JSngry

Well, look what's just been released. Hope springs eternal, I guess!

I think it's funny how people look at these records like they were some kind of documents of working bands and then say stuff like, well, herbie played better on other people's records than he did on his own, etc when shit, his and wayne's and tony's and who knows who all else's records were projects, not bands. you know, you're playing that lost quintet music all the time, shit keep getting freer and freer, outer and outer, and then lion wants a bn record with songs and shit, well, that's a change. wayne broke loose into his own band-mentailty, eventually (and on Blue Note), so did herbie, so did they all, but all those cats played more than soooooo many people, then and now, what's the point of obsessing over 50-ish year old project records. they all have their merits and they all have their holes, Maiden Voyage makes for a great "album experience", Empyrean Isles brings the heat. the first two BNs are great period pieces, Inventions and Dimensions is a wonderful palate of harmonic colors, Speak Like A Child is a very unified concept executed exceptionally well, i still find The Prisoner the weakest of the lot, but really, who gives a fuck, we've all heard them by now, right? They are what they are. The guy's done a buttload full of music since then, several buttloads in fact, and there will still be excellents among them, just because he can still play and he can still think, and his ceilings for both are pretty damn high. And there will be a buttload full of disposables too, because, you know, he's made a whole lot of all different types of records. My favorite Herbie record is Village Life, and it's not on Blue Note. Gerry Mulligan, actually. Totally different bag though. But, color, counterpoint, piquancy of voicings, he did it. Not full-on, but he'd drop that shit in when nobody was looking more than a few times. Check out the bridge and the ending, how he uses the bass as a third horn to make the dissonant-ish horn voicings work better than they otherwise might.

Nesco High School Concert Band?

I guessed that it was a "win" flag from back in the day. Looks like wiskerpledia agrees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubs_Win_Flag Was it at Wrigley or at Comiskey where they actually flew each club's pennants to reflect real-time standings? That kind of shit is throwback like a noahflukker.

With a little imagination, this can often enough turn into a lost Jackie McLean album. With no imagination at all, it's still a good record.

Maybe one of the better Clark Terry records, all things considered.

We keep people around as they age and wrinkle. They show character and kindle memories, they keep the past alive while being in the present and going into the future. I'll do the same with a record, unless the record's an onerous asshole. In that case, fuck that record.

Yes? Both?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2769847-report-974-fans-attended-rays-vs-white-sox-game-at-guaranteed-rate-field?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial and on the flip side of the ugh record

Some of the Ellington things saw life on Everest as well. Wonder who the hookups were, Albert Marx & Aubrey Mayhew?

Saw him at a concert/clinic with Clark Terry somewhere in the early 1970s, then hardly ever heard about him until the CD reissue boom reached out to the European recordings. He was a fine, fine player. RIP.

I truly regret not being able to make the trip.

and I am stuck here...reports, please

the Braith Prestiges are of more interest to me than are the BNs, and I very much enjoy the BNs. And then you get into his self-released stuff...eccentric, often, but always interesting.

This has the complete Ellington/Musicraft sides, iirc. It's a fine set, too, if you do LPs. That was an interesting time in both Duke's and the band's evolution. Wasn't Duke kind of given a hard time after Musicraft folded or whatever? Something about it being an independent label and the "powers that be" not appreciating that at all? This was my first, and still best, taste of Al Sears: And this really needs to be heard in full, in context, and here it is: Part 2 is what generated "Night Train", but jeeeeesus, Part 1, hey.

Of course they're committed, they're just not particularly relevant to the record. It's like, ok, nobody's going to buy a record of all drum solos, they all sound alike, so we need tunes for people to identify first. So let's slap on some heads and throw in some horn solos, that way people won't get bored and confused. Well, ok, but not all drum solos sound alike, these two drummers definitely do not sound alike (does anybody pay attention to kit tunings these days anyway?) and like I said, in a parallel universe, this record could have been made with just drum solos, as a "conversation" instead of a "battle", and then that would be that.

Better than expected, yes. Fascinating, not so sure about that. First heard it in the 70s (when it was always in print, thanks to Buddy's name, I'm sure), and found the horns to be sort of "tagged on", would not buy the record for any of the horn players. But you've got two exceptionally gifted drummers meeting and exchanging on totally equal footing. If the record could have been made 30-40 years later on Soul Note, there would be no horns, and there would be no "confrontational" tone to the packaging. It's a drum record.

Lean On Him is a lot different than the other Terry Mainstreams. Spiritual Jazz, literally!