danasgoodstuff

"There's trouble in the forrest..." Need I say more?! I thought the Small Faces were the poor man's Who, and anyway I actually prefer the Guess Who's version of "Summertime Blues"...

this really is the stuff, isn't it? If I want to really praise a set of recordings I say 'As good/important in its way as the Hot 5s & 7s'...and I don't say that about much.

Oh, and I forgot the bobby Hutcherson session (1970?) where he plays current hits: unissued at the time but two tunes have been on UK samplers and the one I've heard ("Family Affair") was pretty good...

For what it's worth, according to the-faces.com (where most of the posters do bad imitations of Rod's anecdotalese), AMG has given it 5 stars and is threatening to put it at the top of their (forthcoming?) best boxes list.

Turning Point and On Broadway are both pretty good, if not quite great, albums--certainly deserving of an issue on domestic CD. There's also so pretty good McGriff (and maybe they could figure out who plays on the uncredited date(s)). Lou Donaldson's Say It Loud is at least as good as some of the stuff that's been reissued, and he has some completely unissued dates as well. Grant Green's Visions was his biggest seller (actually made the charts) and it's never been on a US CD. It's not Idle Moments, but Rudy did a great job of making his tone just glow and who wouldn't want to hear Grant play Mozart? It could be doubled up with a slightly earlier unissued studio session with Claude Bartee and Egregious Muhammad ("acid Green" or is it "Green Acid" is the lone original on that one). There's also a live GG date from the Club Mozambique with Houston Person and tunes he didn't do elsewhere. stanley T's Always Something There & Look of Love (both heavily orchestrated) woulkd probably fit on one CD. But I'd rather have the five 'little big band' dates from '67-68 that remain partially issued, sorry I don't have the BN discog with me but the material ranges from "Ain't No Mt. Hi enuff" to Jobim and most include McCoy and other notables with Duke P arrangments, i.e. the're interestingly transitional. Let's see, what else? I'm sure someone wants Blue Mitchell's Bantu Village and Collision In Black and they'd probably fit both on one CD.

ASK THE AGES - must be played at lease losing volumn so you can hear how many times Laswell everdubbed(sic) Sharrock and so you get the full effect of Pharogh clearing his throat thru his horn. And Elvin! I would add that I rarely play anything v. lound any more and that I don't find most jazz particularly suited to any volume above 'loud enuff to hear everything'. It's both a matter of the engineering/recording and the music its self.

Hi school and after in Saskatoon? Hung with an odd collection of bright kids and juvenile delinquints united by beer and dope: drinking in the bars (drinking age was 18 and v. loosely enforced, I can remember being in a bar where I estimated the average age to be well under 18), parties at people's houses I didn't even know, walking home for miles in way sub zero tempatures, mostly standard issue Rock and a little blues (at least until I went to Reed College 'in the States'). I'm sure I was a trial to my parents, I think they were actually relieved when I started driving cab all night at 18. I'm 49 and saw some of the people I've known for 30 yr at a wedding in S'toon recently... Saskatchewan would be a good place to raise my 2yr olf in many ways, but staying out of trouble wouldn't be one of them (it's as much a drinking town as ever as far as I can tell). At least gun crime is less common there than here in Portland.

Hey, if it saves a kid's life then more power to GM for this at least... You wouldn't think that people'd need to be told but apparently they do.

My understanding is that this has been set back yet again, this time to July...

I don't know jack 'bout African music, jazz or otherwise, and I'm not sure how I ended up with several of his albums, BUT I'm sure glad I did 'cause IMHO Johnny Dyani is the real deal, fluid imaginative yet never forgetting that it's a base (sic) which he plays with a great big huge bottomless sound...

NPR had stuf on the centenial all last week, but I managed to miss most of it. However there will probably be something up on their website for awhile...

Just so happens that the only hamilton i own (I think, sometimes I forget just what I own) is the abovementioned Duke R. Swing album. Since posting above i pulled it out just to make sure and, to not mix metaphors, I found it reasonably fluent in that particulart proto-R&B idiom, if not quite native speaker fluent, but I didn't find that he had anything particularly interesting to say. I'll have to find some Eric Alexander to check out and get back to y'all. There is, of course, nothing at all srong with a jazz player coming out of R&B (of any era), and there are plenty of guys out there who show those roots off 'in a good way' in a jazz context. But there definately is a certain strain of jazz fan/critic/promoter for whom that would be v. much a bad thing--downbeat from back in the day is full of condecending jibes re 'honkers & screamers'. There's a shole world of possible legit expression twixt Warne Marsh and Jay McNeely; Red Holloway is one guy who straddles that particular fence without getting hung up on it (and we all know how painful that can be)...

How good is it? How deep is the ocean/how wide is the sky?

To me, bass is a role not an instrument. So, Adrian Rollini (bass sax) and Howard Johnson (tuba) are bass players but Scott LaFaro (acoustic bass viol) and Jaco Patorious (electric bass guitar) are not, as a general rule at least. Not that Jaco and Scotty weren't great, but most of what they did wasn't really much of a base(sic), IMHO.

Welcome Gary, good work Dan!

Far be it from me to sidetrack a thread, BUT I've long thought that although generation to generation misunderstanding obviously has a down side, that in practical terms it also has an up side, i.e. that misunderstanding what the peoples before you were doing is the engine driving stylistic change. to lokk at it through the other end of the telescope, in order to understand the 'old folks' stuff perfectly you'd have to be them and you ain't, so...

First, I'm glad I waited a day to post again:the temperture's come down a bit to where a more productive exchange of ideas can take place. For me this isn't really about Eric Alexander or Scott Hamilton, nor is it about whether players should use elements of past styles or be influenced by them. Everyone does that, to a greater or lesser degree, even armstrong, Lester and Bird. I don't think anyone here (Dan, Kevin, etc.) would make a straw man argument on purpose and I guess I can see how if they felt their personal taste were being attacked they might react as they did. Not to speak for anyone (Larry, Jim, etc.), but for me what this is about is this: Of course everyone should play in whatever style (from whatever era) speaks to them, but (like so much in life) there's a right and a wrong way(s) to do it. To try a different analogy: the right way would be like someone who peppers their speach with Biblical and Shakespearean allusions, but who makes their own points in their own style; the wrong way would be more like high schoolers who launch into their favorite bits of Monty Python whether the've really got anything to do with the conversation or not. To give examples: I think Osby has something real and personal going on, but I find J. Redman and J. Carter only intermittantly convincing. Or, to go further afield, I think Merle Hagard is one soulful mofo despite having Lefty Frizell's imprint all over his vocal chords, but I am largely unmoved by Prince's appropriation of Sly's thang. And I find W. Houston and what's-her-name (that Glitter girl)'s (over)use of melisma just grotesque, but I still love Sam Cooke and Clyde Mcphatter and Arron Neville (who draws heavily on both). Larry: I can see why you dropped the 'spread your legs' bit, it was likely to distract more than enlighten but I kinda liked it, perhaps because it's exactly the sort of thing I would have said/written when I was younger. In that spirit, I decided to drop the metaphor I was gonna use about how some peoples' playing reminds me of certain preachers who jump up and down yelling "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" without being v. Christlike... Hope I've added more light than heat here.

It's hard to know what to add to what's already been said (here and elsewhere) re Elvin, but let me say this: One of the thing s I dig most about him is that yes, he was a powerful, complex force of nature, but he was also a sensitive guy who could soft, subtle and simple if that's what the musdic at hand called for--that's the mark of a true master, being able and willing to do whatever was necessary to further the music as a whole.

alexander, Much as I like Ogden's, I like their earlier work even more--it's like the My Generation era Who made a bunch more records (OK, not quite, but almost). I've read that there's a way to get all the Mariot (the guy, not the Hotel) era stuffs on two boxes, but I just can't remember which ones (same prob with the Move and the Heptones)...any help?

Anyone else here see the Faces live? I hitch-hiked from Saskatoon to Edmonton (by way of Calgary) to see them over spring break in high school, got caught in a snow storm, got an ear infection, got high on prescription meds, almost got picked up by two girls in North Battleford on the way home... All in all, it was well worth it.

Dan, Modified post to reflect that your later post and Kevin's, cranky though they are, do at least attempt to address the specifics of Larry's argument(s). And since he was quoting himself, he may v. well have heard more of Hamilton and/or Alexander by now--whether he heard any more in them is another matter. For the record, I've heard only a little of either and don't have any strong fellings one way or the other...but I do feel that way (the Kart/Sngry way) about many neo-soul recordings, including some by guys who were around back in the day. Who was it (Larry?) who said (about Murray?) 'It's like he starts a romantic ballad by yelling "spread your legs"'? Feeling much less grumpy, hope you are too, Dana

Dan, Please try reading Larry's post more carefully: there is so much more to it than just 'I don't like x'. To put it bluntly, thought provoking posts like Larry's are why I participate in this forum; merely grumpy ones like yours [the short, "diarhea of the mouth" one] are not. Maybe you just got up on the wrong side this morning... Dana

It's actually "Five Guys...", which makes more sense but I just assumed it was some kinda inside joke. The full track list is at www.the-faces.com/5guys.htm. Looks good but I still think Micky Waller (drummer on Rod's solo records) was who Petey should've got for the Who...

Thought y'all might be interested that www.downbeat.com currectly has an interview with the man from 1964, at the height of his infatuation with Coltrane's playing. despite his attempts during this period and post-comeback to 'let it all hang out', I agree that Pepper remained v. tightly wound.

'Post-modernism' is, indeed, a can o' worms, but not nearly as bad as 'deconstructionism'. Wish I could add something to this conversation as cogent as Larry & Joe; I'll have to think harder...