Rooster_Ties

Got this in the post late last night, and only got to listen to most of the 2nd disc… And holy mother of god, is this thing INTENSE. I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way (or necessarily a good way either), at least not yet — as I had it on at a really low volume level (my wife had just gone to bed in the next room)… But, jesus, this this is in-your-f’n-face!!

Just got the CD version in the post late last night. I finally gave the first two discs a spin around 10pm, but had to keep it down because my wife had gone to bed. The music was wonderful!! Will more fully survey the sound quality in the next few days.

THAT’s the other Turrentine larger-band release I was forgetting (except I had a vague memory like there was more than just those other two Conn releases that I pulled out earlier).

Yeah, I've got both of those (just pulled them out to listen to). For some odd reason, I thought like there was a third similar one. Thing is, I never firmly fixed the titles of these CD's in my mind, probably because I got them rather late, maybe even after I moved to DC (in 2011). When they first came out, they weren't the highest priority -- but then only later did I sort of realize there was more going on here than met the eye ear.

Gosh, Kevin sure was a nice guy. He and his wife Allene, were two of the most down-to-earth people I knew back in Kansas City. Longer story, but I got to hang out with them backstage at a number of concerts, and his wife was a really wonderful photographer too (iirc), and I happened to be around right after work at a club when they were hanging one of her shows there. I didn't know either of them super well, but they always recognized me when they saw me in clubs or around town -- and I had a number of pleasant conversations with his wife at the bar, and we may have even shared a table now and then at a few gigs when Kevin was out of town. (Don't get any funny ideas.) They were such a great couple, and such great people. They've both passed on now -- both much too early. I think she preceded him by less than two years. Memories I'll always treasure from my 17 years in Kansas City (where Kevin and Allene were from). Obit from the local KC NPR affiliate -- he was just 59. https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2017-12-18/kevin-mahogany-internationally-known-jazz-vocalist-from-kansas-city-dies-at-59 I can't seem to get these images to show, but here are two pics with both Kevin and Allene... https://www.broadwayworld.com/ezoimgfmt/cloudimages.broadwayworld.com/upload2/79316/tn-500_photo3sml.jpg?ezimgfmt=rs:550x376/rscb23/ng:webp/ngcb23 https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/kevin-mahogany-allene-mahoganydiane-monroe-kevin-sharpe-jasmine-guy-picture-id462913106?s=2048x2048

All thru college and my two years of post-college (still in the same small college town, working on my second degree) -- I did have 3-4x yearly pilgrimages to Euclid Records and Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis (where I was from), and I got up to Chicago once and occasionally twice a year -- and dearly remember Rose Records (later Tower, iirc), and Jazz Record Mart (which I only got to a grand total of maybe 4-5 times between 1990 and maybe about 2008. One of my fondest memories was of finding a small box of maybe 30 cut-out Blue Note CD's near the from counter at Jazz Record Mart, maybe around 1992? -- and finding perhaps 8 titles I'd never heard before, most of which I'd never even SEEN before (or had any idea about)... ...one of which was The Prisoner, which (with Joe Henderson, and being from 1969) ticked SEVERAL boxes as something I'd probably love -- and I still remember listening to it for the very first time when I finally got back home a couple days later, and being utterly transfixed. For MANY years, The Prisoner was my all-time favorite Herbie leader-date -- and even now, it dances back and forth between it and Speak Like a Child as being my ultimate Herbie leader-date. I think it was then -- that very day -- that I suddenly realized there was a HUGE world of top-top-top-tier jazz (as *I* defined top-tier, mind you), that I simply had no fucking idea even existed. Like, there was literally probably 100-200 albums out there (unknown to me) that I could easily be temped to include on a top-20 "desert island" list of music I would never want to be without -- stuff I could endlessly sing the praises of years into the future, that I simply didn't even know (or even know about) yet. Stumbling on that CD of The Prisoner was a huge wake-up moment for me. And the funny thing was, I did have an inking of its potential importance at the time of purchase, simply based on the line-up and recording date (and label). I somehow knew it was gonna be something pretty damn special, and I just had to wait a few days to be able to confirm it.

I think(?) I might have most of this, and maybe practically all of it. On mobile at the moment, and trying to wrap my head around just the US domestic CD titles involved. If anyone has a quick list of just the typical CD's one would have, by CD title (ignoring the Japanese configurations), that would be helpful. This material is definitely of a higher caliber than it probably gets credit for -- lifted by the arrangements.

I first started getting into jazz more deeply my senior year in college (1990-91), and CD's were starting to be "it" in terms of the media of choice. But living in a small town of 30,000 on the western side of upstate Illinois (going to a really small college of 1,000) -- it was an hour's drive to any record stores of even moderate interest, and a 3-4 hour drive to St. Louis (or Chicago). So initially I borrowed a lot of jazz from the college Music Dept's listening library (it wasn't huge, but I was really just beginning) -- and I made cassette dubs of the stuff I liked best. I also had total access to the LP library of the college's radio station that I worked at -- and I borrowed a lot out of there too. All the best stuff (classic Blue Notes, etc), had long been pilfered by that point, probably a decade or two earlier. But there were a number of the brown-cover BN's (of unreleased sessions), and some LT-series titles. And a fair number of Prestige reissues from the 70's (two-fers, with different covers, etc), plus a lot of 70's fusion. So I sampled as much of that as I reasonably could -- taping some things, but not lots. Far as buying goes, since I tried to go for CD's, and I was very cost-conscious, I pretty much bought any used jazz CD of classic 50's and 60's material that at least looked interesting on paper (and that came from a label with covers that looked more "thought-out" I guess I would call it). Anything on Blue Note, but I was a little more selective about what I got on Impulse (though I didn't come across much used Impulse stuff). Some Prestige, but even that early on, I knew I liked 60's jazz best of all. My very first four (4) jazz albums I ever listened to repeatedly (that I'd made cassette dubs of, and listened to on auto-reverse for days on end), were... KOB, backed with Nefertiti (plus "Prince of Darkness" from Sorcerer) Mode For Joe with "Gary's Notebook" (from Sidewinder), backed with Power To The People And I must have listened to nothing but those two tapes the first month I made them. I "liked" 50's hardbop, but I "LOVED" 60's jazz like the Second Great Quintet and all of Joe Henderson's run on Blue Note -- and FORTUNATELY, the college radio station had TONS of Joe's Milestone output on LP -- all of which I taped barely 6 months later. Many of those Henderson Milestone dates I had for a full year or two before I got several key Henderson BN titles. So right off, I knew my jazz "center of gravity" was about 1960-75, but there was a lot from the 50's I loved too -- but just as much 50's jazz I only "liked" (but didn't love). I never really got bitten by the bug of much pre-50's jazz. I've grown to appreciate a lot more of it, but little pre-50's jazz makes me 'swoon' (what can I say?) -- and even from the 50's, there's little I'm really "fanatical" about. Hell, I only got bitten by the Tristano-Konitz-Marsh bug in just the last 18 months. Early on I did buy some single-artist compilations, but I got away from that within 5 years, mostly.

It’s a gas, gas, gas, indeed…

John Coltrane?

I just had a rule that I couldn’t impulse buy stuff from before 1956 — not without doing a little due diligence first. I was rabidly buying lots (and lots) of music — so I had to do something to keep at least part of my buying reined in a bit. 1956 seemed like a fairy reasonable line of demarcation, actually — given that the largest majority of my jazz interests really started in the 60’s — with pre-1960 material being a little more hit-n-miss for me (and early 50’s, ‘40’s, and 30’s even more hit-n-miss (for me personally).

I’ve got that 2cd “Complete Blue Note and Capitol Recordings of Fats Navarro & Tadd Dameron” set. Question: Is that fairly close to the lion’s share of most of the Fats one probably needs?

I slept on Clifford Brown for a lot longer than I care to admit. From when I first got pretty deep into jazz in the early 90’s — and until about 2005 — I had an arbitrary cut-off recording-date for making blind purchases without really trying trying to sample things more closely (back when the only way you could listen to CD’s before you bought them was at some stores, but you couldn’t listen to dozens of discs — so I had to at least try and be somewhat selective). My loose (not so loose) rule was anything recorded before Miles got on Columbia (in 1956), I would force myself to scrutinize a lot further before making impulse buys (so I could avoid at least some of my impulsive overspending ways). Bear in mind, I was buying TONS of CD’s back then, easily 300-400 or more per year, for a solid decade (not all jazz, but a BIG plurality was jazz). And well, if 1956 was my arbitrary cut-off — you can tell right off I never really bothered with Clifford Brown, since he died in ‘56. Then about 2006 or 2007 maybe? — my dearest friend, Joe, from Kansas City (aka ‘Spontooneous’ around these parts)… …he saw a good used EmArcy Brownie box for like $60, and he made me buy it (and wouldn’t let me not buy it). He pointed out that every single trumpet player I liked best all came out of Brownie in so many respects — but especially Woody Shaw and Lee Morgan… That “lip” thing, as I think of it (regardless of whether that’s an accurate way to describe it) — that way of attacking the note on entrances, that’s as expressive as any singer’s voice — that THING that I adore so much in Woody’s and Lee’s playing — he swore I’d love that in Brownie’s playing too, even if the material was stylistically slightly older — and swore that all came from Brownie. And of course, he was totally right, on all counts.

Just gave in, and ordered the CD version from Amazon— for $60.30 including free shipping!! About 7-10 days ago, Amazon had it fir $66, but about 5 days ago they bumped it back up to $78 (uugh). Then just this morning I noticed they’d dropped it back down to $67. PLUS — I had a one-time 10% off an entire Amazon order discount code (which of all places, it got when I just changed my dad’s mailing address with the USPS for all his snail mail). So I got the Lee Morgan for $60 — plus Roy Brooks Understanding for just $18 — all with free shipping. And I also got the Fleetwood Mac 1969-74 box (8cd) for only $35. Certainly didn’t need the Fleetwood Mac — but for barely $4.38 per disc, I figured, what the heck!

Ka-Ching!

If it could be had for about $14-$16, I probably would bite — but $25 is too rich for my blood. I had to with Stanley Cowell’a Brilliant Corners, to get any sort of decent sound. But my Black Lion Ringer sounds more than decent enough — much as I love the date.

I’d pay. It’s Tyrone Washington, of course I’d pay.

Great googly-moogly!!

Upload it, and post it here! I’d love to hear this (especially if you can include your wife’s sung greeting).

Most (maybe all?) of the jazz guitarists I knew back in Kansas City were all pretty chill. Thinking of about 8-9 different players over the 17 years I lived there. Didn't know any rock guitarists back then, nor now.

Full album can be heard on YouTube… Some/many/all(?) of the individual tracks have been uploaded there as well (different YouTube users).

[insert snarky Keith Jarrett joke here.]

This is the only Billy Higgins vocal I know personally — are there many more?

Amen to that!

(I was kinda half kidding… …though in your defense, I was only half kidding.) (I was kinda half kidding… …though in your defense too, I was only half kidding.)