Hot Ptah

I can identify virtually none of the songs or artists, but since Jim Sangry couldn't either, I feel more confident just sharing my reactions. I found this Blindfold Test very compelling, and like much of the music a lot. I plan to pick up many of the albums from which these cuts were taken, after the answers are given. I wonder how many of the albums I already own. 1. I feel like I definitely should know everyone here, but I don't. It's humbling. I know that I have heard the trumpet player often. I don't know who was exploring this territory on flute other than Eric Dolphy. This is great music, one that I will get, if I don't already own it. 2. I don't think it is George Shearing, but it reminds me of some things I heard Shearing play live in the past ten years. Very appealing. 3. Is this the James Moody cut from his 1964 album which was years ahead of the game, yet never seems to get mentioned when the pioneers of early fusion are discussed? If it is, I remember that the original liner notes chided Moody for "going to Liverpool"--which was not an appropriate description of what he was doing. I have checked my album. It is "If You Grin (You're In)" from James Moody's 1964 album "Running the Gamut." Joining Moody are Thad Jones, Patti Bown on keyboards, Reggie Workman, Albert Heath. 4. Fantastic! I have to have this. I love it. Funky, wild, this is life affirming stuff. I love the tenor solo. No idea who it is. 5. This is either "Gingerbread Boy" or an "original" which altered "Gingerbread Boy" slightly. Good playing by all, no idea who it is. The tenor player is more exciting as he goes a little outside. 6. It sounds like an Art Ensemble of Chicago date with a pianist, but I think I have heard all of them, and this is none of the ones I have heard. Excellent, whoever it is. 7. The alto player knows his Ornette, but plays in much more lite style. Not that this is bad. Appealing, and I have no idea who it is. 8. This sounds like a late 1960s/early 1970s Blue Note. I can't place it. The pianist knows his Chick Corea, but I don't think it's Corea. What is that Roland Kirk vocalization at the end of the flute solo--it's not Kirk, though. I like this a lot, I want to own it, and I have no idea who it is. 9. The tenor player sounds like Stan Getz at times to me, but I am not sure that it is Getz. I can't place the vibes player, and I thought I had heard most of the major figures. A mystery, and a really good piece. 10. Who would play trumpet so freely in only the lower register for so long? I kept waiting for the trumpeter to break into some Don Cherry signature licks so that I could say, "a ha! It's Don Cherry." But I don't think it is. Very interesting piece. 11. Once again, who would play this? It sounds like an electronically altered squeezebox instrument of some type, or some strangely programmed keyboards. Sun Ra would play something like this, but I get no feeling of Ra as I listen. I can't wait to find out who this is. 12. Super piano trio recording, full of life. I want this one. No idea who it is. If a previous poster guessed correctly though, then I already own it and played it often when the album first came out. Oops--what is happening to my musical memory! 13. Sounds Monkish to me. I have recently been listening to a ton of Monk, and I don't recognize this tune as one of his. Boy, will that be embarassing if it is one of his well known ones. I like the pianist but don't know who it is. 14. Who else ever used that loping, explicitly cowboy rhythm other than Sonny Rollins on "Way Out West"? That section does not seem to fit with the rest of the performance. I have no idea who it is. 15. Great bluesy tune, really like it, don't know who it is. If it is not on Blue Note I will be surprised. 16. Early bop tune, with 1812 Overture quote by baritone player. If he would have been playing tenor I would have thought it was Dexter Gordon--Dexter would let quotes lay out there exposed for all to see, in that way. I love this, but don't know who it is. Infectious, swinging--who said that early bop was difficult to listen to? 17. One of the most nervous, fast pieces I have ever heard. I don't know who it is, but want to know! I need to get this. Who plays trumpet with so much staccato? It was like an overdose of staccato. 18. This is maddening. I should know who this is. I have heard it. A very interesting piece. 19. Bright, happy tune! Joyful trumpet. The pianist has a better left hand than most from the post-war era. I want to buy this. No idea who it is. 20. Excellent performance, swinging, memorable. Another one I will buy when I find out who it is. 21. "Poinciana", done in an unnecessarily weird way to my taste. Not one of my favorites here. No idea who it is. 22. The organ player sounds like Sun Ra to me. I hear some of Ra's characteristic little flourishes. However, the tenor saxophonist does not sound like John Gilmore. Still, Ra has so many albums I could have easily missed this one. 23. A cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Up From The Skies." Not sure who the distorted violin player is. I don't find it all that compelling. As an interpretation of Hendrix, it does not capture his heart and soul, to me. 24. This is the real avant garde. I probably own this, but can't place it right now. 25. This is a Neil Young composition, "It's So Hard to Wait." It was the second song on Side 1 of "Buffalo Springfield Again." I haven't heard it in so long that I can't remember if this is the take that was used on that album. I really enjoyed this Blindfold Test!

Congratulations!

One of the benefits of living near Detroit in the late 1970s was the chance to see Mr. Belgrave live. I still remember his performance with his II-V-I Orchestra, featuring a teenage Kenny Garrett, at the 1978 Ann Arbor Jazz Festival. Belgrave was a compelling, memorable soloist.

Happy Birthday from me and who will now announce his name: "I am

The fact that the columbia discs are like 20 years down the road(1995-98) makes it lame to include it IMHO.......I don't like sets that span 20 years......mosaic at times does some conceptually dumb things. Stick with the Arista/Novus material only and make it a 5CD set. Just randomly piecing stuff together over a 20 year period is stupid.........I for one won't even think about buying this just for that reason.......it's obvious these folks aren't thinking straight. Mosaic doesn't know WTF they're doing. I think that is too harsh. Mosaic has to work with the music companies and get licenses when and how they can, for the material made available to them. Mosaic is not an omnipotent being, with supreme powers, which can pick and choose any music ever recorded, and decide what to include. I am just happy that there is any company out there willing to release this stuff with such good sound and nice booklets. To complain too much about details of their work--why trash one of the very few great things out there for jazz lovers? We are not in a buyer's market here.

I have always had a soft spot for the Cecil Taylor Unit's version of "We've Only Just Begun." Jimmy Lyons, in my opinion, took that song AWAY from Karen Carpenter.

Thanks for the truly great collection of music, and for the prompt answers.

Welcome back!

There is an inaccuaracy in this article. The films were sold to the City of Kansas City, Missouri. There have been several articles in the Kansas City newspaper over the years about how the City Council spent the taxpayers' money for the collection and then it could not be shown. I am very surprised to read that Baker left detailed notes, because it has been often reported in the newspaper that the reason that the films could not be shown was that they were disorganized and had no index or information with them.

The attitude of some jazz lovers that American Idol is beneath them is a missed opportunity, in my opinion. The show tried to have a jazz/"Rat Pack" themed show this past season, in which one contestant did a decent version of "My Funny Valentine", while some of the others seemed clueless about the genre. Jazz was discussed with respect on that show. If the entire jazz community doesn't care if jazz is omitted from the most popular music show on the planet.....it would be like making fun of Ed Sullivan in the 1960s and saying that you don't care if Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington ever get on Sullivan, because he is a lame joke for having all those long haired British groups on. It might help jazz if we TRIED to interact with the outside world.

I absolutely love this music, and appreciate your efforts in putting together this very enjoyable collection. I am embarassed that I am unable to identify any of it, although I thought that I had a reasonable knowledge of pre-bop jazz. My silence is based on my lack of anything to add to the guessing.

That is interesting that you would mention Richard Davis with Coltrane. He told our jazz history class that it was all set up that he would join John Coltrane's group in the fall of 1967, as the regular bassist. Of course, Coltrane died earlier that year.

Richard Davis performed and recorded often in avant garde contexts. He performed regularly with Sun Ra in the late 1940s in Calumet City, Illinois--they were the duo musical accompaniment in a strip club. He then played with the Sun Ra All Stars on their early 1980s European tour. He knew and played with Muhal Richard Abrams before Abrams was known to anyone. He recorded and performed often with Eric Dolphy and has spoken of his close musical and personal rapport with Dolphy ("Out To Lunch", the Five Spot recordings, and the famous duets). He recorded with Andrew Hill on some of his first Blue Note albums, with Sam Rivers, John Carter, David Murray, Roscoe Mitchell. I saw him perform with Roscoe Mitchell in 1981. He was very effective and comfortable in a free context. He plays on the first cut of the silver "Jazz Composers Orchestra" double LP. When I took a jazz history class from him, he described how he and the other free players in New York welcomed Leon Thomas when he first came to town, "because we all said, 'finally, here's our freedom singer.'" He also told our class that he was offered the permanent bass chair in the Miles Davis Quintet, but that his first wife did not want him to travel out of New York much, so he turned it down. He did sub in Miles' group sometimes, and appears on the Portland State University recording which seems to circulate, however much of a bootleg it is. What is interesting to me about Richard is how he is also very effective with Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Earl Hines, and other swing era musicians, and on rock and pop dates, and on classical pieces (as on his CD, "Reminisces", and the famous appearance with Stravinsky). I think that some of his rock appearances were on albums which have become part of boomer nostalgia/mythology, and have tended to be overemphasized in a discussion of his career.

Richard Davis has played with more greats than Don Cherry: http://richarddavis.org/bio/disc.htm The list of his albums is too long to post in full here.

The bureaucrats will have nothing to do, and no jobs, if the money goes to the musicians. I have noticed that instututions using public money and corporate grants to promote jazz, seem to attract people who have as their main focus keeping and maintaining their (rather cushy) job, not the music. These are the people who seem to create and promote marketing ideas designed to drive away the jazz audience. After all, if jazz can attract an audience just on its own merits, because it is fun and enjoyable and exciting and vital and naturally draws a crowd, then who needs the bureaucrat and his or her ideas any more? These bureaucrats tend to wrap themselves in a mantle of exaggerated importance, by describing jazz as "America's classical music" or "America's one contribution to the arts". Such a precious commodity can only be tended by a great personage--such as, just for instance, the bureaucrat who is calling it those things. After all, if we are talking about some musicians just getting together and playing some exciting creations of their own, forging ahead without any pompous labelling of their music, then who needs the bureaucrat any more? Go into any bar on a Saturday night and shout out, "hey everybody, tomorrow night there's a performance of America's classical music in town! It's going to be America's one true contribution to the arts, here in our city!" Feel the excitement swell in the room.

Chico Freeman and Cecil McBee perform as a duo on "Autumn in New York", on Freeman's India Navigation album "Spirit Sensitive". It's a fine album overall, in my opinion.

Thanks for reminding us. I voted for Nonaah and for Organissimo--it gave me a reason to care about the poll.

I played "Mr. Knight" in the car on the way to work. That Atlantic studio stuff is really good. The Impulse years are justifiably famous, but the Atlantic recordings are great too.

Members of a certain age may remember these late 1960s Kool Aid characters. They captivated the imagination of the kids in my neighborhood. The original characters included Chinese Cherry. That character was dropped, after the early ads were criticized for being racist. There was an old time Charlie Chan type of stereotyping to Chinese Cherry.

Modern Jazz Quartet--The Last Concert Paul Desmond--Pure Desmond Joe Pass-Portraits of Duke Ellington

Continuing the chewy subthread: Did Hank sit in with Johnny Winter at Woodstock? No, but it's Baby Face on organ with Winter.

Has anyone else read Lou Donaldson's Blindfold Test in the new issue of Jazz Times (the first issue under the new ownership, with Joe Lovano on the cover)? Lou provides several "unguarded", blunt opinions about musicians, which venture close to being insulting. Not the usual happy-face Blindfold Test!