JSngry

Frank Broyles The Arkansas Traveler going to the Little Rock Getaway Joe Sullivan

Know of it more than I actually know it, which in either case is inadequately, so thanks for the reminder!

Before Lenny Pickett took over the visible band leading on SNL, I am almost certain that the "SNL Sax" player was alex foster, and for a good number of jears. Remember Alex Foster? From DeJohnette?

That sounds right, where did you get that info? Anything linkable, for further study? I heard the tuba and was thinking maybe Gil, but Gil has been so well documented I figured nothing like this would have not been readily-known. Wonder what else Russell got recorded from this time, beside the Dizzy & DeFranco works?

Ok, this is what I mean, this is where Lenny was coming from in the TOP days, if you've heard any of those longer jams, you'll hear Maceo all through Lenny's stuff. Sanborn Is not coming from here, nor does Lenny's on SNL. Just saying, Maceo gets some love as a JB, but the dude had his own thing. This is not "the Maceo solo" if you know what I mean, this is just one example of his concept, and a rather distilled one at that.

Dave Peel Dave Pill Dave Pell

I heard somewhere that Hefner is going to be investigated? If so, good.

When Sanborn first started doing solos on pop records, I was struck by how much his sound and everything sounded like Stevie Wonder's earlier harmonica playing. Of course, you can hear Sanborn on those Paul Butterfield records and hear what he's up to there. There's another influence that is not generally discussed, Stevie's harmonica solos on all those hits. People were listening to those records, lots of people. How could they not contribute to the developing vocabulary? Same thing with Maceo, if you were into R&B at any level during those days, you heard/played James Brown, and if you were a sax player, your heard/played Maceo in some shape or form. The traditional narrative is fine as far as it goes, but it's not adequate to give a full picture. Influences continued to come along as the music continued to evolve. And let's not even ask about Robert McCullough...

These "waking dream" states, they happen. Gotta be some science behind it.

Advocating here for a consideration of how significant the Maceo rhythmic thing was. He didn't honk or scream or worry too many notes, what he DID do was come up with a way to play over Brown's fragmented beats that was organic to it and not just play straight line 4/4 R&B licks over it. To trace it back to Fathead, here's a good comparative sequence of his solos to follow. Funky Drummer from everywhere in the uni-damn-verse Spinning Wheel from Sex Machine That's My Desire from Soul On Top That's moving from hard funk to jazz-funk to straight jazz, and all the while the notion of fragmented phrasing is intact, although the funkier the background, the more obvious the fragmentation becomes, and the more germane to the group rhythm it becomes. Also, when you hear the more directly jazz things, the closer you get to Fathead, who was more hardcore eighth note jazz phrasing when playing straight-ahead, but who would have no problem playing all these little burst-phrases when it got more away from that. And similarly, the more Maceo gets into the funkier beats, the more you can hear a sort of deconstructed Fathead. Their interior dynamics of accents with those phrases share a lot as sell. This becomes another tributary to the stream, this notion of playing off of the beat rather than honking and moaning and squealing your way all the way over the top of it. And that's an element that I hear Lenny bring to his solos in the TOP days that I really don't hear him doing now on SNL, mainly because there's not reason or place where it would make sense.

Ah, the trick is not to listen while asleep, the trick is to listen in that state that comes just before sleep. Don't know how to describe it, but it's a state where you're not really asleep, but you're definitely not in a "regular" state of consciousness either, nor are your eyes open. Sounds exist as full-bodied entities speaking quite clearly and independently of any other environmental stimulation and take on a very vivid characteristic of a living sound form, individually and collectively. Problem is, you have to learn to put yourself into that state (probably some yoga thing, breathing is definitely slower than usual). I haven't, it's just something I find myself in when relaxing and/or trying to nap. Started noticing it when I was, like, 14 or so, so it's not a residual drug thing or whatever. It's probably some meditative state, but...I ain't gonna work that hard to get to have it at my disposal anytime I want it. Also - it works for any music, not just free improv. Works for any music. Maybe more "revelatory" for music with dense textures and/or highly detailed timbral variances, things where conscious concentration can indeed be counter-productive. Some things work best when they come to you whole, and sometimes listening to hard fails that. Forrest for the trees, etc. Not sure about the note pad thing...I've seen students bring fake books to othe5r people's gigs, and people bring scores to classical concerts...I men, ok, I get the need to study, but time, place, etc, it ain't ALL in the book, no matter what it is. OTOH, you wanna sketch, or write down impressions to ponder later, or even make your own schematic of what you perceived you heard, no harm don, I guess.

Dooley Dodie Stevens Dootsie Williams

Not really looking to get any level of whelming out of any of this, just personally cartographing out of curiosity. New today: Not sure what to think...maybe no need for an absolute opinion. There are times when these are not the right arrangements for Etta Jones (and or when Etta Jones is the right singer for these arrangements). Neither the recording nor the performances (nor, on occasion, the arrangements) are as consistently refined as befits the occasion. Tempos are occasionally bizarre. I'm not even sure if the vocals were recoded live with the orchestra. One wishes the whole thing had happened at another time, anither place, another budget. Perhaps of significance, there are no quotes from either artist in the liners. There are times, though, when it all comes together, and there are times when one element works too good for the other one to interfere with it And either way, I dig Etta Jones, and I dig Oliver Nelson I doubt that this will ever be an album I love, or ever really like, but the next time there's an Oliver Nelson hang, there's a few cuts on here that will get played, and played well.

This is my favorite.

Poor Heiner... I think his work is the perfect argument for not selling things you never listen to - because when you finally do, you'll be glad you still have it. I mean, it is definitely quirky as far as "how does this fit into....ANYTHING?", but those players...If you like Cowell's Brilliant Corners, think of Brains On Fire as it's socially awkward cousin, have a little love and see what's inside the kid.

Why is everybody who's left to go out of business someplace besides where I live? Can't they move here and then go out of business?

Hey, if it's insanity that is to be the order of the day, somebody post one of those vintage videos of TOP where Lenny has the bigass 'fro and is doing that hyperactive aerobic leapdancing with a tenor in his hand. That is not just insane, but also beautiful. That man should probably not be alive today, yet, here he is! Maybe an element of "you had to be there", but...I was.

What Lenny had with TOP that he doesn't really show on the SNL bits is that real Maceo-esque ability to develop a melodic kernel through rhythmic fragmentation (and as for the content of those fragments, I hear Maceo as coming out of Fathead, and Fathead as coming out of Stitt, so...this stuff runs deep, or should/could). But the SNL band is not playing TOP fragmented grooves either, so...oh well, times change. But I'm not ever gonna be genre-shamed into minimalizing the very real love and respect that I have for Lenny Pickett.

Who ya' gonna call?

I recently stumbled across Black Omnibus, and L.A.-based show hosted by James Earl Jones, which, while not focused on jazz exclusively, does have an ongoing parade of jazz artists as performing guests. Haven't been able to find anything about it's origins past this: http://www.thirteen.org/broadcastingwhileblack/uncategorized/black-omnibus-hosted-by-james-earl-jones/ Wonder if there were any parallels in the production rosters (at the executive level) between this and the Gil Noble show? I've seen Elvin, Abbey Lincoln, Willie Bobo, and Ahmad Jamal so far. And Oscar Brown Jr. doing "40 Acres and a Mule", which was really something special, I don't know how much footage there is of him doing things like that, spoken-word performance pieces.

For that money, I'd insist on a positive DNA-testing for residual bodily fluids. Shit, If I'm gonna be asked to pay for Miles, I'm gonna want there to really BE some Miles, ok?

And ok, some people might say Tower Of Power, big whoop, just a funk band, and, no, not really, but even if so for the case of argument, Lenny Pickett created his own voice within that workld that was uniquely his - and was very adept at playing long, extended solos that worked within that voice at all times. This is no small feat, trust me. anybody can play a few bars of a solos spot, anybody can play jazz licks over funk beat, but not very many people can start with Maceo Parker & then grow it out from there into other vernaculars & then end up sounding like nobody but themselves and then playing really longass solos of no small structural integrity while maintaining full contextual consistency . Plus, the cat was one helluva dancer, quite apart from all that. "SNL Sax", yeah, fuck that. But Lenny Pickett, hey, Lenny Pickett can play. Music is always more interesting - and generally makes more sense - when it involves people doing real things in real worlds and not just bullshitting around being dead-brained placeholders. I don't care what kind of music it is. "Lenny Pickett" as "SNL Sax", buuuuuurrrrrrrrrppp. Lenny Pickett as real world gonzo TOP tenor dancist, EX-cellent. Superior life experience even. What happened for one to turn to the other, I don't know. But if a cat's proven his worth and then decides to go actually make the money...not always a good reason for that, but very seldom a purely bad one either.

Lenny Pickett can play, as can David Sanborn (who has made a few perfectly lovely Hank Crawford inspired ballad albums). But for the record, Lenny Pickett was already a fully formed voice long before "Lenny Pickett" came on to SNL. What he plays there is just as often as not a self-caricature (or worse), but don't be fooled, the man has paid full dues and has got full cred from his TOP days, and then that side he did, Borneo Horns, whatever. Lenny Pickett put it out there for a good while, so whatever kind of coast/working- retirement thing he's doing on SNL, hey, go ahead and do that then. Once they got past Howard Shore, SNL seems to have enjoyed having bandleaders as caricatures, who was that guy, G.E. Smith and his bass player, what was his name. Those guys both had plenty of skills, but you'd not know it by watching them on that show.