JSngry

Thanks for confirming, Mike, and agreed about Osie, even if he himself is not the mystery percussion parts. As you note, fitting into the section with that much transperancy is very rare for a "jazz" kit drummer, even today.

If we're talking about Das klagende Lied, there was no problem with onstage balances, but it should also be noted that apparently this piece was originally written to include offstage orchestral passages as well, which are generally not performed as such. Here, they were, and to no small dramatic effect. We've gotten this a few times before with the DSO at the Meyerson, offsage choruses, soloists, ensembles, in this case full sections. The hall is built to accommodate this, and it does it well. In this case, there was an offstage orchestra playing what was, in the story, the wedding ball, contrasting with the ominous rumbling of the forthcoming collapse being portrayed by the onstage orchestra. Quite grabbing! If we're talking Mahler orchestral pieces in general, all I can say is that van Sveden has developed quite the reputation for his "micro-managing" attention to every possible detail, so in all the Mahler I've heard him conduct, I never noticed any "difficulty" in balance, just some pretty stark contrasts fully heard, so...mission accomplished, I suppose.

Thanks for doing the digging. It might be on more than the opening cut...kinda seems like it is....

No, I hear Baretto, but also hear what sounds like a third layer of percussion at many times. I've tried to hear a spot where that third layer happens when both of Osie's limbs are accounted for but have yet to find one. I suppose headphone and stereopanning detectives are in order, but no time for that right now, alas.

Enjoy! Tell me what you hear re:Osie, please.

Next time you listen, see if you can tell for sure if it's a mystery 3rd percussionist or if it's Osie Johnson being really deft. That might be one of the damndest things I've ever heard, actually.

Yeah, A Cuscuna interview somewhere.

Between Howard Cosell & Ali & ABC, they gave me the gift of witnessing up close and personally racist relatives work themselves into states of near-self-immoliation EVERY time, at least until they just had to give up, more victims of Ali's Incomparably Righteous Inevitability. That GIF or whatever that Dan posted, that is about as pure a summation of....IT as you can ask for. We really have lost a giant of a human. As the species becomes more and more dwarfy to no really good end that I can see, that hurts.

Got a very delightful surprise today with Frank Wess' The Long Road, a 2-on-1 Prestige offering that combines 1962's Southern Comfort (the Nelson-associated date) with 1963's Yo Ho! etc... that nifty quintet date with Thad & Roy Haynes that for years showed up with a Status sticker on it but lord only knows what kind of label inside. It was an easy enough record to bypass if your were kind of a deadset "modernist" in the 70s, you know, Thad, 1963, Wess, Buddy Catlett, Gildo Mahones, easy enough to think, oh, another "Basie-ites On Vacation" dah-ditdah-DAH date, and, you would be soooo wrong a bout that (as I found out ca. 17979, when my purchase elicited laughs for the funny album title and the sticker, "what kind of shady-grady back-alley gangsterass record is THIS?!?!?!" they all laughed until I sat down to play it...and then, oh yeah, hey fuckers, Roy Haynes, ok? Turns out to be a damn good record, with some BOV to it, but not nearly that much, and ignore it at your peril, everybody came to play, especially Roy Haynes, and, you know, be ready when Roy Haynes comes to play, the band was, you should be too. Badass tunes, no fucking around tempos, Roy Haynes insisting on full engagement by all, yeah, grownman straight ahead jazz, if it was that easy, every jazz record would be this good, and they aren't, so, there you go. Ok, known quantity with tracks 8-13, but 1-7, all new to me. I had read descriptions that it was a "breezy Latin affair" or words to that effect, so I was expecting pleasant all around, including Oliver's charts, but not too much more, and lo AND behold, this shit is HOT. Mostly Wess, with some Al Aarons (who I always found a little generic, but here it's like, oh, he sounds like the guy on all those 60s Basie records, and then....DUH, right?), a small horn section (Aarons Nelson on tenor & George Barrow on bari, + Wess when called upon, no trombone, and that's a totally different color, especially when Aarons has the lead and it's three saxes underneath), arrangements are, per Nelson's comments in the liners (dig it how Oliver always seemed to be available for liner note input, that's a career strategy for sure!), "functional" because Wess don't like a lot of fuss behind him when he plays. But without fuss a lot of color and subtlety comes forth. These are the kind of arrangements that sound so easy to write, and, ok, any one section of any one chart, sure, but put them together, write a whole album's worth of charts like this and avoid sounding monochromatic and repetitive, good luck on that project, cash that check when you get it. Plus, these guys are TIGHT, 3 or 4 horns still needs to play like a section, or at least needs to if you want it to sound like a section and not just everybody playing parts at the same(ish) time. That's cool if you got a blowing session or the like, but when you got charts that actually vary in voicings, colors, and dynamics, no matter how "simple" they are, it needs to be a section. And look, Oliver Nelson, Al Aarons, George Barrow, and Frank Wess (when called upon), you got guys who know how to play section. And in Oliver Nelson, you got a guy who knows how to write for any instrumentation to maximize the sound, so...beautifully functionally great charts, the shit POPS. It's not accidental, it's skills. Hell yeah. And speaking of maximizing sound...either there is an uncredited second percussionist here or else Osie Johnson was one of the unsung heroes of playing drum kit like he was inside a Latin percussion ensemble and not just playing along with it. I listened as closely as I could to see if there were any giveaways as to what it was, and really, I think it's Osie himself, and if so, this is a record that should be studied by all kit drummers, because lord have mercy, you put most of them together with a conguero, and one (or both) of them is gonna end up forcing their feel on the other, and that does not happen here. Whoever got that to happen is some kind of mystery genius who is owed more thanks than we have time to say right now. On top of all that, Wess plays his ass off on this session, his tenor getting aggressively nasty on more than a few occasions, his flute, always lovely, especially so. The compositions are all groove-friendly organic, never sounding "adapted", and oh by the way, the last cut was written by Oliver as a feature for George Duvivier and Wess, I guess, didn't mind, because there it is, and damn is it a swell one. Amply available at prices only a fool could refuse, this ought to be in the Recommendations forum, but let's put it here, because it fits and it's not too crowded in here by now, so you guys get ALL the best available prices. This: Here: http://www.amazon.com/Long-Road-Frank-Wess/dp/B00004YLK4 Carpe Diem, y'all!

You know what they need to do with their classic R&B catalogues? They need to get the original 45 mixes/masterings, use them press up a buttload full of new 45s, and then load them up in some loudass jukeboxes made to vintage specs. Sell those things, and then they can say you can hear them the way they were intended to sound! And then for the true connoisseur, rig the jukebox to send out AM signal to your car radio within, like, a 120 or so mile radius. That would cost extra, of course. But the jukebox thing, yeah, put me down for that if/when. Them and me. That shit would DOMINATE whatever space it occupied. If you've not heard any of that stuff on an bigoldfunkyold jukebox cranked all to hell, you don't know what "hot mastering" really means.

Dude, don't fear The Reaper.

That was my experience. It was a bitch to find until the Applause issue came out. and then, as noted, what people like myself were conditioned to expect from a record on that label with those people...a more proper emotional/musical context had to be reestablished, the existing, learned one was not relevant to this record. For those who want them, there are "narratives" to a lot of these records based on availabilities at any given time, up to the big CD reissue boom of the late-80s/eraly-90s. If that's all you knew, then it's easy to look at it like these things were always available more or less all at once, and that was SO not the case.

It's fun, man. Ultimately, it's a thing I know something about - cats being in a band that rehearses and then goes out to play gigs. Serious cats who are serious about the music, serious gigs. There's passion and intensity and all that good stuff, but as with any good gig, when the band leaves nothing behind, when they go all in and bring it (what's the expression now, keeping it a hundred?), I get the same feeling from this as I do when any musicians do that. A good solid HELL YEAH!!! It's fun. It's great music of a spectrum that I only marginally know, and they generally play the hell out of it. How do you NOT have fun getting up in the middle of all that?

Yeah, like I said, I was poised to go off on Saint-Saens, it seemed inevitable that the foo-foo line would be finally and permanently crossed, but it never happened. Nobody was a suspired about that as me. But hey, when it's good, let it be good and enjoy it for being good. The DSO has long been a "regional" orchestra, but I think the current regime is making a concerted effort to have them perceived as more of a "national" orchestra in terms od both perception and ability. Perception is not something I have any idea about, but as far as ability....they're getting there, if they're not already. This is not the DSO of yore, these guys are dedicated to brining it, and bring it they do.

I love how Earl Hines throws everybody off like, immediately and Grady Tate is all, oh shit, there he goes, and then when Rabbit comes in everybody relaxes again, opens up and flows. Earl Hines was all about conquering by distraction, Johnny Hodges, conquering by relaxation. Remarkable musicians of endless cunning. Damn near every encounter with them a chance to be seduced, blessed, and uniquely enrichened.

Happy listening!

Bite.

Yeah, I just turned 60 last year, and 75 seems laughably unreachable, so maybe sooner than later, just because.

Hell, I'm disappointed that Phil replaced Oliver. Even if Phil Woods as Oliver Nelson's lead altoist is one of the more archetypical sounds of 1960's orchestral jazz, it seems to me that Oliver really was a lead altoist at heart, in spirit. Nothing against Phil Woods in that role, I believe I'm on several records that my most supreme respect and regard for him is as a lead altoist, but Oliver had such a unique playing voice that was so in sync with his writing voice...business realities, I suppose. Have an album apiece by Frank West and Clark Terry to get to, and still waiting for the 3rd of 3 Gene Ammons sides to arrive so I can compile that session. Looking forward to all of that. Biggest WTF???? discoveries to date have been the two Etta Jones larger ensemble dates. I had NO idea that anything like that had ever happened, especially the first one. And thanks. I'm having fun doing it.

My "problem" with it was entirely self-imposed, it was one of expectations. As I recall, it was not easily available for me until the Applause issue. And by then, you know, I had heard all kinds of Grant Green and all kinds of Joe Henderson, apart and together, so this was gonna be more of that, right? Well, no, no it was not. So...my assumption was that it was a failed record because of that. But then I heard about how Alfred Lion played it on his deathbed or something like that, and that got me to revisit with different ears, and it took a while to really tske, because that is one of the most...humble jazz records ever made, intentionally humble playing by players who did not make humble records, I mean, Joe Henderson here is Not trying to assert Joe Henderson onto the face of this music, he is just there to be a deliverer, and it's a little disorienting to deal with a fully engaged unassertive Joe Henderson, if you know what I mean, same thing with the rest of the band. Usally music that is this unassertive is brought by players who are equally unengaged. Not so here, and yes, the fuller appreciation of that has been slow in coning, but better late than never.

Soul Street by Jimmy Forrest is one of those uniquely Prestige hodge-podge albums, and half of the cuts involve Nelson. But not so fast! The title cut is also on Soul Battle CD as a bonus cut, leaving three more tunes with Nelson, these featuring Forrest with an octet backing. But not so fast! One of those is a cover of "Experiment In Terror" that sounds like it was intended to be a 45, one is a sorta corny, stiffy backbeaty "Just A-Sittin'..." that also sound jukeboxy in intent, both with twangy Mandell Lowe guitar that is not appreciated by these ears in this context. So it appears to have been kind of a drag of a session. But not so fast! The remaining cut, though, is a TOTALLY groovy take on "Soft Summer Breeze" that leaves me wishing for an entire album of some more of THAT, even if there is the odd clash between Nelson's extended harmonies and Forrest's more more diatonic melodic lines. Not a problem when it all feels this good, no small thanks to the AFAIK one-off Richard Davis/Ed Slaughnessy hookup. So all in all, a good Jimmy Forrest record, but a frustratingly inessential Oliver Nelson record, made all the more so by the inclusion of a quite frisky outtake of "I Wanna Blow...." from the Prestige Blues Singers album, expertly (contextually and otherwise) arranged by Jerry Valentine.

Maybe it's a "country" thing, but it doesn't bother me in the least on that record. I've heard bands out in the country (and played with one or two) without a bass player, occasionally by design, occasionally due to the guy just not showing up, and once because the electricity went out. In no case were the people who were there to drink and dance do anything other than drink and dance, and in no case did the bands have difficulty providing the music for them to do so.

I think the melodies were his choruses. The only complaint I have is that the "industry" seems to have concluded that that type of playing required that kind of backing, and wouldn't it have been nice to have heard that record without that type of string writing, or, for that matter, any type of string writing.

The older I get, the more I like it. The last time though (last year, maybe), it threatened to turn into love. I am fully ready to consummate next time around. So...don't give up on it. It reveals its charms in a most deliberate manner.

Last night: Two very different composers, and, really, three different "styles" of composition. First, the Tao, commissioned by the DSO by Artist-In-Residence Conrad Tao. What a delightful surprise! The composer's notes say that it's based on a pshycologica phenomenon known as "Alice In Wonderland syndrome, where a person experiences periods of sudden random perceptual disruptions that come and go without warning, and without ever totally abandoning the "normal" reality. I'm paraphrasing from memory, and probably not getting it nearly right enough. Anyway, the thing started out like it was going to be some minimalist wanka-dank but very quickly proved otherwise, and fragments began being tossed about from section to section without disrupting the basic underpinning, which itself was evolving at a different pace, if not necessarily a changing tempo. And sometimes it all went vice-versey. The thing that came to mind was a quantum baseball analogy which may or may not make any sense - following everything that was going on and trying to do so while it was happening seemed like it would be like studying the spin on a 90 MPH fastball while simultaneously trying to read the spin on the grounder that was zooming you way after it had been hit, studying both at the same time, having to make both decisions concurrently. It was deeply engaging, to put it mildly! The orchestra was also obviously engaged as was van Zweden. Certainly not a careful, too-timid attempt to give a new piece a "correct" reading. The spirit was there, and even when in the middle of the piece the tempo and dynamics both dropped without any readily apparent reason, the momentum was not lost, and soon enough the change justified itself, as new directions began which eventually evolved back into the original material's particulars. Quite a fun ride, hope this piece gains traction and gets performed past it's premiers here. It's a good'un! Saint-Saens I admit to being only casually familiar, and really had no idea what to expect. The first piece...it seemed to be a bit ripe, episodic, slight even perhaps, and I was worried about getting a mouthful of French Tchaikovski as filtered through the melodic mundanity of the worst of Mozart, it kept feeling like it was going to happen at any second, and I was ready to cringe when it did, Funny thing, though, it never happened like that. For that I have to credit the composition, which was more deeply constructed than it let on that it was going to be, the conductor, whose famed "micro-management" was clearly on display here, (no phrase was stated with creating a meaning relevant to what came before it (and the corollary to that, without giving the next one something to meaningfully bump up against)), and the players, both the orchestra, which has really got the whole micro-dynamics and breathing thing down, and also Louis Lortie, who interpreted the paiano part exquisitely, never succumbing to some pretty obvious built-in temptations to sweetness, obvious virtuostic tricks, and all other manners of crowd pleasing. The guy played the shit out of it, but it never came out as being about him, it was all about the music. Love it when that happens. Finally, the Organ Symphony, which if you believe the local reviews, went through a lot of interpretation adjustments between Friday and Saturday. I don't know about that, I was just there for Saturday, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I contained many/most of the same melodic esthetics as did the Piano concerto, which I suppose is only natural, but the harmonic palate used was considerably deeper and darker, and of course, there is an organ in the mix now, so...bass notes in your body rather than just in your ears. I really can't say much past that it was a real delight, and again, the band played their ass off. This was the last show of the 2015-16 DSO season, and we have already renewed for the next. This band is too good (and the repertoire too varied) to let it go. Serious fun!