Nate Dorward

I think I associate the tune now with the end of My Own Private Idaho.....it's the tune that rolls after the ambiguous good samaritan ending (the narcoleptic hustler first robbed & then cared for by two passing vehicles). -- I haven't heard the Ervin version. There's a version of it on Betty Carter's With the Audience though it bears little relation to the original tune. The odd thing about "Lover" is that Clark doesn't get a solo on it.

Actually I think Braxton's pieces--their visual titles & how they sound--do have a strong visual component: they look & sound like Tinkertoy or erector sets, or Calder mobiles.

Luke--thanks for the considered response. Yes, Ash may sound "easy" in the sense of "comfortable" & "enjoyable" but it's definitely not easy-sounding in the sense of "simple"! It's incredibly hard to play that way, actually. You never get the sense that Ash is just running off things already under his fingers: he's a thinking player. Not an adventurous player, but a thinking player nonetheless. Yeah, I think that both with the Dobson & the Across 7 Street discs I basically have a sense of players I have sympathy with but maybe not quite the settings I'd most like--the very compressed, one-after-the-one solos on the A7S disc, & the tight standards arrangements on Dobson's disc. Not that I dislike either disc--both are very nice. But there's a difference between appreciating & really feeling personally engaged by/involved with a disc..... Thanks for the peek at the forthcoming lineup--that sounds great. I really appreciate what you're doing with the label. Did you see the inclusion of the Across 7 Street disc in the Coda top-tens this Jan., & Duck Baker's very nice, thoughtful review in the same issue of the first Hewitt release? My formal writeup of the disc is now up at http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/reviews/000747.html though it doesn't say much I didn't say above.

Losing steam? I'd always thought "Deep Night" the highpoint of the album....

Feel the Sunshine is good, yes--but I'll beg to differ re: Tshar (who contributes a low-budget D Murray/J Carter knockoff). If it weren't for him it'd be a very good disc. What's Ragin up to at the moment?

Not indignant, just exasperated! & mostly with certain of AB's fans not AB, who are often extremely reluctant to acknowledge that their man ever commits a fluff. When you try to point out to them that there's lots of messy playing on the disc their response is usually just "Well, you must be some Marsalis-loving creep."

You have such a vivid imagination.

I'm sure the exclusion has nothing to do with his personal history, just Scott's different way of divvying up stylistic/period divisions.

From Between is really good, as is the +minus. The later Rainy Koran Verse seemed to me a mite less fresh. Writeup of First Meeting I did for STN:

Yes it's got a recording date of 2001 if memory serves. I haven't heard his other stuff, mostly Japanese issues I gather. Very much worth picking up, anyway: it won't blow you away but it's the kind of disc that sits in the CD changer for extended spells.

This is a release on Smalls Records; I'm posting on it in part because I think that since most of the excitement surrounding the Smalls label concerns its Frank Hewitt releases, the other releases on the label have been cast in the shadow. I don't think that's a huge injustice necessarily--the Hewitt material is by far the most significant stuff on the label. Anyway, of the other records on the label I've heard the Across 7 Street release (nice hard bop with some good tunes) & the Sasha Dobson, which has a backup band led by Chris Byars from Across 7 Street. Somehow neither of those does a lot for me (sorry, Luke) but the other one I've heard, William Ash's The Phoenix, is more my speed. It's not a distinctive album: basically the pleasure of the disc is just hearing someone do something familiar just right. It's spare, no-tricks Wes Montgomery-style guitar, with a really nice old-fashioned live-in-the-studio sound. The tunes are mostly originals, usually just a simple call-&-response riff over straightforward chords (blues, "Rhythm", or the changes of tunes like "It Could Happen to You" or "All the Things"). Plus a blisteringly fast "Constellation" (doubletime solo all the way), "Bewitched" & a don't-mess-with-perfection "The Sidewinder". Nothing here out of the ordinary, but it's durable music: nothing here with an expiry date. & Ash makes the guitar sing, in his no-fuss way. The rest of the band: Dwayne Burno on bass, Mark Taylor, drums. A really nice album if you're a fan of elemental, laidback guitar which never gets too far from the blues.

Thanks for the further thoughts on the disc. Hm, I'm not so keen on Of Love & Peace either, though it's certainly an interesting album..... I think my comment wouild be that Contrasts is actually fairly close in sound to Of Love & Peace even though it's not quite so out-there or consistent. If you like one of them, though, you'll probably like the other. But don't buy one of those ridiculously overpriced Mosaic boxes on Ebay!

Actually the striking thing about the session photos is (1) Young's change of appearance on the one shot of him from the Unity session (from smooth to bearded & a bit worried looking); & (2) there's no photos included from any sessions after that point at all.

I'd assumed that it was pretty obvious it was my opinion, & I don't see any reason to hedge that. It goes without saying it's not the only possible opinion. Yeah I've heard Lawrence of Newark is worthwhile--is that the one with an uncredited Pharoah Sanders?

I'd say avoid the box, frankly: I got it at a time when all of Young's albums were out of print, but now that they're available what's the point? (Or have any of them slipped out of print again? If so, a crime.) With the box you don't get the original cover art, most of the really good sessions get split over 2 CDs (indeed, Unity gets split over two boxes!), & the two hard-to-get sessions aren't really much good. Get someone to burn them to CDR for you (if you like, send me a backchannel note & I'll do it myself). The only essential track between the two albums is "A Major Affair", with "Evening", "Call Me", "The Hereafter" & "Tender Feelings" being worthwhile & the rest skippable. Yes, Homer nods....

It occurred to me that it would be worth posting a rundown of Larry Young's two remaining unreissued Blue Notes, which are only accessible in the Mosaic set. Basically, there's about 3-4 worthwhile tracks here, the rest ranges from merely OK to wretched. * Contrasts, recorded Sep 18 1967 Tyrone Washington, Herbert Morgan, ts Hank White, flg Larry Young, org Eddie Wright, g Eddie Gladden, d Stacey Edwards, conga Althea Young, vcl on "Wild Is the Wind" Evening / Majestic Soul / Means Happiness / Major Affair / Tender Feelings / Wild Is the Wind The liner notes (Ed Williams) are the worst kind of 1960s drivel, with Williams’ analysis of the music largely confined to identifying the zodiacal signs & elements he associates with each player (Larry is “Libra” and “Air”). All tunes by Young unless otherwise indicated. “Majestic Soul” (11:55). “Soul,” yes, but I’m not sure about the “majestic” part. A one-chord tune, congas & messy tambourine-shaking, “freaky” tenor sax solos (of which the best is the first one – not sure who it is, though; the second solo is pretty unconnected), collective hollers between the solos. Young’s solo comes late in the track & is pretty duff by his standards – I just find the tootling repeated notes irritatingly simplistic by his standards. “Evening” (7:10). No guitar on this one. A handsome, rather complex Latin tune. As with all the Blue Note discs from Of Love & Peace onwards, the execution of the ensembles is kind of sloppy & Gladden & Edwards make for a very cluttered rhythmic feel. But this is an interesting track, though the horns don’t do anything terribly interesting except for the nearly-incoherent 2nd tenor solo (Washington?), a bit Sam Riversish. An understated Young solo. “A Major Affair” (3:40). This is the best track by far (& it’s the only track from either of these two albums to get included in the Art of Larry Young compilation Blue Note once issued). It’s a duo with drummer Eddie Gladden; the chord changes are a Traneish thing with a “Giant Steps”/“Countdown” flavour. Terrific music. “Wild Is the Wind” (4:28), the Dmitri Tiomkin standard. Althea Young, Larry’s wife, sings this one (just Larry, Althea + Gladden, in a rubato reading). Awful, though not positively unlistenable. Larry doesn’t take a solo. “Tender Feelings” (6:48), a tune by Tyrone Washington. The full band except for the percussionist. Not a bad tune, some ambitious chord changes over a big loud groove. I like this one. A hysterical, slightly too tightly-wound tenor solo, I think (moving into guttural Pharoah Sanders/Sam Rivers territory): I assume it’s Washington. Larry’s solo seems OK to me but a bit off-the-peg, a little too stuck in the groove rather than flying free. Still, I like the vibe of this track a lot, even though it’s a little splashy. “Means Happiness” (4:43). An African township vibe to the tune, I think. This is a free-jazz piece with added percussion, verrrrry 1960s & beatific. No flugelhorn here. It’s not bad, but nothing special. Somehow it never really feels all that transcendental or moving, it’s just a period piece. * Heaven on Earth, recorded Feb 9 1968 Byard Lancaster, as, fl Herbert Morgan, ts Larry Young, org George Benson, g Eddie Gladden, d Althea Young, vcl on "My Funny Valentine" Call Me / The Infant / The Cradle / Heaven on Earth / The Hereafter / My Funny Valentine The (Nat Hentoff) liner notes to this one are most notable for extracts from an interview with Young talking about his enthusiasm for Elijah Muhammad. “The Infant” (6:00). The obvious attempt at radio airplay, a by-the-numbers funk tune with a loud backbeat & George Benson guitar riff. You’d really not recognize this as Young’s work at all. That said, if this is your kind of music, it’s a perfectly respectable example of the genre. Young’s solo is depressingly like any competent soul organist’s work. In this kind of mode I find Young too reliant on tooting the same note over & over again. “The Cradle” (5:00). A pretty bossa number for just Young & Gladden. Nothing spectacular, but it’s OK. “The Hereafter” (8:41). An eerie minor-key waltz that’s more about mood and understatement than about solos. Some fast Benson decorations here. At 3:30 Morgan enters at last & then after his solo comes Byard Lancaster, rather feeble-sounding on flute (he doesn’t sound like he really knows how to play it). This is a decent ebb’n’flow mood-piece. “Heaven on Earth” (6:05). Another crass backbeat-heavy tune, with a farting tenor riff to start it off & clanging drums. The bridge gives it a pop-tune vibe. George Benson sounds in his element here, at least. Again, competent work here but you’d never guess it was Larry Young playing the banally strutting solo. A pop tune: “Call Me” (7:26), by Tony Hatch. A sugary bossa, but given a rather good songful treatment. This track is actually performed with a lot more gutsiness than the backbeat-oriented fare on the album. If you like Young’s handling of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” you’d like this one (actually, it might be a tad better). “My Funny Valentine” (4:38), Rodgers-Hart of course. The mandatory feature for Althea Young, & it’s worse than “Wild Is the Wind”. Quite horrid. No Young solo, just a Benson solo. * My thoughts on the above: the main problem isn't the pop leanings but just that for all the messy percussion & billowing organ chords the word for the feeling is "stiff", esp. Young's solos. The only other obscure Young album that people often ask about which I've heard is the belatedly issued session with Booker Ervin for Prestige. I no longer have it. Basically, it's a completists-only release: it's OK, but Young & Ervin never get on the same wavelength & the drummer's not much use. I would be very interested to hear about other Young releases I've not heard, esp: 1) the album with John McLaughlin, Love, Devotion & Surrender (I heard this at a radio station, I remember it as OK though not great). 2) the other 1970s stuff, which is I gather mostly awful 3) the final album with Joe Chambers, which sounds very promising. It was made under Chambers' name I gather.

Of Love & Peace is very different from the next two. It's his "free jazz" disc (it has its moments but it's basically a letdown after Unity). The next two are rather commercial efforts, with a lot of funky numbers, (awful) vocals by his wife Althea, & George Benson on guitar. There are about 4-5 good tracks between them, notably the duos with Eddie Gladden, "Major Affair" & "The Cradle" (esp. the former). Exact details: Contrasts, recorded Sep 18 1967 Tyrone Washington, Herbert Morgan, ts Hank White, flg Larry Young, org Eddie Wright, g Eddie Gladden, d Stacey Edwards, conga Althea Young, vcl on "Wild Is the Wind" Evening / Majestic Soul / Means Happiness / Major Affair / Tender Feelings / Wild Is the Wind Heaven on Earth, recorded Feb 9 1968 Byard Lancaster, as, fl Herbert Morgan, ts Larry Young, org George Benson, g Eddie Gladden, d Althea Young, vcl on "My Funny Valentine" Call Me / The Infant / The Cradle / Heaven on Earth / The Hereafter / My Funny Valentine

Martin Williams is curiously belittling of Tristano's legacy in that dialogue with George Russell reprinted in The Lydian Chromatic Concept--holding Tristano up as an example of how innovation in jazz won't really work/catch on if it's only at the level of harmony rather than rhythm or other elements. (This seems to me odd in the extreme given Tristano's innovations in the use of compound metres, oddnumbered rhythmic subdivisions, &c, but I take it it's a glance at the "passive" timekeeper role of bassist & drummer on a lot of Tristano sides.)

It's an OK album but it's rather patchy, I think ("Corcovado" & "Stella" being the main culprits). Still, basically everything with the Green/Young/Jones team is close to essential. They ought to have recorded more. I don't, frankly, see the point of getting the Larry Young Mosaic because 1) it's frickin' annoying: most of the best albums (Unity & Into Something) are split over two discs 2) all the best material (all of discs 1 through 4 plus Mother Ship on disc 6) is now available as standalone CDs, with the original cover art. (The two duds in the batch are Contrasts & Heaven on Earth, which take up most of discs 5 & 6, & arguably Of Peace & Love isn't so hot either. All three albums have their moments, but basically things get hitormiss after Unity.)

If you're looking for Random Acoustics stuff, the one to get is the Butcher &c Concert Moves.

Yes, I've heard the electronic works disc. It's not terribly interesting, except for the short track "Chitterlings".

Jon--I was thinking of Aida too (which, let me add for the sake of those who don't know the albums, is an entirely different album from Aida's Call)--though the Japanese connection is more tenuous (the title is in tribute to Aquirax Aida, who lured Bailey to Japan: see http://www.l-m-c.org.uk/texts/bailey.html). I really want to hear that 2CD solo album New Sights Old Sounds--I should just break down & get it direct from Derek/Karen. Cadence (my usual source) doesn't seem to stock too many Incus albums nowadays. From all accounts it's one of Derek's best solo discs. I still really like Dart Drug with Jamie Muir, which sounds nothing like anything else of Derek's I've heard.

I already wrote my list of recommended Bailey discs a couple of pages back. I do like Ode, but it's not a place to hear Bailey specifically, as it's a large ensemble. Jon--yes, but John's question was actually to do with various ensembles like SME, LJCO, &c which he hadn't heard. I note your list of fave Bailey discs has a strong Japanese slant!

no to all. Where would you recommend starting with Bailey to someone with open ears? Lessee... Jon Abbey can probably help here, I recall that his list of favourite albums for instance included Iskra 1903's 3CD set on Emanem, some 1960s SME, plus the first LJCO album Ode. Of that bunch I only have Ode & still don't know quite what to make of it. It's light-years away from the slicker latterday LJCO, & certainly a very interesting album, though like that band it does have shades of Stan Kenton (e.g. the inordinate fondness for brass fanfares) that kinda worry me. But: you should certainly get hold of Karyobin (Chronoscope), one of the definitive early SME albums. Bailey, E. Parker, Wheeler, Holland, Stevens. There's also a lot of material by different but related lineups on Emanem from this period. Company 6 & 7: Bailey, Braxton, Lacy, L. Smith, &c &c (Incus). If you like this there's more material from these sessions on Company 5. I have Oxley's The Baptised Traveller (Columbia)--Bailey, E. Parker, Oxley, J Clyne, K Wheeler. Haven't quite decided what I make of it, but it's certainly interesting. Hard to find now, I'm afraid, what with Columbia's short-term reissue program. It gets a crown in the Penguin Guide as does Ode, FWIW. It has a rare instance of Bailey playing a "jazz" tune: in this case a Charlie Mariano piece.

I like Ballads & there are certainly many passages where he addresses the tunes obliquely--but it's not perhaps Bailey's best solo disc. Aida, Drop Me off at 96th & Lace are all good places to start for the solo work. Drop Me Off is in many ways a more searching examination of standards repertoire & styles than Ballads even though it's not explicit: aside from the blasts of dissonant swing-guitar in "Bunn Fights" there's an improvisation that emerges out of "I Didn't Know What Time It Was". & it's a good album for demonstrating that Bailey is very precise, especially about tempo: despite his many skewing interpolations you can actually (if you're determined) tap along to it. If you haven't heard any Bailey then I take it you haven't heard early SME, LJCO, Tony Oxley, Iskra 1903, &c (all bands Bailey was in). Definitely worth remedying the omission!