felser

DVD release scheduled for February 8 according to Barnes and Noble. No preorder link on Amazon yet.

Fair enough!

If you don't copyright that, I may use it in December!

That's about $1600 in today's dollars.

Agreed on the Gramavision albums. They seemed aimed for radio play, and wasted some other talented Philly musicians also (Sumi Tanooka, Sid Simmons). Probably worth remembering that Blake had also played with Grover Washington, Jr. in the 70's, so was likely not exactly adverse to the idea of selling some albums.

I also saw Tyner with Ford at the Bijou ca. 1976-77, but Blake was not with him, it was a second saxophone player, I want to say George Adams but don't really remember. Both sax players got swallowed up by the enormity of Tyner's playing.

Indeed!

Dan, source material is often a problem for me with Harris, I don't like some songs regardless of who does them. BTW, don't think Billy Harper ever did "This Little Light of Mine", despite his Baptist upbringing and preacher father. And yes, the only Harris I really follow is his BN work. And our friendship survived your hating on Joe Henderson and Khan Jamal last month, it will survive this . Happy 2022, my friend.

Correct. Philly-guy John Blake.

Dan, for a while around cuts 5-9, thought I was listening to someone else's BFT! Some really nice stuff that I like a good bit, along with some stuff that just doesn't work for me. But thanks for putting this together, and I anxiously await the reveals of 5-9, especially 7. Have a great New Years! 1 – “Straighten Up and Fly Right”. Don’t hate it. Have always enjoyed the song, and this is a very fun version. 2 – Don’t hate it. Good blues. Gene Harris? If not, Ray Bryant? 3 – Don’t hate it, “Sweet Georgia Brown”. 4 – Sort of hate it. They’re all old-time players, but this sax player especially. 5 – Don’t hate it at all, actively like this one! Electric bass and electric piano sound great, good composition, good chart. 6 - Don’t hate it at all, actively like this one a LOT! Good solos, good composition, good group sound. 7 - Don’t hate it at all, actively LOVE this one! Sounds more like something from my collection than yours, and will certainly look to rectify if I don’t own this. I imagine this will most certainly prove to be my favorite cut on the BFT! 8 - Don’t hate it at all, actively like this one! This is proving to be quite the WWFL BFT stretch! Guitar and piano both quite good. Is this one Gene Harris 9 – The amazing run continues. - Don’t hate it at all, actively like this one a LOT! Really dig the tune and the bari player. 10 – Sort of hate it. “Well You Needn’t”, which is one of my favorite Monk tunes, but don’t care for the arrangement at all. I don’t often like Monk by anyone but Monk. Some very annoying aspects to this performance, plus the recording mix is a mess. The drummer definitely gets on my nerves, as does the guitarist. Gets better as it goes along, and I do like the piano solo. 11 –Pretty much Hate it. So very not me. Just feels like 7 minutes of cliches, though I’m not a good judge. 12 – Hate it. Again, feels like cliches, and I don’t like the source material, though I do appreciate and try to live the sentiment (“This Little Light of Mine”) 13 – Hate it. “The Man I Love”, which I have always liked, but can’t stomach the sax, who no doubt is considered a great by others. Gets better with the piano solo, but that’s too late, and it’s not that I actively like the pianist, just don’t hate him.

Robin S "Show Me Love" is one outstanding example.

Disco didn't really die, it just got some synths and drum machines tacked on and got relabeled. Go listen to Madonna's first album for one example. To remedy that blindness, start with the 12" version of Evelyn Champagne King's "Shame", then move on to Sister Sledge's "Lost in Music", then explore the rest of the Chic Rodgers/Edwards/Thompson universe. then go on to "Bad Girls" era Donna Summer.

It's a good one. I probably like Peggy Lee's best (I'm a fan of her, almost included her in this BFT).

Thanks, gotta have some fun with this stuff! Good to know there's some certainty in life as we nervously enter 2022...

I know, but once a year is the rule, and it's a good one. I'd do this every month if I was allowed, but others deserve their chance also. Dan Gould needs to give us our annual Gene Harris fix!

Thanks Mark, I'm up for December 2022, greatly appreciate your friendship and kind words - may you and yours also have a blessed 2022!

Thanks to all who participated! 1 – “Funky Nassau” by The Beginning of the End, from the album ‘Funky Nassau’, 1971. Great one-shot proto-funk number, love the rhythm. Cut was well-received overall. This went to #15 on the US pop charts in 1971. 2 – “Fire” by Joe Henderson, from the album ‘The Elements’, 1973. Alice Coltrane on piano/harp, Michael White on violin, Charlie Haden on bass. Mixed reactions to this interesting cut. 3- “Black Coffee” by the Pointer Sisters, from the album ‘That’s a Plenty’, 1974. Bonnie Pointer on lead vocal. Again, mixed reactions to this cut, but almost no one realized who it was. Bonnie left the group fairly soon afterwards, and their sound changed radically, but the first two albums have some very interesting material far from what you would expect. 4 – “Windy Mountain” by Charles Lloyd/Billy Higgins, from the album ‘Which Way is East’, 2004. Not a lot of reaction to this cut, but mostly positive except for the one stunning and totally unexpected trashing of Higgins, the biggest surprise of the BFT to me! 5 – “Can’t Hide Love” by Don Braden, from the album ‘Workin’, 2006. Kyle Koehler organ, Cecil Brooks III drums. Wide range of responses, especially to Braden himself on this. I love the song (a classic by Earth, Wind and Fire), and love how Brooks drives this track. 6 - “Little Sunflower” by Chuck Mangione, from the album ‘Chuck Mangione Quartet’, 1972. Mutedly positive reviews to this. Very few ID’d Mangione. His two early 70’s quartet albums were very nice indeed, and much in need of CD issue, as are his epics ‘Friends and Love’ and ‘Together’, which different people have different thoughts about. I like parts of them a lot. With this cut, I wanted people to be able to listen without prejudice to Mangione the horn player. 7 – “Never Will I Marry” by Nancy Wilson + Cannonball Adderley from the album ‘Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley’ 1962. Almost totally ecstatic feedback on this cut, though one listener trashed it. Very few ID’d the artists involved. 8 “James Baldwin to the Rescue” by William Parker, from the album ‘Raining on the Moon’ 2002. Leena Conquest on vocals. Almost total enthusiasm for this cut, one listener found it overlong and monotonous. I love it myself. 9 – “Badi” by Sounds of Liberation, from the album ‘Unreleased (Columbia University 1973)’, recorded in 1973, released in 2018. Mainly positive reviews. Interesting Philly group with Khan Jamal on vibes, Byard Lancaster on flute and sax, and Monette Sudler on guitar. Nice groove track. 10 – “All I Can Do” by the Carpenters, from the album ‘Offering’ (later retitled ‘Ticket to Ride’), 1969. This was from their first album, before the gorgeous “Close to You” set their path. They tried out a lot of different styles on this album, and on occasional album tracks later on. And they had credible talent in many styles. Again, wanted people to be able to listen without prejudice, and the response to this track was mutedly positive. But they made the right career choice. “Close to You”, “We’ve Only Just Begun”, and some of the other hits of the era constitute some of the most beautiful pop music ever recorded. 11 – “Free Spirits/ Unknown” by Steve Reid, from the album ‘Nova’, 1976. Reid, drums, Ahmed Abdullah trumpet. Reid did some fascinating albums in the late 70’s. Overall positive response to this cut, though several noted that while energetic, it is also somewhat ragged. But that’s part of the period charm. 12 – “I Mani (Faith)” by Lonnie Liston Smith, from the album ‘Astral Traveling’, 1973. George Barron tenor sax. The most controversial track musically on the BFT, thoughts were all over the place, especially about Barron. To me, he does a superior Pharoah Sanders on this track, and I’m surprised we never heard more by/about him. 13 – ‘Etymology’ by Rufus Harley, from the album ‘Re-creation of the Gods’, 1967. Harley wind instrument (I guess it’s an electric sax), Bill Mason organ. Mason is the one who caught my ear on this, and he is a subject for further research. I saw Harley playing solo in Independence Park in Philly in the summer of 1980, as part of a street fair put on by the city. Strange dude, but interesting. Sort of Sun Ra’s nephew or something.

Great story, hate to ruin it with facts, but Trane and McCoy met in 1957 through Cal Massey, and Trane recorded Tyner's "The Believer" in early 1958.

Staggering how much live Grateful Dead is on the market. Allman Bros. Phish. Etc.

I'll vote for the Brooks Understanding, the Coltrane ALS Seattle and the Juju Prince Street releases, they shed meaningful new light for me, where some of the other great releases just recycled and/or supplemented what we already knew, thankful as I am for some of those (especially the Morgan Lighthouse set).

Looking at sessionography, you're right! He didn't record anything in 1971 at all, leader or sideman. BTW, I lived in East Liberty (S. Aiken Ave.) 1964-1965, pre-renaissance. I was 9-10.

If he sends me the link, I'll do that! I can easily get the issues into a spreadsheet (can copy in from Wikipedia) if someone else is willing to work on parsing out the columns using text to columns tool. I'm interested in the original releases rather than the sessions.

I actually don't have a list of my collection, never got around to it. Was supposed to be one of my first retirement projects, but I didn't expect to be taking care of a (lovable) 3 year old! Still hope to get to that someday.