Hot Ptah

By chance, I just read about Stan Getz's recordings with Terry Gibbs. Could #9 be Getz and Gibbs? I don't know Gibbs' vibes playing well enough to identify him by sound.

John Ford John Wayne Ward Bond

I agree. I prefer the edited Mingus Ah Um, in the form originally released. To me, the performances lose momentum and tension in their expanded versions--some of the magic is lost. I found a CD issue of the original Mingus Ah Um, without the expansion, at a used store last year, and was glad to buy it.

It is time to sign up for BFT 69, my first Blindfold Test. This BFT is a mixture of songs I have especially enjoyed over the years, those tracks that have jumped out at me as I have played my albums. I tried to make the BFT something that could be played repeatedly for pleasure. I have been having a blast listening to the several "drafts" of the BFT on my car CD player. In the old days, I used to make cassette mix tapes that would be fun to listen to, and I tried to do the same thing here--but for my most discriminating audience by far! I have played the test to a few non-members of this forum, just to get their reactions. Here are photos of some of them as they have listened to it: Big Al is graciously taking care of the downloads, as I am more technologically challenged than I should be for my tender age. I will be happy to make discs for anyone who prefers discs. Just PM me with your mailing address. This Blindfold Test is two discs long, with a holiday bonus cut at the end of Disc 2.

I bought a number of the Horos at Schoolkids Records in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the 1978-81 period. Only my student budget prevented me from buying others which I held in my hands and put back in the rack. Then a long time jazz collector died in the early 2000s and his wife brought his collection to the Music Exchange in Kansas City, then one of the largest used record stores in the U.S. The owner, Ron Rooks, asked me if I wanted to buy the Horos out of the collection. I mention this only to point out the unexpected sort of event which would have had to happen, for one to acquire Horos in the past ten years--unless you wanted to pay top dollar on ebay. I brought my Sam Rivers Horo LP to his concert in Topeka, Kansas in 2008. His daughter encouraged the crowd to get Sam's autograph and buy the Sam Rivers T shirts and mugs which she was selling, after the concert. I asked Sam Rivers to autograph my Horo, which he did. His daughter asked him, "do we have that one?" Sam shook his head and said,"I don't know."

You could probably sell them at the Steve Hoffman forum--and generate 82 pages of discussion about them.

I was in the audience for that concert as well. I remember Steve Wood was also in the sax section, maybe Dan McAllister on bone, after that, its foggy. Swain of course was on bari. Do you remember the woman vocalist, who came out to sing "I'm Beginning to See The Light", but was overcome with stage fright?

When Mingus' "Three or Four Shades of Blues" was first released, the guy behind the counter at Discount Records on State Street in Madison, Wis. tried his best to talk me out of buying it. He became a bit heated as he provided his negative opinions about the album. However, I have always liked it. I do not like the bellowing vocal on "Better Get It In Your Soul", but I think that the rest of the album is fine. I enjoy the title cut, especially when it shifts into the Basie-style section. I think that the guitars are used with restraint and taste, for the most part. It is not my favorite Mingus album, but it is solidly in a middle tier for me of Mingus albums. I love how Mingus, in his written section explanations for the title cut, refers to the Wedding March as Caucasian folk blues.

The best live performance I ever witnessed by Wynton Marsalis was in a small club in Milwaukee. The Jazz Messengers, including Wynton, all wore blue jean bib overalls. Wynton had a bushy, unkempt, untrimmed beard. Bobby Watson told me a few years ago that this was Wynton's fourth gig with the Jazz Messengers. I saw Wynton in one of his first gigs with his quintet, in the spring of 1982, in another small club, in Madison, Wisconsin, and he wore a suit. Both times he played great, better than I have witnessed from him in recent years. Did his dress matter to anyone in either audience.? I doubt it. In his dressing room between sets at the spring, 1982, show, one of the journalists kept asking him what kind of suit he was wearing, was it an Italian suit, why were all of the guys in his group in suits. Wynton grew very impatient and said in a grouchy voice that he just mentioned to the guys that he wanted them in suits, and that there was nothing more to it, and that is was not worth talking about.

I have always thought that "5 By Monk By 5" was one of his greatest albums. Thad Jones plays great on the album, fitting in with Monk but keeping his unique style. To me, the ensembles are more cohesive, the rhythms more swinging, than on most of Monk's Riversides. In my opinion, apart from "Brilliant Corners", "5 By Monk By 5" is his best album ever.

I prefer "Unity" a lot more. "Unity" has cohesive ensembles playing clean big band parts, in tune and together. Most of it is "inside", very little avant garde. There are some exciting swing numbers which are the most "together" versions, for lack of a better term, which I have ever heard by Ra on record--from the Fletcher Henderson book, and others. In comparison, the Ra swing versions on an album like "Sunrise in Different Dimensions" are a bit ragged.

On Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" show with Bill Evans, which I have on CD, Evans said that he was the sole composer of "Blue in Green", but Miles took the composer credit on the album. Marian asked him how he felt about Miles taking that composer credit, whether he was upset about it. Evans said that he gained so much from the experience of playing with Miles, both musically and in terms of boosting his career, that he could not be unhappy with Miles over it. So one thing I take from that exchange is that Evans had a career plan which was different than being Miles' sideman for a long time.

I hope that Sun Ra's "Unity" is one that is reissued soon. To me, it is the most together, cohesive, accessible Sun Ra big band album of his entire career.

Happy Birthday! I have always enjoyed your contributions here very much, and hope that you will continue to contribute.

All of the releases on the Italian Horo label have been long out of print and have never been reissued on CD to my knowledge. On November 10, the first batch of them is supposed to be released on CD, on Atomic Records: Sun Ra "New Steps" Archie Shepp "Mariamar" Archie Shepp "Lybia" Sam Rivers/Don Pullen "Black Africa! Villalago" Lee Konitz/Martial Solal "Duplicity" Johnny Griffin "Jazz a Confronto" These releases are listed on dustygroove.com, amazon.co.uk, and hmv.co.jp. The latter also gives the full list of Horo's to be released. Credit for this news goes to "sambrasa" on the AAJ site, who posted this news there recently.

I am next, in November. I am ready, with my first BFT!

Happy Birthday, from Wausau to Marshfield!

Needmore Discs. This suburban Kansas City store went out of business in August.

I listened to the Hemphill Big Band album just last week. It is an impressive album, in my opinion, with some compelling soloing as well as Hemphill's writing to recommend it. My college buddies who were into jazz in the 1970s all thought that Wildflowers was interesting, but inconsistent and not the best recorded work of the artists. We did not view Wildflowers as essential, compared to other albums by the same artists.

I saw Dizzy at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago in 1977, on his 60th birthday. He had Jon Faddis, Rodney Jones, Ben Brown and Mickey Roker with him. Unfortunately we went to the first of three sets, and he was saving his lips for the other two sets. He didn't play much, but Faddis, Jones and Brown soloed at length. After 45 minutes, the group left the stage, to vocal disgruntlement from the audience. So Dizzy came back to the stage and said, "we'll play one more." So the entire group stood there, poised with their instruments for several seconds, the audience spellbound with anticipation. Then they played one short, loud note together, and left for good I guess that is an example of Dizzy's zany sense of humor. I went back to the Jazz Showcase the next April and saw Dizzy again, and this time he was fantastic. He played the best trumpet I have ever heard, by anyone, and played for a good, long time, too.

Dizzy plays on two cuts on Duke Ellington's "Jazz Party". He is the featured soloist on "UMMG", and plays a solo on the concluding blues, "Hello Little Girl", sung by Jimmy Rushing, with Jimmy Jones on piano. "Hello Little Girl" is quite a rousing recording. These are studio recordings.

I just thought of an incident involving dress. On the first night of the 1978 Ann Arbor Jazz Festival, Mary Lou Williams opened with Ronnie Boykins, followed by the Max Roach Quartet and Stan Getz and his group. No one wore a suit and tie, although all were presentable. Then the long evening ended with Archie Shepp coming out to play duets with Max Roach. Archie Shepp came onstage in a dark pinstripe suit and tie, and it was a startling look in comparison to what we had been seeing all evening. He immediately began to play some very intense "out" stuff. It was an entrance with a lot of impact. So at one time, wearing a suit and tie was a way to mark yourself as someone quite different at a jazz concert.

I have a slightly different perspective on this. In the 1970s, I noticed that many of the most creative musicians did not wear suits and ties onstage. In fact, most didn't. They did not wear sloppy clothes, but they did not go in for formal attire. I can picture musicians from Dizzy Gillespie to McCoy Tyner to Air to James Newton to George Lewis to Stan Getz to Dexter Gordon to Elvin Jones to Cecil Taylor--no one wore suits. In fact, just thinking of the 1978 Ann Arbor Jazz Festival, which was an extended array of great artists in a variety of styles, I realize that none of them wore suits and ties. Then in the early 1980s, Wynton Marsalis and his group began to always wear suits and ties. It became a hallmark of the young lions movement of the 1980s. The young musicians may have been less than fully formed artistically, they may have been presenting half-baked renditions of what sounded like old Lee Morgan albums without Lee, but by God!!! they had their suits and ties on!!! They were Respectable, and insisted on our respect, whether earned musically or not. I would much rather hear the creativity that I heard live in 1978 by a broad spectrum of artists, than look at suits and ties worn by dull musicians who wouldn't know a creative idea if it bit them on their elegantly attired posterior.