1 – Solid organ combo. Would guess this is older vintage, 50’s or early 60’s. Jimmy Smith influence. Good stuff.
2 – Assume this was recorded shortly after the Tokens had their moment with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Humorous enough, and actually sounds pretty good.
3 – Assume this was recorded shortly after Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd had their moment with ‘Jazz Samba’ . I actually like it quite a bit. Organ reminds me of Walter Wanderley, but I don’t remember him ever recording anything this straight ahead. The drummer had me at “hello”.
4 - Assume this was recorded shortly after the Billy Joe and the Checkmates had their moment with “Percolator Twist”. Cecil Payne on baritone sax? It’s actually a pretty interesting cut, though the vinyl fidelity is horridish.
5 – “Music of Humpback Whales”? Totally lost on me.
6 – It’s an interesting cut, glad I listened to it, though I don’t expect to revisit it. Surprisingly NOT lost on me, though in theory I would have expected it to be.
7 – Well all right then. I was with him for a while, but it got awfully strange toward the end. But at least Mantan Moreland, John Coltrane, and others get their due. And “live people and dead people should never mix” is sound advice. And the music behind the narrative is really good, sounds like a prime ESP-Disk session.
8 – “Two Different Worlds”. Sounds like Johnny Hartman with strep throat, OD’d on Nyquil. Good tenor solo. OK piano solo. Still pretty lost on me overall
As always, quite a stimulating BFT, thanks. Much more interesting than 40 minutes of mainstream classics, and as always, it gives me great cover for my December BFT to sound “normal” by comparison, even with my musically offensive choices (“That’s not REALLY jazz, how dare you!”).