Rooster_Ties

For reasons I can't possibly defend, until just a couple weeks ago, I had never heard any of Booker Ervin's non-BN dates (meaning I only had "The In Between" and "Structurally Sound" - which I realize that one or both of them weren't originally BN titles). Anyway, I just picked up "Heavy!" a couple weeks ago, and I really like it. Then our own Spontooneous loans me "The Trance" and "The Blues Book" just today, when we met for lunch. I've only heard "The Trance" so far (it's playing now), but DAMN!!! -- what an AMAZING date!!!!! I'm about to put "The Blues Book" in now. So, I thought I'd start a Booker Ervin thread, just cuz I need to know more about this guy. ( Oh, I also have "Booker and Brass" - which I only sorta liked at first, but it's grown on me a bit more over the couple of years since I first got it.) But damn, "The Trance" has sure as hell got me in one hell of a trance.

Yeah, personally I wouldn't mind a bit if Berigan chose to delete this thread.

I had the exact same thought.

Well said, cow. HELLYEAH! - indeed. And that's why I wanna see it on paper. The 'head' to the tune tumbles and rolls, and bobs and weaves so much, but in such subtle ways -- that I really wanna see how it works technically. It can't be THAT complicated (we're not talkin' Zappa's "The Black Page" here, with it's triplets that are each further subdivided into 5, 7, and 11 notes each -- EEK!!! ), but there has to be some beautiful and musically-logical way that "Capra Black" weaves the spell it weaves. Maybe I will send Billy an e-mail after all...

Thanks everybody!!! Had a nice dinner with my sweetie (who happens to also be my wife), and we went and caught a couple sets from a local piano trio that was really on fire tonight. They even played "Beatrice" for me during the second set. All in all, a pretty good day. Thanks again!!

I have, and like (but don't love) the first Bad Plus CD. Don't have the new one yet, but probably will try to pick it up sometime, especially if I can get it for cheap on eBay or in some trade. Interesting concept, and one I welcome, even if it doesn't always work 100% of the time. I have a ton of Brad Mehldau CD's (I think everything he's done as a leader). I really like most of them, but "soul" is definitely NOT something that he has much of. Technique, the man has in spades. Soul, nada. Still, I really do like most of his work, though I'm a little less taken with it than I was a few years ago.

Damn, here's one I'm sure probably NONE of us have ever seen before (other than couw - who posted this in another thread just a couple minutes ago, here: Greatest Finds). Here's the info on it, from couw's post in the other thread...

What I'd really kill for are tapes of Herbie's "Prisoner" band (with Joe Henderson), as described in the liners to the RVG of "The Prisoner". THAT'S that Herbie band I'd really like to hear. Any tapes of THAT floating around??

Perhaps I'll consider e-mailing Harper, though my reasons for wanting the music are less than typical. Would any of the other musicians here on this board be interested in getting an arrangement of Capra Black -- and then could you share a copy of it with me?? I mean, how weird is it for some non-jazz musician to be interested in seeing the music for a tune, without any real interest in playing it. (I don't even have a good academic reason for wanting to see it either -- just plain old curiosity.)

Sorry, didn't mean to rag on it so badly. AND, I should also say that I was none too impressed with the Tower in Chicago either, last time I was there (around 1999 or 2000). It was still pretty big, but what that had that was actually "interesting" was not much. Nah, what I'm comparing things to are all the Towers I went in between 1988 and 1992 or 93. New Orleans, Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, probably a couple more I'm forgetting. THEM were the days!!!

Never thought all that much of the one in Austin. I was there a few times in 1995, and again in 1999, on business trips. That Austin Tower was less than half as big as the main Tower in Chicago, and while the jazz selection was certainly much better than anything here in Kansas City, it still wasn't anything to get all that excited about. I only remember seeing a handful of import titles, or smaller label CD's. Nothing I got all that excited about at the time, if I'm remembering right.

Perhaps, Jim. But as a singer, I can tell you that I think some instruments are far quicker at playing specific pitches in succession, at a faster rate than the human voice. I mean, yeah, with the voice (or a trombone) you can cover a whole bunch of pitches (different frequencies) really damn fast, but are you actually hitting 'notes'?? -- or are you just 'sliding around'?? I think there's a difference. For the purposes of discussion, I think you need to talk about hitting discrete notes, in rapid succession, with at least some concern for intonation. (Then again, if intonation doesn't matter -- maybe voice or trombone will win the speed race every time.) Also (as a singer), let me say that I can't sing really fast runs worth a damn, like you find all the time in Bach, or Handel, or Mozart. I hate that shit too (speaking as a singer, mind you).

OK, this really isn't a "musician"-only topic, but it is technical, in terms of notation. I'm a musician, of sorts (I'm just a "choir-geek" ), and I can't transcribe musical notation worth a damn - particularly complex jazz rhythms. I've been listening to various versions of Billy Harper's tune "Capra Black" lately (perhaps best known in the version on Lee Morgan's last studio album, a.k.a. "The Last Session"). Harper's covered himself a couple times too, for Strata East at the very least (that's the one other version I know). Anyway, I'm trying to get my ears and head around the 'head' of the tune, rhythmically speaking. I don't really need to know this for anything (I'm not a jazz musician), but just for my own curiosity. Does anybody have a "real-book" type lead-sheet for "Capra Black" – and could you post it to this thread?? (Or perhaps scan it, and e-mail it to me.) I swear I’m hearing "3 against 2" stuff going on, but the off-beat accents are really tricky, at least to my untrained ears (at least they're untrained for this sort of thing). Then, when the 'head' gets faster, I get totally lost. Frankly, I'm less interested in exactly what all the notes are (where they are on staff), and I'm more interested in how the main melody looks in rhythmic notation, metrically speaking (including where all the bass-line notes are dropped while the melody is going on, since I don't remember them being exactly on the beat either). [bUT, I might add, I'm betting the rhythm will be easier to 'see' (and follow on paper) - if I have the notes on the staff too.] What a bitchin' tune!!! B) Wonder what it would sound like done-up Organissimo style?? Also, are there any other versions of this tune (by Harper, or anyone else - for that matter), besides the one with Lee, and Harper's own recording of it on Strata East in '73??? The AMG doesn't list any, but then again, it doesn't even list the Harper version on Strata East.

Which is exactly why it's the most accessable! I think what I was politely trying to get at was that Virgin Beauty isn't exactly one of my favorite Ornette CD's (to put it mildly) - and this is coming from someone who really loves upwards of 75% of Ornette's output over the years. It's good, but not great.

Scanning the Friedman discography (thanks!!!), I see that I do own at least one or maybe two sessions that he's a sideman on. Joe Henderson's "Tetragon" in particular. Not sure if I have anything else though, oddly enough.

You farkin' bet I will!!!!

Serious?? Serious fun!!! ---> in my book. OK, half this album is a little on the serious side, but seriously - I have more 'fun' listening to this album that I can rightly describe here, now, in words. Yeah, I'm weird like that - but Moran's tune in particular - "Repay in Kind" (track 2 on the disc) - is one of the most FUN things I've ever heard from Osby or Moran.

Jim is basically right on all counts. (OK, when is he not right on anything like this?? ) 'New York is Now!' and 'Love Call' are da bomb!! Get one, then get the other one!!! (Doesn't matter which one you get first - they might as well be a 2 CD set.) 'Virgin Beauty' might be the most accessable (which Jim's right about), but it's maybe not the strongest Prime Time ever (though still good). Actually, maybe the best place to start with Prime Time is In All Languages. The disc is like 74 minutes long, and half is the original Ornette quartet playing 10 tunes, followed by Prime Time playing the same 10 tunes - only electric. Yeah, you only get half a CD of Prime Time, but man - it'll sure hook you into Ornette's concepts. (Yeah, it's out of print, but probably not all that tough to find - there's one on half.com for $7.50 right now, "like new", and probably elsewhere too. Note: the disc is called 'In All Languages', not just "Languages" - which is the title of an Ornette bootleg from 1968.) Also, 'Tone Dialing' is amazing. Can't wait for the next time Ornette does an electric album. Did I say it was amazing?? Cuz it is!! Oh, and 'Dancing in Your Head' is just as amazing. 'Body Meta' is pretty darn good too. Whatever you do -- let us know what you get, and what you think of it!!

And a big thanks to Free For All for starting this thread -- a day early even!!! - and all the nice things he said about me. (Just goes to show that even musicians will say just about anything to keep a loyal fan!! ) No big extra-special plans to tomorrow, although I am gonna catch a rare piano trio performance in this town. It's the trio that often backs Paul (FFA) down at the Fairmont hotel, in a rare trio-only appearance. Yeah!!

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks guys!!! (In advance, of course) Man, Andrew Hill busting out of a b-day cake. Now I've seen it all!!!

Thanks!!!

Don't know 'em -- do tell!! Actually, I don't know a damn thing about Don Friedman. And I don't ever think I've ever heard his name before today, actually. Yikes!!