JSngry

THIS guy? I think they spelled his last name wrong on the album cover.

Locksley Lockheed Uncle Martin

Spectators Speculators Expectorators

People who play as you describe are practicing a craft. As with all crafts, it is no small feat to stay within well-worn and/or clearly defined boundaries and still deliver a distinctively personal outcome to the proceedings. That takes a strong sense of self as well as an equally strong mastery of craft, because craft is almost by definition designed to create predictable results, so, finding the cracks into which to put something distinct/personal is no small feat. I like the phrase "master craftsman" for such people, but people tend to look down on craft these days, like mastering a craft based on known materials instead of on blowing it all up and putting it back together is some form of "settling". Bullshit! Ain't what you do, etc... What I have no use for are the strict re-creators, the ones whose goal it is to simply play well and play exact and play familiarly in every aspect,. No, that's craft without imagination. I asked for a window and I get a mirror. Boo!

Got mine earlier this week. First impression was that the trip down must have gotten everybody wired or something, because DAMN are the solos notey! Nut the it settled in, and I realized that a lot of that was due to not hearing the bass very well while everybody else was tearing it up. So there's lot of energy on the top end, and the corresponding energy on the bottom end is not equally audible. But hell, the mind adjusts, and by the third time through the album I had it. Don't think this album is a "revelation" or anything, it's not recorded well enough for that, but I did find it a welcome addition to my Duke Pearson & 1960s Big Band collections. Also, the fact that there are a couple of previously unheard (by most of us, anyway) DP charts is a very nice present.

Masterful practitioners.

Well, that was one thing at one time..part of a whole "big bang" that has continued to spread and evolve into a lot of different areas...you may or may not at some point find yourself coming to it by "working backwards", so to speak. Either way, do not sleep on Interstellar Space. That's music is highly organized, highly virtuosic, and just all-around greatness. It's the one piece of late Trane that I'll "insist" that anybody with "ears to hear" stick with until they "get it". There's that much there. You might enjoy the Anthony Braxton/Max Roach duet album on Black Saint then. Very varied presentation, two masters at work. I could find just one YouTube clip, and it's a "burner", but see what you think. No "form" per se, not in the song-form sense, but the music has its own internal logic & an intrinsically sound power, I think. In a lot of ways, that's what that whole "big bang" thing was, just clearing the air so new ways could have some room. The ideas that really have weight have continued to grow and develop. The ones that didn't, not so much.

To be honest, this one kind of had me wondering myself: People say stuff like that and I begin to wonder how much they hear or how much they're willing to hear. There are no right or wrong answers, but Interstellar Space is pretty damn cohesive, actually, as is any amount of so-called "free jazz". It's a cohesion not based on cyclical and/or song structures, but...again, thre are no right or wrong answers, but not knowing where your own line is, I would love to recommend you, say, anything by Air, but...not sure if that's over your line or not. Serious question - does this strike you as delightfully semi-abstracted funk or lacking in cohesion, for whatever reason? If it's the former, then there's a whole 'nother world out there. And if the latter, there's still much to discover. But the "lack of cohesion" thing makes me hesitant to offer a lot of things.

He doesn't really matter to me either. I first heard him with Billy Harper and didn't mind, but also wondered why he was there. Best I can figure is that he was there just because he was there. Sometimes that's all there is to it. The Just Some Guy Syndrome in one of its infinite manifestations. However, I find the notion that his coming from affluence and then achieving a high degree of musical skill did not involve actual work is confusing a convenience afforded by advantage/privilige with a lack of necessity to still hunker down and get it done. I find that notion ill-conceived, to put it mildly. We're not talking some ham-fisted clamhead who bought himself a spotlight for his inabilities. The guy can play his instrument, and that takes work, lots of work, no matter how you slice it.

I'm willing to wager that more people finished school high than didn't finish high school.

Ah, now we're talking shoes. It's not the tux that fucks you up, it's the shoes. Never were a tux and uncomfortable shoes. One or the other, but never both. Whatever "power" wardrobe has is due to a reciprocal agreement. I "broke the cycle" with tuxedos a loooooong time ago. But shoes? I don't see why anybody would choose to wear shoes, especially indoors. You talk about things that there's only so much jazz that can be played in, that's shoes. People keep wearing shoes and the amount of jazz (as opposed to "jazz") that gets played continues to decrease. Coincidence? I think not.

Dude, I have slept in a tuxedo, ate greasy hamburgers in a tuxedo, engaged in sexual activity in a tuxedo, pretty much anything you can do, you can do in a tuxedo (I'd not try swimming in a tuxedo, but I don't like swimming any way). After awhile, it just doesn't matter. Especially if you don't get it pressed regularly.

If you wear a tuxedo often enough, it ceases to be a "tuxedo".

Blues At Carnegie Hall is another good "perspective-former". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vAPduE_6T0 And if that doesn't work, try the telephone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZAC-6DEVSs

Stu Phillips St. Joseph S. J. Perelman

Yeah, it's not like practicing and all that is really work...

Not Jimmy Ponder.

Yeah, Stones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DH-n_QtnmY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LljzZqT9HUw

Yeah, I got those (and for those reasons). I got all of Milt's CTI's as well (there were only three...) Sunflower was the hit, and a damn fine one it was, but the other two are nice small group affairs. Slick but meaty. Like I said, the 70s were a good time for Milt Jackson. What I'm not up on is the late-60s/early 70s impulse! albums. I know nothing about those at all.

Or Stones?

An Interpreter Of Lieder Jerry Lieber The Lever Brothers

Lest we forget.