Soul Stream

Thanks DMP! Great account! I especially enjoyed your memory of Patton and Green casually trying to work out "A Day In The Life" from the jukebox.

Hey Michael, I had just gotten in town the night before and saw Lonnie Smith at the Standard. Then saw ya'll the next night. By Tuesday night I was back in Texas. So, glad I had a chance to see you at the VV! You played a Thad Jones blues piece that second set where you started it out and really killed. What was the name of that tune? I would have said "Hi" but I was too 'fraid.

Wow DMP, you're the first person I've heard from who actually heard Patton and Green together live. Could you tell us more about it if you remember?

Caught the second set of the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra at the VV last monday. Hands down one of the most memorable musical experiences I've ever seen. Jerry Dodgion happened to be there that night along with a host of some of the best musicians I've ever had the pleasure of hearing play live. Every member of the band blew me away, including Michael Weiss who was on piano. That cat is unbelievable. (P.S. Ralph Lalama on Tenor is a bad mf)

I'm not sure I agree with the statement that these guys are "trudging" through boring one-chord vamps endlessly. Quite the opposite. I thought the arrangements and song choices were quite imaginative. If you're expecting early 60's Grant soloing on Oleo, you're just going to be disappointed. Matter of fact, listen to Grant Green on Don Patterson's "Brothers Four" recording from the September of 1969. Grant's soloing over changes in his "boogaloo" mode. So, yes...I think Grant really dug playing this stuff and in this later style he developed. In Sharon Green's book "Rediscovering Grant Green," the story is told how excited Grant was about James Brown, ect.

Yeah, Don Patterson....man, that guy really died way too young. What a shame. John Patton was real close with Don and always talked about how humble Patterson was and that he was "all about the music."

Complete sense. Something that's sorely lacking in jazz of today...good times and showmanship.

Thanks DMP, I can only imagine what Grant would have been like live during this era. Having caught the tail end of this sort of venue in the early 80's, I do think I know what kind of audience they were playing for and what people would expect. I'm sure Green did nothing less than deliver. Say what you will about the music played. But that it was played with utmost professionalism is not an issue. No slacking on that gig any night of the week I would suspect.

The BAker, Blakey and Dizzy W/Stitt are the ones that I'm looking forward to most. Thanks for letting us know!

Clarence Carter had the original hit. It's a real, real, real sappy soul song. More of an "up" slow song (if that makes sense) than anything. Kind of funky in a Muscle Shoals kind of way, not what you'd traditionally think of as "Funk." But you'd definatley hear how Grant would hear the hit and cover it.

Yeah...this live set is just killer...I mean PATCHES!!!! Never thought I would ever be able to hear that song and enjoy it again in my lifetime. Grant's burning that thing....

Wow. I didn't know these were reference tapes. It STILL has better sound than alive! That said, I hope they find the multi-track tapes someday. Mixed properly this could bring the whole session up a little. I've really been enjoying the hell out of this CD. Grant absolutely nails you to the wall on some of his solos like "I AM SOMEBODY!"....definately feeling him on this. This session is really growing on me. I think yesterday I was in a bad mood and hadn't listened well enough

Got this today. I guess one usually thinks of a live club recording as a chance to stretch out a bit, which isn't much the case here. I really dig the songs and arrangements, the soloing is short and reigned-in in many instances (although not all, Grant DOES dig in on some things here and it's pretty burning. I'm not sure Ronnie Foster really was happening until he made his "Chesire Cat" LP on which he kills.) Maybe this was supposed to be a more "commercial" live outing. Maybe I'm in a bad mood. Anyway, the sound is better than "Alive" for sure, but uneven and makes you wish RVG had made the flight out. The mix is just unbalanced and some things are undermiced. Also, hate the organ sound he gets here, doesn't help make the case for Ronnie Foster too much. Any live Grant Green to me is definatley worth listening to repeatedly. I'll have this in the CD player for a loooong time no doubt. I've waited for years to hear this. Maybe my expectations were too high. Grant never seems to be that into it like he was on Lighthouse and Alive...I thought for sure he was going to blow up on "Bottom Of The Barrel" (a real killer one chord groover), but he cuts his solo short. Idris is killing on this thing, although the sound doesn't help him either all that much. All that said...I do love this sort of shit. Also, Bob Beldon says 13 sets were recorded. Yet there's only 8 songs on the CD? We can't even get a double CD out of 13 sets.....???? COME ON BLUE NOTE!!!! It's funny...what Grant Green is doing on Mozambique DEFINATELY is the blueprint to what Soulive is doing. Tight heads, popular songlist, funky, short solos...Fender Bass-like left hand with stabbing chords and hard-single note right hand on the organ... Say what you will, Grant was way ahead of his time on this stuff.

I liked the part about Joey DeFrancesco saying that the problem is that the XK3 was designed using one specific B3 as the model. However, no two B3s sound exactly alike, (many are very, very far apart soundwise). Joey suggested they do some sort of sound card where you could choose from 15 or so B3s as the one being modeled.

Keyboard Magazine this month is dedicated to the XK1 and Xk3...with in depth interview of Joey Defrancesco talking about all the various factors. If you're interested at all in these you MUST get this issue.

THanks for the rundown MG! Yeah, can't wait for this one tommorrow. I'll be first in line at the record store for sure. This release and the new Dr. Lonnie Smith are really making my Summer this year. Can't wait!

Plus, not to mention the "repair factor" of old organs. Jim is a very knowledgeable organist who can and does do a lot of his own organ repair. On the other hand, someone like myself who can basically change out tubes and hope for the best...well, you can rack up some hefty $400 organ repair costs fairly easily. So, it's another consideration. Old organs will break down. On the other hand an XK1 or XK3 is going to be repair-free.

Hey, things change. It's the music that's important and not the format or where you buy it. Record stores as we know/knew them will be wiped out as we leave this planet. A 12 year old today will have absolutely no nostalgia for buying a dusty old piece of vinyl or scratched up CD in a store. It's the music that matters. The delivery system and format will always change. 30 years from now MP3s and iTunes will seem like a joke. And I'm sure some kid who'll be in his 40's then will say..."Man, wish you could still download iTunes". Somewhere I'm sure there was a guy lamenting the loss of his mail-order edison disc.

Hey Jim, glad to hear you're really digging the new system. How is the Chorus/Vibrato section? I so hate the one on my old XK-2 that I never use it. Although I miss not having it. That was one thing I thought Hammond never got right on the replicas.

I think it's a real breach of trust to overdub rap over an existing jazz performance without the artist's consent. If they were all in the studio together and that was the goal, that's one thing. But to take a performance Patton was proud of and drown it out with overdubbed vocals is a drag.

Before Big John died...I played him the Money Jungle cut off of this CD. His reaction was exactly what mine was... WHAT THE FUCK DID THEY DO TO MY MUSIC. Turns out Patton, Ron Carter and Waits cut the track and left. Afterwards they put the fuckin' rap on it and ruined it. Patton was pissed beyond words.

Did he have Allison Miller with him? She's got a nice grove. No, he had his main man Fukushi Tainaka on drums w/Peter Bernstein.

More so than Joey D's new release?? That shit is HOT, and I'm not even a huge fan of the B-3! I think once masters like J.D. and Lonnie are at the top of their powers like they are...there is no better or best 'cause it's all gooooooood.

Yes, unbelievable. The Dr. is undeniabley "The Man" Get this no questions asked.

That he was! Wish you can have seen/met him as well Jim, you would have DUG! And as Patton used to say..."Deeeeg?!" I'm playing tonight and am going to do a lot of his signature tunes he played 'till the end of his time here on earth. Stuff like Minor Swing, Milk & Honey, The Way I Feel, The Rock, Lite Hit, Along Came John, The Yodel, The Turnaround, Funky Mama, ect. and although I never knew him to play it live later in life....gotta throw in Patton & Grant's arrangement of "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" 'cause it swings like hell!