Hot Ptah

Thanks for your comments! Glad you enjoyed the music! My new comments are in green, above.

Are you suggesting you may be neither Hot nor Ptah? That is funny, Chuck. If you read Phillip Roth's "The Great American Novel", you will see that the name fits me well.

All right!!! This is a great Blindfold Test. This Blindfold Test is often right in one of my favorite listening zones, on the border of post bop and avant garde, with a lot of John Coltrane influence in the saxophone soloing. I love it! 1. This sounds like a 1945-50 band, combining the R&B of that period with some bop influence. Johnny Otis recorded music with a similar blend in that period, but I don't think it is Otis. I don't know who it is, but this is a fantastic opener! I will get this album after I learn who it is. 2. This is from Harold Land's "Damisi" album, from the early 1970s. I bought this album at a music sale held by the family of a jazz lover who passed away, and then I included the song "Pakistan" from this album on one of my Blindfold Tests from two or three years ago. That is Oscar Brashear on trumpet and Land on tenor saxophone. 3. This sounds like a 1970s big band. I don't know who it is, but they are really good. I am really enjoying this. The tenor saxophone soloist shows a John Coltrane influence, which I think is great. 4. This one really has me stumped. I love it, and I think I can almost identify it, but then I can't. The piano sounds just like McCoy Tyner on Impulse to me, down to the unique sound of the piano he played on the Impulse recordings. If the pianist is not McCoy Tyner, it is someone who slept with his records, they were so obsessed with him. The saxophone player is not John Coltrane, he has a different sound, but it is someone who knows Coltrane's music really well. The composition almost sounds Irish to me--it's appealing and I feel that I should know it, but I don't. The drummer has me really stumped. He is playing with some of Elvin Jones' signature devices, but it does not sound like Elvin to me, more like someone who has studied Elvin closely but does not play exactly like him. But then toward the end I hear some drumming that sounds exactly like Tony Williams with McCoy Tyner on 1970s Milestone albums like "Super Trios" and "Passion Dance". But all of that can't be right. I am probably way, way off. I can't wait to find out who this is. I have to get this album as I love this song. 5. This sounds to me like the musicians who played on the India Navigation label in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Is that Hamiet Bluiett on baritone saxophone? Whoever it is, he is a great player. I am not sure he sounds exactly like Hamiet, but he is exploring some of the same territory that Hamiet plays in. I love the bluesy, menancing feeling of the head. Today's highly technically accomplished musicians don't do enough of that kind of thing, in my opinion. 6. This is Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons, from "The Cry". I have this album. It seems to me that this music would not have been possible without Ornette Coleman, yet within not many years of Ornette's breakthrough these musicians were going their own way with the music. 7. This has a 1960s Blue Note sound to me, that kind of great groove. Outstanding, energetic soloists! The trumpet solo is wonderful. I am not sure that it is Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, although it sounds like his era. This is great. Another one I have to get. 8. This one sounds more recent. The sound is a little nervous, does not hit so much of a groove as #7 for example. I really like the intense soprano sax soloist--a very urgent player. The pianist is both melodic and percussive--I don't recognize the pianist. 9. This is "Monk-ish" piano but is not Monk. It reminds me of a more recent virtuoso player like Eldar. The bass player sounds familiar--I feel that I should be able to identify the bass player but I can't. 10. This is gorgeous. I love both the saxophone player and the pianist. It reminds me somewhat of John Coltrane's "Welcome", in terms of the beauty and sound. I have no idea who it is, but another one I must get. 11. I really don't know who this flute player is. I like this but have no idea. 12. This sounds like an older recording, from the 1956-1964 era perhaps. The flute player is very good, but it sounds like a sax player who doubles on flute. The flute player is a blues/bop player, not a flute virtuoso, in the way that Herbie Mann was. The bass player has a very appealing "vocal" style in his solo. Charles Mingus had that "vocal" style, but I don't think it is Mingus. Whoever it is, I like the solo very much. The organ sound is an older, natural, kind of unusual sound. I have no idea who played that way. I like this song a lot. Yet another one I have to get! 13. This is Kelly Shepherd, on his album, "The Beauty of Simplicity". Bonus Tracks: 1. The guitarist is definitely John McLaughlin, from the pre-Mahavishnu period, probably 1969-71. The unique distortion reminds me of his playing on Miles Davis' "Big Fun" album. His guitar sound, apart from the distortion, reminds me of his sound on Carla Bley's "Escalator Over The Hill". I do not know of anything McLaughlin recorded in the 1969-71 period with such an accomplished saxophone soloist. I thought I knew my music from this era pretty well, but I do not know this one. 2. I have no idea whatever who this is! It sounds very early 1970s.

The Royals just beat the Yankees for the second straight game in New York! This is one of the most unlikely sentences I have ever typed.

A member's forum handle is not necessarily representative of the totality of his or her interests, in terms of music or anything else.

The two of you don't look old enough to have been married for fifty years.

What a group of appealing music that I don't know! This BFT gives me much to explore. I have to go back now with Reveal in hand and listen again. Thanks for a memorable and fun BFT.

Your BFT is so humbling. I tend to like jazz with electric piano, and you have included several tracks with that instrument, none of which I could remotely identify. So I am really looking forward to your Reveal.

Just to show how differently people can think about these things, on another online discussion board, a member posted this list of musicians who should be honored: Sir Charles Thompson Dick Hyman Bob Dorough Dave Frishberg Mark Murphy Jessica Williams

I am really glad that Richard Davis was honored and not overlooked. He richly deserves the honor but has been in Wisconsin teaching for 35 years, away from media centers, and I wondered if he would ever be recognized.

I want to participate. I will send you a private message.