CJ Shearn

wait, Jim, you posted that synth wank fest from '85? Herbie singing ""hey! Watermelon Man" into the vocoder creeped me out, lol I thought he dumped that thing. that was hilarious, I was dying seeing a Fairlight on stage........ have you seen that electronic music educational video on there "Discovering Electronic Music"? damn that was funny, they acted as if synths were still academic, when they were becoming more accessible at the time of that vid.

thanks jazzypaul!

we should give people my generation a break and see what happens... Christina has chops, not that I like her stuff, but she has chops.

I have that European First Light with the bonus track, I have to say "Red Clay" is my favorite of Freddie's first 3 for CTI because of the mix of straight ahead and groove tunes.

RIP Floyd, I met him once. I agree with conn that he may not have been great, but I'll always remember that left hook that sent Ingemar Johansson down, with his leg shaking and all.

sounds cool, these won't be mere tribute recordings I bet, they will make the tunes their own methinks.

I will have to check out that Keezer album...... unfortunately Marcello, I can't make it to NY for that gig, but Gully's playing is really, really impressive on "Live At Tonic". I'm still not sure about Yanow's appraisal, I just finished disc 2 again, and the whole thing to my ear flows very cohesively, its clear (at least, to me) that everyone is listening to each other and motifs naturally evolve and change over time. And its very obvious that with Bitches Brew and Via Mwandishi, those are actual tunes, I mean, BB gets set up perfectly when Christian does the call and response thing with Terreon Gully, that intro is unmistakable. Also, since Scott does not mention DJ Logic, Scratch, or Rashawn Ross by name, perhaps their contributions were unimportant to him, but like I said his review is honest. Also, this music was geared for a different audience, its loose and funky, but there is some meat underneath, otherwise on that second set on the first night, they wouldn't have gone into some free improv areas, maybe they made some new jazz fans out of the jamband and hip hop contingent, can't argue with that I just wonder where the CMB will go next. I gotta backtrack a bit and pick up "Sci Fi". I love that interpretation of "Walking on the Moon", which I also heard on npr.org prior to Tonic's release.

what's weird is there are no song credits on the album at all, not on the back covers or inside sleeve artwork. hope Joe Zawinul isn't pissed that "Boogie Woogie Waltz" is on there, without his name credited. There are also a few spelling errors too, nothing on the level of Booby, or the very fine, but underrecorded Herbie Handcock tho The synth bass and hornlines are killing me on "Ab Jam" though, I love how it goes into a quasi dub thing, then a drum n bass groove. Listening to the jam discs a few times, they are very well structured, the solos don't stay too long, or grooves that get boring fast a la Soulive. I really am impressed bigtime with Jenny Scheinman and Terreon Gully on this disc. Terreon does this thing, I've heard Chris Dave do it also with Kenny Garrett, but Gully will like take an eighth note groove and cut it in half so its like quarter notes on the closed hi hat, and the rimshot or snare on 2 and 4, but when he does that, it sounds like theres delay on the hihat,snare or rim, I don't think he has an effects on his drums, is he using 2 sticks at once to do this "delay" effect? I love it. Just found Scott Yanow's review on AMG. He disagrees about the jams, I hear whats hes saying, but they capture my interest, if it was any jam band I'd probably get bored, but McBride, Keezer, Blake, Scheinman, JaMo and Hunter are such high level improvisors on this date I enjoy it. I thought Scott would disagree with the jam length, and I don't know if hes all that into beatboxing and turntables integrated into a jazz format, but its a more honest 3 star review than anything Thom Jurek writes. Review by Scott Yanow When bassist Christian McBride first emerged on the jazz scene, he was a youthful phenomenon who seemed to be set to follow in the footsteps of his early inspiration Ray Brown. However McBride has too much talent to merely want to be a copy of the past and, although he can swing as hard as any bebop bassist, his interests go beyond straightahead jazz into funk, fusion and more adventurous improvising. Live At Tonic is a three-CD set that has the highlights from his opening sets during two nights at Tonic on the first disc and his complete second sets on discs two and three. It is clear, after hearing the first couple of numbers, that McBride loves funk and stretching out. The first disc has his regular quartet with tenor-saxophonist Ron Blake, keyboardist Geoffrey Keezer and drummer Terreon Gully digging into eight numbers including Weather Report's "Boogie Woogie Waltz" and some straightahead jamming. The second disc has the group augmented by guest pianist Jason Moran, violinist Jenny Schienman and guitarist Charlie Hunter while the third has guests on trumpet, guitar, boom box and turntables. Unfortunately the songs (particularly on the second and third CDs) are not of very high quality and the funk seems to go on forever, particularly on the 29-minute "See Jam, Hear Jam, Feel Jam." Each set has lengthy (and I do mean lengthy) introductions of the musicians over endless vamps that would be extremely difficult to sit through twice. More is definitely less on this three-CD set, which would have benefited greatly from being two or even one CD, cutting out the excess of fat and the long "vamp till ready" sections. There are some good moments along the way and the musicians are great, but some editing and common sense should have gone into this production.

very minimal....... LOL. but I like the red lettering on black background.

Listened to the entire set last night. I think it's a very good album. The disc featuring the CMB, those songs have definitely, without a doubt evolved from the studio versions, the jam discs are very good too. I think disc 2 is my favorite of the lengthy jams, but disc 3 has grooves that won't quit! Scratch's addition was very cool, and while I am not a huge fan of hip hop, all the well known samples he was doing with his voice were pretty cool. Anybody else listen yet?

just finished disc 1, smoking high energy first set. The next two discs should be really interesting, I'm looking forward to how Scratch and DJ Logic add to the equation.

I will be picking up mine tonight.

anybody get this yet? waiting for my local Coconuts to get the copy I ordered in, probably tommorrow it'll come. I heard "Technicolor Nightmare" on the Ropeadope site, and "Sitting on a Cloud" on npr.org, both sounded excellent. 3 discs of some very interesting music looks like.

really? that's interesting.

interesting stuff going on "One to Twelve", SoulStream. Finished listening to the first half of "That Certain Feeling" (end of disc 2) and "Early A.M." I like the melody, think its hip, Clifford Jarvis' drumming is explosive, out of Elvin's bag, but like firecrackers setting John's solo into more angular directions. Gotta thank this board for making me go out and get the Select a few years ago.

cool, thanks.

wow, its gotten some mileage. SoulStream, is the form of "Good Juice" AABAC? if that is the form, I like what John does with the bassline on what sounds like to me the "C" section at the end of the tune. BTW does anybody have any pictures of Joe Dukes? I've never seen any photos of him

really? wow, I've used a graphic EQ for years, it'll help. Mine is not audiophile quality, (Technics) but it works.

happy basude Joe!

how about "Oh Baby!" be the first in a series of SoulStream reissues of Patton on Blue Note, with the bass so jacked up, and the treble lessened quite a bit? it'll be the opposite of what people complain about with the RVG's.

I pulled out the Select the other day and put on "Oh Baby!" and it's really a crime that outside of the box this session is not otherwise domestically available. Definitely some of the best soul jazz I have heard, and among my favorite organ records at the moment along with "Organic Vibes" "The Sermon"(permanent all time fav) and "Live at Yoshi's". All the tunes are memorable, hey "Fat Judy" is a great sidewinder clone, and since Patton does have a following, its a shame that average buyers can't purchase this session. A domestic single disc reissue is probably unlikely with the Mosaic out, unless Blue Note licenses it to Water in the future or something. Anybody else think this date should be available to the wider jazz public?

yes, these death rumors are a little much. Glad to know Griff is alright for the moment.

wishing him a speedy recovery.

good point Shawn. I've always thought for accessible artists like Pat Metheny that, radio stations could play his stuff because so much of it is melodically hooky, and thats what many like, right? Guess not, no vocals. People would be like, wait, there are, but their all in something I can't understand. Ron Goldstein's comment about jazz not being exciting, he has Kurt Rosenwinkel on his label, and "Heartcore" was a project that he was allowed to completely have creative control over I believe, I dunno how it sold, but he then cut "Deep Song" so its not like Verve dropped him after the uniqueness of "Heartcore", and besides, wouldn't the music fit in well with Verve's remixed projects or whatever? Goldstein's statement about Christian McBride is funny too, the man has a triple album coming, and his band is at the top of their game........ oh wait, to the guys in suits, McBride isn't relevant because he has funk, and a whole lot of other "not jazz" in his music. Well, that's artistic growth people. Could he have stayed a Ray Brown disciple and continued to be interesting, not broadening his palette? I don't think so.

I find myself humming "The Tackle" everywhere I go. Bobby really sounds great on this, the more I listen.