Hot Ptah

O.K. I have changed the list to reflect it.

I have had several responses to my call for 2015 Blindfold Test presenters. Many thanks to those who have responded. I think that we have had a series of Blindfold Tests in 2014 which are very strong musically, and now 2015 looks like it will be a big success too. She is reacting to this news: Here is the 2015 lineup right now; January alex February colinmce March Tom in RI April Dan Gould May Daniel A June Hardbopjazz July Thom Keith August Spontooneous September The Magnificent Goldberg October Homefromtheforest November jeffcrom December felser As you can see, we have some spots available.. So keep that look on her face--jump right in and sign up! Just send me a Private Message. All of the months of 2015 are now covered. Thank you for volunteering If you have not done a Blindfold Test before, Thom Keith will help you with any downloading assistance which you may need, and I can discuss Blindfold Tests in general with you.

Oops! Well, since I often fail to identify tracks in the Blindfold Tests from albums in my collection, perhaps it is not surprising that I would also fail to identify a track from a prior Blindfold Test.

Bev, I wrote a post here on Organissimo once about this very thing. I wrote that some of the music of Henry Threadgill and Anthony Braxton thrilled me, but I have no idea what they are doing, and whether it is successful artistically within the genre in which they work. It sounds good to me, but is it actually good, if you are a musician and know music theory? The response I received from the musicians on the board was to just sit back and enjoy it. I didn't really understand why they could not provide a written explanation of what would constitute a successful performance within Threadgill and Braxton's genre of music and whether Threadgill and Braxton achieved it--and more importantly to me, why or why not they were successful. I think that almost no one writing about jazz has ever really understood the music. I think almost all jazz writers have been enthusiastic fans who fall back on factual history or colorful metaphors to mask their lack of musical knowledge. When I read Lewis Porter's book, "John Coltrane: His Life and Music", I had the feeling that I was reading the work of an author who actually understood the music and could articulate insights about it to a lay reader. On the other hand, as an uninformed lay reader, he could have been stating very simplistic, obvious, or even incorrect, statements about the music and I would not have known the difference.

Several members have contacted me about presenting a BFT in 2015, but we still have several months left too. So if you are interested, please send me a Private Message.

We are currently scheduled through January, 2015, with Blindfold Test Presenters. alex just contacted me and asked to present a Blindfold Test, so he has been given January, 2015. We have nothing else scheduled in 2015 yet. If you want to present a Blindfold Test, please send me a Private Message. I will schedule you one year after your previous Blindfold Test. This is an idea which jeffcrom had developed when he was administering the Blindfold Tests, and which I think makes good sense.

I saw a sad thing during that era. Illinois Jacquet and his big band were going to perform at the outdoor Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival just when the retro swing thing was at its height. It was written in the newspaper that here was the real swing thing. I saw many young couples, probably early 20s, standing in front of the band, ready to dance. Then the band came out and played a set of mostly ballads, and otherwise low energy songs, unsuitable for the wild dancing of the retro swing fad. Plus, the park's ground was very bumpy and uneven, with sparse grass. Some of the couples gamely tried to dance anyway, but between the low energy level and the bumpy ground, they all gave up fairly quickly.

It is not "Cosmos". That is one of the albums I tested last night.

You are correct, sir. Yes, it would be. But that's a clue. Last night I took out more than 25 Sun Ra albums from the Michael Ray/Ahmed Abdullah era and afterwards, and played the first few seconds from every track on every album, trying to get a match for Track 6. I don't have access to a turntable now, so it could be that Track 6 is from an album that I have only in vinyl--I have many Sun Ra albums only in vinyl. But I did not find it yet!

I think that these are excellent points. It all hit me when I was dragged to a Zac Brown concert last week, in a sports stadium. Over 10,000 people of all ages were happy, enthusiastic, attentive, just delighted to be there, hearing a mixture of rock and improvisation, and a bare hint of country, for what was billed as a country show. Zac had a nine piece band and the show featured many extended improvised solos, with only the barest hint of country content or tinge. There was a long electric bass solo for example, that would have fit in well at a jazz concert, His violin player had been with Dave Matthews and is a jazz player most of all. I could hear it in his solos. One of his guitarists played improvisations on the level of any top guitarist, The band played material by Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley and many other non-country covers. This was not a jazz show per se, but it did feature a good amount of uncompromising improvisation. The 10,000+ people there loved it all. Zac was continually friendly and engaging onstage, and it was a fun time. It hit me--when was the last time I had genuine fun at a jazz concert? When was the last time an audience at a jazz concert was smiling, happy, enthusiastic? Where and when did jazz take the turn it did? You can bet that literally no one in the stadium was contemplating whether the Zac Brown Band was pure enough, or whether its extended solos and covers of other styles of music, made it something to sneer at. Earlier in the year, I was dragged to an Alison Krauss concert, where I heard the best version of Chick Corea's "Spain" I ever heard, by Jerry Douglas on solo unaccompanied electric dobro. It was a truly virtuoso performance, up there with any jazz musician. I may have been the only person in the 7,000 seat outdoor theater who knew it was a Chick Corea song, but it was very well received by the crowd. How many jazz fanatics would turn their noses up at attending a bluegrass/pop show like that?

Here's another thing worth considering. After many years of not doing so, I have had to socialize, for my work, with a wide variety of people, of all ages, from around the country, in the past year. I have been struck by how virtually none of them have ever heard a jazz album, or have ever thought about jazz at all. A mention of jazz brings blank stares, in virtually every group of people. In the 1970s and 1980s, I think that more people were generally aware of jazz, and had heard some of the leading artists of the day--Miles, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Keith Jarrett, Ella, Sarah Vaughan, Basie, Dizzy, Wynton, etc. Not so any more, with the masses, from what I can tell. There's a big difference. So it is not so much of an issue that jazz collectors are not into pre-Bird music. It is more of an issue that so few people are jazz collectors at all now. If you find someone who collects 1990s post bop recordings, at least that person is collecting SOME jazz.

I agree, worth picking up.

It is interesting to me, how in this day when literally everything in music is available to masses of people via streaming services and Internet radio apps, and when jazz is now routinely played as background music in Starbucks and other public places, how it is difficult to determine how much of the history of jazz is really being absorbed by very many people. I had to read books and old magazine articles at the library, and dream about hearing jazz albums which had not been reissued, when I became a jazz lover in the 1970s. It was a fight, a struggle, to find copies of the music, and took some unusual effort to learn about it. Now it is so much easier, but how many are taking advantage of it? If it is equally easy to hear everything on Spotify, do very many people take advantage of that to delve into Fletcher Henderson, or do they instead listen again to Beyoncé and Kanye? Also, there are many more young musicians in jazz programs in high schools and colleges in America. How many of those musicians are taught about, and/or want to know about, Jabbo Smith, James P. Johnson, Sidney Bechet? I am not sure.

I wouldn't say it's before that era. Really? I heard Michael Ray and Ahmed Abdullah in concert with Sun Ra several times, and they never played like that with a harmon mute. Very interesting!

John Litweiler, I think you are being a bit pessimistic. I have most of the albums on your list, and your list has just given me a shopping list for the ones which I do not have. I purchased a whole bunch of Fats Waller CDs this year, and look for pre-Bird music all the time at the used music stores. I also search out blues CDs from the pre-1945 period. In the Blindfold Tests on this board, when a member presents a pre-WWII jazz track, there is intelligent, knowing discussion about it. I think many members here love and appreciate the pre-Bird music very much. I agree that what is often lacking on this board is discussion of jazz recordings which were released after 1990.

Track 6 is obviously Sun Ra. I can hear it in the piano comping. But I am having trouble identifying the album, because I don't remember a Sun Ra trumpet player ever playing that way with a mute. It must be from before the Michael Ray and Ahmed Abdullah era. It could be from a Sun Ra album I just don't have! I have many, but does anyone have them all?

#9 is Peter Warren's composition, "Riff Raff", which I heard a great many times from playing Jack DeJohnette's "Tin Can Alley" album, one of my favorites of the late 1970s--early 1980s era. That is why the song was so familiar to me. "Riff Raff" is the opening cut on Side 2 of "Tin Can Alley" in the vinyl format, which is the only format that existed when it was released, other than cassettes. This recording of "Riff Raff" is the opening track from Peter Warren's album, "Solidarity". Joining Peter are John Purcell, John Scofield, Ray Anderson and Jack DeJohnette. What a great track! I was not aware of this album under Peter Warren's name. I remember reading an article about Peter Warren. He said that he was in Dionne Warwick's touring band in the 1960s. He was impatient with the routine nature of the bass parts, and wanted to play uncompromising jazz. So he decided to quit, and planned to make it on the New York jazz scene, playing with the jazz greats. He was surprised when several of his jazz bass idols applied for the job with Dionne Warwick as soon as he quit.

That really surprises me. #8 has so many details of their sound. When I saw the Art Ensemble of Chicago live they sounded like #8. This is really mysterious now!

I will be posting comments on each song, but wanted to weigh in with my thought that #8 sounds like the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Now I have to listen to my live albums to find this performance. #9 is extremely familiar. I know this song! I need to ponder what it is. This Blindfold Test is my kind of music, really great, great stuff!

I should have identified 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 10 and 14. I either have these albums or enough other music by the artists that I should have known. The Moondog and Worrell tracks fascinate me. I have heard and read about Moondog but never heard any of his albums. I did not expect it to sound like Track 9, which I like a lot. I thought that the Worrell track was a recent funk band recording but I thought it was Galactic. It is interesting to me how the P-Funk sidemen often are found to know jazz and to sometimes play it.

Here is a list which I posted in 2008 on another board. Many of these are too commonplace to qualify as "overlooked" for the Organissimo members, but here is the list I came up with: Muhal Richard Abrams--Blues Forever --Afrisong Cannonball Adderley--Nippon Soul George Adams--Paradise Space Shuttle --Sound Suggestions Henry "Red" Allen--1929-36 (Robert Parker Series) Louis Armstrong--Swing That Music (1936-38, MCA) Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt--Jug and Sonny Rabih Abou-Khalil--Blue Camel Count Basie--Chairman of the Board Chu Berry--Chu The Jaki Byard Experience Art Blakey--The Big Beat Carla Bley--European Tour '77 Anthony Braxton--Creative Orchestra Music 1976 Dave Brubeck--Brubeck Plays Brubeck (solo piano) Don Byron--No Vibe Zone Sidney Bechet-- Volume 2 (Blue Note LP) Steve Bernstein with Sam Rivers--Diaspora Blues Kenny Barron--Maybeck album Mario Bauza--944 Columbus Lester Bowie--The Fire This Time Brother Ah--Sound Awareness Donald Byrd--Free Flight Dave Burrell--Windward Passages Sonny Clark--Sonny's Crib Avishai Cohen--Adama Benny Carter--A Gentleman and His Music Roy Campbell--New Kingdom Uri Caine--Toys Betty Carter--Now It's My Turn Paul Desmond--Pure Desmond Richard Davis--Philosophy of the Spiritual Jack DeJohnette--Tin Can Alley Gil Evans--Individualism of Duke Ellington--Jazz Party --New Orleans Suite --70th Birthday Concert --Historically Speaking Booker Ervin--The Space Book Johnny Frigo--Live at the 1997 Floating Jazz Festival Chico Freeman--Spirit Sensitive Tommy Flanagan--Jazz Poet Ella and Louis (all 3 volumes) Ricky Ford--Flying Colors Dexter Gordon--Stable Mable Johnny Griffin--Return of the Griffin Dizzy Gillespie and Machito--Afro Cuban Jazz Moods Stan Getz--Anniversary Benny Goodman--On The Air (1937-38) Charlie Haden--Closeness --The Golden Number Lionel Hampton--My Man John Hicks--Inc.1 Heath Brothers--Live at the Public Theater Coleman Hawkins--Meets the Big Sax Section --Rainbow Mist Abdullah Ibrahim--Ekaya --Ode to Duke Ellington James P. Johnson--Original 1942-45 Eddie Jefferson--The Main Man Keith Jarrett--La Scala Elvin Jones--The Ultimate Barney Kessel--Easy Like Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh Rahsaan Roland Kirk--Bright Moments The Leaders--Mudfoot Yusef Lateef--Eastern Sounds --The Three Faces of --Cry!/Tender Ronnie Matthews--Roots, Branches and Dances Pat Metheny--80/81 Charles Mingus--Tijuana Moods Modern Jazz Quartet-- The Last Concert Thelonious Monk--5 By Monk By 5 Jay McShann--Kansas City Hustle Bheki Mseleku--Celebration David Murray--Holy Siege on Intrigue Phineas Newborn--The Great Jazz Piano of James Newton--Paseo Del Mar Eddie Palmieri--Palmas Duke Pearson--Wahoo William Parker--O'Neal's Porch Joe Pass--Portraits of Duke Ellington Art Pepper--Today Sam Rivers--Waves Sonny Rollins--Alfie Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan--Goin' Home Zoot Sims--Hawthorne Nights Eddie South--In Paris 1929 and 1937 Jess Stacy--Stacy Still Swings Sun Ra--Cosmos --Unity --St. Louis Blues Skatalites--High Bop Ska Clark Terry--Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Arrangements by Ernie Wilkins) Henry Threadgill--Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket --Too Much Sugar For a Dime Lucky Thompson--Lucky Strikes Art Tatum and Ben Webster Cecil Taylor--Silent Tongues McCoy Tyner--Trident --Supertrios Lew Tabackin--Rites of Pan Cal Tjader--Soul Sauce Sarah Vaughan--Live at Mister Kelly's Dinah Washington--The Jazz Sides Randy Weston--Tanjah Fats Waller--Turn on the Heat Kenny Wheeler--Gnu High James Williams--Magical Trio 1 Teddy Wilson--Solo Piano: Keystone Transcriptions 1939-40 Phil Woods--Musique du Bois Mary Lou Williams--Free Spirits Lester Young Trio

9. This is great, so quirky and intriguing. I love the baritone sax player's rich, bluesy tone. 10. I love this. The compelling piano and the unusual horn parts-what a weird and wonderful track. Wait, this is live? That makes it all the more intriguing. 11. I have always liked Ask the Ages by Sonny Sharrock. What an interesting choice to select from this album. 12. The unmistakeable sound of Sonny Criss. I don't know what this is from though. 13. The funk sound reminds me of the New Orleans group, Galactic. I love this. It is so outside the mainstream, so wild. 14. The trumpet player has super clean technique, really outstanding technique. He plays with beauty too. I really ike this and have no idea who it is. 15. I dd not know Sam Cooke (or a strong imitator) sang this type of material. The ethereal female vocal in the background sounds like the lounge music era. My title for the official big label release of this collection: "Weird Wild and Wonderful!"

I have previously discussed 1 and 7, so here are my other reactions. 2. This has the strange intonation of Ron Carter on cello on some Eric Dolphy sides. I can't place this particular track though. 3. Great! The pianist is really playing some beautiful, compelling stuff. I like the propulsive bass too. 4. An odd version of Stardust. No idea who it is. 5. Jimmy Giuffre, The Train and The River. I have always found this to be very interesting. 6. An unexpected big band section in the middle. I really like the saxophonist's tone. A quirky arrangement which I enjoy. 7. See prior discussion. 8.. The trumpet reminds me of Ahmed Abdullah, but the recording must be from many years before he started recording. 9.