Simon8

I just burned a CD for a friend combining Jackie McLean's "A Fickle Sonance" with Sonny Clark's "Leapin' & Lopin'". A great team for sure, and with Sonny Clark one of my very favorite rhythm section.

Right here: http://archive.org/details/Joe-Daley-Trio_Live-Newport-63

Lydia Davis' Collected Stories : I read two dozens of them, mostly from her first and last collection, and I'm... perplex: she comes highly recommended to say the least; I found her stories to be OK at best, almost always missing something (style, perspective, humor, emotion...). I realize I'm in the minority ! Before: Denis Johnson's "Angels". Johnson sometimes wallows in his characters' miseries and the book can be a little depressing...but still, an exceptional writer and some the most vivid prose out there !

And another And another !

Thanks Joe ! I did hear some Tristano echo in there (perhaps a bouncier Tristano, but still) ! Something about the notes "articulation" (I don't have the words either), clean and full, the attack as well, and those long lines, yes. Interesting to read Clark's quotes about Tristano and Monk in the "Cool Struttin' " notes.

Read recently on "Do The Math": "The bassist in the Bill Evans trio before LaFaro was Jimmy Garrison. Paul Motian told me he wanted Garrison to stay in the trio but Evans complained that everything Garrison played “sounded like the blues”." http://dothemath.typepad.com/dtm/2013/01/bass-genius.html Joe: Sonny Clark, Tristanoite ? Surprising connection, I would've never thought about it. Evans, sure, but Sonny? The one-blues guy versus the all blues one ? They both did love Powell, that's true... Do you have a particular Clark piece in mind that shows best the filiation you hear ?

Listening to a lot of Byrd albums these days, I find that, if he wasn't a "spectacular" trumpeter (which is fine by me), he was a superior ballad player: "Little Boy Blue" (Byrd in Flight), "Stardust" (Motor City Scene), "I'm A Fool To Want You" (Royal Flush) and "I Will Wait for You" (Creeper) are all exceptionally well interpreted by Byrd.

There's a very interesting analysis of Byrd's collaboration with the Mizell's by Darcy James Argue right here: http://www.secretsocietymusic.org/darcy_james_argues_secret/2012/08/disco-inferno.html "[...] the playing, writing, arranging, production, and recorded sound on these records is just brilliant, particularly on Stepping Into Tomorrow and Places and Spaces. The music is concise, soulful, and unpretentious, qualities a lot of other 1970's recordings by jazz artists could maybe have used a little more of."

Digging this thread out while listening by chance to a few of Bell's pieces online. At first sound, a quite intriguing, distinctive pianist. The allmusic biography puts the emphasis on his "soul-jazz" influence and playing "full of blues licks, gospel phrases and inflections"... which is not what stands out to me. His trio has a go at "Work Song", but at a unhurried, delicate tempo, much more, say, John Lewis-like than Bobby Timmons'. They do mention later his "harmonic abilities" and that may be the key. He does an arresting version of "Whisper Not" as well: Anyone knows more about Bell ? Recommandations ?

One of my first jazz record was Byrd's "Slow Drag" (with that groovy title tune that has Higgins mumbling delightfully). Like Clunky said, "he played well, wrote good tunes and produced some damn fine LPs". I'll add that he had a beautiful trumpet tone. Love "Royal Flush" and "Fuego", as well as his parts on a few Red Garland albums with Coltrane ( "Soul Junction", "All Morning Long"), Sonny Clark's "Sonny's Crib", Monk's "Orchestra at Town Hall", Duke Pearson's "Wahoo!"...

In my discothèque, The Big Beat, Moanin', A Night in Tunisia and Blue Train would certainly be lesser albums without him (or with Hubbard, i dare say). I long thought that Sidewinder was a one-track wonder, but renewed listening showed the all-round greatness of the album (Morgan and Henderson: one formidable frontline). One of my favorite, early solo of his is on the first track of Lee Morgan, vol. 3 (1957), "Hasaan's Dream", where he channels Clifford Brown, but with a sense of drama all his own.

Hey Kamiblue, Your prints are really nice and seem like a work of love, but as you can see... focusing like you did - pun or not - on the unfortunate habit of the artists will make it hard for the true jazz aficionados to spontaneously support your project. Best of luck nevertheless.

Fabulous Friday discounts ! And one more for your consideration: JAMES CLAY, The Kid From Dallas (Fresh Sound): with Sonny Clark, Lorraine Geller, Red Mitchell, Lawrence Marable. Contains the entire Marable-led album Tenorman (1956), with Sonny Clark. CD is scratched but artwork fine: 5$

- WARNE MARSH, "Release Record, Send Tape" (Wave Records): with Ronnie Ball, Peter Ind, Dick Scott. Brand new: 13$ 10$ SOLD - PAUL BLEY, "Indian Summer" (SteepleChase): with Ron McClure & Barry Altschul. Like new: 12$ 10$ SOLD - AMEDEO TOMMASI* [Trio Tommasi], "Zamboni 22" (Rearward): with G. Tommaso, F. Mondini, C. Santucci, E. Scoppa. Booklet a little wavy, but CD impeccable: 10 $ 8$ SOLD * Tommasi is the excellent pianist on Chet Baker's 1962 Chet Is Back ! Shipping: US & beyond: 4$ Canada: 2.50$ Payment in Amazon gift certificate. Thanks !

Thanks for reminding me about Don Friedman ! Listening to his trios yesterday (Circle Waltz & Flashback in particular) made me think of Wolfgang Dauner's "Dream Talk"... who in turn reminded me of Bill Evans & Paul Bley... and now I see that Friedman, like Bley, played with both Ornette and Giuffre around the same time... Another interesting link between the two pianists is Pete LaRoca, who recorded Circle Waltz with Friedman in May '62, then parts of Footloose! with Bley in August of the same year. But enough about influence and/or coincidence, Friedman is his own man. Love his touch and his way of tackling standards (" I Hear a Rhapsody" is a great interpretation indeed).

Bolden was also the subject of Michael Ondaatje's superb Coming Through Slaughter. Tough act to follow !

Listened to this last night and was, again, thrilled by the music: some of the best Byard on record, Al Francis a revelation, Carter & Persip (who's role here reminds me of Haynes' on some forward-looking albums) making the band swing like mad on "Natural H.", "Uh-Huh" and "Imitation" (love that moment on "Uh-Huh" when Ellis builds up the tension and then releases in a great clarion call, a sonic wagon that the band immediatly jumps on, with Persip acknowledging the moment, like the listener, with a good ol' "Wooo!" And Ellis: he's a monster, really. Amazing trumpeter. He has to be commanded too for his writing and arranging on this album. Compelling originals, very creatively executed (I'm not crazy about the overtly conceptual pieces ("Despair to Hope", "Tragedy") , but hats off for the audacity].

It depends on how you hear melody and what you consider melodic. Indeed. I don't know if the formal definition helps me identify it: "a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity" (or "rhythmic succession of single tones organized as an aesthetic whole"). "Melodies often consist of one or more musical phrases or motifs, and are usually repeated throughout a song or piece in various forms" (I thought here of Don Cherry's "Complete Communion", where discernible melodies punctuate the compositions, as perhaps an example of "melodic free jazz". Plenty of Ornette also, of course.) For me it may come down to the root of the word: "from Greek meloidia, "singing, chanting".

Interesting thread ( I too am looking for, uh, a somewhat more "welcoming" kind of free jazz). Is "melodic free jazz" an oxymoron ? Listening to "People in Sorrow" right now.

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I’ll propose his « Blue Lester » from 1944 (with Basie, Freddie Green, R. Richardson & Shadow Wilson). Quintessentially cool.

Hey MG, I just listened to the JATP "Blues", never heard it before. Jacquet is crazy ! That back & forth between Les Paul and Nat King Cole after is something else, too. Agree with Green's "It Ain't Necessarily So": hard to dig your groove deeper.

They're both on musicme (streaming), the Bill English record as well. http://www.musicme.com/#/Dave-Burns/?q=dave+burns

Found that thread while looking for something else. Like the idea of focusing on one single track, intent listening. My idea of masterpiece cuts are where everything is perfectly balanced, with nothing extraneous & nothing left to be desired. No virtuoso performance necessarily needed. In that regard, I would certainly pick, in the ones already mentioned, Monk's original "Misterioso": a dream clash with Milt Jackson and Monk's most perfect clangs. Pee Wee Russell has also been mentioned. He played his "Pee Wee's Blues" many times, but I think his 1959 version on "Pee Wee Plays" with Buck Clayton, Vic Dickenson, Buck Freeman and Eddie Condon (the muted intro of Clayton & Dickenson, Condon subtly accompanying Russell on the head, the horns backing Pee Wee in his solo, Dickenson delicious wah-wah turn)..is just perfect. Didn't find that version online, but while looking for Don Byas & Slam Stewart's "Indiana", found their astonishing version of "I Got Rhythm":