JSngry

There's a profile on Paul Williams that not once notes the similarity between "The Hucklebuck" and "Now's The Time", focusing instead on Lucky Millender's "Blues In D"...has that ever happened in a jazz book? Also, as of page 72, Ralph Bass has been mentioned as many times as Duke Ellington, Teddy Reig almost as many times. This is not a book that really "sets fire" to the critical orthodoxy in terms of literary style, but not more than 2 or 3 pages go by that I see something and I think wow, this guy's going there. And he keeps going there. Still lacking anectodes/personal recountings, a LOT of reliance on record producers and sales charts, and that's good for what it does, but there's more to life than data. Still, there's a picture being painted here that needs to be painted...not even painted, more like some photographs being found and collated...in terms of jazz books as we have come to know them, this is pretty radical, and so far, enjoyable.

Ok, I see what's happening here...this is not a book about "Soul Jazz" per se, this is a book called "Soul Jazz" that is (mostly) about its subtitle, "Jazz in the Black Community, 1945-1975". so, if you're looking about an entire book about Jimmy Smith, Johnny Lytle. and Baby Face Willete records or some such, this ain't it. This a look at some of the jazz musics in and of a community, and as such, a look at all of the musical tastes of that community are considered so that the places of the jazzs therein are given more fuller contexts. Here are the chapters and page $s to give you an idea of how the book is buil: Preface - Pg IX Introduction - Pg XI Race Music- Pg 1 Illinois Jacquet - Pg 47 Rhythm and Blues - Pg 57 Gene Ammons - Pg 105 The Big Beat - Pg 113 Hank Crawford - Pg 149 Soul Jazz - Pg 157 Grant Green - Pg 201 Funk and Fusion - Pg 211 Grover Washington Jr - Pg247 The Producers - Pg 255 I just finished the portrait of Illinois Jacquet, and, yeah, somebody writing this kind of thing about Illinois Jacquet in a freakin' book is beautiful. Expecting the same to be true about Gene Ammons & Hank Crawford, and, possibly, even, Grover. Readin to this point has still been mostly/entirely factual/data, but not in an "encyclopedic" kind of a way. More like, these things were happening at the same time, and in this context. Context, that's what this book is doing, to this point, really well, providing context for Hal Singer and Illinois Jacquet, and Savoy Records and King Records and Sonny Til and just all sorts of things that individually might not seem like much, but in the aggregate, yeah, this IS where the "is" of all this was. Nobody gets a lot of ink, really, but otoh, Bob Porter name-checks Henry Glover and makes it a point to say that no, you don't usually hear about Henry Glover in the history books. If it's a more personal/inside approach you're looking for, read Johnny Otis's books. Hell, read them anyway. But this bob Porter book, read it, I'll say.

Book arrived in the last hour, started reading it...so far it's not telling me anything I didn't already know, but in a very pleasant, readable way. And I love the irony that a white guy writing a book about jazz (this type, anyway) as explicitly Black Music is probably gonna be hailed as making a valuable contribution while at the same time noting that a lot/most of the music and artists covered in this book were either under-recognized or overlooked entirely in their time by the same community/communities that will likely be making these hailings today. Irony on toast, please! The sharpest point for me so far (and I've just barely gotten into it) comes in the preface(!): SOUL JAZZ is devoted to a time that has long since passed. The musicians, the clubs, the radio stations,and the record labels are all memories now.The best way to experience the music as it was is on recordings. Well, uh....apart from the fundamental contradiction inherent in the notion that it is even possible to experience anything that "no longer exists" "as it was"...I think his point is that this was music that sprung organically from a people, by a people, and for a people, and that those of us who were coming to it from the outside will always be doing so, no matter how much we embrace and allow envelopment, and that the only for for that to ultimately not matter is to just shut up and accept that it does. Amiri Baraka routinely took a lot of heat for saying such things "from the inside", and about a broader set of musics (and sociologies). But lord knows, Bob Porter appears to be totally comitted to telling the truth here, so let that fall where it falls. Otherwise, the book seems to be mostly capsule/bio-driven, which is ok for me, because the general premise is established at the start, and from I can read, the bios all are presented in that context. Don't seem to be a whole lot of anecdotes. for or second hand, and that's a disappointment (if that's how it really is, like I said, just barely cracked it today). But yeah, this is going to be a fun read, if for no other reason than it's a book that feels like The Recovery Room or Club Arandas back in the day, the whole damn thing, the bandstand, the music, the conversations, the clientele...the people, all of them (and this is true for all musics, imo). The best way to experience the music "as it was" is through memories of things that really happened, things that you saw yourself, then work from there. For everything else, there's MasterCard.

Neat record!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Sense_(UIL) Leave it to Texas to make math a competitive sport! I was involved in this in the 8th & 9th grades. Also kinda learned to work a slide rule during those years. So...geekdom was not a question of "if", just "how". Whether or not one "likes" math is entirely a personal matter. Whether or not one aggressively ignores it to the point of creating some kind of deniability of it is a question of one's contribution to the collective rationality/sanity, such as and to what degree such a thing actually exists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WSHvbGM6oE

Thank you all. The day was nice, hope that is the norm going forth for all of us!

Updated shipping notice received, now due Thursday!

Supposed to be here Friday!

...I began to think about William Shakespeare, the great literary figure. Stop it Bob, you're killing me!

I've just heard the one cd, but...yeah. I don't think that it's just the writing, though. Iirc, everything on this record was conducted by him or otherwise hadhis participation, aand jeez...is it too harsh to say that it sounds like the music of a first class asshole? I keep hearing things that could be stirring, maybe should be stirring, but all I end up with is awww man, why'd you have to do THAT to it, and in the end, my only answer is that this guy was an asshole whose biggest block was simply that he was an asshole. Then again I never knew the man and have only heard this record 5-6 times over the last few weeks. But if attraction can be instant, why not the opposite? Either way, you can be wrong over time, but not always.

Not that I know of, that was TV marketing, iirc. What I'm talking about isa whole sub-genre of labels, records of songs you already know by people you never heard of, or songs you ddon't know made by people you never heard in the style of whatever style was big at the time, or sometimes, a record by somebody you kinda knew who was in sore need of any kind of a break and here it was. As the rock era moved in, more and more it would be cover of the hits of the day , "soundalike" covers that really did not sound alike, but hey, it's a grocery store and you're buying a record and hamburger and Tang all at once, what do you expect? You can probably Google something like "supermarket record labels or something and get a better idea The catch is that sometimes, every once in a while, there would be really good players on there and you get a treat. Sometimes, not often.

Again, just because. Another guy who was apparently a bit of a "scold", albeit nowhere near as much as Shapey, I guess, and there is a lot more to his music than to Shapey's imo. However...I'm left with wondering is this a road out of something or a road to something, because...I guess you never know if there's a difference until/unless you do or don't get there? with both this guy and Shapey, though, there's a thought that won't go away that this is the type of music I wanted to hear out of the Kenton/Neophonic thing instead of most of what actually happened (and yes, I have bought the live things...very disappointed). This kind of, for lack of a better term "accessible serialism" (well, obvious, anyway) seems like a kind of missing link between "Academic" & "Hollywood".

Yep, records used to be everywhere (I repeat myself, here, sorry). Same with 8-tracks for a little while, and then, for a lot longer, cassettes. Hell, I began building my gospel collection at gas stations and their bigger/louder brother, truck stops. People have shit to sell, they're gonna be well-advised to put it where the people who want to buy it are gonna be.

But seriously, folks...Les McCann having low regard for Bumblebee Slim's "musicianship" is just an intramural squabble before dinner (and all things considered McCann could win the argument), Archie Shepp or Georges Adams/Lewis appearing on a Johnny Copeland record being "out of character" or even unusual at all is, like, looking at the world through Record Industry World glasses. Those glasses are not to be trusted. I mean, seriously, jazz musicians playing on blues records? GROUNDBREAKING! Now, say, Gary Foster showing up on a Howling Wolf record, that would be out of character for somebody...but geez, dude, c'mon, just cause your family leaves for different jobs in the morning don't mean that they don't come back to eat at the same table in the evening...or that Cousin Leon don't fly in from Up Big City Way Yonder every so often to sit down to break (corn)bread.

His music, as heard on this disc, anyway, is a lot noisier than it is weighty. Al ot of times people will talk about this area of composition and say that "it all sounds the same", and that's just lazy listening. But here...a lot of it literally sounds the same, not just within a piece, that's to be expected, but across pieces, there's some pretty noticeable repetition of melodic and rhythmic cells that ultimately have me thinking that this is a guy who found "gesture" and "substance" to mean the same thing...and who would probably violently oppose the notion if it was ever applied to him. I'll probably listen to a little more of the guy at some point, but not necessarily soon. I mean, I really, really wanted to like this one, and sorta still can, but...what do you call fist-shaking in a vacuum?...there's no air left in the music for all the gesturing going on. And even the quieter stuff feels like that, at least to me. Maybe I'm just one more of the people who didn't "understand" him.

Yeah, well, that's one thing. Playing on a paid record date is another.

Starting to form an opinion after listening more to the music and reading more about the man...I think his high opinion of his work might veer towards self-awarded more than justly earned. Just veer, mind you.

They sold records in grocery stores when I was, like, 3. Not "name brand" records, mind you, but still, records in the grocery store.

Excuse me, I've be on a nap for a awhile...when did jazz and blues players playing on each others records become out of character for either?

In net effect, closer to Abbey Lincoln's Straight Ahead than anything else. Uses a five piece, Ray Charles instrumentated horn section that is not afraid of dissonance, more Booker Little than Hank Crawford. Lyrics are alittle darker than ususal too, it seems to me. Anyway, if there's going to be one Mose Allison record that I take with me, this will be it, no question.