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Nate Dorward
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Posts posted by Nate Dorward
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TRACK EIGHT - "Crazy Rhythm", by one of those old school badass motherfuckers who could just wail on anything. Jug, Tom Archea, Eddie Chamblee, cats like that. Trombonist is kinda...working on it. Pianist is kinda showing off ain't he? Like he's more advanced than everybody else. He plays one of the trombonist's licks back at him, that "Parisian Thoroughfare" thing. And he is more advanced. But advanced and better ain't the same thing, so him & the tenor player are totally peers in my estimation, at least at this time and in this place, which was when, half a century ago?
Like another track here (Bonus #2) this is included partly because I actually saw the saxophonist in concert (though of course not this particular performance, which was way before I was born). Not a big name, though I think he recorded a disc or two for Concord near the end of his career. The pianist took his life a year or two after this recording was made, & remains something of a "what-if?...." A shame.
to be continued....
Fraser MacPherson?
Yes, that's him. It's an all-Canadian group, in fact.
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TRACK ELEVEN - A wild stab here - Bobby Shew? Lanny Morgan? Highly competent all the way around, the chart is kinda Boss Brass-ish, which is not really my bag, but I've played a lot of those charts, and they do require some panache. Pete Christlieb? I'm definitely feeling West Coast/studio players here, guys who can all play one thing and make a living playings anything. Nivce work if you can get it! Truthfully, in my younger, more ideologically-driven days, I would have hated this. Now I respect the hell out of it, and even kinda like it. You just don't get to this point of competency without paying some dues. And if the dues you pay to get here are not the dues that others have chosen to pay to get someplace else, oh well.
You're right to hear the west coast vibe here, & yes that's Lanny Morgan--there's a particular Birdish lick he tends to play every 8-16 bars that gives him away! Shew is in the band but isn't the trumpet soloist. Not Christlieb. I included this in part just because I really like listening to these kind of dazzling workmanlike players who really feel the music. I was reviewing this album at the same time that Dave Holland's first big band album was getting a lot of press & I was thinking how the Holland album sounded like it was the work of players who really had very little big band experience mostly & how much it sounded like that. & while, yeah, the chart's not anything that speaks to me, I still like the panache with which it's delivered, especially the trumpet solo.
TRACK TWELVE - Oh geez, I know that alto player. Or else I know who he's copping from. These days.... Very late-60s/early 70s-ish, and if it's retro, they've kept the spirit and not just the excution, so good for them.Definitely not a player you know, so I guess he's just got good taste!
TRACK THIRTEEN - Oh HELL yeah! Larry, from CONTRASTS. UN-mistakeable! godDAMN this is the shit right here! Not in "style", but in spirit. Tyrone's tune, "Tender Feelings". This is what playing live over time in the context of a real, all-purpose, uncontrived scene will get you. If I said to accept no substitutes, I would be being cruel and unreasonable. Things have changed and irrevocably.Nevertheless...
Yeah, this is such a great track--it's a shame that Young's work for Blue Note gets so piecemeal after the trios/quartets with Green & Jones. I mean--Unity is such a lonely peak, there ought to have been so much more like it.... & though this album & the other post-Unity albums are kind of uneven & sometimes even lousy (the vocals), it would have been great if Young could have done a lot more with these guys. Reminds me that I really do need to hear Washington's sole leadership album for the label....
Young was a big obsession with me back in the 1990s (it was a period I was trying to make a go of it playing piano, & my main listening at the time was Young's "Monk's Dream" and Pepper's Meets the Rhythm Section and Intensity). The Young was the first & for a long time only Mosaic set I owned, because NOTHING of his was in print beyond that pathetic one-CD compilation.
TRACK FOURTEEN - For some reason, this player reminds me of Frank Strozier, particularly his features with Oliver Nelson & Don Ellis. At least on the a cappella intro. Less so as it goes on. Veteran playing all the way around. Probably too long, but oh well. Anybody who checks out something like this in the first place probably ain't gonna be too upset by that anyways.Yep, all veterans, playing very much on-the-hoof. (Not Mover, though.) It's a bit messy & everything, but there's just so little on disc of the alto player that this will have to do..... He spent time in the 1960s NY scene but ended up teaching in a real musical backwater. & then just as he was thinking of getting back into a more productive musical scene, he was hurt in an accident & his embouchure was wrecked. He's been struggling to recover since--I haven't heard him for a few years, but hope he's on the road to recovery. This date is from the early 1990s, & I was present for the concert.
TRACK FIFTEEN - Oh, ok. HARDCORE!
Let's hear it for the true BELIEVERS! Seriously!Yeah, judging from the responses I don't think there were too many true believers on this one!
But really, I wasn't expecting a high like/hate ratio with any of this stuff--some of it's music that means something to me for a variety of reasons but might not to others. Really, it's nice if anyone gets something out of just two or three tracks....Hey Nate, that was fun. Sorry I took so long to get in, but even for this, I had to put aside some things that "others" were insisting I do. You know how that goes...But for real - a nice collection. Enjoyed it.
Great--always a pleasure to hear people riffing on the music....
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Hey Jim--thanks for the comments! All very interesting, & some spot-on....
TRACK TWO - Not sure. I'm engaged more than compelled, which is more than most things do, so hey. Sounds like these guys all have other "ways of playing" & that this is a "growth exercise" of sorts for them rather than how they play by gut. That's cool.You're right that these are all guys who can/could swing both ways, as it were. Kenny Wheeler on trumpet, as someone noted above, & his presence should help i.d. the rest of the players.... I guess for some of them this is a growth exercise, in that since the period of the recording (1970s) some have gone on to "mainstream" themselves; in fact neither alto player does a lot of free playing any more.
TRACK THREE - Funny how the Tristano influence keeps hanging on & becoming more abstract. Those who dismissed him back in the day, boy, wouldn't they be surprised! Sounds recent. Very plotted out, and to good effect in one sense, less so in another, in that I get no sense of anybody other than the composition, which might well be the point. Not sure if this is "relevant to my lifestyle" or anything, but everybody sounds like they mena it, so all's well.relyles spotted this earlier--it's Fred Hess's most recent disc. He's never said anything explicitly about a Cool School influence, but I find it hard not to think he's done a lot of listening to Marsh in particular. The short, tight arrangement & brisk round of solos was intended, he says in the liners, to be a tribute to Shorty Rogers' charts.
TRACK FOUR - 80s? 90s? 2000s? We had a couple of things in this basic vein in Quartet Out, vampish, and...I got played out on it. I "hear the math" before I do the music, which is not the fault of these guys at all. So kinda like they used to do on To Tell The Truth, I must disqualify myself from the proceedings. But I will say this - there gets to be a quality of... specific masculinity in these type things that is not really good for anybody over the long haul.Mid-1980s. Yeah, I'm somewhat ambivalent about this kind of music, but, hey, I found myself enjoying this more than I thought I would the most recent time I pulled it out for a listen, & it's certainly got rarity value, so I thought, hey, let's put it on the BFT......
-- You have any clues to the saxes? I was wondering what your thoughts were on the tenor in particular (who's spoken of respectfully in these parts from time to time).TRACK SIX - Sounds like either a really old guy who's still at it in his last years, or else a younger "out-ish" guy who's right on the verge of getting his/her changes together. No real opinion here. People do what they do for whatever reasons they do it, and that's how it should be.It's an oldster on the sax, I think the rest are all young guys.
TRACK SEVEN - I must confess, I've never really checked out Derek Bailey, but this is what I've always suspected he sounded like. Sounds like he's having fun, and it's a little contagious, that fun is!Yep, it's Derek, paying tribute to his hero Teddy Bunn. He doesn't usually reference jazz so explicitly. Aside from the bursts of chording, one reason I like this particular album is that you can actually hear an implied time-feel in a lot of the tracks--you can actually tap along to long stretches of it.
TRACK EIGHT - "Crazy Rhythm", by one of those old school badass motherfuckers who could just wail on anything. Jug, Tom Archea, Eddie Chamblee, cats like that. Trombonist is kinda...working on it. Pianist is kinda showing off ain't he? Like he's more advanced than everybody else. He plays one of the trombonist's licks back at him, that "Parisian Thoroughfare" thing. And he is more advanced. But advanced and better ain't the same thing, so him & the tenor player are totally peers in my estimation, at least at this time and in this place, which was when, half a century ago?Like another track here (Bonus #2) this is included partly because I actually saw the saxophonist in concert (though of course not this particular performance, which was way before I was born). Not a big name, though I think he recorded a disc or two for Concord near the end of his career. The pianist took his life a year or two after this recording was made, & remains something of a "what-if?...." A shame.
to be continued....
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1. My first thought was that this was reminiscent of Lennie Tristano, then I thought it might be Jimmy Knepper from his rare Debut EP, reissued on the Mingus Debut box. Just now it occurred to me – this is the Ronnie Ball quintet on Savoy – Willie Dennis (trombone), Ted Brown (tenor), Ball (piano), Kenny Clarke (drums). Lovely!
Yes, that's the album. It's an undeservedly obscure outing that is a rare example of Willie Dennis's solo work, among other things. At one point there were about 10 jillion cutout copies of this available in the bins at Sam the Record Man's, & I bought a stack of them to give to friends--unfortunately, they're all gone now, as is Sam's.
2. The alto on the left has absorbed early Ornette quite well, don’t know who anyone else is. My guess is that this was recorded within the last 20-25 years. I found the composition not too interesting, but some of the players were.Haven't got the album here (writing from work) to doublecheck the solo order, but, anyway, yes, Ornette's a big influence on the altoist in question (& indeed the album is in some ways a response to Ornette's music). The other alto player is best known for more mainstream work, including non-jazz studio work.
5. A nice trumpet player, but the tune really didn’t grab me. Is that a string quartet?Yep, strings, but you're right to think there's something unusual about them.......
6. Here we have a familiar sound, never rises above the familiar for my tastes. Could be Joey DeFrancesco or Mel Rhyne, might the guitar be Peter Bernstein?These are all fairly uncelebrated, "local" players.
8. “Crazy Rhythm” – a vintage side, probably from the early 50’s. Bad rechanneled fake stereo. Something tells me this is a European group – don’t know why. I liked the tenor player, trombone is a valve instrument, maybe a mellophone or euphonium? Pianist has a few interesting ideas.You are right to think this is not American, though it's not European either. It's early 1960s, a tape from a radio broadcast that was recently discovered & released on CD. The pianist is the main reason I included this. The saxophonist later made a name for himself in more of a retro swing style rather than the Getzian idiom here.
11. A nice crisp modern big band, well played, but the chart is all too familiar. Good soloists. Nice trumpet, Gene Quill on alto? Bill Watrous on trombone? Not too thrilled with the tenor player.No, neither player's here. The trumpeter is the leader, a veteran of big bands from over the years.
1. We seem to be in Larry Young territory here. I liked this track, but really haven’t a clue who this is. Don’t care for the tenor too much - Tyrone Washington?Yep, you've got this one.
2. For reason I want to say Lee Konitz, although I can’t find any aural evidence that it’s him! The tune is “There Is No Greater Love”. Good bass player, a nice performance all around.The alto player was a student of Lee's in the 1960s.
3. During my first runthrough I got pretty impatient with this, waiting for something to happen, asking myself why Nate would include this lengthy meandering track. Around the half hour mark, the bari solo begins, and from here on I was taken in. This is a fine and moving solo, even though I had to wait through a lot to get to it! something for everyone in this track......Thanks, Nate!Thanks for your thoughtful comments!
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Hm, not a bad guess, but it's actually Dutch. Probably one of the harder items to i.d., even despite that hint, though the presence of the guitarist should help narrow things down substantially (as there aren't a lot of guitarists on that scene, at least in this area of the music).
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He's got a new solo disc out, by the way, Resonant Spaces, which continues the vein of his last few solo records in that the pieces are recorded in unusual locations--in this case a tour of Scotland, including some work in outdoors locations (with a stiff wind blowing!).
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Summary of progress so far (one star for partial i.d., three stars for the fully i.d.'d tracks)
1) Everyone spots the Tristano vibe, no-one's i.d.'d the players though they all know it's not Tristano, Konitz or Marsh. Shouldn't be too hard to figure this out from process of elimination.....
*2) RDK correctly spotted the inimitable Kenny Wheeler, the rest's up for grabs.
***3) relyles got this--Fred Hess's new album.
*4) Thom Keith (2nd guess) and John B (dead-on) figured out who the much-maligned guitarist is here, the late Sonny Sharrock. So, since there aren't a lot of albums in his discography, this shouldn't be too hard to pin down now, right.....?
5) No i.d.s yet
6) Ditto
***7) relyles named Derek Bailey, & John B pinned down the album: Drop Me Off at 96th.
8) A mystery track
9) ditto
10) ditto
11) ditto--this is a nice patch of obscurity
12) ditto
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Bonus disc:
***1) Half the posters spotted this one (well, I didn't put it on in expectations it would be that obscure... maybe in some circles, but not on a board full of organ fans & Mosaic collectors!): Larry Young, Contrasts, "Tender Feelings" by the elusive Tyrone Washington.
2) This one will defeat people, I think. I'll give a big hint & say that I included it largely because I was in my teens & present for the concert, one of the first formal jazz concerts I attended in fact. Put that together with some basic biographical facts & you can nail this. The only player anyone will know here is the drummer.
3) Ah, the BIG ONE......... No one's got close to this one yet! Tips (recapped from above): a. the bassist is present elsewhere on this BFT; b. one of the players (at least, maybe more?) is Welsh; c. the instrumentation is more or less unique so you can i.d. this easily from that & a little Google creativity, I think.
Happy hunting!
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Drop Me Off is the Bailey disc I was attepting to link to. I'm not sure what happened with my cut and paste job there.
I've never heard it, but it is the one solo album of his that I keep seeing recommended that I've never been able to track down. It seemed like a logical enough guess based on the track.
Yeah, it's a damn shame it's so hard to find. Can make you a copy if you like. I should ask Karen Brookman if the revived Incus might reissue this...... The contemporary Lace is nearly as good but this one has the edge, not least because of the more focussed (shorter) tracks & the dips into "straight" jazz guitar playing.
track 5 – There is something awkward about how the strings fit into this track. The trumpet, piano and drums are nice. Fairly subdued but not boring. I find it fairly jarring whenever the strings drop in. If you told me that they were pre-recorded and added to the track in production I would believe it.Everyone notices the oddity of the strings....
There's a reason for this, but it's not because they're prerecorded. Let's just say I'm waiting for mikeweil's verdict on this track with great interest............. -- Someone here should be able to i.d. the pianist, he's a big name.track 8 – The sound quality of the recording makes me think this is from the ‘50’s, but the playing sounds like something more recent. No clue who any of the players are. The pianists solo is interesting. While most of the tune is fairly retro, his playing on the solo is fairly modern.Yes, early 1960s, but it's a previously unissued recording sourced from a radio broadcast. The pianist's untimely passing was much-mourned because he was an adventurous thinking who was clearly destined for big things but never recorded much. This is a nice memento.
Track 9 – This one is all over the place, in a good way. Shades of surf music, spy film themes, no wave, country-western, etc…all mixed together in one increasingly frenetic mix. A track like this that sounds improvised and bridges jazz with no wave makes me think of someone like Weasel Walter. No clue who this is, but this one’s a blast. I’d like to hear more from this disc.A hint: a music-crit friend of mine picked this for his disc of the year for 2008. Glad you liked it! Nope, not Weasel. I should note that these players are all usually associated with the free-improv scene, rather than this kind of music.
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Thanks for the comments! Yep, Sharrock's on #4. Anyone nail the particular album? He's a sideman on this date.
The Bailey solo track is off Drop Me Off at 96th on Scatter (recorded in the 1980s, released in the 1990s). The title is "Bunn Fights", which is a reference to Bailey's hero Teddy Bunn (of the Spirits of Rhythm). -- I couldn't follow the link to the allmusic page but I'm guessing you were linking to Ballads or Standards. I have the former, & like it a lot, but I think that Drop Me Off is one of his real masterpieces.
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A tangent, but: it's actually nice when people play the "real" intro to the tune (I think I only have one or two recordings of it with the verse).
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Thom--thanks for the comments--as you'll see, a few bullseyes....!
Track 2 - Oh, yum! Trumpet has some Kenny Wheeler on him, but sounds more out than that. Dave Douglas, maybe? Altos sound like schooled guys, but one reminds me of Moondoc and the other of Rob Brown, but it's neither. Maybe a hyper-controlled Zorn? Recording sounds modern, but bassist reminds me of Nick Degeronimo -- but I would think him dead before this recording. Could this be a Whit Dickey record?You have the date wrong--this is from the 1970s--but yes, it's Kenny Wheeler as a sideman; he's played in a lot of freeish settings over the years aside from the more composerly stuff on ECM.
Track 4 - Electric bass... ugh.
I'd like this better without the electric guitar and electric bass. This reminds me of one of Dennis Gonzalez' bands, but doesn't quite fire for me like that does (geez I'm a negative bastard!). Alto sounds like somebody who's listened to a lot of Grover Washington -- playing very exaggeratedly off the beat much of the time; kind of reminds me of Candy Dulfer. I'm going to take a SWACG (Sophisticated Wild-And-Crazy Guess) at the guitarist, but I'm sure I'm wrong -- I like my guess better than this -- and say Vernon Reid. Even some shades of Sonny Sharrock in there. Sounds like rock-leaning people trying to play an aggressive crossover. It sort of works at times, a bit like Material.Why, what's wrong with bass guitar? -- Anyway, your 2nd guess about the guitarist is much better than the first....!
It's a Sharrock sideman appearance from his comeback period in the 1980s/1990s.Track 6 - I think I know this guy, but I can't pin him down (on second listen, now). A bit of Ricky Ford, but cleaner. Must be one of those guys on the edge of my field of listening. Reminds me of an Ellery Eskelin record I just got off eMusic (haven't played it yet, just catalogued it). He plays one of the old Gene Ammons tunes and smokes it. This guy has a more muscular tone than EE, though.Not a young guy here--this is a veteran. I think the reason he's not better known is that he's mostly stuck to his homebase. He's a sideman on a several of a notable singer's albums, which is probably the only place you would have heard him before.
Track 9 - Huh... shows up as "Track 2" in Quicktime. No idea, but reminds me a bit of Zappa's Jazz From Hell, which I never really cared for.I think the goofy track numbering is due to my using 2 discs to make the compilation--I renamed the files to the correct numbering but somehow it seems to have still carried over. Anyway, you have the numbering correct. Not Zappa--it's actually (as I mentioned above) a player who's better known for his work on a different instrument entirely.
Track 11 - Shows as "Track 4" in QT. Not sure what it is, but the arrangements are by somebody who knows what he's doing. Very pro and tight. Sounds like Charles McPherson on alto to me. Not sure of the 'bone, at all. Modern tenor, don't care for him. Guessing a college boy -- totally loses the feel that was setup for him. Piano rings no bells.The album is actually a tribute to the arranger (who had died--he's not on the track). Yeah, the alto's got that Bird line going like McPherson but it's not him.
Track 13 - Yeah baby! That's what I'm talkin' about! Knew this in 2 notes, and started to type my response (started with the bonus), then my laptop took a dirt-nap the next day. Tender Feelings. My guy Tyrone on tenor (solo). I believe Herbert Morgan is the second tenor on this cut. I have this on the Mosaic set, but I think the album is Contrasts. Eddie Gladden and Eddie Wright. It's not Woody Shaw... hang on, it'll come to me... Hank White! These two sides (last two discs in the Mosaic set) are some of my favorite music ever. I was actually going to include a cut from this when I did my BFT. Great choice!Yeah, I figured a lot of people would have this via the Mosaic set. It's actually only one of two Mosaic sets I own (the other being the Reinhardt set). The mastering is a little dim--it could use an RVG--but anyway it's nice to have all this stuff, even if this album and Of Heaven and Earth are both very uneven. This is one of the standout tracks, of course. If both LPs were put together on a single disc (maybe dropping the vocal tracks if they would push it over 80 minutes) that would make an excellent release, but I guess that the days of plentiful Blue Note reissues are over.
Track 14 - Not sure... reminds me of that Anthony Ortega date with Chuck Domanico, but this guy sounds a little funkier than Anthony. I don't know *who* this is, but I like it a bunch.Nope, not Ortega--this guy has recorded very little outside of a little sideman work on Latin dates in the 1960s. A Konitz protege, incidentally. You'll have the drummer in your collection, but not the bassist (whose intonation really irks me here, but I didn't put it here for his sake).
Track 15 - I like how this develops, but it takes awhile. This would be very interesting to watch live. Interesting and effective use of electronics, but tough to hear without seeing.Yep, there's electronics, but some of the more unusual sounds are from the percussion...... If you i.d. the instrumentation it shouldn't be hard to figure out who/what this is.
Thanks for your thoughts!
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Had some trouble getting the tracks in the right order - where some numbered incorrectly? (This may have been answered, but I'm avoiding reading anything here.) Anyway, here are some quick comments I wanted to post before leaving the office. Will try to elaborate more later, but I really suck at identifying players. I really dug this BFT because much of this stuff is a bit out of my “comfort zone” but I nevertheless found most of it very listenable and interesting. I'm very curious to know some of the players. Many thanks Nate!
Hm, wonder what's up with the numbering problem. You seem to have sorted it out correctly, as your descriptions all match the music.
5. Lovely! Strings/cello (?) are just atonal enough to not make this sound at all sappy. Is this Kenny Wheeler on trumpet? I really like this one and would love to hear more.Strings, but not a standard quartet.... -- Nothing atonal here, I'd think, but the trumpeter does have a very interestingly worked-out harmonic language which he draws on for some of his recordings.
7. Solo guitar. Elliot Sharp? Andrew Cheshire? Goes on a bit too long with not enough variety for me.Neither of them--actually, I've never heard Cheshire at all....
Glad you found the compilation of interest! Thanks for the comments.
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Think of it like this: there are some films that seem to be common currency--you may enjoy them very much, but it's not like it's an intensely personal experience enjoying them (sometimes you can feel like you've "seen" them even if it's only the people around you who have!). There are others that seem to speak directly to you, & precisely because of that you know they will annoy or pass over the head of a lot of other people.
Same story here, making allowances for the fact that jazz itself has a smaller community of listeners to begin with.
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Seek out Rodney Kendrick's Verve/Gitanes albums (all o/p now, alas). He's on most of them (well, not the trio date, obviously), & contributes some excellent solo work.
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7. My guess is that this is a totally improvised solo guitar performance – at least there is no definite song form. The closest my listening experience has come to this is a couple of Derek Bailey live recordings. Well I can’t complaint about the rock influenced distorted guitar effects this time, but it is still not something I can imagine myself seeking out too often. At a minimum it requires a much more focused listen than I am able to give right now in order to fully appreciate. I have no idea who the guitarist is.
Yes, it's DB himself, but untypically in a Hot Club mood.....
9. The “rock guitar” seems to fit on this track because the entire performance feels more like an extended rock improvisation other than a narrowly defined jazz/improve performance. The drummer certainly is not trying to deliver a 4/4 swing feel. I have very little reference to compare this against to form a qualitative judgment. Then after about six minutes the feel changes a bit. Something tells me this is the kind of thing most enjoyed in a live setting really loud as opposed to being an intellectually stimulating listening experience – at least for me.I should note that the guitarist here is actually better known for playing a completely different instrument. But I think he sounds just fine on this ax!
Thanks for listening--yes, probably this will be a curate's egg for most people! What can I say... I'm generally more interested in the kind of music that will always have a "specific" audience rather than a "general" audience.
I'm still waiting to see who can i.d. the much-maligned guitarist on track 4.... You almost certainly have his work as sideman in your collection, on some pretty notable albums. This is one of his harder-to-find appearances.
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6 Sounds a bit like Benny Golson. But I can’t imagine him writing a tune like that! Don’t like the guitarist much. Or the organist, for that matter.
I can assure you that if it were Golson there'd be about a zillion more notes!
7 Some funny kind of stringed instrument of the Indian persuasion, I guess. Oh, a guitar.I know! It’s 7/4!
Sorry, can’t be asked to take this seriously. Listened to it all, though.
This guitarist isn't usually known for playing anything that resembles jazz, so the bits of 1930s swing here (not in 7/4, surely) are unusual, & I think effective. It's one of his more hard-to-find solo albums because the label is no longer around.
8 “Crazy rhythm”. Wow! A song I know! And a sax player I know, too. You devil, Nate! Lull me into a false sense of security, thinking there won’t be anything in my range and here’s this guy - and although I know him, I can't recognise him, not even on the second or third attempts. With a trombonist I don’t think I know at all. Valve trombone, by the fleetness of it. Funny sounding piano. Or is it the recording? No, it’s the piano player, giving the game away, because this isn’t a fifties recording but something rather retro.(Well I think so.)
It's 1960s, a tape of a broadcast recording. You might know the saxophonist (who later went on to develop a rather different style from the Getzian player you hear here), definitely none of the others. Yes, valve trombone. The pianist never recorded any commercial recordings & died young; he's the main reason I put this in.
9 More drivel. Rock guitarist again. Could be the same one as on #4; they’re all interchangeable. Could be the same drummer as well.No, but it is the same bassist as on one of the other tracks.
11 A modern big band. I think I recognise the drummer. But I don’t know really. The trumpet, alto and trombonist, and the tenor player are all people I feel are pretty recognisable modern musicians. Ditto the pianist. I just don’t recognise them. There’s nothing in here in the way of a STATEMENT that makes me want to get to know any of them better. But it’s OK.Not sure how "modern"--the pianist is young, but the alto and trumpet are grizzled veterans. I was surprised to hear the altoist on a past BFT playing tenor in a sharply modern manner, very different from the Birdish alto here.
Not a lot in this for me, Nate, I'm afraid. But I'm glad I heard it - so thanks. At the very least, it reminds me how careful I need to be in exploring modern music.MG
Well, sorry to put you through such agonies! You should have heard the stuff I left off..........
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1 Oh I know this – but the recording sounds different to the one I’m familiar with. Perhaps that just because it’s on the walkman, rather than the hifi. I prefer the walkman for BFTs because I can concentrate without hearing external stuff going on. Oh, I’m in danger of thread hijack here…
OK, this is “Tender feelings”, from “Contrasts”. And yes, it does sound a bit different to the vinyl.
Yes, I took it from the Mosaic, as far as I know the only CD reissue of it thus far. It's a very mixed album (ditto the following one, Heaven on Earth), but there are about half a dozen excellent tracks on it (the main duds are the awful duets with Althea), & I thought that some BFTers might like a taste of one of the best tracks. It's a Tyrone Washington composition.
2 Long intro on alto to “There is no greater love”, interestingly altered. Sax, bass & drums – a nice airy combination. Sounds nice, but to me the bass player and the alto player aren’t playing off each other. The sax and drums are having a conversation, but the bass player’s just strolling around, keeping time fine, but leaving me wanting more. And the end is too long; just noodling.Don’t know who these guys are. It’s OK, but not TPOK Jazz, if you know what I mean.
This one went on the bonus disc after some hesitation. It's not by ANY means a successful track--aside from the untogetherness, there's the bass player's intonation problems--but I included it for personal reasons: it was one of the earliest jazz concerts I attended, & it happened to be recorded & released on CD. I primarily value it as evidence of the saxophonist's work, as he's recorded very little. The only player you'll know here is the drummer.
3 Sorry, but this is rubbish. Well, I didn’t turn it to the next track. Eventually, I caught something going on. Then there was a bit more going on. But I didn’t delete my first sentence – reality posting.Didn’t like it at all, but there’s something going on. It’s not FUN, though. Nor is it passion.
Bleedin’ ‘ell, don’t it go on a looooooonnnnnnngggggg time? (@13:20).
Yes, it does (@21:00).
All seems rather too deliberate. And for little or no point.
Well, looks like this track is going to outlast the battery in my walkman (27:27)
I can get with the baritone player who came in nearly half an hour late. Glad there was room for him but, truly, who cares?
Milkman called for his money at about 35:00, it had finished when I got back. Insufficiently interested to find out how it ended.
Hm, I'll be interested to see who actually likes this track! Just the one saxophonist, playing multiple instruments. You may have come across these players--one is Welsh, in fact.
BFT62 Main disc1 A wee bit o’ Bebop. Nice and swinging pianist. Sometimes I think I recognise the tune – or at least the one underneath. Is it “Alone together”? Trombonist didn’t do much for me, but the alto player is grooving me to the full!
Don’t know who these guys are – modern jazz isn’t really my thing. I know lots of people who the alto player ISN’T, if that’s any good.
Tenor, not alto, though this school of playing tended towards a "light", Prez-influenced sound. The tune is based on "Pennies from Heaven", in minor. -- Not a lot of recordings by this trombonist, & I'll have to beg to differ here--he's a pretty extraordinary player, I think, & I wish there were more of his work around.
2 This seems to be based on “The last post”. A somewhat “out” version, of course. The front line – well, all of them – are working together nicely. After a bit, it settles down into some pretty ordinary hard bop stuff. Very chopsy alto player. Is this from that Branford Marsalis album about Katrina? Can’t say I liked it.No, not Branford; this is from when he was still knee-high. Two alto players, you'll definitely know at least one of them though maybe in a very different context. The trumpeter is a big name, usually more mainstream but in this period he was doing a lot of more avant-garde work too.
3 More bebop. Well, more modern than that, I guess. This seems relatively recent. The unison passages suggest a bunch of college types. Not saying anything to me.Well, they do teach a little..... but the oldest guy here is in his 80s, not fresh out of college!
4 A nice groove to start with always gets my attention! There’s something Ellington-ish about the tune and the way it’s played. And also Joe Dukes-ish about the groove. The alto player was solid with me. Can’t be bothered with rock guitarists, though. This should have stopped before he got to the studio. And that rock-style beat that comes along then has nothing to offer me.This isn't necessarily a great track, but like the Young track is one that is hard to find, & there are collectors of the tenor player & the guitarist (both of them died a little too young & recorded rather little) who I thought might like to have this.
5 Pleasant trumpet player backed with a string synthesiser? Or is it a string quartet? Maybe real strings. Yes, the pizzicato bits sound real. This is pleasant enough; the way the strings are arranged could be film music.Real strings, but you're right to think there's something funny about them....
(continued in next post)
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[tumbleweeds....]
It's not that bad, is it?
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That's very sad to hear. Once Upon a Summertime is one of my favourite vocal albums ("Tea for Two" and "Manhattan" especially).
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Well, I knew that that track (& a few others) would get mixed reactions..... but if you want to give it a shot I do recommend simply listening to the long track continuously, as I can't imagine it'd make much sense if you simply jumped into the middle. It evolves through about four or five distinctive episodes. -- Probably it'll be tough sledding for anyone not a fan of, say, mid-1970s Miles Davis, though.
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Thanks for the comments, relyles--a few notes below:
1. This suggests a Tristano influence -- in particular the rhythmic feel and the playing on the head. The solos by the piano, trombone and tenor all told solid concise stories. There is nothing familiar to me about any of the soloists. Overall nice track to get things started.Yep, Tristano's very much in the background here, though it's not him on piano. Any guesses as to the players? One of the reasons I included this is that none of the frontline players is particularly well-documented on disc, which is a shame.
2. This is an interesting track. I am not sure how I feel about the sound of the bass. In the extended opening it reminds me of some recordings from the seventies of Charlie Haden's bass. Once the tune settles into somewhat of a groove it has an overall Ornette vibe to it. At times the first alto soloist sounds a bit like Mr. Coleman, but I do not think it is Coleman. I like the sound of both saxophonists. Very strong track.Yes, early 70s, & a strong Ornette influence, though it's not anyone from his immediate circle. I used to have this on vinyl & it was marred by a serious print-through problem, which kind of wrecked the long pauses at the opening. So I was overjoyed to find it on CD, nicely remastered, though it seems to have fallen out of print again. Shouldn't be too hard to i.d. one or two of the players here.
3. Another track where the subtle bit of counterpoint and the steady rhythm brings to mind Tristano. Brief statements from trumpet, alto, bass, tenor and then guitar all seem to fit. The new album by Fred Hess comes to mind. I listened to it a few times and enjoyed it, but I do not have the information regarding the album with me here at work to confirm. In any event, this is my kind of stuff.Yes, you have guessed right here. The track was actually intended as an homage to Shorty Rogers, according to the liners.
4. This on the other hand probably is not my kind of stuff. I should clarify that by stating that I think the saxophonist is interesting -- in fact he/she sounds familiar for some reason. Appealing sound and an imaginative solo. I also liked the groove set by the bassist. The drummer's solo -- well it came across to me like a drummer's solo -- I have a hard time seeing how it relates to the rest of the tune unless I look at it as a segue to the guitar solo. And that is where this loses interest to me. Just not a huge fan of the rock influenced distorted guitar in jazz/improvised music. The saxophone solo following the guitarist does not have the same impact to be as the first saxophone -- assuming it is different. Bottom line is that I started to lose interest in this one after the first saxophone solo.I'm not sure that I'm all that taken with this track as a whole either, to be frank, but I included it because it's off a pretty obscure album that features a lot of excellent, underrecorded players. A pity you don't like the guitarist, that's really the main reason the track's here! (he only takes two solos on the album, of which this is by far the better of the two, so that's why I went with this rather long track).
5. Feature for a trumpet backed up by subtle strings and an ensemble. Trumpeter has a nice sound and a sense of confidence in his/her playing. Solid track.Ah, but listen carefully to the strings..... there's something unusual about them. & dig the pianist!
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For some reason, I started on the bonus disk also.
Track 14 really works for me. Big bass. Swings pretty good at times. At first blush I thought about some of the Dutch guys. Anyway, I will be interested to find out what this one is. Probably will eventually cost me money.
Nope, not Dutch! Though there's one track elsewhere on the compilation that comes from the Dutch ambience. -- The bassist on the incredibly long track on the bonus disc also turns up on one track elsewhere on the BFT, by the way.
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"high on drugs" ???
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Ah, hadn't known that the length might present a problem for some players! Yeah, the music develops in several different directions after the opening. Definitely less sedate after a while...!
Nope, it's not Brötzmann & the Chicago guys. Just one horn, but yes, two percussionists. If you identify the very distinctive instrumentation it won't be too hard to figure out what band this is, I think.
BFT #62
in Blindfold Test
Posted
Not Laswell, but it's indeed Sharrock on the guitar.