Harold_Z

Good bass playing is a concept - whether it's upright or electric.. Unfortunately it's an easy ax for someone with no concept to "get by" on and these are the guys that play as you describe.

This thread had my interest from the first post in the sense that I wanted to revisit the record before I did anything. I didn't post and I didn't read the thread beyond the first post. Tonight I burned my lp onto cdr and gave it a good listen. The burn is on as I write this. OK. It's everything Jim says it is re: Miles etc. Actually re 70s funk. Very influential and very focused in Sly's own head. Can you really write about this record without referencing drugs? I can't. So , thru a drug haze, Sly is focused enough to turn out this gem. HOW? He focused. He had his eye on the spot - or his EAR is on the spot. And yeah...it's a coke haze but I think it's it's a scag haze too. Dope fiends. Everything and anything and deal with it. That's how I see and hear it And I LOVE IT. Who's playing on this? The LP doesn't really say - just some pictures on the inside of the gatefold, (You all remember gatefold lps? Very useful for cleaning certain vegetation). I vaguely remember reading or hearing that much of it was Sly overdubbed. Specifically the bass was Sly. Let me elucidate a moment about the bass on this LP. For a pro bassist operating often in bands playing this type of music it was KEY. Here's the deal - The bass on the record sounds like a Fender (Jazz or Precision) with flatwound strings and the action set very low (lower than any bassist would use AT THAT TIME) and played with for the most part with a pick (funk bassists rearely used a pick) and no mute. It all works and sounds great. It's funk bass played with a set up NO recording funk bassist is using at the time. He's not really a bassist - so he uses an easy to play set up and because he is so focused and because he knows exactly what he wants and because he's in the studio and is running the show and can get the sound he wants it all comes out great. I say that as praise - not as a put down. Larry Graham filtered through Sly. (another discussion I'd like to have. Early Graham Central Station). OK - I'm still listening and I'd like some reaction to what I've said - agree or disagree. I'm a strange case- I was weined on early jazz and on FUNK. I played with Funk bands all througth the 60s and 70s and I'm glad this thread came up. I want to talk about THIS music too. One more point - this is considered POP MUSIC...but to me the attitude of this music is SO related to jazz as to really be the same thing in my heart of hearts. It's improvistiory and grooves.

The use of "WORD" predates Arsenio, the Wayans, or any celebrity. Really it's a kind of reference to the Bible in the sense that the Bible is THE WORD. Hence saying Word after somebody else's statement is like saying the statement refered to is as accurate as the Bible. It's the word of God. Really. No shit. That's what it means.

"Da Bomb" is definitely more authentic spelling. I just couldn't get myself to write it. I'm too edjumacated.

Word is like saying YES ! or RIGHT ON. One might say (after an earlier post praising the thread): " WORD ! This thread is THE BOMB!"

Nothing has bothered me on the ones I've bought. I'm not an audio fanatic but I do have likes and dislikes in the matter and these are fine for me.

Yeah...slow for a couple of days now.

I'm definitely in favor of this idea. Good music is good music and it should be called attention to.

Benny More was outstanding. STRONG pipes ! I was looking back on some of the things I have on cd and vinyl and the notes are pretty uninformative. I was under the impression that Benny and Perez Prado recorded together frequently during the period that they were both with RCA, although I couldn't find anything in what I have to substantiate this. I've had my eye on that 4 cd set for a while.

Enjoyable disc Couw..another one that I'll be revisisting often. I've put off posting here in hopes that I'd come up with some better ids on stuff - but I haven't. I have to confess that there's a lot here that I'm unfamiliar with, but I found all of it enjoyable. These BF tests are definitely pointing me to new listening, things I've missed, etc...and that's a good thing. I like the no chordal instrument slant and there's a wide stylistic range of players here, so we see how differing approaches work with this. Nice sub theme. The tracks I know are tracks 3, 10, and 14. My suspicions on the other tracks are too unfocused to venture a good guess. I think a lot of these guys are European (just a guess) and they sound great AND familiar AND worthy of further listening, but I don't really know who they are yet. Is track one a movie thing?

Johnny Mercer's singing always seems very hip. He's from that era where Jazz and Pop interelated. His lyrics were humorous and clever and the catalogue of songs he wrote speaks for itself.

TV, a snack, and a WEEEEE NIGHTCAP!

LOL Chris ! Kinda sounds like a new brand of shaving soap.

I was listening to WKCR this morning when they announced they were back to full power for the first time since 9/11 when their transmitter at the WTC was destroyed in that tragedy. Their listening range had been drastically cut down. I couldn't get a clear signal and I'm 10 miles out of town and they announced several times that even lower Manhattan wasn't receiving them clearly. Now the entire Metropolitan area should get a good signal

WKCR is a great station. Basically WKCR and WBGO are 90% of my radio listening with the other 10% being NPR. I'm in agreement with the above post by Chuck. Why should Blue Note be restricted to one type of Music? Columbia for example, released a lot of great Jazz along with many other types of music.

I think the Philly tenor guy on the Cameo-Parkway stuff was Buddy Savitt. I have an old Parkway lp modestly called "The Most Heard Sax In The World" where the notes say as much and the sound is right too.

...Now that's a SEGUE !!

Patricia, I had the good fortune of working with Ray on many occasions, both in the studio and in clubs. He was a nice guy and a lot of laughs. He would pop out with things like "I dig Sonny Stitts (sic)" and his delivery would crack me up. At the time he was guitarist Ralph Casale's brother in law - he was married to Ralph's sister. Ralph was a prolific studio guitarist and is an excellent player. I was working with Ralph's combo (Kenny Drew Jr. was in that combo too and a great drummer named Connie Atkinson) and Ralph would add Ray to the group occasionally and give us some time to stretch out before the "commercial" sets. We always dug it when Ray was on the gig. He played great. Deep mentioned to me about a year ago that he heard Ray was in ill health. Drag that he's gone.

Bad news - Ray was a great player.

I love the show. It's like Seinfeld unfettered by network restrictions. thanks for posting this, Al. I didn't know the dvd was coming up out. Now I ordered it.

I'm going to use all this prior verbosity as an excuse to promulgate a musician who has been imho has been shortchanged in terms of recognition and influence among guitarists, and that's Oscar Moore. The guy had great sound and technique and I think he really influenced guitarists - the Nat Cole Trio was so popular that his playing became pervasive, espescially for gigging guitarists. As far as the Trio...innovative? I don't know - I think more likely that it was right on a very hip musical spot at the precise right time and became the leading example of a sub genre.

...as does the Vangaurd Vic Dickenson disc.

Happy BIrthday ! AND MANY MANY MORE.

Count me in !

Yeah...I'm shocked. You don't expect this in someone's John Guerin's age.