connoisseur series500

It would help to have a list handy. Get anything by Rueben Wilson. The guy just kicks. The two RGs I have by him are LOVE BUG and BLUE MODE. Blue Mitchell's DOWN WITH IT and Grant Green's CARRYING ON are excellent.

I did not defend Jimmy Gee at the time because I felt it was not my position to do so. I wasn't the one that was being satirized; Chris was. It was his duty to do so if he felt it necessary. If someone satirized me as Jimmy had, and he was censored for it, I probably would have objected to the act of censorship. Still, it depends on how mean the post was.

I remember the thread clearly. My impressions at the time were that it was premptorily deleted. I agree that B-3er has the right to do these things; but if good sense is not employed in these kinds of decisions then the board will fall apart as people drift away. We should try to limit censorship if it is at all necessary to have it. Just my thoughts. Thanks

The poll can be considered finished now and the big winner is Tina Brooks, TRUE BLUE; in fact, Tina Brooks was the big winner generally as three of his cds appeared in the finals. I have TRUE BLUE but like many of my cds, it has been spun only once or twice. BASRA and ETCETERA finished a close second and third. Interesting was the flop of SONNY'S CRIB, which was a big winner in a preliminary poll. It received one sympathy vote at the end. I was very intrigued by the many votes for this session and I decided to spin mine a few times. This also fell into the category of having been heard only once or twice. After listening to it some more, I feel that it is a good session, but nothing that would displace many other Conns. Thanks to everyone for participating in these polls. It was fun. Now will someone set up a big RVG playoff? Bruce H? Rooster? AfricaBrass? Pryan? Noj?

Geez, the week is going fast and I haven't yet commented on this cd. I've been listening to it over the last few days. Great session! The two bassists are incredible; McCoy is his usual great self. Trane is Trane. Freddie Hubbard plays wonderfully, and Eric Dolphy only messes up one song: I don't care for his solo on "Dahomey Dance." It seems that he is focusing on trying to make his alto sound like a bass clarinet (maybe it is one and the cd credits are wrong.) Anyway, I don't particularly care for Mr. Dolphy's music in general and got rid of all my cds where he was the session leader. He does a creditable job on the other songs. Haven't yet read the analysis on this thread yet, so it will be interesting to see what the others thought. I know a lot of people are nuts about Dolphy, but he does nothing for me. This session sounds like an Impulse session. This is Trane at his prime, in my opinion. He and McCoy worked so well together. Evin Jones is dynamite. This is a solid 5 stars (on a scale of 5) I am now going back to my Impulse Trane collection and listening to them all over again. Thanks Ole! BTW, what do you guys think of Pharoah Sanders' version of Ole on his "Heart is a Melody" cd? His version isn't as good in my opinion. Does a lot of screaming on it and it is emotionally charged, but Trane's version is a masterpiece. My Sanders cd is for sale, btw, if anyone is interested.

Don't look at me; I voted the same way you did! I wonder how often that has happened! Yeah, Moose!! Go Moose!! Snort! Snort!

Currently I'm not seeing the point of it existing in the first place. Is that for you to determine?

Her parents live in Mandeville. Ethnically, I am 50% Italian, and the remainder a Celtic-Saxon mix, and my birth there is just happenstance. I am a British and American dual citizen. Still, All Jamaicans are my brothers and sisters! Jamaicans are a wonderful mix of races. The Spanish held the island originally, and many Spanish Jews were sent there (or moved there) as a result of the Inquisition. Cromwell sent a force to capture French Hispaniola; the General of the marines and the Admiral of the fleet quarreled incessantly. They found their target to be too well fortified, and they sailed off to Jamaica to take it as a consolation prize. The Africans came, and I quote from a source not necessarily targetted at Jamaica specifically..."from Angola and the Congo; from Dahomey, Lagos, Old Calabar and the Bonny River; from the Central Niger and Hausaland; from Portuguese Guinea and the Gaboon." These are varied cultures with proud histories. The English didn't mix as well with the Africans as the French did in their colonies, but the inevitable mixing occured; and as in America, most of the Jamaicans are of mixed blood. There are even a lot of Chinese-Jamaicans. There is also a group of people of African heritage who escaped slavery into the hills while the Spanish were being defeated. They are called "Maroons," and they retained autonomy throughout British rule. They even captured and returned runaway slaves. These people are still there and remain somewhat separate from other Jamaicans. There are lots of books written about them, and I even own some of them, but haven't yet read them. Unfortunately, I don't know much about them, except for this funny story: A colored Jamaican friend of my father, who later became the Agricultural Minister for the Bahamas related that he was once driving up in the hills in Maroon country in Jamaica on some agricultural mission. The roads aren't very good and there were deep puddles in the road after frequent rains. He drove up in his land rover and accidentally splashed two muscular Maroons carrying machetes with his tires as he turned a treacherous corner. One of the Maroons turned to the other and said (I am unable to accurately imitate the lingo:) "Wha, me na tell you; dem white rass: dem no FUCKING GOOD!!" Bear in mind, that the fellow in the land rover would be considered by Americans as black. A curious difference between the Caribbean and America: In the Caribbean if you have some white blood, then you are considered white. In America, if you have just a little Negro blood, you are black!

Big John Patton, "That Certain Feeling." One of his best. More Duke Pearson stuff, like perhaps "Profile," or "Tender feelins" Grant Green, "Visions"

Just came upon this thread this evening and have just cast my vote which has stalemated the controversy. I don't get offended that easily; and I'm always for as much freedom as possible, right Moose?? You guys coming down too hard on Beri.

P.G. Wodehouse's novels and stories never get old. If you haven't read any of his stuff yet, you're in for a real treat. It doesn't matter which work you choose as he is remarkably consistent. His books are pure tomfoolery written in grand language. Evelyn Waugh is wickedly satirical. The "Flashman" novels are funny too but might offend uptight people. The author is George Macdonald Fraser (sp?) and he sticks a fictitious rogue into 19th century history. The history even comes with footnotes and some bibliographical references. The books get repetitious however. You can read them just for the history. To generalize: British writers tend to be humorous. Even 19th century authors are funny. I like Thackery, for example.

I stopped posting at AAJ. Too many people over there and I don't have the time to post on two boards. Have to choose one, and I'm happy with the family over here. Thanks everyone for making this place nice!

Clarendon Parrish. Born in Mandeville, which is a rather pleasant hilly town; but that was only because it was the nearest hospital to where I lived. Grew up in "the bush." Small place near May Pen.

Afraid it is that good, Bruce. Glad to see that others recognize it too.

HUGE fan of Cabell's work on ACCENT ON THE BLUES (my vote) here, based on the LP version (how I came to know this album back in ye olden daze), a bit less so of his other work w/Patton, including the AOTB CD bonus tracks. Why? Easy - a totally natural swing, a totally natural tone, a complete lack of stress in his playing, some of the funkiest, bluesiest inflections heard on record for quite a while before or after, a sense of how to work within his technical limitations that bespeaks a rare musical intuitivity, a knack for hitting the right note at exactly the right time w/o even a hint of overplaying or doubt, and yet again, that TONE! You can sum all that up in one word - soul. Marvin Cabell on AOTB is as soulful a motherfucker as I've heard amywhere. Them chops was still clearly in the developmental stage, but to carp about that technical shortcomings at the expense of overlooking such pure soulfullness on a John Patton record, of all places, is high irony indeed! Check out Marvin Cabell on "Villiage Lee" and tell me that this was NOT one HUGELY soulful motherfucker! Cat wrote some good tunes too, icing on the cake. Intonation probelms? Nah - there's a whole way of "hearing" that comes out sharp in terms of "conventional" pitch. I've long suspected it's a carryover from so-called "African temparment", but have no proof. Still, you hear it in a LOT of "unschooled" African-American music almost as a matter of course. There's more to it than so-called "bad intonation, of this I'm sure. Besides, America used to be full of Marvin Cabells - brothers who came up learning the music on the street and in the clubs and who often had their souls together a LOT more than their chops. Some went on ahead and made up the difference, some KINDA did, and some never did, but continue(d) to play anyway, just because. The 60s & 70s found so many guys playing in R&B horn sections on and off the road going through exactly this process, and so did the local organ combos, while they existed. Most of them never got anything as "high profile" as a Blue Note date (although John Manning did), but Lord knows they were out there, moreso than many of us might realize, propulgating the sound of the soul of the street. Marvin Cabell, I suppose, is one of those guys you either get right away or never do, and there's no real "right answer". But I dug him the first time I heard him, just as I did ACCENT ON THE BLUES. We used to get REALLY stoned and listen to BN sides on a regular basis back in them days, and AOTB was always a fave for that deep, DEEP groove, the way Cabell rode it with such confidient, unstudied nonchalance, and for Leroy Williams unformed yet undeniable hipness. And, of course, Patton his ownself. Many years have passed, and the system is relatively toxin-free these days, but it's an album that STILL gets me high, and Marvin Cabell is still one of the major reasons. This probably TRULY explains nothing, but there it is anyway! Great analysis Jim, even if we have to clean our ears out afterwards!!

One is offered on ebay. Auction is due to end in 9 days. Rooster's usual disclaimers apply

It's a fascinating race so far.

Only ten allowed; otherwise, I woulda been slipping in lots of stuff. No 10'' Conns here either. That's another poll.

Yah! Yah! I know who Weizy voted for. I kept mine but it hasn't hooked me yet. Then again SONNY'S CRIB got a crate-full of votes and it hasn't hooked me yet either. Gonna have to give that one a few more spins.

Hmmm, this will be very interesting. I voted for BASRA.

Figured by now everyone has voted. I took the highest vote getters judging by total votes (Sonny's Crib-9, etc) and am now placing them in the final poll to determine the big winner! Please note that there were four cds which had 4 votes, and I had to kick one of them out in order to meet the limit of 10 for the poll. The four were: Byrd/Watkins, TRANSITION SESSIONS; Wayne Shorter, ETCETERA, Larry Young, INTO SOMETHING; and Hank Mobley, STRAIGHT NO FILTER. Since Mobley's SLICE made it to the final, I felt that SNFilter would be the logical one to be kicked out. What else could I do? Our board members seem to have a love affair with Tina Brooks. He has three cds in the final. TRUE BLUE and SONNY'S CRIB had the most votes in the preliminary rounds with 9 each. This is it, everyone. The big final. Big Ben says.....VOTE!!

I couldn't vote because I don't own any of them.

In fact, If I were pressed to name one cd that is essential for Blue Note to reissue it would be THAT CERTAIN FEELING. This session is awesome. I'm tired of my cd-rom copy; I would like a copyrighted, remastered version. It's coming out on Mosaic, but I don't want to buy all the other stuff that I already have just to get this one. I think Big John hit his peak from 1968-1971. All his stuff from this period is great.

This is a terrific poll. My favorite is definitely the one not listed: THAT CERTAIN FEELING, but I understand the reasons for not including it in the poll. I had to settle for MEMPHIS TO NEW YORK SPIRIT. Patton and Ulmer are an unbeatable combination; perhaps even better than Patton and Green. Actually, all these are good, but we all know that!

Race relations in America is virtually a taboo subject. Notice not many responses to your thread, Rooster. I have no answer for you. I was born in Jamaica as a white minority. My friends were white, colored, and black. All Jamaicans are still brothers to me. I move to the States and discover a different situation. Everyone is totally uptight about race relations. Everyone is afraid to speak their mind. I have two black next door neighbors on my street here in Toledo, and one white neighbor next to me. My street is perhaps 25-30% black as a wild guess. Obviously, I don't count. All my co-workers at the office are white (I'm in sales,) but many of my clients are black-American as well as Asian, African, Arab, European, whatever. My friends tend to be white and black-Americans but i do have some immigrant friends as well. My wife is Asian; and my brother in law is Arab. One of my closest friends is black. We talk about all kinds of things, but we share a love for chess and jazz. The two of us also share a real friendship for a couple of Ukrainian immigrants, who are having it rough right now. I feel my life is pretty well integrated, but I don't make any special efforts towards that end. I just gravitate towards people I like; and those people come from all different cultures and colors. As an immigrant myself, I am not afraid to meet other immigrants. My neighborhood is middleclass and we all share a lot of the same values and aims. I do not hang around the hood nor am I especially interested in meeting the people there. I simply meet the people who share similar values, whether they vote Democrat or Republican. These people come in all different colors and come from all different cultures. I believe strongly in diversity. Could I make a greater effort to meet people of other races and cultures? You bet I could, but I don't feel especially compelled to do so. I guess I'm comfortable with myself and enjoy my friends. Sorry, this is no answer. I don't know what the answer to your question might be. As the Jamaicans say, "Walk good, brother."