randyhersom

Great and exhausting. I have returned from two days. It's incredible to see these artists getting standing ovations from full houses. The room filled up with hundreds still outside for Jason Moran and Milford Graves. I was close to the cutoff point when they switched to "one in - one out" and enough people left early to see other events that I caught the end of the set. It was well worth it. I became a Peter Evans fan, his solo concert was a highlight along with the three Evan Parker performances, both Roscoe Mitchell performances ... and The Thing ... and Rova's Electric Ascension.

Here's a venue map, I hope it isn't shrunken too much to be readable. Big Ears Venues My Friday looks like: Roscoe Mitchell kicks off Friday at Noon at the Standard Rova Either Ikue Mori or Milford Graves knowing I will have to leave early. Rocket Science - Evan Parker, Peter Evans, Craig Taborn Some combination of Jenny Scheinman with Nels Cline, Bela Fleck and/or Medeski Martin and Wood The Thing Jason Moran Saturday Scheinman Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic end of Bela Fleck beginning of Peter Evans All of Jason Moran - Milford Graves End of Marc Ribot Evan Parker Solo Most of Roscoe Mitchell Trios If not ready to crash then probably more Rova wow!

I just ordered day pass tickets for Friday and Saturday. My Friday priority list Evan Parker Solo Rocket Science with Evan Parker Trio Five with Roscoe Mitchell Milford Graves Jason Moran (Fats Waller Dance Party) The Thing Rova Half a dozen others. For Saturday Evan Parker Electro Acoustic Ensemble Roscoe Mitchell Trios Jason Moran and Milford Graves Peter Evans (if I like him on Friday) Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/walter-becker-steely-dan-co-founder-dead-at-67-w50095 Always a favorite band of mine.

1. Duke Ellington (vocals and celeste) - Moon Maiden from The Intimate Ellington Nothing else like it. 2. Michael Gregory Jackson (acoustic guitar) - Prelueoionti from Clarity. Acoustic tour de force. Band mates Oliver Lake, Leo Smith and David Murray sit this one out. 3. Tarika Blue - Sunshower from The Blue Path - Ryo Kawasaki - guitar, Marvin Blackman - saxophone, Barry Coleman - Bass, Kevin Atkins - Drums, Bradie Spellman - Percussion, Piano – Phil Clendeninn. Always loved this guitar solo, never liked anything else Ryo Kawasaki did in the 70s. 4. Franco and Tabu Ley Rochereau - Ngungi from Omona Wapi Much of my rock/pop/other listening was influenced by the bite sized reviews of Robert Christgau - he was not reliable for jazz or classical although he did give Sonny Rollins G-Man an A plus. He pointed me at this Afropop collaboration. 5. Goin' Home - McCoy Tyner from Asante/Mosaic Select. Ted Dunbar supplies the guitar groove here . Andrew White sax, Mtume percussion, Buster Williams Bass, Billy Hart drums 6. Carolina Moon - Thelonious Monk with Lucky Thompson from Genius of Modern Music Volume 2 7. Dmitri Shostakovich String Quartet # 8 Movement 2 - Eder Quartet. This is classical music built to keep a rock and roller's attention - nice crunchy riffs. 8. David Eyges (cello) - The Captain from The Captain - Ronnie Boykins Bass, Mark Whitecage Alto Sax, Jeff Williams Drums. Speaking of crunchy riffs, some of the jazz that was among the first to really grab me were the Julius Hemphill Arista/Freedom sides featuring Abdul Wadud. When I heard this in the late 70s I was thrilled that someone else was working in the neighborhood of That Sound! 9. Nolan Porter - Bird without a Song - I had been chasing the two Nolan Porter albums based on Christgau's recommendation for years, then Emusic put them out with gobs of bonus tracks, most quite worthwhile. His best known song was probably If I Could Only Be Sure. I believe he married Frank Zappa's sister. 10. Amina Claudine Myers - Golden Lady in the Graham Cracker Window from Poems For Piano - works of Marion Brown. Her debut, and interesting to hear an almost classical treatment from two well known avant- gardists. 11. Chicago Solo - (12) Evan Parker (tenor sax) There are always compromises in trying to fit a long form artist into a BFT, as with Walt Dickerson in my first BFT. I always find Evan Parker's flow hypnotic. 12. Charlie Parker - Meandering with piano intro by Dizzy Gillespie. My favorite Parker is a ballad. Go figure : ) 13. Thomas Jefferson Kaye - American Lovers - I always think of this as the great lost Steely Dan song. The singer/leader was never with the band, but they provide composition, producer and backing vocals for this beauty. Was it too idealistic and pretty for the usually cynical Steely Dan to use on their own album - maybe so! 14. Joe Lee WIlson - The Shadow - Lovely tribute to Martin Luther King 15. Terence Trent D'Arby - warning - deeply felt hyperbole follows. TTD's first album stormed the charts. Two albums into the commercial decline that followed he cut the greatest rock/R&B album ever recorded, Symphony or Damn. Then he followed up with the slightly schizzy Vibrator, with an album cover that tried to be prissy and provocative at the same time and deployed good riffs to support the title track and Supermodel Sandwich, a strange celebration of sexual objectification. Then came this masterpiece as the third track with real sincerity and depth of feeling as the protagonist gets his life in order to feel/be worthy of the one he adores. Yeah I said that. Your mileage may vary. 16. Anton Bruckner Symphony #9 - Scherzo - Maris Janssons. More great crunchy riffs from the classical side. You could segue into Led Zeppelin to make that point, but I chose a different path ... 17. Abbey Lincoln - Africa from People In Me. What can I say that JSngry and tkeith didn't. Magnificent.

Since things have quieted down I'll throw out some direct and indirect clues for the stumpers so far. 3. Guitarist's name likely reflects Japanese heritage. Band name does not feature any member's name. Indirect Erykah Badu connection. 4. Collaboration between two Afropop leaders well known in their homeland. 8. One member of the quartet, not the leader, played with Sun Ra. 9. If you could only be sure 10. Pianist is not the composer. Composer played on Ascension 13. Rikki.

Masterfully done. All of your artist IDs were correct and all of your track IDs were correct. I thank you for saying something about each track and am pleased with the reactions.

Correct sir. On 8 I will mention that the string lead voice plays a larger fiddle than the guesses offered by tkeith, penciling in Michael White as the non -bass string player most closely associated with John Handy.

Wikipedia says: D'Arby's debut solo album, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby, released in July 1987, is his best-known commercial work.[6] The album produced hits including "If You Let Me Stay", "Wishing Well", "Dance Little Sister", and "Sign Your Name".

Had a lot of fun reading your comments. Thanks for listening.

There are pleasures to be found following the train as far as it goes!

Fond memories of Michael Anderson from my days at WRTI at Temple University. He was a young and truly enthusiastic jazz fan. I was so amazed he actually got to play on a Sun Ra record date.

ThomKeith.net has enabled downloads and online listening for Blindfold Test 161 today or tomorrow, and I thank him profusely for his assistance. This is the link: http://thomkeith.net/index.php/blindfold-tests/ In the spirit of full disclosure 6 tracks of the 17 would not be found in the jazz section of a mythical full service record store. Thanks to JSngry for kicking down the door so I didn't have to worry about sticking my toe in it. If 17 tracks is too much feel free to get off the trolley at whatever stop you like. Most of all, Enjoy!

1. Melody reminiscent of Bags Groove/Duke's Place. Organ and Tenor featured. Could this be the Very Saxy date with Arnett Cobb and three more tenors? 2. The personality of Coltrane and Tyner is all over the intro. Not them, not Billy Harper or Joe Henderson, maybe Steve Grossman? 3. Paul Bley did some nice Synth work, but but I only remember tracks with bass and drums. 4. Definitely sounds like Abdullah Ibrahim. Chris McGregor also a possibility 5. Jumping tune with a Milt Buckner/Bill Doggett feel. 6. Unless the applause is dubbed from elsewhere, this is a very well known pianist. Kenny Barron? 7. Deep jazz blues singing. Joe Williams 8. Did Blood Ulmer ever record on acoustic. If not then Ronald Shannon Jackson. 9. Probably not a jazz identified voice. Not liking my guess of Paul Robeson, but not finding any better guess either. 10. The composition has a Henry Threadgill feel. 11. Solo Piano Jitterbug Waltz, Live 12. Duke Ellington? 13. Tommy Flanagan? 14. Andrew Hill? 15. That sounds so much like the rhtyhm section of Woody Shaw's Love Dance. Is it Woody and Billy Harper?

I had mentally prepared the note: This BFT has increased my appreciation of a musical figure who does not play on any of its tracks. Wasn't absolutely sure of the latter but Shazam led to the conclusion that it was all Book of Angels. I had done some listening to Astaroth and liked it quite a bit but didn't remember it well enough to identify. On a relisten much of it was more "adventurous" than the lovely track chosen.

Based on the cellist, then it seems likely that #9 is the Masada String Trio. If so that's two John Zorn projects, perhaps there are more.

STONY always has a guitar - James Emery. The other thoughts I had for 9 were Erik Friedlander, Maxine Roach and Turtle Island, just because these instruments don't often play in this combination and this style.

Jay Hoggard has a fairly new 2 cd set available through CD Baby that sounds promising. I have seen some of his commentary through a mutual facebook friend, I believe he teaches at the university level as well as recording.

This has taken me to several places I didn't even know existed! 1. Lush and evocative, with instrumentation associated with George Shearing's quintets, but it sounds more modern. Eddie Higgins comes to mind. 2. Blue Note feel. I'm thinking Lee Morgan, perhaps with Wayne Shorter. 3. I think I (barely) hear organ in this big band mix. That makes me lean toward Gerald Wilson. I definitely hear guitar and am pretty sure it's piano free. 4. It makes me think Jack Wilson, without being something I remember having heard of his. 5. Takes that Latin groove and smoothly and gradually elevates it to a whole other level of intensity. I think I hear both soprano sax and clarinet. I can't remember anything from Andrew Hill that fits this groove but that's about the right level of inside/out for both the piano playing and the group/composition. 6. Unusually distorted and processed guitars for a "jazz" date, but not the seventies fusion style. I haven't heard Bill Frisell record with vibes, but he might be capable of envisioning and carrying out the guitar sounds at the start. 7. Pretty sure I don't know who this is, bit on those rare occasions where I do, it's probably Herbie Mann. Nah. Eddie Palmieri is probably a better hail mary. Sounds authentically Latin and jazz aware at the same time. Probably newer than either guess. 8. Very accomplished piano over a very active bass and drums bed of rhythm. I'm thinking Hilton Ruiz perhaps influenced by the surrounding tracks. 9. All strings, but with so much drive you don't miss the piano and drums. I'm thinking this may be viola on top rather than violin. Mat Maneri? 10. Cello?, accordion and guitar featured in a tango groove with vocals and percussion. My chances of knowing this are a lot lower than my chances of loving it. Richard Galliano? 11. An electric Miles influenced rhythm bed gives way to a non-Hammond sounding organ and eventually a larger band. No instrument sounds like the leader. Maybe Gil Evans? 12. This is surf guitar! More stretched out than the genre usually gets. I don't really think it's Dick Dale, but I don't have a better guess. 13. Reminds me of what little I have heard in the exotica genre. John Zorn has explored that genre some. 14. I'm guessing we have some kind of guitar synthesizer here. David Fiuczynski?

We shall agree to disagree on that point!

Multiple Facebook sources report the passing of bassist Bob Cunningham this weekend. Listening to Impressions of A Patch of Blue as we speak.

Funny, he referred to himself as a dirty guitar player! This information was acquired with the assistance of Shazam. Some people say the trumpeter sounds funny!

What a career, what a legacy, what a life! Thanks.

They gigged around Philly but I don't know if they toured much in the late 70s. When I was going to concerts around Philly I saw them three times. They lived together in a communal house and operated a convenience store for a bit of extra cash. I concur with the recommendations of the Szwed book.