Rooster_Ties

When my wife and I bought tickets to see Living Colour(!) here in DC over the summer (in a brand new tiny club that only holds 400!)… …we got an special offer to join AARP from within the Ticketmaster app.

Just added one to a Dusty Groove order I'd started earlier today. I couldn't resist either -- not that I even tried.

I’ve recently been spinning some Andrew Hill, and I’d completely forgotten that Carter is on basically 5(!) different Hill sessions: 1. Grass Roots 2. Passing Ships 3. the 2 sessions with Tolliver on disc one of the Select (basically one album) 4. the longer of the two sessions with strings from the Select (on disc 2) 5. the trio session on disc two of the select too. Ron’s an interesting foil for Hill, but maybe ‘interesting’ isn’t the right word. He’s very grounded in his playing, not so staid as to be called ‘metronomic’ — but he’s just solid, holding down the time. And I mean ‘solid’ as a more neutral adjective — as he NEVER mixes it up with Andrew (or Andrew’s various drummers) — and Ron just does his thing entirely in his own zone. And it’s ’interesting’ only in the sense that it brings a whole different vibe to a Hill session. Again, I’m NOT saying that’s a good thing (or a bad thing) — but it’s DEFINITELY noticeable. I think(?) I like it, but on any some days I might say where the heck was Richard Davis?? I think Ron’s presence is best on the two sessions with Tolliver on disc one of the Select — and he seems to be electric maybe? — or else Ron’s acoustic with an electric pickup (or however you say it, or did that only come later?) — it’s a very active tone, that’s for sure. And it works on Passing Ships nicely too. And I say “Ron’s presence” because he’s not an active, creative player on these things — the way Richard Davis was. Ron got in a zone, and just did his thing, and lets everyone else provide more creative ebb and flow, and variation. I do “like” it (in that context with Hill) — but I don’t “love”. BUT, it does make Hill’s music groove in a way that it never would otherwise — and I guess THAT’S what’s interesting, in a way.

I’ve streamed this release twice now (via Pandora), and I can’t help but be amazed at Hasaan’s self confidence and the almost continuous ‘boldness’ of his playing — not just on this release, but also the earlier double-CD of solo-piano recordings. He was an absolute visionary, far as I’m concerned — maybe ‘visionary’ is a little strong a word, but pretty damn close, in my book. You all know my love of Andrew Hill’s output (practically everything). But, to be honest, Hasaan could have (maybe) potentially bettered Hill in terms of developing a significant canon of tunes, and a substantial series albums with varied instrumentation — at least based on the recorded evidence we have now. Hill never did a big ‘statement’ sort of piano trio album during his run on Blue Note (save for the session on the Hill BN Select, which isn’t anywhere near as bold as The Legendary Hasaan). But Hasaan’s record with Max is one of THE best of its kind, bar none. But it’s also all there in the trio recordings on this new release too, with Henry Grimes(!) and Kalil Madi — every big as much strength of conviction in every phrase (or damn near). I’ll be really curious to read the notes of this new one, to find out if these new trio recordings predate the session with Max on Atlantic (or not) — and whether they’re live (no audience can be heard, far as I can tell), or not. What a treasure!! I sure hope there’s a little more yet to come. I’ll get ‘em all, I imagine.

Feels like she’s accompanying him — and I mean that in the very best way!

Entire thing is on streaming services (YouTube and Pandora for sure, probably others too). I’m pretty blown away by this track with the vocalist…

Lennie Tristano’s solo output never fails to turn my crank. There’s about 2 hours of ‘em, irrc — one full disc on the Tristano/Konitz/Marsh Mosaic — and another full disc on the more recent all-Lennie box (personal recordings). And then at least one disc on his own ‘Jazz Records’ label (Descent Into the Maelstrom) — which has these 7 solo tracks: Descent Into the Maelstrom (3:28) Dream (3:28) Lullabye (1:53) Image (4:11) Rehearsal from Recording Date: Take 1 (4:35) Take 2 (3:12) Take 3 (4:06)

First time it and something else I want from Dusty come up as in stock at the same time, I’m in. Not gonna pay postage for just one CD — but I “can’t not” get this, so sooner or later (and probably sooner).

The CD that THEY f’d up and sent you by mistake?? What the hell kind of operation are they running? — putting tight time-framed return demands on a customer to return a product they sent out by mistake, that they wouldn’t even have known about if you hadn’t told them??

So, Pim, what’s your favorite Mal piano-trio record? — since Reminicent Suite is clearly your favorite one with horns (and it’s also MY favorite Mal record with horns). Or better yet… 1) What’s your favorite LIVE Mal trio release? 2) What’s your favorite STUDIO Mal trio release? 3) And then between just those two — which one do you like better??

Yeah, I’ve been pining for this one on CD for 10 years, maybe even closer to 15 years (can’t remember if I got the burn I have of it before or after I moved to DC). NEVER expected I’d ever see it reissued, to be honest. Happy day!! 🥰

Well lookee, lookee… one track’s already up on YouTube (which I accidentally found on Pandora this morning just now)… I haven’t done the math (walking to work as I’m posting this), but I think(?) this may be the same ‘extra’ non-“Legendary” tune of unknown origin that appears on that recent disc by Brian Marsella (who’s also from Philly).

If anyone hasn’t heard this one, here’s an upload of the entire thing. Two side-long tracks, second one starts at 23:38…

Can’t say I’ve ever heard or heard of her before. So I’m just ‘dropping the needle’ several times on this just this morning — and I’m thinking this is scary enough (at least to me) to have been more appropriate for Halloween night. Never the less, I’m all in on this new Hasaan release at some point next year — the trio stuff alone should make it worth the entire ticket price.

Holy shit! Take my money!!!!

Thinking of stuff like Clifford Jordan’s Magic in Munich, a 1995 reissue 2CD set which combined two earlier LP’s from the 70’s — Firm Roots and The Highest Mountain. https://www.discogs.com/release/14054005-Clifford-Jordan-Magic-In-Munich which has these two sessions, which were originally released separately… https://www.discogs.com/master/463973-Clifford-Jordan-And-The-Magic-Triangle-Firm-Roots https://www.discogs.com/master/671345-Clifford-Jordan-And-The-Magic-Triangle-The-Highest-Mountain What OTHER Steeplechase releases are like this, that being together related or similar material into a single, bigger reissue?? And are there any you can especially recommend? A friend recently gifted me the Jordan Munich thing, none of which I’d ever heard before — and it’s really fantastic!! — and I appreciate having it all in one place too (without having to track down multiple CD’s). Live or studio stuff, no matter. Reissues like this just make so much sense, and it’s lovely when a label thinks to have done this. But I’m especially asking about Steeplechase, because in the case of this Clifford Jordan — there’s NOTHING about the title Magic in Munich that gives much clue that it’s actually two repackaged earlier sessions. Thanks!! Edit: Just poked around on Discogs, and found this reissue “series” — is this everything Steeplechase did like this, 2CD sets (any 3CD sets?)… https://www.discogs.com/label/976080-SteepleChase-Mid-Price

Discovering Jimi Hendrix my sophomore year of high school in 1984 did it for me. No single album, as I think I bought all 3 of the studio albums released during his lifetime within the same month or so. And then within 18-months I had every posthumous live and studio album/collection that had been released up until that point — along with a couple dozen(!) bootleg LP’s by the end of my senior year (and too many of his pre-fame Curtis Knight stuff too) — sometime like 40 releases (legal and otherwise). Anyway, nothing could have better prepared me to get into jazz 3-4 short years later — especially electric-era Miles and Milestone-era Joe Henderson, etc. Many of my favorite live Jimi songs had long-ish solo sections over vamps and pedal-point bass, or alternating chords — a bit like lots of 60’s hard bop, and 70’s-era Mal Waldron. The seeds of my love of jazz were all planted in those 3 years that I listened to tons and tons, and TONS of Jimi — probably well over half(!) my entire listening for a 2 years there was Jimi.

Me neither. But I’m always at least 10 years behind hearing about ‘new’ people — maybe 15 years, at this point.

I think(?) somehow(?) I never picked up a physical copy of The Montreal Tapes: Tribute to Joe Henderson — which is also with Haden and Foster (and live). Guess I oughta fix that one of these days too — maybe. Opinions on that, vs. Evening?

I always thought I was the only one — but there’s at least a couple of us!!

All three of the extra tunes (only) were also available on this CD, which also features 6 other Joe Henderson tunes as recorded by various other artists, all from various other albums also on the ‘Red’ label. https://www.discogs.com/release/4366136-Joe-Henderson-In-N-Around The first one (track 4) only lists Bobby Watson (not a misprint), because it’s a solo alto sax cut with just him — and a darn good one at that. The whole disc is a dandy (I’ve actually got one, that I found on eBay 10-15 years ago). So it turns out all I’m lacking is the main Evening album. Here’s Bobby’s solo track… And BTW, there appears to have been a separate release (or maybe online only?) of just those 6 Henderson cover tunes — at least I found this playlist on YouTube, with all of them and what seems to be dedicated artwork. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n-L4dP2ZHD9NgxkJNe55ISVXcH9YSN78s&si=QffxGBDK7qSufAD3 Edit: Interestingly, the artwork seems to have 8 tunes listed — but the playlist is just 6 (I’m assuming the same six as on my CD above, but I haven’t checked). In any case, there probably was a physical release then with 8 different Joe Hen covers — only 6 of which appeared on the oddball Italian CD with just the 3 bonus tracks from Evening.

Much as I love Joe, I’ve always been nonplussed by State of the Tenor — which I’ve always thought was mostly because of the lack of Joe’s own tunes (which I think would have been more interesting to hear in a trio-only format) — but that’s definitely not the only reason (more below). Then “Beatrice” from this new Complete Evening thing comes on my Pandora the other day — and man, was I ever sucked in!! Maybe(?) is it a Haden vs. Carter thing? (no small thing whatsoever) — but then also, Al Foster’s playing on Evening (at least this one cut) absolutely danced in a way I don’t EVER remember hearing on State. So does Al play that much differently with Ron? (yeah, maybe?) Were the drums recorded differently? (yeah, maybe too — they definitely seemed hotter). Anyway, I’d never bothered with Evening back in the day, because I already had a TON of Joe on CD (and I mean tons and tons). But that one “Beatrice” cut has be rethinking that. I still have so much Joe on CD (80%+ of his commercial output, and that’s including sideman work) — but when I moved to DC, I sold my State of the Tenor, as it was always more lacking than fulfilling. Maybe I need Complete Evening instead.

Who messed with the colors of Tomcat??!!

Oops, sorry about that. A friend sent me that link earlier today, and I hadn’t realized it had been posted here before (despite my having brought it up and searched on “Sun Ra” — but I hadn’t read the rest of it until I got the link in a txt-msg today).

A relatively recent interview (early 2021) with Carla, after she’d had surgery 3 years prior, which she mentions (related to the cancer that befell her). Her acerbic wit is entirely on display, and it’s (lovely? nice? reassuring? a relief?) to see her totally being herself through it all (to see that she maintained that wit). https://thequietus.com/articles/29717-carla-bley-interview