Hot Ptah

I have had some questions about the schedule for presenting Blindfold Tests in 2017. I am going to open it up for signups. Please let me know if you want to present a Blindfold Test in 2017, and which months are your preferred months. Here is the schedule so far: 2017 January Jo Keith February Dan Gould March Hot Ptah April Mary6170 May Hardbopjazz June mjzee July Thom Keith August randyhersom September October JSngry November The Magnificent Goldberg December Felser

We are still with you! I can't wait to hear what you have come up with!

Wow, I own the CD from which Track #1 comes from. I have not played it in many years. I did not remember Track #1 at all. I have never heard of the group on Track 4, which must have been a early group with Muhal Richard Abrams. I have to check that group out more. That is Jerry Dodgion on Track #5, with Charlie Mariano? Dodgion is an unsung hero. He deserves more attention. I have never heard of the Spheres, but I really like what they did with the George Russell composition on Track #8. I am going to try to get this album. Wow, Don Pullen and Don Moye on Track #10, and I could not identify it! I never had that particular Julius Hemphill album, from which Track #11 is taken, although I had other Hemphill albums from that period. Is Prince on #12 THE Prince, the pop superstar? If so, it is very interesting that he would want to participate in music of this style. I really liked Track #13 when I heard it. Now I am going to try to get this album. I don't have much Lenny Niehaus. Time to remedy that. This is a really good, and enjoyable Blindfold Test. Thanks for putting such a good one together!

I agree. I think that all four albums range from enjoyably good to great.

They are not trying to be local. They are disorganized. You might say that they are incompetent.

Just a cover alone will be nearly impossible to find, I would imagine. But the original at Revolution Records has the original cover. If someone wanted the original cover badly enough they might buy another whole copy, photos, records and all.

It will be much less expensive at Revolution Records.

There is an entire original for sale at Revolution Records in Kansas City, Missouri. Miles is the employee in charge of selling it. His schedule is sporadic. The store closes about 6 p.m. each day and they don't have voice mail. You have to call the store during the day, tell whoever answers that you want to buy a special product from Miles and leave your phone number. Then you have to follow up. This is not the most organized business. It's charm is its informality and lack of order.

This is a really good Blindfold Test. It features a lot of excellent bass playing, and on several tracks the influence of John Coltrane is felt. So it is right up my alley. 1. I have no idea who is playing, but it is very beautiful playing. This is the kind of outstanding track, where I tend to buy the album after the Reveal. 2. The bassist and drummer really sound a lot like Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones on "A Love Supreme". But the pianist is clearly from a much later time. I have no idea who it is but I like it. 3. The bassist sounds like Richard Davis, with some of his characteristic phrases and sound. I am not placing this within the vast Richard Davis discography though. Another track which I like a lot. 4. This is outstanding! It sounds like a late 1950s or early 1960s group, but I am not familiar with them at all. I can't wait to find out who this is. 5. I hear Charlie Mariano, but I am not sure who else is playing. Another strong track. 6. This sounds like a European player to me, and one with whom I am not familiar. 7. Excellent piano trio. I don't know who it is. 8. This is George Russell's composition "Living Time Event V". I included it on my first Blindfold Test ever, in this version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Big_Band Stanley Cowell is the pianist in that version. Your track seems to be much more recent. A great track! 9. "You Don't Know What Love Is." I like the playing very much. 10. I like this solo bass playing a lot. I can't place who it is. 11. That is Julius Hemphill. I have heard enough of him to be able to identify him. I think this is from his 1970s era, when his albums were being released on Arista/Freedom. I can't place the album specifically though. Maybe I never had it. 12. This sounds like a Gato Barbieri disciple backed by a somewhat overwrought fusion band. I like it, but it is a little bit odd, especially the beginning. 13. I love this. I am not aware of who it is. I love the larger ensemble, then the excellent sax solo. I want to buy this! 14. "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", by excellent players who I enjoy. I don't know who they are. 15. The beginning sounds like a late John Coltrane album, so you had me at the beginning. I like this a lot. As is often the case, I can't identify many of the musicians or albums, but I enjoyed this BFT a great deal, and look forward to other comments which I may learn from.

I realize that I know nothing about Emmanuel Cranshaw, the vibes player with Muhal Richard Abrams on Track 7. Can anyone enlighten me about him?

Oh my! John Blake! I saw him perform with McCoy Tyner several times, always very compelling and enjoyable. I had no idea that he had recorded something like this. I saw Cecil McBee with Chico Freeman and with the Leaders, and have many albums that he plays on. Again, I did not know that he had recorded something like this. I have never heard of any of these guys, but now want to get this album. I love this style of music, and they play it very well. That is a beautiful recording. Another musician I had never heard of. Very interesting. Oh man! I have this album, but don't remember much about it (obviously). I will have to pull it out and play it now. That is a very beautiful song. I don't think I bought this album when I bought my William Parker collection from Scott Black on ebay. You can count on a recording with Parker and Drake sounding good. Ari Brown is special. I think that many jazz lovers know about him. I have a lot of Elvin Jones albums but somehow missed this one. I heard that Satie composition on the "Blood Sweat and Tears" album when I was 13. I took a classical music appreciation class in college, and the T.A. played a classical artist's recording of this composition for our small group. I immediately shouted out, "oh, that is the song that Blood, Sweat and Tears did!" The T.A. looked stricken, really pained, as she said, "oh......huge sigh.......I like what Blood Sweat and Tears did with it.......huge sigh." Great, great Blindfold Test, Thom! Thanks for choosing such enjoyable music!

I am in.

Miles is the guy to talk to at Revolution about this. He works Monday from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.

That is true. It is just very time consuming with the current software. Anyone who wanted to devote most of their time for a week or two could do it. If I did not have a demanding full time job and children to care for, I could get it done in the next week. This situation is a very unfortunate side effect of the software update. Another one is the loss of the ability to search the board. I can't blame Jim. This board is a labor of volunteer love for him. This board is no one's moneymaking job so any amount of time that anyone volunteers to it is something to celebrate. If a volunteer for this board does not do a great job, we cannot criticize them unless we are willing to take over the volunteer work ourselves, in my humble opinion.

All of the links from 1--120 worked perfectly until the software upgrade. With the software upgrade all of the links became inoperable. Thom Keith and I raised this point at the time with Jim Alfredson and he said that the software company knew why the upgrade had ruined everything but that nothing could be done. Last summer Thom Keith spent many hours reentering many of them, and I just spent many hours reentering some more. We both have demanding full time jobs and there is only so much volunteer time we can quickly devote to this. Tests 1-120 are listed in posts started by Big Al and Jeffcrom. Only they can edit them. So they would have to spend the hours editing them. j may be able to start over and reenter links for all Tests 1-120. That will take about 120 hours or more. I can do that over a period of time. I work full time and cannot spend 120 hours in one full time burst of time. I will do what I can

The links were all working until the software upgrade of last year. The software upgrade ruined everything for the BFT links. Thom Keith fixed them going back a while, last year. I just added the links for the past year or so. I did not know that the first 74 links were still not working due to the software upgrade. It takes about an hour to add 10 months of links. So adding 74 or more will take a long time. I will now look into it for the earlier months.

This copy is for sale or for trade for other jazz LPs. Contact Miles at Revolution Records, 816-399-4849.

I looked at the photos today. They are glorious.

Revolution Records on 18th St., one block east of Oak Street, near downtown Kansas City, MO. The set is stored in the back. A guy named Miles who works there showed it to me today. He said that he is in charge of their eBay sales and that the owner expects him to list it on eBay but he can't bring himself to do it. He said he would sell it to a jazz lover in the store though.

This is the original 78 issue. It is like a book that opens up and is bound on the left side. I guess it could be called a folio. It is not a box--I was using the term incorrectly. I have gone back and edited out the word "box" in my original post. This is for sale at a used music store in Kansas City.

I saw a mint condition copy of Norman Granz' "The Jazz Scene" today. This is the only copy I have ever seen. This came out on CD some time ago, but the original vinyl set (78s) from 1949 is special. It is an oversized book, bound together, with over 50 full page black and white photos of jazz greats, which are very striking in their original size. The records (78s) are in full page sleeves which are bound into the book. There are extensive liner notes for each selection. This must have seemed amazing in 1949. I find it pretty amazing now. How common is this set? Do any members here own it?

All of the links to the Discussions and Reveals have been updated, for the past Blindfold Tests.

Track 11, the Max Roach uptempo arrangement of "Round Midnight", reminds me of a time when I saw T.S. Monk, Thelonious' son the drummer, leading a bop combo. He introduced a song by saying that so often these days, we are told what is right and wrong about jazz, that only certain ways of playing are right and everything else is wrong. So he asked men who had played with his dad if it would be all right to play his dad's song in the arrangement he was about to present to us. He said that Max Roach told him to go ahead, that his his dad would have approved. He then played "Round Midnight" even more uptempo than on Track 11. I can see why members guessed Mark Feldman or Erik Friedlander for Track 2, because this track sounds like it could have come from one of John Zorn's albums for strings. Jenny Scheinman can play in a style this accomplished. I am not familiar enough with all of her recordings to know if it is her. Is Track 4 by a young Ricky Ford? Something keeps telling me that it is Ricky Ford. I cannot identify the vibes player on Track 7. Oddly, for a few notes, he sounded like Gary Burton to me. But I have never heard Gary Burton play like this for any extended period of time. Very beautiful playing. I am looking forward to the Reveal so that I can go buy this album. Do I hear William Parker on Track 8? There is a great jazz collector, Scott Black, who sold a lot of his CDs on ebay in the mid-2000s, because he was moving from another city to a 900 square foot apartment in Manhattan with his wife, and literally did not have room for all of his music collection. I bought about 20 William Parker CDs from him, among many more albums. In fact, his auctions took a major hit on my bank account. Scott is a really nice guy, with a passion for jazz, and was great to deal with in the ebay sales. I cannot remember the specifics of every one of the many William Parker albums which I bought from him, but I feel like I am hearing William Parker here.

I will buy Memphis Convention. PM to follow now.