902

I never gave this one much time when I first got the RVG; listened, thought it was OK, and filed it away. This thread gave me a good excuse to pull it out again. I've been listening to it off and on for a week or so. I've been enjoying it, but what always happens is that I space out halfway through the title tune, and it turns into background music (I tend to have a hard time with static bass-lines). But "Sao Paulo" always snaps me right back to attention. It is a great tune, as others have written above, with a real quality of mystery about it. Dorham's playing is wonderful all over this, and I'm becoming more and more of a fan of Henderson, so it's cool to hear his debut. I always dig Tony Williams, but not so much a fan of Hancock. This is a good album, rising to first-class status for "Sao Paulo." I'll have to listen again tonight with J. Sangrey's detailed and insightful post in mind. Good choice for AOTW.

Did Mosaic include a bonus disc for completists with only the reverb that was removed from the other discs?

As for Moose's Moon Martin Record, that would be, of course, Escape From Domination. Check it out at http://www.moonmartin.com/music_page2.html I kinda liked that one myself, but eventually sold it.

Knowledge, Laffs, and reassurance that my music buying habit isn't nearly as bad as all of yours.... (As Mr. Rogers might have put it, "Won't you be my enabler?")

When I saw the title of this thread I assumed it referred to the fact that it helps to have a TRUST FUND if one is a Mosaic buyer. Seriously, I think that the trust factor factors in to many Mosaic purchaser's decisions. I'll always be most grateful to them, however, for restoring greats like Monk, Brownie, Bechet and others to the catalogue when they were criminally out of print (in the U.S.) in the early '80s. While they still put out great stuff, it's less and less central. But they led the way to our current embarrassment of available riches, that's for sure.

Well, is it?

Agreed. Better to just leave them alone rather than shit all over them a la Kenneth Gorelick.

These guys have put out some great stuff. I'm especially grateful for the SCTV and Freaks and Geeks DVDs, some of the best television ever. So more power to them if the Alpert reissues prove to be a great cash cow.

Wow! Then things have gone farther than I thought. Perhaps the final realization of Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk will be a video game.

This one goes to the top of the want-list.

I always kind of liked Funkadelic's The Electric Spanking of War Babies, not to mention Parliament's Funkentelechy versus the Placebo Syndrome. And Nick Lowe's titles Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for Now People (for the same record, UK and US titles respectively), are BOTH contenders. Also his album entitled Labour of Lust.

Count me as a Rowles fan. Nobody has mentioned the other album on Columbia, the Ellington/Strayhorn tribute, which is straight solo piano and really amazing. There's also a Julie London album where he did the arrangements and plays piano (name escapes me now; I'm at work so can't check). Quite nice. The stuff with Zoot kills, of course.

I've liked what I've heard of the Lunceford band very much, and I need to investigate further. Yet, the Artie Shaw quotes are a bit mind-boggling to contemplate. Lunceford's "the best black band of all"? And Ellington "could be terrible... there was a lot of junk"? Well, not everything Ellington was great, but who has a better track record in jazz than Duke and his band? Masterpieces galore from every year of their existence (and one a week with the Blanton/Webster band by most accounts), if perhaps thinner on the ground at the very beginning and the very end. Lunceford's band was an excellent, disciplined ensemble and a real arranging showcase for Sy Oliver and others, as well as harboring some first-class soloists. No doubt an amazing spectacle live as well. From the point of view of a leader like Shaw, and confined to the swing era, then maybe the Lunceford organization was "better" than Ellington's as a "big band." But considered as jazz music? Not even close, as great as they were. That being said, I need me more Lunceford.

Chu Berry... Though that's not dirty. Kinda cute, even. Chuck Berry, too.

I just went back to the records and I'll have to retract my statement about Wynne. Though he was definitely more whacked-out mentally than Al Green, his singing is several notches less eccentric than Green's. Still pretty eccentric, though.

I would tend to agree with all who wrote that it's the player and not the tune, but one tune that really is a drag, as far as I'm concerned, is "Where or When." (Yeah, I know, Tatum and Webster's version is nice, but still my least favorite thing on that record.) And it has come to the point where if you play "My Funny Valentine," "Summertime," or "'Round Midnight," or anything from Kind of Blue you'd damn well better have something new to say, and even then you're fighting an uphill battle.

So how long before the number one movie is a video game?

How could I have forgotten Tristano, Konitz, and Marsh?

Monk. Like on his version of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," which is practically a new composition. And what about Rollins?

As I recall, there's even an Ives piano piece where he indicates that the last chord may be struck with a baseball bat! Yet it's hard to believe that you could fill a book with this topic. I don't recall the Swafford biography spending much time on baseball, for instance. Still, the book sounds intriguing and worth a perusal. Now, Buster Keaton and baseball...

So, wait a minute, you're telling me that back in the day Crouch was one of those "N-Word"-using rappers he now complains about?

I've heard great things about those Johnson sessions. Another few to put on the list. Now all I need is some money.

Great find. Love the label name: Soul-Tay-Shus Records!

Thanks, Jim. Nice observations about his arranging style, as well as the wonder of a real band playing it (though that wonder is magnified about 100 times when contemplating Sinatra/Riddle, Basie, or especially Ellington). I'll have to delve deeper into Philly Soul. The early Spinners arrangements are slick on the surface, but really odd underneath (like Bacharach was at times). My favorite thing about the Spinners, though, is Phillip Wynne's eccentric singing. He's even more whacked-out than Al Green, and that's saying something.