John L

I just bought a new BQ grill last weekend. I lived for 7 years in the center of Paris. No BQ allowed! Now I am going to fire up those coals and get back to the good work I left behind. No bottled sauce for me. You got make it from scratch. I've had a mean one for chicken for many years and can do good fish, but I'm still in the market for good ones to slab on ribs. Any offers?

I agree with you completely about Ammons' deeply spiritual qualities. Ironically, the one attempt to market Gene Ammons as (literally) a spiritual player was (as least in my view) a relative artistic failure: "Preachin' " Jug was one of a kind. I can't go too long without listening to something by him.

Now that is the truth! "Super Bad" is some serious JB. As Millie Jackson used to say on that TV commercial for the funk compilation "Super Bad," (which is actually not to be confused with the JB masterpiece that Jim S is talking about): "Pick up Super Bad. It's p-p-p-p-p ch-ch-ch-ch-ch baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!" Anybody remember that commercial?

Yea! Bring on the heavy funk. Jazz has got to start getting people on the dance floor again.

I also find "Rough and Tumble" disappointing, certainly a couple notches below most Turrentine. As for "Open House/Plain Talk," I love it!! I am a fan of both Eric Dolphy and Cecil Taylor, but somehow neither "Out to Lunch" nor "Unit Structures" have ever really quite done it for me. "Conquistador" is another matter! For that matter, as much as I love Charles Mingus, "Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" just doesn't move me. I already mentioned "Giant Steps" as a Coltrane album that gets little play in my house. I have never got much pleasure from "Birth of the Cool." Even Sonny Rollins' "Night at the Vanguard," which I do like, doesn't send me to the same seventh heaven as it does many others. I like "Go," but it not my favorite Dex. I am a bit surprised that so many people don't like "Whistle Stop." For me, that is one of the truly GREAT Blue Notes. Philly Joe doesn't let up for one moment on that one.

This music needs no notes or other words. It is pure joy. Is this rhythm section the definition of swing or what? Wynton Kelly was ON those nights! Just beautiful stuff.

Hard to improve on that!

Freddie Waters, anyone? The version he cut of "It Tears Me Up" right before his death literally does that to me everytime I hear it. Jimmy Hughes? There was a voice. When will they get around to releasing his legacy on CD?

Although its not a Blue Note, "Giant Steps" drives home the point that Jim S. was making. Personally, it is one of my least favorite Coltrane albums to listen to. It just doesn't have a loose enough feel for me, and sometimes sounds like unfinished business that Trane et al took care of a few years down the road. On the other hand, it is unquestionably one of the most influential albums in jazz history, and therefore calling it "overrated" would be difficult.

Speaking of Fats... I don't recall ever reading that Bird tried to hire him. Maybe that indirectly helps to make the case about Miles. Although I voted for Diz, I can understand the choice of Miles. I also enjoy his playing with Bird. As brilliant as Diz was with Bird, Miles offered something different, and perhaps something that Bird preferred himself. Diz thrived on "frantic" bop arrangements and would chase Bird all over any musical terrain. Miles offered a cooler contrast to Bird's pyrotechnics. After hearing Bird, you almost needed a cool dose of something. Miles also gave Bird more flexibility as a leader to step away a bit from the more "pure" bop that Diz was peddling at the time. One thing that amazes me when I listen to Miles with Bird is how Miles could follow absolutely genius and groundbreaking Bird solos without making you feel let down. The contrast almost always seemed right.

Bernard: Take the Metro to Jussieu (5-iem) and check out a motherload of jazz stores all within a close radius of each other: Jussieu Jazz (my personal favorite) 5, Rue Guy de la Brosse http://www.jussieumusic.com/jazz.htm Paris Jazz Corner (5, Rue de Navarre) http://www.parisjazzcorner.com/ Crocojazz (64 rue de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève) http://www.crocodisc.com/ There is another good store right across the street from Crocojazz. I can’t remember the name. O’CD (26 rue des Ecoles) There are other good stores close by on St. Michel. Have a good time! John

I had to vote for Diz here, the other half of the heartbeat! As for those voting for Rodney, what do you base your judgement on? The one studio date on Verve? The short 1949 Carnegie Hall tape? Some Bird concerts you were able to attend personally?

Amen!

Says who?

"Knock on Wood" is a great performance. But I consider Eddie Floyd's real masterpiece to be "I Never Found a Girl (to Love Me Like You do)."

Yes, B.A.G. I stand corrected! I guess that my mind was on an earlier time from the 20s to the 50s. It seemed that all the ingredients were there but the jazz bands were not. The proximity of Chicago is indeed probably the most compelling theory here. All of the ingredents were in Memphis too. Although Memphis was never serious competition for Chicago in jazz, we did at least have distinctive Memphis "schools" of jazz piano and saxophone by the 1950s. I would have expected at least as much from St. Louis. Maybe if Julius Hemphill had been born a little earlier...

St. Louis: the city that gave us Miles Davis. St. Louis: the capital of Ragtime at the turn of the 20th century. St. Louis: One of the major American blues centers from the 1920s to the 1950s. In the 20s, St. Louis had it all, from the sophisticated jazzy urban blues of Lonnie Johnson to the low down barrelhouse piano of Roosevelt Sykes to the ragtime country blues of Charley Jordan to the down home Mississippi blues of J.D. Short and Henry Spaulding. By the 1930s, St. Louis was home to the mainstream blues synthesis of Peetie Wheatstraw and the first (pre-Chicago) downhome urban blues of Johnny Lee Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk, and Big Joe Williams. By the 1950s, the rich St. Louis blues and R&B scene included Ike Turner, Little Milton, Albert King, and Chuck Berry. SO HOW COULD IT BE THAT ST. LOUIS NEVER DEVELOPED ITS OWN REALLY DISTINCTIVE JAZZ SCENE?

I've got it, and recommend it highly, at least if you like the Isleys AND R Kelly. R Kelly wrote and produced all of the material. As far as I am concerned, it is a triumph: substantial and varied material that puts Ronald right into his best crooning groove and doesn't let up.

Thanks for mentioning William Bell in your last post, Soul Stream. I consider him to be one of the most underrated soul singers, and certainly one of the best. Has anybody kept tabs on him? What is he doing these days? Does he still have his full voice? Otis Clay is another living, breathing soul giant who is too often ignored, especially by record companies. He still has his pipes, and, as far as I am concerned, no recording has yet captured him at anything close to his peak. "Soul Man Live in Japan" comes the closest. But I have been at shows that took it all at least two phases higher than that. As far as I know, Clay hasn't recorded anything in the last 3-4 years or so. That is a crime. I consider him to be one of the all time greats. Speaking of unsung soul giants, I hope that some of you have had the chance to hear Bettye LaVette's new disk: "A Woman Like Me." Deep, mature, and intense. I don't even think that Wilson Pickett has been mentioned yet. Or Solomon Burke. Gladys Knight? Bobby Bland? Mavis Staple? David Ruffin? Bobby Womack? Stevie Wonder? Linda Jones? Little Willie John?....

For me, it's no contest... Favorite soul singer: Sam Cooke Favorite living soul singer: Aretha Franklin Favorite soul artist: Sam Cooke Favorite living soul artist: James Brown

"Jordo" doesn't cook? You guys are tough. "The Night of the Cookers" is a rough recording, but it has its moments (IMO). I was at a David Murray concert a few years back when he had James Spaulding with him. He introduced him as "James Spaulding of the Night of the Cookers." Spaulding does cook pretty hard on "Walkin' too, while showing some strong Dolphy influences. Just my opinion, people.

I am so attached to "Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy" that I find it difficult to post on it. I agree that this is a truly great album. The All Stars never sounded better than on this album, especially Trummy Young. And Pops is consistently magestic in the way that only he could be, bantying around with light humor one moment and blowing the deepest shit you ever heard the next. There may have been quicker and flashier chops back in the 20s. But just one note of this mature Armstrong can send shivers down your spine. Every note is played so forcefully and with such velocity. This is the Grand Canyon of jazz trumpet. I own a large collection of Armstrong from this period. Although most of it is excellent, "Plays Handy" really gives you a feel for what this band was capable of when it was rested and genuinely concentrating in the studio. The Fats Waller tribute worked extremely well too, even if it didn't quite reach the plateau of "Handy." It is hard to choose a favorite from among the masterworks on this album, but "Hesitating Blues" might be it for me. Thanks to this thread giving me the excuse to indulge myself in this one again this evening!

Maybe when he lit his first cigarette? He should still be with us. RIP

It implies that your growing concentration of musical capital has pushed us into Imperialism, the final stage of Capitalism. The Organissimo Army of the Unemployed will soon expropriate your capital for the creation of a new musical order.