Hot Ptah

For what it is worth, Grand Funk was "the" cool group to like in my high school (1970-74). Many students genuinely loved their music. They were extremely popular. If you didn't like them you kept it to yourself, so that you did not get bothered by the other students for being a weirdo. If there was a school activity involving a long group bus trip, you could count on Grand Funk being blasted on the bus from someone's portable cassette player. There was an often stated feeling by many students that Grand Funk was "their music", just as their older brothers and sisters had their music years earlier, like the Beatles, etc. I must say, I find it odd to think that even old people would hear Miles Davis' early 1970s electric music as anything similar to Grand Funk. Both were loud, but Grand Funk was so simplistic and vocal dominated compared to what Miles was releasing.

Disc please.

I have not meant to ignore this Blindfold Test, but rarely have I been as clueless about the artists, and could not even guess at any of them. That is true even though I have the Brotherhood of Breath album from which two of the songs are taken. This is a very interesting, enjoyable BFT. I am looking forward to the reveal. I am very surprised that Marion Brown is the artist on #1. I have really learned something here. I did not know that he recorded anything so "inside".

Here is the playlist for his most recent show: "This weeks show and albums: Jazz 179 Playlist 01. Art Hodes - Bye & Bye 02. Scott Hamilton/Alan Barnes - Hi-Ya 03. Marian McPartland - I've Told Every Little Star 04. Dizzy Gillespie - Tanga 05. Francis Bay - Perdido 06. David Newton - Both Sides Now 07. Alice Babs - More Understanding Than A Man 08. Willie Smith - One O'Clock Jump 09. Jimmy & Doug Raney - How My Heart sings 10. Ron Carter - 595 and the albums Ron Carter - Dear Miles Alice Babs - As Time Goes By David Newton - Inspired Scott Hamilton/Alan Barnes - Hi-Ya Dizzy Gillespie - Live At The Jazz Festival Bern Marian McPartland - Marian's Moods Art Hodes - Something Personal Alone With Friends Jimmy & Doug Raney - Stolen Moments Lionel Hampton - Stardust Francis Bay - Bay Big Band Plays Duke Ellington"

Sure! The response to this thread has been so good that the next open slot is now October - I'll put you down for then. There is a slight chance that the last couple of slots could move up a month. Just don't forget me for this year! I already have my BFT finished! Well, damn! I had forgotten that you had requested a 2011 slot. You are now down for BFT #92 in November. And I added a "down the road" section to the Master List to remind myself of requests that are further out than a few months. I'm glad I mentioned it then. Hmmmm, November. I will have to think of a holiday bonus track now!

Sure! The response to this thread has been so good that the next open slot is now October - I'll put you down for then. There is a slight chance that the last couple of slots could move up a month. Just don't forget me for this year! I already have my BFT finished!

Jeff, This was a very enjoyable BFT, and one full of surprises and learning about great new things for me. # 2, the Matt Perrine, and #3, the Wilmouth Houdini, are truly great! I must get these CDs. I just love this music. #4. I have some Heiner Stadler, but not that album. So it is Garnett Brown on trombone, not George Lewis as I had thought. Very interesting track. #5. This Real Kansas City CD is for sale all over the place in Kansas City, at the art museum gift shop and other places that stock no other jazz. I have always thought that I already had so much of it that I didn't need it. I was wrong! I love this Horace Henderson track. Horace Henderson was also the leader on the great "Minnie The Moocher's Wedding Day" with Henry "Red" Allen and Coleman Hawkins, which I love. Horace Henderson seems to have had the golden touch as a leader of recordings. #7. As you say, this is a fine Sam Rivers album. I was able to identify this as Sam Rivers because the flute soloing reminded me strongly of the Sam Rivers/Dave Holland duet albums of the late 1970s, on which one LP side was a long flute/bass duet. I played that late 1970s duet album so often when it first came out that Sam's approach on flute is burned into my mind. Then it was just a question of going into my Sam Rivers collection and finding the album. #8. Al Sears with the initial avant garde burst at the beginning of the track? Wow. I always thought of Sears as more of a Ben Webster kind of player, who was hired by Duke Ellington to fill that role in his band for a time. I need to learn more about Al Sears. #9. I saw Astral Project live about ten years ago but just did not connect it with this track. I saw John Vidacovich live with Dr. John at a outdoor festival in Kansas City, over ten years ago, and he was just great, very energetic and swinging, with a lot of interesting variety as he played in a powerful funky style. Incidentally, Vidacovich appealed very strongly to a group of African Americans who were standing near me at the outdoor festival and who had been a tough audience to impress all day prior to that. I had to agree with their enthusiasm for Vidacovich. I find it very interesting that the rhythm Vidacovich is playing on this track actually has a specific name. #10. Wow, Ellis Marsalis' "Monkey Puzzle" album with James Black! I have read about it, always wanted to hear it, but never had before. Now I see why you responded to my comment that the beginning of this track reminded me of a carnival. I should have thought more about that and connected it to THE American carnival. This is an album I now must get. #11. Chubby Jackson! I really like his 1950s-led recordings on Chess. Now I must investigate this 1940s period. This was a great BFT cut, as it was so reminiscent of Dizzy Gillespie but yet could not be, as there was no Dizzy soloing. What a mystery, and the answer is a pleasant surprise. Chubby Jackson has one of the all time great album covers, in which he is dressed in a cap and gown, receiving his "graduation diploma" from his "dean", Woody Herman. #12. Vijay Iyler, for all of his critical raves, has never moved me, and this cut pretty much left me cold too. There is something about his playing that I can appreciate but do not really respond much to. #13. Another CD I must get, if I can find it. Just great music! I did not know about Lee Collins but this track made a big impression on me. #14. I am surprised that Randy Sandke has recorded in this style, which I found quite appealing. I had only heard his recreations of older music before. #15. I was completely fooled by this Giuffre cut, and did not recognize Jim Hall either. That one totally baffled me. This BFT was exactly what I look for in a BFT!

I have heard from him quite recently. He is fine and in good health. He is focusing on some matters within his family these days, not health related, and does not have much time for things like posting on this forum. Whenever The Magnificent Goldberg stops posting for a time, I miss his contributions.

Re his last comment, about whether Indiana or Nebraska will be the true Big Red in the Big Ten: The true Big Red in the Big Ten is Wisconsin.

Another strong recommendation for "Musique du Bois."

I want to participate. I will need a disc. I understand that Jeff will help out with that--thanks, Jeff.

I also saw Charles Fambrough with McCoy Tyner, with Eric Gravatt as the drummer. It was a very powerful rhythm section. I saw him with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, in the Bobby Watson era. I remember Art introducing Charles by saying "Charles was with McCoy Tyner, but he is with us now, because he wanted to play some....JAZZ!!!" I thought that was a very odd comment. Charles Fambrough's "Zanzibar Blue" album under his own name is particularly excellent, I think. It is a beautiful, memorable album.

It's the title cut of this one. Thanks. That is one album I have never heard, or even seen before.

I saw him live in an outdoor concert in Kansas City in the mid-1980s, with a bassist and drummer. I was surprised at the power and intensity of his playing on that occasion. I had come to the concert expecting a rather genteel mainstream performance, and it was not like that. It was much hotter. McCoy Tyner came to mind. Their styles were different, but the level of live intensity was in the same ballpark on this occasion.

Well, this makes it seem like it has to be a recording by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers themselves. I do not know this album. though. Of course, there were many editions of the Jazz Messengers on record.

Two excellent sources: Gunther Schuller - The Swing Era, pp. 788-790; Albert McCarthy - Big Band Jazz, pp. 131-134 & 284-285. I don't see the McCarthy book mentioned often, but it's a very impressive source of information about big bands. And while the CD I took "Smooth Sailing" from states that Emmett Berry is the trumpet soloist, Schuller believes that it's Money Johnson, while McCarthy thinks it's Nat Bates. Identifying soloists on big band records is often problematic, I guess. Two excellent sources: Gunther Schuller - The Swing Era, pp. 788-790; Albert McCarthy - Big Band Jazz, pp. 131-134 & 284-285. I don't see the McCarthy book mentioned often, but it's a very impressive source of information about big bands. And while the CD I took "Smooth Sailing" from states that Emmett Berry is the trumpet soloist, Schuller believes that it's Money Johnson, while McCarthy thinks it's Nat Bates. Identifying soloists on big band records is often problematic, I guess. #7 is 'Sketches' from Sam Rivers' 'Configuration' album. Noel Akchote is on guitar.

I always liked Bitches Brew, never found it difficult. I like the earlier, acoustic Miles too. I don't really understand the controversy. On The Corner is the album I could not get into for a while. Now I understand better what is going on, but it is still not one of my favorites. But Bitches Brew always struck me as an enjoyable, relatively easy listen.

Here are my impressions of the music. 1. This one really has me stumped. The organist at one point plays a very familiar blues song. I think I have heard B.B. King sing it, but I can't name it. I should be able to. I like this as an opener very much, a really soulful number. 2. I see from the earlier discussion that this is a recent recording of "Muskrat Ramble." I have probably either read about this recording in Offbeat magazine or have it on one of Offbeat's sampler CDs, but I cannot identify the group. In any event, I must have this CD after I learn who recorded it! This is just wonderful! 3. This is great stuff! This older New Orleans stuff is just essential to me. It reminds me in mood of the "Jazz a la Creole" album by Baby Dodds, although this song is not on that album. I love the clarinet and trumpet solos. Again, I must have this album! 4. This sounds like a 1970s avant garde album which I probably own, which will make my inability to identify it all the more humiliating. Let's see, who recorded with alto sax, trumpet and trombone, over a piano trio? I just don't know. I used to listen to a ton of this kind of stuff and still love it. It is in the vein of what Braxton and Muhal Richard Abrams were recording for a while. 5. This sounds Basie-like to me, but maybe not Basie himself. The trumpet solo is very exciting, a hotter player than I have heard soloing with Basie. I'm stumped. 6. This gets into a nice Jazz Messengers feel, but sounds more recent to me. It is more compelling than a lot of contemporary mainstream jazz, so I will be very interested to hear who it is. I have no guesses. 7. A flute/guitar duet. Is that Sam Rivers on flute? 8. This one is a great Blindfold Test song. It starts out with a saxophone sound that makes you think it is an avant garde jazz song, but quickly you realize that it is not, that it is from many decades before. I love the gospel sound here. I can't wait to hear who this is. 9. It begins with a rhythm that reminds me of Steely Dan's "Do It Again", and then turns into that rarest of creatures, a contemporary real jazz performance with a fun groove. The tenor saxophonist reminded me of Michael Brecker, although it could be someone influenced by him. I really like this one a lot. 10. This is another fun song, with a "carnival" feeling at the beginning to me--it just hits me that way. I have no idea who it is, but find the tenor saxophonist very appealing, and the drummer really good. 11. This is a real puzzler. The big band sounds like one of Dizzy Gillespie's units to me, but the trumpet soloist is definitely not Dizzy. It's a great Blindfold Test song in that way. 12. Is that Muhal Richard Abrams on piano? Another avant garde song I probably have in my collection but cannot identify now. 13. Well, Alex has told us that this is Lee Collins. I am unfamiliar with his work but want to learn a lot more now! Tremendous track. 14. Recent quirky bop. I would guess that the trumpet player is the leader, and I like the trumpet tone. No idea who it is. 15. An extended baritone sax solo live. At times I thought that this might be James Carter, but the player never got into James' frequent technical excesses. Basically, I have no idea who is playing on any track, but I have enjoyed this BFT a great deal, and play it repeatedly for pleasure.

Glad you're enjoying it. Looking forward to your comments, informed or otherwise! One preliminary guess--is that George Lewis on trombone on #4?

This BFT is great fun. I am playing it over and over again in my car. I do not know a single song or musician. That will not stop me from posting my uninformed comments about the songs soon! I can tell that there are some surprises here, some unexpected artists and songs and dates, even if I can't identify any of them.

I enjoyed Disc 1 a lot, and have heard almost none of the albums mentioned here. So that is Vic Juris playing on "Smoke on the Water"! Thanks for putting a fun BFT together, and I am looking forward to the Reveal for Disc 2.

My mother has purchased Mosaic boxes for me for Christmas since the first year that Mosaic was in business. This year she got me the new Ellington box. I also received the Willie Colon and Tito Rodriguez 2 CD compilations in the Fania "Man and His Music" reissue series.

Jeff, I would like to do another BFT in 2011, whenever it would fit best into the schedule. I am flexible as to the month.