king ubu

Happy birthday!

One of my underlings from the Reich asked how the new Fohrenbach set was - I though this here was the right place to answer that question. So here's a few impressions: First session (CD1 #1-8), rec. 1954: rather conventional swing-to-bop mainstream, with nice tenor playing by Fofo (as it seems he was called). Second part (CD1#9-12, CD2#1-4): OUTSTANDING STUFF! First half of this 10 incher with the weird title "Mais qu'avez-vous donc fait de la face chachée de la lune, docteur Fohrenbach?" contains the "visible" side of the moon: a great quartet session with the trio of the late Arvanitas (Jacky Samson, bass - erroneously listed as playing guitar - and Charles Saudrais - drums). Four great cuts, all originals by Fohrenbach, who's sound is by now significantly different, more modern, very nice! This is from 1978, btw. Second side ("invisible" half of the moon) contains "you can do everything with a tenor sax and a magnetophone": experimental overdubbed tracks featuring Fofo and tapes of more Fofo, tenor exclusively, except for one track that also contains piano. Great version of "Peanuts Vendor", plus a standard "Body and Soul" and Giuffre's "Four Brothers", in addition to two more of his own pieces, "Narcissus 1" and "Narcissus 2". Then on we go wiht the unreleased portions of the set: first there's his band Sexfide (feat Roger Guérin & Bernard Vitet on trumpet, Pierre Cullaz on guitar, Bibi Rovère on bass and Jean-Louis Viale on drums). Four lenghty cuts from 1966, of which I've up to know only heard the first one,s o I cannot say a lot about this date or what follows (a track with Geo Daly also from 1966, three tracks with Fofo on organ and unknown orchestra, plus one last cut from 1963 with Ivan Jullien (he's on the Porgy & Bess JiP) and a couple of others unknown to me. In short: the Sexfide and magnétophone tracks to me have a vibe similar to Gil Mellé's music: experimental, yet swingin, cool, yet passionate at moments. Very very nice music! The date with Arva is great, the early sides are good, too. No idea how good the rest of disc 2 is, though, since I haven't yet heard it. But from what I've heard so far, it should be good, too!

Daniel, I have that Mosaic.... still mostly not heard yet, but I got it when it sold out... I guess I'd know where to ask for Pearson recommendations, anyway, would the board not turn up what I was looking for! The problem then is that I'd had to order the BNs from the US, which sucks... that's prob. the reason why I am not in possession of any Pearson RVG (I don't even know if there's just one or if there are more, I completely lost touch with BN's reissue schedule).

Same here... love "Tree Frog Tonality" but merely find the Golden Quartet albums ok... I think I liked the second one a bit more, though. Will have to play them again soon to find out what they do to me nowadays.

Just how cool can you get, man? I'm cold, man! Almost dead-cold... Sersiously: Jackie does some great burning playing on this disc, but the rest is your usual hardbop schtick. Not that that's a bad thing per se, but still... as for Pearson... I haven't heard that much of his work, only the occasional sideman disc, and some of those mid-sized groups he arranged for BN (like those Stanley T albums) - and somehow this is all good and nice, but... failed to really grab me so far. Again I repeat: except for your longtime avatar big band disc (good one!), I do not own any of his leader albums.

Amen ! The definitive issue.. huh? there's a definitive issue of this already? they don't wait, do they! playing the album in question now... wanted a fix of your formulaic hardbop, after all the weirdo and ratto stuffo I've been playing all day long... I guess I'll join the queue behind you, Hans, if that's ok. Seriously: this is an ok album. I like Byrd quite alright, but I never thought him to be particularly great on this disc. Also I'm not sure how well I really like Pearson on these Byrd dates ( ), plus I'm not sure I like Humphries banging away... leaves Jackie Mac and Doug Watkins, both of whom I love... but that's not enough for a totally successful album. For me, this disc is just one of a larger number of good hardbop albums, not much more.

I totally agree with your earlier comment (post #3). I guess I'm not a great Byrd fan either... Oi, but you're still not half as cool, man!

mine arrived today

Nice strategy, but 5$ would be more like it... I would not be willing to pay 10$ for crappy (check the sizes, these ARE crappy) MP3s with no artwerk and all, even if it wasn't a boot.

Happy huppy, Jim! Keep the good vibes up!

I have to wait for them, too... missed the CDUniverse pre-order But hey, it's in stores, finally, so let's open a bottle of your favourite beverage and celebrate!

huh what? sorry, I was sleeping... you, ahem... peed on Slime, but I can't seem to find that thread right now

My package was sent yesterday, so I hope to have it by the end of the week!

looks quite real to me...

That Isle of Wight set is totally absolutely *freakin* mesmerizing!!! Edit: no matter what couw says...

I've heard the 16 tracks (but not the date with Terry) - fun stuff! Circulates among collectors of live recordings, it seems...

So do I!

Happy Birthday, David! All the best!

Played the first half of this last night, before I fell asleep (the music's not to blame for that!) - enjoyed it very much! Thanks for the recommendation, David! I think your assessment of Romus, after the bits I've heard, is quite fair. A young guy with chops and some good ideas. Also you're right about his alto sound - I'm pretty much in the same boat as far as sounds/tones of alto players are concerned... Cannonball is an exception, in that respect, with that huge sound he got, but there are relatively few others, Handy, yes, but otherwise no names come to mind right now.

obviously "Jesus" is on the rise...

Well, Jeremiah has finally beaten Jeremy by now! The names I was making fun of above are ones such as "Charity" (c'mon!!!), "Serenity" (well yes, sure...), "Faith" (sure, sure), "Hope" (well, why not... even if the world should have ended in the year 1000...). "Grace" is interesting. Very popular early, then dropping down quite some, and getting very popular again nowadays... sure sure, I believe in the flying spaghetti monster, too! Mary, on the contrary (shoot them catholics!) was #1 until the 50s, #2 in the 60s, but then dropped to #15 in the 70s and then to #63 today... Samson and Delilah are gaining prominence, too

Not Lonson, but Lon was #318 in the 1890s, dropped to #845 in the 1920s and peaked again in the 40s at #522, in the 70s it's #918 and then disappears. Edit: Lonnie did better, all round, and only disappeared after the 90s...

I also like the rise of current #53, #13, #181. I really wonder how long it will take for 1910's #920 to raise to prominence again! Oh, and today's #191 is cool too!