Harold_Z

Yeah......it's apples and oranges. Lomax's book is a transcription of Jelly's LOC "rap" between and during tunes. If yuu have the records you can hear Jelly doing it. "Jelly's Blues" is a researched reference work with findings and conclusions you can either agree with or disagree with....but well done.

What about the possibility of a symbotic relationship between music & community that might allow, for example, somebody like Ellington to profoundly impact, either directly or indirectly, how somebody like King or Marshall views themself and their place in society, which in turn determines how they then interact with and impact society? Not all cultures (or subcultures) have that symbiotic relationship in equal measure, so evaluating it by a one-size-fits-all scale might not yield accurate results. "5 Most Important"? Lists & rankings? No thanks. Anything that limits is ultimately going to be false, so, uh....no. But was James Brown "important" on a level beyond that of "pop cultural figure"? Oh hell yeah. Up front, let me say this about Brown as a "musician" - he himself was a very musically limited person when it came to the technical - basic technical - aspects of putting together what he did. We had a bit of this discussion over in the other JB thread. The guy pretty much communicated "impulses" to his bandleaders, and they fleshed it out to a workable form. His organ playing, if you listen closely, is the sound of somebody knowing just enough to make it almost sound like they kind of know what they're doing. There was little or none of the intuitive genius of craftsmanship that you find in somebody like Robert Johnson in Brown. So to claim status for Brown as a "musician" by "traditional standards", Euro- or Afro-centric, is going out on a limb. But that's not why him or his music is so important. What's ultimately important is that he was able to tap into something deep, something at once primal and profound, something of damn near otherwordly power, and channel it in such a pure, unblocked, and unhindered form for so long. What it was he was tapped into you may or may not want to consider "spiritual", but it definitely dealt with spirit - human spirits dealing with things like pride, power, and place. And he did it in such a way and in such a time/place that it had an inestimable impact on a lot of people all over the world (we're so busy looking at JB's impact on American music & culture that we're overlooking the same impact that he had in Africa, which was not insignificant) in ways that went beyond merely providing a "soundtrack for their lives" or some such. The guy made a deep impact on the minds, and therefore the actions, of a lot of people who were taking a lot of actions that profoundly impacted a lot of the world. "Soundtracks" are one thing, but fuel is another, and I'll argue that Brown provided as much fuel for the global "Black Nationalism" movement of the 1960s as did anybody, since the purpose of fuel is to unleash potential energy and turn it into kinetic energy. James Brown provided a whole lot of fuel at a time when need for and consumption of same both appeared endless. What I'm trying to say is that "James Brown" was a helluva lot bigger than just James Brown. When he himself either realized this or forgot it (your call which, and I'll not argue either way), it was over, rapidly & irrevocably, although in the end he was able to have a respectable enough rebirth as a "cultural icon". But Cultural Icon is a step or few thousand down the ladder from Unstoppable Force Of Nature Directly Impacting Human Destiny, which is a position that he onece occupied, and occupied well for a significant amount of time. If you weren't there, you can be forgiven for not understanding. If you were there but have forgotten, you can be forgiven for letting time take its toll. But if you were there & never got it in the first place, you have no excuse. BRAVO JIM ! ...... this post SHOWS why it's great to have a guy like Jim Sangrey around. He can verbalize it and get right to the real point.

Great stuff Berigan. Thanks for pointing it out. I think that is most likely Vic Berton. BUT... I think the trombonist is Tommy Dorsey and not Mole. I was surprised to see Mole mentioned after I watched the video. I'd bet on Dorsey. Jimmy Dorsey did his thing on the changes to Tiger Rag. TD (or Mole if I'm wrong) on something similar to How Come You do me like You Do.

RIP James. I wish you didn't go.

Good record! Bass and Drum fans......ALERT ! ALERT ! ALERT !

Isn't that organ part mainly a Bach prelude thing anyway?

"Will somebody please tell me when the band starts swinging?" - Luther Rix

I wonder if it was his playing or his attitude that turned Benny off. Or both. Edit to add: I dig Ron's playing in spite of his sometime intonation problems. He has great time and comes up with good lines, etc.

Belén's reaction is YOU GOT SOME MORE CDS IN THE MAIL !!!! Vilma too. Followed by the ultimate spanglish "Crackiado".

Definitely my favorite. Ever since I purchased the lp years ago. Edit to add: Commodore used this cover on the original 78 albums, the 10" lp and the 12" lp.

That St. Louis Blues is KILLER ! Ed Long ? Not sure. If you meant the guy playing the suitcase I thought that was Josh Billings. I've been looking here and there online for a photo of Josh but so far no luck.

Allen - I'll be in touch on this right after New Years.

WKCR-FM ran an official tribute broadcast for Kenny yesterday, but they will "continue" the tribute tonight from 6pm-9pm, tomorrow on "Traditions In Swing", again from 6pm-9pm, and on Monday's "Out To Lunch" from 12 noon thru 3pm.

I can't resist this. I'm pulling the trigger as soon as the holidays are past...unless thru some miracle I see it in a store first.

Yeaahhh.... BUT she still delivers the goods. She still tells the story and she is still fascinating. PLUS..it's great (as Lon alluded to earlier) to hear Sweets and Ben Webster and the whole slew of great musicians on these sessions. I enjoy this Billie as much as any BIllie.

Very bad news. RIP Steve.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM ! !

Bad news indeed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GHOST !

What's wrong w/the sound on Riot?! Riot and Fresh are by far Sly's two best albums, otherwise (mostly) a singles band (mostly), & after Fresh, a sad, precipituous descent. The other essential Sly is his appearance on the Mike Doulgas show w/The Champ & some ofay congressman from Ohio-- brilliant! I searched Youtube for this recently but it didnt' turn up; ya'll seen? thankufortalkintomeafrica, c I saw that show. Both when it first aired and sometime in the past couple of years I saw a rerun on some cable station. Great TV. Live and adlib! Ali really ripped into both Sly and Mike Douglas and really came off badly..

You guys have said it all. I'm sorry to see him go.

Thanks for posting that list MG. I'll have to figure out what I don't have and get after some of those. I dig Gator. As he said in the article you quote: "....It was a thing at the time. Illinois Jacquet was doing it, and Arnett Cobb. People expected to see showmanship playing, the honking type of thing, lying on the floor, walking through the aisles. But you know, you can do that and PLAY too, if you can.” And HE played his butt off ! One of the great record buying bargains I ever came across was in the mid or late 60s when the Stern's department store in Paramus NJ ran some kind of record liquidation. I bought at least 15 or 20 Prestige lps all by Gator, Lockjaw, or Shirley Scott for TWENTY-FIVE CENTS each! It was my intro to them. I bought the records 'cause they looked good! And I was not dissapointed. Great score!

I think Sony may be sitting on a remaster. Phil Schaap played a remastered version on FM maybe 5 years ago. At various times before that he had played the remastered ANATOMY OF A MURDER and Benny CARNEGIE HALL some time before official releases. Like Lon I have the lp transferred to cdr. Here's hoping Sony gets off it's keister.

Horrible songs are in the eye of the beholder.