Hot Ptah

That is a quote from one of those responding to the article.

http://thejazzline.com/news/2015/03/jazz-least-popular-music-genre/ "Jazz Has Become the Least Popular Genre in the United States"

What Roscoe is talking about has happened in jazz and blues. However, it has not happened in country, dance/pop, Latin music, or hip hop. Those genres fill 20,000 seat arenas and 70,000 seat stadiums. When I go to a blues concert now I am struck by how many of the audience members are elderly looking. At some blues shows, you could have the same crowd if the band set up in the TV lounge at a retirement home. The whole issue of why the masses of American people under age 65 seem to genuinely love country and hip hop, and by comparison to have little feeling for jazz or blues, is fascinating to me. When I was in school (1960s--1970s) what young people knew as music was so blues based. That is no longer the case. How did that happen? (Needless to say, I am speaking in broad generalities, just based on ticket sales and concert bookings. I imagine that we all know a 17 year old who loves jazz and blues, who we could describe in glowing terms, to refute what I have just said. But I am speaking of concert ticket sales in general).

You just bought the two Tatum Pablo boxes for less than I paid for them in the early 1990s. They were displayed up on the wall behind the cash register at one of my favorite used record/CD stores and I bought them. It was a quaint, simple time.

Track 4 is Sonny Rollins' "Sonnymoon For Two," but I don't know who is playing it. I like the feeling of that track very much.

I read the Steve Hoffman Forum sometimes, and I am struck by how this discussion is incredibly different from the discussions there about CD v. vinyl, and sound quality of recordings. It's two different worlds.

I liked these albums very much when they were first released, and have listened to them regularly over the years.

Thanks for putting this BFT together for our enjoyment. I like the variety between different Blindfold Tests, so this will no doubt be very interesting.

Thanks for this Blindfold Test! This was very different from some recent tests, and shows the vibrant diversity of listening experience of the members on this board. I loved some of the tracks (especially #11) and enjoyed them all. The Ed Blackwell track from a Soul Note album (#5) really interests me. When Black Saint and Soul Note were releasing their first burst of albums in the 1980s, I tried to purchase as many of them as I could, but that particular Ed Blackwell album is one I just did not get. It is great to hear, and I was really fooled by it. I would have never guessed those musicians were playing Take the A Train.

If I may press a question, do we sell non-jazz listeners short by not wanting to introduce them to the best -- even if we think that the best may be intimidating, difficult, etc.? At the end of the day, music is people doing things to other things to make sounds - sounds to which other people listen and respond. One thing that I have always appreciated about AG work is how it often drives home just this point -- which makes AG music really accessible. Put another way, I have often found that people one expect to like KOB only, when it comes to jazz, can really enjoy more if pointed in good directions. I have to admit my own self interestedness in all of this. When I have wanted to introduce people to Coltrane (not sure about whether I intend to "convert," but that is another question), I try to go for some sort of career retrospective thing. My Coltrane collection, however, is really slim in the post-classic quartet department. When I originally wrote this question, I was curious if/what "late period" Coltrane might show up. I have Stellar Regions and Meditations, and that is it (and I like First Meditations better than Meditations). I do think that all of my selections are very top level Coltrane, and that my list could arguably be a list of some of the best Coltrane ever. It is not a watered down list of sub-par Coltrane, by any means. I have spent a lot of time socializing with adults ages 30-60 in the past year, from different groups, and different walks of life. I am surprised at how little awareness of ANY jazz exists in much of the general population today. I would not introduce jazz to anyone in 2015 with an avant garde track. There seems to be zero ability to process the avant garde among many adults today. Country and dance pop are immensely popular right now. Blues, jazz, rock--not so popular. I think that if you want to introduce an artist like Coltrane to someone, it is strategically good to focus on accessible, but high quality, tracks first. Many people will not like any jazz no matter what you provide. When I started to like jazz, I needed gateways into different artists. I did not tend to start with the more challenging works by any jazz artist. It all depends on who you are providing this 80 minute introduction to. If you are providing it to a 19 year old who likes the most extreme death metal or hardcore punk, you would probably focus on excerpts from "Om", and tracks from "Meditations" and "Live from Seattle." If you are providing it to a person who likes a little jazz, but is just getting their feet wet so to speak with the entire jazz genre, and is not sure if they will want to go further into jazz or not, then my list is possibly a good one to go with. I would think that if the recipient liked the 80 minute introduction, that the recipient would tend to delve deeper, branch out and listen to tracks like "India", songs from "Interstellar Space" and other less obviously accessible works.

I am in. I am looking forward to your selections.

Norman Granz sold Verve to MGM in December, 1960. So he would not have had any influence on what happened on the label in the 1960s.

I like his Horo album a lot, and recommend it.

This is one of the very greatest recorded sets of all time. If you don't have it, and can afford it, it screams BUY ME from your computer screen.

I like these Muse albums. I find everything that Lester Bowie ever recorded to be of great merit, literally. It all ranges from very interesting to great, in my opinion. So it really depends on your taste. I happen to really like his "Great Pretender" and "All the Magic" albums, for example--but I also love his contributions to the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Jack DeJohnette's New Directions, and his Brass Fantasy band. To me, you just jump right in and eventually get all of it, every note he ever recorded.

I did not grow up in a house in which classical music was played. I took an elective course in college at the University of Wisconsin, a Music Appreciation 101 class, called "The Symphony", because I was curious. It helped that it was known as an easy A. About 300 students took the class, which was held in a huge lecture hall. The professor was very enthusiastic and engaging. You had to be able to identify the composers and works from hearing brief excerpts, for the final exam. So I played the box set that came with the class in my dorm room. It was Daniel Politoske's "Music" set. My roommate, an agriculture major who liked only country music (this was in 1976), was not happy when I played the symphonies in our room. He was actually quite hostile about it. I was very drawn to the Stravinsky works played in class: Rite of Spring, Firebird, Petrushka. I also liked the Beethoven symphonies. Soon after that, I was in a used record store in Madison, Wisconsin, called Rave Up, and a middle age man in a suit and tie was standing next to the classical music section. I walked up to this stranger and asked if he thought that a used box set, of Solti and the Chicago Symphony playing all of the Beethoven symphonies, would be a good buy. He said yes. I really enjoyed listening to the Beethoven symphonies, even if those are not "the best" versions available. I had that Solti and the Chicago Symphony box set from 1976 until 1993. The box opened up and the information on the spine was printed on a thin piece of paper glued on, from the spine to the front cover. That spine label got torn, in an irregular way. It was the CD era, so I gave the box set to Goodwill in 1993. In 2010, I walked into a used book store in Kansas City, Prospero's, and my box set of Solti and the Chicago Symphony playing the Beethoven symphonies was there on display, as a New Stock item. It had the distinctive tear in the spine label. It was my set, which I had donated about 17 years before. So I bought it back and still have it.

My introduction to Coltrane, when I was coming out of rock listening, came as a result of the choices of a kindly and well informed record store clerk. He picked out a beginning jazz collection for me at my request. The collection included two Coltrane compilations: a 2 LP Atlantic compilation, The Art of John Coltrane, which had on it: Syeeda's Song Flute, Aisha, Countdown, Mr. Knight, My Shining Hour, Blues to Bechet, The Invisible, My Favorite Things, Giant Steps, Central Park West, Like Sonny, Body and Soul, and a 2 LP Impulse compilation, The Best of John Coltrane-His Greatest Years, which had Africa, Softly As in a Morning Sunrise, Soul Eyes, After the Rain, Afro Blue, Alabama, My Favorite Things (live), Bessie's Blues, Psalm (from A Love Supreme), the opening section of Kulu Se Mama, Naima (live, with Alice Coltrane and Rashied Ali), and the closing invocation from Om. From that experience, I remember that I was very drawn to the catchiest songs, and the compelling slower songs. I was not ready for something like "Chasin' The Trane" at the Village Vanguard, at all. My suggestions, which are not my favorite Coltrane recordings, or the Coltrane recordings which I think are "the best", but are instead the Coltrane recordings which I think a beginner might be drawn to, are as follows. It is really difficult to limit this to 80 minutes. Central Park West Giant Steps Cousin Mary Naima My Favorite Things (all Atlantic) After The Rain Afro Blue Alabama In a Sentimental Mood Wise One Bessie's Blues Acknowledgement (from A Love Supreme) (all Impuise) If I had a second 80 minute disc, I would include: Dakar (on Prestige) Blue Train Moment's Notice (from Blue Train, on Blue Note) Syeeda's Song Flute Mr. P.C. Blues to Bechet Equinox (on Atlantic) Song for the Underground Railroad Crescent My Little Brown Book (on Impulse) Again, these are not my favorite Coltrane recordings now, or "the best" of Coltrane. I am thinking of a pop music listener, who wants an introduction to Coltrane.

Is #5 a version of "Take the A Train" by Charles Mingus, from his "Mingus at Monterey" album, with John Handy on tenor sax, and Dannie Richmond on drums? Is #9 "Organic Echo" by Lester Bowie, from his "All the Magic" album? I am guessing these from memory as I do not have access to these albums right now.

Alex, I really loved this BFT because it was focused on the great recordings of pre-bop jazz. We don't hear from that era in the Blindfold Tests as much now as we used to. I was a little bit surprised that some of the songs were not better known by our very knowledgeable members. It makes me realize that my experience as a jazz fan could be related to my age. I started listening to jazz and buying a lot of jazz albums in the mid-1970s. There were many fewer years of recorded jazz to cover back then, and it was a given that a jazz fan would go back to the 1930s and early 1940s in his or her listening and buying. Now with so many decades having passed, it may no longer be so natural.

Hope to see the rest of your Reveal soon and the answers to the mysterious tracks at the end.

Thom Keith, the co-administrator of the Blindfold Tests with me, is working with colinmce on this right now. Please be patient for just a little while.

That sounds really interesting! I am looking forward to this one.

No one has identified #10 yet. It's all yours!!!

Yes, Page. That is a really good job of identifying the songs and artists!

As for pure Grappelli, I have to admit that I always find him strongest with Django. (Still, I want to hear the Earl Hines thing.) Maybe someone else has a good recommendation for Django-less Grappelli? The Ellington "Jazz Violin Sessions" comes to mind, and it's certainly fascinating (Grappelli! Nance! Asmussen on viola!), but it never really made me sigh in ecstasy like I thought it would when I first saw it or read about it. . As to your hope for recommendations for Stephane Grappelli, I think that most of his albums apart from Django are quite good. I guess I must like his playing or something! I saw him live several times in the 1970s and 1980s and he was always excellent, quite compelling. Some of my favorite albums are "Violin Summit" with Jean Luc Ponty, "Paris Encounter" with Gary Burton, and my all time favorite, the 2 LP set "Satin Doll" on Vanguard VSD 81/82--that is my go-to Grappelli album. I don't know if all of this 2 LP set has been reissued on CD or how or where. But it is really worth hearing, I think. The Grappelli-Ponty album works surprisingly well, and has a jaunty energy to it that I find very appealing. I did a little bit of online searching and the "Satin Doll" double LP is on CD: http://www.discogs.com/St%C3%A9phane-Grappelli-Satin-Doll/release/2660899