danasgoodstuff

I completely agree that I'd much rather hear the original "I Put a Spell On U" and "Suzie Q" (or the Stones' cover where the first guitar break is shear ineptitude and the second great, and the're largely the same riffs). When CCR's "Grapevine" comes on I usually listen to where it should've ended, then switch stations... Interesting that they never covered Slim Harpo (did they?) 'ccause I hear it in their sound, a lot... "It Came Out of the Sky" has a funny reference to then gov Reagan.

Fogerty's 'swamp rock' shtick is an annoying affectation and there are other aspects of his personality I don't care for either, but CCR were a great singles band and it was his vision and songwritting that made them so... I think "Lodi" sounds the most like his real life, being pissed at having to play for drunks, but he found a way out so more power to him. The band sound fine when they keep things short and to the point, but when they try to stretch out the're one short step from Iron Butterfly ineptitude, IMHO.

For my money, Sonny need not listen to anything but his own heart and mind, certainly not to you or I. The concert I heard shortly after carneige Hall was fine and I'd be happy to have a recording of that or something similar. Clifton in particular had as lovely a sound as i've ever heard come out of a trombone...

To paraphrase Lester Young, I play a little butnot enough to affect my listening pleasure. Or not much and to the extent that it does I think that what I lose in magic is at least was great as what I gain...

Upon relistening to "Hot Dog" (the tune not the whole album), I thought the most intersting/arresting solo was Melvin Sparks, even if (or maybe because) it was like a v. elaborate version of Lowell fulson's on "Tramp" - which is also how I hear some of Jimmy Ponder's work in this period, when they don't sound like Grant Green..

-which is why I used "false consciousness" with some trepidation, since it's no doubt been misused more often than not, my point was only that no one's real life is as bland as that blank nothingness of a Kenny G recording and why would you want to imagine an alternate reality that was like that? But working in record stores whowed me that lots of otherwise nice if not exactly hip people, black and white, eat that shit up. In a world that contains evrything from Kenny to Coltrane, I think Lou is well to the good side, even if Hot Dog is far from his best... just trying to gain perspective, Dana

Willie was busy in the studio but Muddy's been quoted to the effect that he didn't like loud/busy bass...Little walter may just have been too cheap, his typical line up was him, 2 guitars, drums. Plus, foe awhile, young Albert from Cleveland, god I'd like to hear that!

I'd have to agree that Lewis was solid but not spectacular on most sessions but maybe jazz guys weren't ready for aggressive bass playing then. The players in R&B/soul bands/records were all more interesting - Duck Dunn, Jamerson, Tommy Cogbill, Jermont, any of the many who played with James Brown. Intersting to note that in the '50s both Muddy and Little Walter had working bands with no bass player...

Not to go all neo-marxist on you but the concept of 'false consciousness' seems relevant here, inotherwords no ones real self is that vapid (I, but the way, heard Kenny when he was Jeff Lorbers sideman many years ago, he wasn't great but he wasn't horrible either).

Basin Stret Blues is a great song and Miles reworking of it a triumph on many levels..but I hear that same sense of solitude in Sancturary from BB and don't really think he abandoned anything essential about himself or the music. The world of "beautiful browns" and street violence described in Basin Street Blues could be in a rap video today, not that I like that music much myself...just as well dens of iniquity today tend to have music geezers like me don't care for, otherwise I'd just spend more time and money there. Any contentious issues we've leaft out, I think not...

I think the Village vanguard recordings would be up there in Traness, and not just because of the setting and Elvin's presence. There are boots of performances from club dates during the lost years that are interesting if you can find a way to hear them without paying the theives...

sorry dudes & dudettes, never dug this perverse nonjazz jazz museum when new, less so now that I know they were wasting warne Marsh's talents

See the Hot Dog thread for my list, I love Got a Good Thing Going but it's too early ('66) and in a different groove for me. Leo/Idris/Egregious is indeed totally 'bad in a good way'. Can any one tell me 'bour Jimmy Lewis who played bass on many of these sessions.

For those interested, jsut issued last week was Stax Does the Beatles which contains some newly issued and new to CD material from the usual suspects. Booker T. Jones was a major Beatles fan, the other guys in the MGs less so.

I'm no big fan of Oscar, but anything that can honor him and give a poke in the eye to the ne-fascism that is Quebec-whah 'nationalism' is OK with me. Dana (representing my prairie peoples)

intersting and enjoyable but not essential. The 2nd quintet thing is definitely there. If they were the first to be so influenced that would be something in itself, no?

Hot Dog may or may not really be the shit, but comparing it to 'real olde' blues and hillbilly just muddys the waters...the only relevant standard of authenticity is whether Lou is being true to himself and that's not necessarily black and white. And even then that doesn't tell you whether Hot Dog is a particularly good example of this sorta thing in general or relative to Lou's other albums in that groove. Say It Loud was a great step forward for black people in America and good for the nation as a whole but I silll find much of the music made in it's wake kinda sophmorically selfconscious and prefer much of the music made earlier in the decade that wasn't constricted by what anyone thought it meant to be black and proud. Yes I know that's presumptuous and potentially offensive, but I have examined the evidence and thought about it as best I can for four decdes now... I'm just now relistening to the title cut from Hot Dog and "Grits & Gravy" from the Cordon Blue compilation (songs about food, soul & otherwise) and it's pretty clear to me which is more authentic and better music in just about every way except, maybe, dance-abilty. Please forgive any tone of annoyance in this, it's mostly selfdirected for not being able to express myself any better...

I think Pepper's best music was post-Village Vanguard after he'd worked through the 'Trane thing and was able to use it and everything from before...and it's not like he played clean and pure like Lee Konitz before his Iron City sabatical, he was always a very intense player and there's lots to dig from all periods.

ummm, I'm tempted to say something snarkey like 'nice that you loved it, too bad you didn't get it' but that's not v. nice or even quite accurate - I don't think we're exactly agreeing or totally disageeing here. So I'll try to clarify. Unless you're a singular genius on the level of Monk it's hard to just go your own sweet way and many of the attempts to stay 'with it' were at least interesting, sometimes better than that. Their success largely depended on how much they had in common with the new thing to start with - Grant Green was always a groove oriented player so it was no stretch to focus on that. Someone who IMHO sounded like a fish out of water and played perfunktory groove music as a result was Sonny Stitt, YMMV. Still better to try and fail than not try at all. I find most Prestige dates of this era/groove more forced than BN's, with the exception of Houston Person who was and is a natural soul. Maybe it comes down to whether you prefer things that epitomize a genre or things that transcend and/or confound it. In this, as in all things, I remain steadfastly non-Platonic.

My love for Bix and Tram are part of the reason I play C-melody, that and pure perverseness. Bix is deservedly the legend, not just because he died young (but what a loss he and Eddie Lang were, think of he and Armstrong doing gigs together post-WWII), but Tram could play some too - good enuff for Lester, good enuff for me.

Part of Peppers experience was having younger black guys in prison tell him he wasn't hip any more and that Coltrane was what was hip now - his reaction to that (both positive and negative) came out his horn...

I really feel in the minority here re Hot Dog 'cause I neither love it nor hate it. I love Soul Jazz, in both the broadest possible sense and the narrower rare groove era sense discussed here. I love Lou too, although there is a point to Allen's comment re "slumming"... gotta think he'd rather play bebop or standards, his protestations that nothing changed in his playing in this period are a little hard to take at face value - sure it's all part of a social music continuim, but this point on it is still different than that. And I feel that this era in soul jazz '67-72, while groovingly functional, suffers from the absurdity of aging artists who were already v. funky in their own ways trying a little too hard to be FUNKY in the then new post-JB sorta way. That said some of my fav's from the period: Lou D: Alligator B., Say It Loud [love that it has JB and Gershwin and Ellington] Grant Green: all of 'em up thru Visions, but esp'ly the Live ones, despite Claude Bartee Reuben W: Love Bug, On Broadway Stanley T: Common Touch Jack McD: Down Home Style John Patton: That Certain Feeling, Understanding, Boogaloo, the session with Geo. Coleman that was split as bonus tracks. But I don't know if I like any of 'em as much as I like early '60s stuff by Fred Jackson, Don Wilkerson, John Patton (Blue John), Lou D, Stanley T(jubilee Shout!), or all that son of Sidewinder stuff. My taste in R&B/Soul runs the same way, much as I know that what the JBs did was historically important, I actually like the more old fashioned groove of the MGs better. And of course, general stylistic preferences can always be trumped by a great song or just a particularly inspired day in the studio... Groove on, Dana

I love Ben Webster's version (NOT 'cover'!); maybe they should just ban vocal renditions, but I do like Jackie Wilson's...

Allen, Thanx muchly for the interesting excerpt, which I might paraphrase as 'if you're going to be unpleasant you'd better be brilliant, and he was (both).' But, before it goes to print please correct the v. distracting misuse of "than" for "then", it's a small thing but a pet peeve of mine... Looking forward to it, Dana

Allow me to take the other side, at least up to a point. I've owned this twice and gotten rid of it twice. I also have or have had Alligator, Midnight, Say it Loud, and compilations with tracks from most of the rest of Lou's output during this 'acid jazz' period (hate the term and it's an anachronism). To me this is the album were it starts to get too formulatic for me; it's not terrible but it's just just not nearly as good as the four before it or the best of what Egregious was doing with Grant at this time (compare their versions of "It's Your Thing"), much less what Grant and Lou had done together on Natural Soul, etc. It's a crying shame Lou and Grant didn't record together during this period, or better yet Lou, Grant and Stan. Does anyone know why Patton and Idris/Leo never recorded together? That's another what if I can't help thinking of. Melvin is good, but not as good as Green or Ponder for my money. and the cover is just, well, cheap is the polite way to put it... On the other hand when one of the cuts comes up on a compilation or other context that allows me to listen in a less contenplative/comparative way, I generally enjoy the heck out of it!