JSngry

Paul Bley & Perry Robinson

Jimmy Scott & Johnny Otis. Boxes available.

Hugh Walker Harold Alexander Soul Man

Bird, the Opus De Bop LP, all Bill Barron, The Ravens, and in general buy those 70s/80s reissues on sight, all of them, and same for the Gospel LPs. The label absorbed a lot of other labels along the way, and those reissues are still the best way to get the whole picture, the Bill Dixon productions being a glaringly absent exception. Now, if you do this all at once, it will soon become apparent that most of it is good, some of is great, and much of it is peripheral, all thing considered. So don't do it all at once. They didn't make the records all at once, so don't try to listen to them all at once.

William Willen William Windom James Thurber

We're all Louis' children.

Wally Hikel Everson Walls Mike Nelson

Your Man Hennie Youngman Gary Puckett

Roy Head The Monkees Jack Nicholson

Crispian St. Peters The Cathedral Quartet Frank Church

Finally got to Clark Terry's All-American album, and it is a very subtle ear-opener. As Chuck noted earlier, fresh takes on tunes I only knew through Ellington readings, and that itself was interesting. What gets really ear-opening is listening really closely to the orchestrations, listening to who's doing what when. The first thing is that Clark Terry himself is very, very adept at switching from a section, lead trumpet part, to a solo spot with total transparency. So right there, you can write two trumpet parts for just one player. Nelson does this a lot here. Then there's a trombone, something that Nelson generally didn't use on his Prestige dates. In this case, the trombone's tone & Terry's tone in the same ranges are very similar. So, you can use the trombone as a second trumpet, or pass lines back and forth, start a line with the trombone, pass it to the trumpet and give the trombone a new part without any obvious change in the ensemble texture. Also, the tenor/bari team is very often written without trombone involved, which gives a different texture, more of a sax section texture, Nelson uses this to his advantage, to create different section sounds at different points in the same arrangement, to create a lot more variety than the instrumentation would allow for a less imaginative arranger. In fact, that's the biggest fascination about this album for me. Budd Johnson is a treat, as always, and yeah, these players do what these players did (for better and not-so-better). And no, the source material is what it is (which is neither here nor there, really), but the real ear-work is listening to the writing, especially getting to the inner parts and where they all go, and how. It's just four horns, but four horns that are put to maximal variety, especially considering that one of the four is also the lead soloist for the record. My first listen to the record was a casual one and I was kinda, eh, that's ok. But with subsequent listening, I focused on details and once the game of huh, where did that come from,? I thought he was doing this, if that's not him then who is it, I thought they were doing THAT...starts getting played, fun happens. Especially when you start listening to the bottom notes, now you hear them, now you don't, where did they go? Very skillful record. Not particularly..."exciting", but for me, I get excited by the way notes can be put together in so many different ways but so seldom are. So in that way, this IS an exciting record.

Miles went to Michael Henderson to get that funk, and then still had to go to Mtume & Reggie Lucas, and by then Pete Cosey, so, you know, game changed already, footsteps turn into a whole other pathway. Betty just says fuck it, Larry Graham, simple as that, this is not difficult. I mean, I definitely see what Miles was feeling, but Miles was a processor, and at this point he was still inputting his data. Phallocentric paranoia assumes that it was all about the dick getting played, but really, Miles got at least as much as he gave out of this over the long haul. Betty got a name, but Miles got inside ALL kinds of things that he wanted. Hungry people gonna eat, if they get the chance.

But I do love Betty Davis, for real. But this stuff is not that stuff. But I know that and buy anyway. Hello.

All Ye Faithful Mary Ann Mobley Ginger Vitus

Been hitting Richmond Rarities the last few days, and the real revelation there has been Al Sears' bari work with Zack Whyte. "Jump" tenor has been the usual explanation I've heard of Al Sears, but no, that cat had that OLD Old School thing going on. Five Giant Smiling Light Bulbs Of Happiness for having that piece of the puzzle turned up/over.

Mike Bloomfield The Electric Flag Buddy Miles

I'll admit it without even hearing it. I didn't buy it because I expected to be good. I bought it to buy it, to celebrate name recognition and the power of branding.

Turntables are for quitters.

Damn, they're giving it away! those Montmartre sessions are incredible. the rest of it is just great. There are some trading of fours between Lee & Warne that are quite probably the (and definitely among the) very greatest documented example of that particular art.

You ever hear a Basie band w/o a strong lead trumpeter? Maybe the later charts flaunted the chair more than the earlier ones, but still, Ed Lewis. always there, and always there right. Let's remember, lest we forget.

Rob Swope Bobby Broom W. H. "Boss" Hoover

Bake Turner Herb Score Tony Conigliaro

http://www.depanorama.net/dems/

dustbop, does it exist?

It's the post-Monk Monk.