Rooster_Ties

Funny thing is that there is a "conceptual continuity" to most of Ornette's output. He has a language all his own, and it seems that 80% or even 90% of his tunes (compositionally speaking) fit with each other in a way that's difficult to describe, but easy to hear. And, quite a few tunes by Don Cherry seem to fit well with most of Ornette's output as well -- in particular, the entire "Complete Communion" album. Haden has also written a number of tunes that seem to fit very well too, I might add. I think part of Ornette's great gift was as a composer. Say what you like about his playing (I love it, I know many hate it), but so many of Ornette's tunes are as beautiful and engaging as anything written in the 50's and 60's. The closest artist I can think of to Ornette, compositionally speaking, who developed a sort of language all their own - was Monk. Both wrote tunes that are deceptively simple (almost nursery-rhyme like), and yet incredibly sophisticated, on so many levels. I wish I understood music theory better (jazz, modern classical too), to be able to approach Ornette's music with a better technical understanding. BUT, I've known a few 'jazz theory' guys who completely were stuck in the notion of "chord changes", who couldn't even begin get their ears around Ornette. And in some ways, I think I 'understand' Ornette's music better than they ever will. (One guy I'm thinking of in particular was the adjunct jazz-piano instructor I had back in College, who was totally dismissive of Sun Ra, Carla Bley, even Andrew Hill somewhat - cuz they wouldn't "stick to the form", and were "sloppy, sloppy, sloppy".)

Only 6 days left to bid, don't let this one slip through your fingers!!

Law-abiding citizens should have nothing to fear...

I'll pull together all my Tolliver dates (with him as the leader), and post the info to this thread. We can call this thread the "work in progress", until we get closer to having a more complete sessionography for Tolliver. Then, when it's nearly complete, I can start a brand new thread with all the session info right up in the first post in the thread. I'll see what I can pull together this week. I don't have everything he's ever recorded, but I think I probably have 90% of everything Tolliver's on that's ever been released on CD. I think that's about 75% of his total output, perhaps even closer to 80% or 85%... I'll at least get the album titles and recording dates together within the next couple days. Then I'll work at filling in the details about song titles, sidemen, label info, etc... 'Bout damn time there was a decent Tolliver discography/sessionography somewhere, even if we do have to do it ourselves....

Over the past two days, I've twice listened to "Lift Every Voice" (including the extra session with vocals), and I am ever more deeply impressed with this material. Yeah, yeah, the vocals are weird - but I'm a choral singer (7 years as a baritone in the Kansas City Symphony Chorus), and I can tell you that the arrangements that 7-voice choir sings (9-voice on the latter session), are some pretty tough stuff. I'll go on record as saying that I think "Lift Every Voice" (plus the extra session) is as good as anything else Hill did on Blue Note. The scope of these two projects with vocals must have taken a fair amount of extra work, for the vocal arrangements and the extra logistical complications of including them in some fairly challenging material. I've always wondered if the vocals were recorded separately from the band, meaning if the vocals were overdubbed?? Any theories?? I would tend to think that they were probably overdubbed, but I don't have any strong basis for that conclusion. By the way, I should mention that my new lobbying for this album as being a great one in the Hill catalog does NOT have to do with the vocals in particular. The band is as tight and loose as any that Hill assembled, and I think both Woody Shaw and Lee Morgan play their socks off. Hell, the whole band (both bands) are really outstanding.

Excellent choice for a thread, but I'll have to think a bit about this one... Actually, there is one CD I recently got, which falls pretty flat for me, despite the names in the line-up... Stanley Cowell's "Setup" (1995, Steeplechase). Stanley Cowell - Piano Eddie Henderson - Trumpet Rick Margitza - Sax (Tenor) Dick Griffin - Trombone Peter Washington - Bass Billy Hart - Drums To my ears, none of the players were "on" that day, and the trombone player, Dick Griffin (who I've never heard of otherwise) nearly ruins every other tune on the disc. (Well, he's not quite that bad - but his intonation is really lousy in a number of places). I usually like Eddie Henderson in most contexts, but he sounds under-rehearsed here (as does the entire group), and tentitive in some of his solos. Margitza is usually OK in my book too, but this wasn't his best day either. Anybody else have this CD, and think similarly?? (Or differently?? - are my ears on wrong???) It just doesn't sound anywhere near what I hoped for, and really - several of the tracks are pretty crappy (or at least lifeless) in the perfomance department. Cowell is often one of my favorite piano players, but not on this date....

Come on, now, people. Yeah, Candy Dulfer is a little bit questionable as a jazz musician, maybe... But it's not like I mentioned Wynton!!!! How about this to get the game going again.... Mark Isham

It lists my old address, from about a year ago.

I might be interested... I'm about to e-mail you....

Only called once - sat around all morning, ate lunch downtown (3 hour lunch break!!!), and never was picked. Just had to call in the next day, and found out I was off the hook for the rest of the week. Actually, I think I'd like to actually be on a jury sometime. Not for some huge, many-month-long case, but something about a week long. Might be interesting...

All along I was simply using this thread (and the poll) as a method for feedback to help me choose. (My week, my choice, my vote counts the most!! ) ( And actually, if Chick Corea's "Complete 'IS' Sessions" had just gotten 5 votes (instead of three), I would have picked it. ) Ideally I would have liked to have set up a poll where people could vote for more than one choice (which I believe the polls on AAJ can actually do, if I'm not mistaken). The choice was still mine to make, all the time. Sorry if you got the impression that the cold hard numbers of the poll were the only deciding factor. The poll was just a way for me to guage interest in the titles I was thinking about, and in that respect, it helped me a lot!! ( And if you look up above, I say several times how I'm "leaning towards picking this" and "thinking about picking that", irrespective of the poll numbers. That should have more than clued people into the fact that the poll wasn't everything. )

I'm not the seller, all the usual disclaimers apply... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...10&category=618 On second thought, there probably are some other disclaimers that ought to apply in this case too...

Hey Berigan, you're Avatar is driving us crazy with all that "touch your toes" crap, over and over and over and over. Nobody can touch their toes like that, and certainly not that quickly... Don't you have a lazy Avatar, doing something much less strenuous??? Maybe one playing "pat your head and rub your tummy"???

Goldfish Is Placed in Sling 17-Year-Old Goldfish Is Placed in Sling So He Can Swim Again The Associated Press SCOTIA, N.Y. April 25 — A 17-year-old goldfish can swim again thanks to a bunch of do-gooding humans. Customers at the Sky Port diner near Schenectady came up with the idea of a creating a fish sling after Dick the goldfish fell ill in November and had difficulty swimming. Patty Sherman, who owns the diner with her two sisters, Joanna Dewey and Mary Ann Parker, said Dick could barely move across the bottom of his fish tank located behind the counter. A customer whose daughter is studying to be a veterinarian had his daughter research fish ailments. She reported back that Dick was likely suffering from swim bladder disease and prescribed a diet of cooked peas to be hand fed to Dick three times a day, Sherman said. To remedy Dick's swimming problem, several customers devised a sling made up of fishing bobbers, drinking straws, gauze and string. When the 8-inch-long fish is placed in the sling, he's able to swim like normal. Sherman said customers find it relaxing to sit at the counter and watch Dick in his tank. "Everybody's rooting for him," she said Tuesday. "He's the topic of conversation at the Sky Port." photo credit and caption: Dick, a 17-year-old goldfish, rests in a sling in his aquarium at the Sky Port Restaurant in Scotia, N.Y. Wednesday, April 23, 2003. The fish is suffering from a swim bladder disorder. Customers at the diner near Schenectady came up with the idea of a creating a fish sling after the goldfish fell ill in November and had difficulty swimming. (AP Photo/Tim Roske)

How impossible are the "Leo Parker" BN CD's to find?? What would be a reasonable price for either one?? Have either one been released in Japan (meaning on CD)?? How's the sound quality of the domestic (U.S) CD versions?? - typical late 80's/early 90's "McMaster" sound?? Average?? Better than average?? Worse than Average?? What's the likelyhood of either one being released as a Conn anytime soon?? (Kevin - you talk to Michael periodically, what are his thoughts on the Leo Parker albums, and either of them potentially being (re)released on CD in the next couple years?) I only ask cuz I've got a line on one (Let Me Tell You 'Bout It) on CD, for about $22.50 - and I've not been too tempted, but have given it a second thought, a time or two.

A couple "Charles Tolliver" suggestions... Tolliver's own "Paper Man" (a.k.a. "Charles Tolliver & His All Stars"), from 1968 - Tolliver's first date as a leader. I must confess that I've never heard this album (since it's never been released on CD, and I got's no turntable ). But, with a line-up that includes Herbie Hanckock, Ron Carter, Joe Chambers, and Gary Bartz -- this one's got to be a monster!!! Alternately, I've been thinking about doing a compilation CDR with all of Tolliver's sideman appearances in the 60's, on tunes that Tolliver wrote himself. I figured this up once, and it came out to be about 60 minutes long, if I remember right. Alas, I'm not aware of any really rare (i.e. 'bootleg') Tolliver material...

In case anyone missed it above, I'm choosing this as the winner and AOTW for next week (after Weather Report)...

Maybe I figured it out. We're doing Lee Morgan "Live at the Lighthouse" for two weeks, and that two weeks just is ending today, so the Weather Report album really is for this week (4/27-5/3) So, then, Andrew Hill "Grass Roots" is for May 4th-10th. Maybe that's it, I think...

Hard not to notice that a total of 37% of the votes (11 out of 30 total) went for one or the other of the Andrew Hill albums (collectively), and, since I'm pleasantly suprised that despite having two "Hill" choices in this poll, that the vote wasn't at all split for him (meaning both Hill albums came out strong).... (drum roll please...) I've chosen Andrew Hill - "Grass Roots" for my album of the week... Africa Brass - would you start the AOTW thread for this, when you get a chance?? Nothing special about having you do it, but I'm a little confused about whether "Grass Roots" is for this week (meaning the week starting today, 4/27), or if my week starts a week from now (on 5/4)??? When I was nominated in the "Weather Report" AOTW thread, it said I was for the week of May 4th, which is a week from today. BUT, I see from the title of the "Weather Report" thread, that it (the Weather Report album) is/was supposedly for 4/27-5/3 ----- and it's only 4/27 today. I guess the real question is, what is the AOTW for this week - meaning 4/27-5/3??? Am I the only one who's confused???

Well, I found one copy of Ornette's "Foxhole", but couldn't find the 2nd copy I thought I had. But there are a couple other boxes I still have to check. Try to let you know soon... Don't hold up any other trades on my account.

Ditto, me and Bitches Brew too. I even 'got' On The Corner several years before I ever connected with Bitches Brew. I was into everything before it, and nearly everything after it (including all the heavy 70's Miles), before BB finally 'hit' with me.

Two of the more interesting versions I can think of (which I have) are... Charles Tolliver's "Live in Tokyo" (1973) -- kind of an uptempo verison, at least twice as fast as many of the typical versions. Sun Ra's "Sunrise in Different Dimensions" (1980) -- a very uptempo, almost dance-like verison, and easily the "happiest" verison of this tune I've ever heard - probably by a mile.

So I've got half-an-hour to kill today, while my wife is in getting her hair cut. So, I sit in the car, read the paper, and listen to a CD I haven't heard in a long time, probably over a year. The 1989 "McMaster" version of Hank Mobley's "No Room For Squares", which is the entire session of Oct. 2nd, 1963, with Lee Morgan, Andrew Hill, John Ore, and Philly Joe Jones. (Not any of the other sessions (without Hill) that got split across the original LP's, and now the new RVG CD's.) I've had this CD for 7 or 8 years. It was the first Mobley CD I ever bought. AND, until today, I've never really connected with it all that much. Sure, it's OK - how could it not be with Mobley and Morgan. BUT, over the years, I've often been board enough by this disc to only get part of the way though it, before deciding to switch to something else. It's just never worked for me all that much, what can I say?? AND, this being my 'first ever' Mobley album, I didn't buy any other Mobley for a really, really long time. In fact, not until a couple years ago, actually. (I got "Third Stream" and went: - and immediately bought every post-1960 Mobley disc I could find.) Still, I never could 'get' that first one, "No Room For Squares" (again, we're talking about the "McMaster" version, all one session, Morgan, Hill, etc...) Then, today, the fog lifted, and I finally GOT this session!!!. I'm not really sure why, now??? - other than maybe I was really listening to it with my "Andrew Hill" ears on today, cuz I've been listening to so much Hill recently. Or maybe it was from having listened to Jimmy Woods' "Conflict" so much (and having really been interested in "Conflict", cuz Hill was on the date, as much as anything). Maybe "Conflict" trained me to listen to the "Hill"-ishness in the Mobley/Hill date. AND, I found something new in Mobley's playing, which I had never heard before today. All these years, Mobley sounded a bit awkward to me on this date, and Lee Morgan did too (a bit). But today, Mobley and Morgan both sounded to me like they were playing on a Hill date (sorta), and playing really well (and interestingly too) within that context... ...much like Charles Tolliver doesn't sound at all like "Charles Tolliver" to me on Hill's "Dance With Death" and also that one side of Hill's "One For One" that he's on. I like Tolliver's playing with Hill, but it's so different than what I'm used to from Tolliver. In fact, I really didn't care much for "Dance With Death" at first (nor "One For One"), until I got away from expecting them to shine in terms of their "Toliver"-ishness. ========== This is so weird. It's not like Ornette, where nothing he did made any sense to me until about a year after I first heard him (about a dozen years ago, when I was back in college) - and suddenly the light bulb went off for me, and everything Ornette did suddenly made perfect sense. No, it was just this one album that never clicked for me - and then today it was like the best album I'd ever never heard before, but had actually heard many times before, kinda, but not really. Anything like that ever happen to you with a specific album??? Which one??

I've never heard either of the Leo Parker BN's, and sadly - they're a bitch to find, no??? Actually, if both of Leo's albums (on BN) would fit on one CDR, they might make a good Album of the Week - perhaps?? If someone who's actually heard these albums before thinks this is a good idea, post it to my "logistically challenging AOTW suggestions" thread that's in today's active topics.