JSngry

Definitely, definitely, definitely prefer the recent Uptown set of broadcasts material from this band to these studio sessions, which at times border on stiff and unswinging, at least in comparison to the live stuff.

Remember this guy from the McLean Blue Notes) and/or from,much later solo projects)? Who knew? Bass – Reggie Johnson (tracks: A1 to A3), Stan Gilbert (tracks: B1 to B4) Congas, Bongos – Pondaza* Drums – Mel Lee (tracks: A1 to A3), Ray Pounds* (tracks: B1 to B4) Guitar – Art Johnson (tracks: A1 to A3), Mike Deasey* (tracks: B1 to B4) Keyboards [Ex-42], Cowbell – LaMont Johnson (2) Producer – Carolyn Judd, LaMont Johnson (2) Tambourine – Ray Pounds* (tracks: B1 to B4) Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute – Charles Owens Trombone – Yusef Rahman Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Sal Marquez This one disappeared before it got out there but hello Sonny Red?!?!?!?! Dire, matbe? But that's part of the story, if you want to know the whole story, shit gets dire sometimes. Either way, again, who knew? And yes - THAT Phil(lip) Wilson. Alto Saxophone – Sonny Red Bass – Dale Smith (5), Terry Hensley* Congas – J. Burr Drums – Phil Wilson* Electric Piano, Organ – Merl Saunders Guitar – John White (31) Tenor Saxophone – Hadley Caliman Trombone – Jock Williams Trumpet – John Wilmath Vocals – Robert Williams (23)

I can hear the math. It's good math, but I like it better when I'm able to intuit it more than hear it. Occupational hazard, I guess, on both ends.

Definitely a "supplemental" album, but, like Iapetus (which is anything but supplemental) it does show the fallout from the Second Quintet might have been smothered by the fallout from Bitches Brew, but it was not suffocated entirely. This record could have been on Strata-East. Buddy Terry - tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute Woody Shaw - trumpet Eddie Henderson - trumpet, flugelhorn Kenny Barron - piano Joanne Brackeen - piano, electric piano Stanley Clarke, Mchezaji - bass Billy Hart, Lenny White - drums Airto Moreira - percussion Mtumé - African percussion A pretty atypical Buddy Terry album, actually, but not necessarily a surpising one...

Acoustic Bass – Lawrence Evans Alto Saxophone – Charles McPherson Drums – Billy Higgins Flute, Baritone Saxophone – Chris Woods Flute, Tenor Saxophone – Frank Wess French Horn – Julius Watkins Piano [Acoustic] – Barry Harris Trombone – Garnett Brown Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Cecil Bridgewater, Richard Williams Charles McPherson - alto saxophone Ted Dunbar - guitar (tracks 1, 3, 5 & 7) Barry Harris - piano Sam Jones - bass Leroy Williams - drums Selwart Clarke, Max Ellen, Emanuel Green, Joe Malin, David Nadien, Gene Orloff - violin (tracks 1, 3, 5 & 7) Julien Barber, Alfred Brown - viola (tracks 1, 3, 5 & 7) Kermit Moore, Alan Shulman - cello (tracks 1, 3, 5 & 7) Ernie Wilkins - conductor, arranger (tracks 1, 3, 5 & 7) Charles McPherson - alto saxophone Lonnie Hillyer - trumpet Gene Bertoncini, Carl Lynch - guitar Nico Bunink, Barry Harris - piano Ron Carter - bass Leroy Williams - drums

We had Stuckey's

Baritone Saxophone, Flute – Hamiet 'Bunny' Bluiett* Bass – Stan Clarke*, Wilbur Ware (tracks: A1, A2, A4 to B3) Bass Clarinet – J. C. Williams* (tracks: A4 to B2) Drums – Thelonious Monk, Jr.* French Horn – Stuart Butterfield Piano – George Cables Supervised By [Musical Supervision] – Ernie Wilkins Tenor Saxophone – Paul Jeffrey Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Joe Gardner Tuba – Bob Stewart

No exclamation points!!!

I have enjoyed Hal Galper any number of times over any number of years, but playing with Phil Woods so long turned him into bit of a whiner (at least as far as his public online pronouncements go). Maybe it was contagious. Woods got to be pretty whiny about shit over the years too. So yeah, life's a bitch and you have to hustle to survive no matter how excellent you are in your own world, what life is supposed to be fair? Really? "Bad taste" is entirely relative to your/"your" appetite. If there's any one thing that when done by anybody in any context that is 100% always in "bad taste", I've yet to find it. Other than, like, baby killing, genocide, other crimes against humanity, etc. Other than that...even the "worst" music in the right place at the right time will bring positive meaning to somebody, even if it's just to laugh at how stupid shit can get. As far as I'm concerned, hey. Not exactly an overabundance of latter-day Ray Copeland on record, is there? Not a lot on this record either, but furthermore is the point.

It's sanity! Them melons already taste good! If they don't, you're buying the wrong melons!

There's a whole Bell vs. Bueno thing in these parts that I just don't get. Say what you will about Bell, at least it doesn't taste like it was stepped on by some nasty-ass kitchen shoe. My daughter is very pro-Bueno, but that just goes to show you that love conquers all (my wife being a salter of watermelon & cantaloupe being another).

Ted Dunbar, he was on some of those Mainstream records, again, the early 70s Gil Evans Orch connection. Dunbar's never really rocked my world, but he's never rocked it to sleep either, ok? He was around he was playing, he got gigs, he made record dates. He caught enough ears that he took McLaughlin's place with Lifetime, so...Take him or leave him, but if you leave him, know he was there and what he did first, just saying. An oh HELL yeah, that Gloria Coleman album, that's one that's a "must have" imo.

Y'all got Fuddruckers? I only go there when in a group, but I'll get their dog over their burger every time.

Documentation...those Charles Williams Mainstream sides, especially the two small group ones, invaluable - Don Pullen on organ & Bubba Brooks. The two Roy Haynes records, George Adams. The one Shelley Manne record, not great, perhaps not even "good", but...it happened, and it was not jive or halfass. Charles Kynard, just because. Sonny Freakin' Red, with Herbie Lewis! If a listener is oriented towards getting a "fuller picture", these records should be known. Not necessarily bought for a whole lot of money, but heard a time or two in some form or fashion. Documentation for the documentation-minded listener who does not confuse documentation with perfection, or even art.. Here a bunch of it is.

That foot long chili cheese Coney at Sonic (with jalapenos) has long been my default diarrhea cure. I eat two of those back to back, whatever bugs are in the tract will not survive the resultant tsunami. And no prescription needed!

The players from Dreams (both Breckers, Barry Rogers, Billy Cobham, Will Lee, John Abercrombie, Don Grolnick, a.o. were on to something, and they knew it, even if the marketplace was not in immediate agreement (or the records seldom gelled like a great record should). Those guys, the newly revived Gil Evans band, the circle (no pun intended) of the players in the first Return To Forever, these people were all still formulating things, playing together in different combinations/projects/records, and a subset of the Mainstream catalog shows them so doing. That Guerilla Band lineup was no accident, that was a thing, those guys, that scene. The White Elephant Orchestra too, that's a barely documented project that was apparently pretty impactful for all involved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Elephant_Orchestra Recognize any of those names? The whole early "jazz-rock" thing was far from the formulaic "fusion" that it became, nor was it all rooted in a desire for hit records (Michael Brecker was not looking to make the next "Listen Here", right?). Mainstream fills in some of those puzzle pieces, as do the L.A. impulse! records of the same time that quietly document the various Don Ellis fallout(s). It was an interesting time, a very real part of history, and if you have to go through a bunch of uneven (in all kinds of ways) records to get to it, so be it.

Those Sonic dogs are good enough if you don't taste too closely. If you do, they often have a Vienna sausage underpinning that puts a damper on my spirits. When that happens, I shift my focus to the flavor of the toppings and the overall textures. That gets me through the order at hand, but it makes for a long interval between return visits.

Nathan's have good flavor, but they're too skinny for my liking. I like a plump dog.

Plenty of good (or better) playing, though. I don't blame the players, or the music. That Galper record, or the Jack Wilkins records, that whole post-Dreams fallout scene, that was real, that was as much of a part of what was going on in those fertile times as anything else. Too bad Bob Shad didn't carry his weight on the other side of the booth. What amazes me is how Iapetus came out. That was a pretty production-centric album, and they nailed it. Great music, great record. Maybe Shad had somebody along for the ride on that one, maybe Caliman's experience with Santana raised his own bar for what a record needed to sound like, I don't know. But if all, or even most, of the Mainstream records of the time had that level of production...but they didn't.

Most of those Mainstream records had production that one way or another did the music a disservice. Sometimes the blends were too blunt, sometimes the band could have tuned up a little better, sometimes it sounds like Bob Shad didn't think that getting a final mix before pressing was important, sometimes...I don't know what. Maybe it was his headphones. But usually the "faults" I find with those records is not with the music, it's with the production. Somehow, Ernie Wilkins had an in with Shad during those years. I don't know how or why anybody thought that Ernie Wilkins would be a "go to guy" for R&B type anythings, but there he was. Again, production...

No doubt. But what if Bud Freeman on Tenor, Ornette on violin, Richard Davis on bass, and Cozy Cole on drums .. what still yet might again a different record woutd ThAT, that one would be!