JSngry

All of them? Yes? But if not JUST one, let me put in a plug for THIS one:

Enjoy!

As they say, plenty of baseball left (although I was about to get all fretful and shit when the ump missed that call on what should have been Strike 3 Out 3 to in the top of the 8th, and the next two guys got on...still plenty of baseball left, but I'm trying to mind the fretfulness these days while still watching games...we'll see how that works...or if that works... Reporter this afternoon to Ron Washington (parphrased): Ron Washington: So, We Can Play Baseball seems like this season's yet-unofficial motto, and if so, how do you not like that? If the pitching holds up (and I'll be dead before I breathe a sigh of relief about that, especially Grimm & Tepesch), it'll rank up there with Great Moments In Capturing The Essence Through Understatement with when Lockjaw described the genesis of the Lock/Griff band by saying that it was formed around the concept of two guys "who could get around the horn pretty well". And once again, all baseball fans - if you get a chance to watch Adrian Beltre play, you should, at least once or twice. The man is a joy to behold. Especially when the opponent IWs the guy in front of him. Like we say around here, y'all can go ahead and do that if you want to...

I'm kinda like, maybe what it is that you really love is masochism, and maybe music is but the tool you found it through?

Thisone?

I wonder if he "knew what he was doing" in terms of the lyrics or was just stringing together some common community vernacular. Was he an Indian, or close around to the Indians, or was he just a local guy who sang some songs? I hear tell of people SCARED of the Indians, thought they were crazy/dangerous/all of the above. Remember in an early Treme, Big Chief killed him somebody who had stole his tools. Remember that? The whole Indian thing, coming to it from the outside, waaaay outside like I do, I just never know exactly what to make of what, which used to be the whole point, I think, at least until things started getting "touristy", if you know what I mean. And even now, I wonder...are there one or two old guys left who can still tell it all? And who will they tell it to? And what will be done with it after it gets told? But I don't need to hear that record any more to think about it...like, ok, it was very local, you say, so if it was some local guy who had a band, they probably played in local clubs that didn't have any air-conditioning. Can you imagine what that kind of R&B played all night long in a humid southern club would have sounded like if it was in your face in a room full of people and no air-conditioning? It's that type of stuff that you can't hear on the record, because it may or may not be there. But in real life, you know it was. Fascinating record...

Reporter tonight to Ron Washington (parphrased): Ron Washington:

here = here, this page...is that supposed to be so?

The closest I've ever seen the recording date of #12 pinned down to is "mid 1940's." I'm thinking mid-to-late 40's myself. whoa....

Yeah, I've heard things about the Indians over the years (they've been an on-again off-again fascination of mine for the last 35 years or so), how they're at their deepest level one of the only, perhaps the only, repositories of "African" ways and knowledges, and that's why you can only get so far "inside" them before smokescreens go up. Guardians Of The Flame, indeed, according to that. Still not sure how far to buy into all of that in terms of "actually true" vs "remembered true", but finding stuff like that that connects it all up...far me it from me to be dismissive of the notion in general form, ya' know? Treme hinted at some of this, lots of scattered but really tantalizing hints,,. and that really got me to wondering some more, because Donald Harrison, a Chief himself, seems to have had the ear of that show's producers, so...who knows? One thing's for sure though - those guys are about more than hanging out and sewing beads all year long just to show up for a parade or two..or then just becoming "cultural treasures". Or used to be, anyway...in today's World Gone Wrong, who knows for sure?

Does #12 predate Sugar Boy's version? Really interesting if so....

Re: #12, never seen this before, but....wow, if true: http://www.bowdoin.edu/faculty/s/smcmahon/courses/hist233/files/Iko_Iko.pdf

a-HA!

Dan - regarding # 13, check out the intermission music I posted to tide me over during the time that I figured Jeff to be preparing his response to my response. It's my favorite version of this tune bar none, Ella w/Basie, and AFAIK, not all that widely known. It was what I thought of while listening to the Jack Sheldon version presented by Jeff.

I heard those things you mention, but on my PC speakers, the tone overrode all of that. And it sounded like a live recording to me at first, and with that in the back of my mind I was allowing for the possibility of live expectational discrepancies (aka too much to drink, maybe)...but I still think the big thing was the coloration of these PC speakers...they've done this to me before, sounding one way and then when I play the same thing a a "real" system, whoa, not so much at all.

So, are my computer speakers coloring the sound that much, or does he really sound that much like Hodges?

A little intermission music for your listening and dancing pleasure. It ain't no Jack sheldon, but it'll do in a pinch.

I should stop listening through my computer speakers...that sounded SO much like Hodges...

With the usual thanks and disclaimers firmly in place, let's DO this thing! TRACK FOURTEEN - I will not save the best for last. I will save the best for first and work my way backwards in honor of this, that things, The Incomparable JonDar The Incompetent & The Adventures Of, and yes, I would do it sideways at the same time if I could. I can't, but they could. TRACK THIRTEEN - Mama Cass just before she swallowed that sandwich? Is so, then a West Coast production, which would mean Chet Baker on trumpet, right? Or maybe the whole thing is Jack Sheldon. He played and sang both alike, ya' know! TRACK TWELVE - I do not know who this is, but am intrigued...the vocals do have the N.O. accent, but these words, all of them, have been lost from general circulation (and I'm saying that with the assumption that they used to be part of the vernacular, but I have nowhere near enough authority to say that with any kind of authority). Either this is some sort of "general adaptation" or else a really interesting piece of history...maybe both...and "Jockamo Feendo Hay", instead of Jocakmo Feen Ny Ay (or any hyphenated variant thereof)? What the hell IS this, and did it receive more than regional distribution? Yes, intrigued... TRACK ELEVEN - Sounds like an Ornette tune...but not like Ornette..but does sound "like Ornette"...and like Jackie Mac in the tone...can't say that I don't like it, but...it sounds more like something that happened in reaction to something that really NEEDED to happen, if you know what I mean. Not that there's any fault in that, people gotta be who they are where they are, and if not them, who? If not there, where? But still, why? Well, why not? Because I asked you first. But not Because I Said So. I'm not the boss of me, ok? TRACK TEN - I sure hope that's Johnny Hodges, because if it's not, so much for "inimitable". You know what's funny? That first organ lick at the beginning, I was not expecting organ and heard it as a long sighing moan from the audience. No, that's not funny, that's more or less what it could have been , and probably was at least every once in a while. TRACK NINE - "Smoke Gets In your Eyes"...some really Trane-y guy..Pharoah? Jim Pepper, maybe..that tone is really "tight and bright" like Pepper, almost all upper overtones, like a wideass open-tip Berg played full-on (i used to be That Type Of Sound, and that was how I got it) and the pitch is more his than Pharoah's...the piano player is no bullshit, not at all, people talk about Bill Evans and chords, and I keep waiting to hear something like THIS, but never get it from Evans. Ok, fair enough, but, here is what I'd like to get, so thanks, I'll eat it here. This is very good music, imo, and I could l almost guess Jarrett/Garbarek, only as far as I know, Jan had better/different control of the instrument by the time he started playing with Keith. Whatever this record is, if it's all this good, I want to get it. TRACK EIGHT - Well, yeah. That's right. All voices sound familiar but are not immediately available to my mindmemory...alto sounds like the halfway point between later Frank Strozier & earlier Steve Coleman on their way to being reimagined as current day Rudresh Mahanthappa...and that trumpet player sounds really familiar (and am I crazy for hearing no small Dizzy undercurrents here? or a punch-in @ 4:56-4:57?)...as does the bassist...like Track Nine, this is no bullshit, bullshit-free, happy to be you and me, just the way I like it is the way it is, thanks you. Do I have this record? TRACK SEVEN - Thornhill. Gil. Genius. People started complaining when Gil started playing more open with his bands, some folks would complain I wanna hear Gil WRITE more! Well hell, this was 1947, Gil was already 35, not by any means a kid, and even then Gil had WRITTEN a lot of charts and would WRITE many more, so geezix, I think at some point he wanted something else than to have to WRITE every damn note to get the sound he wanted. But thank god he did WRITE as much as he did, because the man was a true genius when it came to WRITING...check out the modulation from the intro into the vocal...seamless. Genius. I don't often use that word without at least a hint of stipulated-to hype-y-ness, but not here. Genius. And does the band sound like they dig the shit out of getting to play something like this? Yes, they do, and anybody who didn't was taking a blessing for granted, and Fuck You when you do that, ya' know? But I doubt that anybody was doing that here. I can feel the love. Genius.And hello Joe Shulman, there's the Feel The Love, from the bottom up . As it should be (and I guess Billy Barber's on here, but I don't hear him overtly?). If I could play one chart like this with a band that played it like this at 9:00 PM tonite, I could die a happy and fulfilled man at 9:05 PM. Tonite. Totally serious. That blend, and those spaces created by those voicings...you are hearing Full Life Sound, you might hear Different, but you won't hear More. Not in this realm. And these guys got to do it every night. Genius. And a blessing. TRACK SIX - Charles Earland. Grover. Deal with it, Jazz Bitches, Grover could play. Maybe not "great" but sure as hell honest. On an everyday basis, I'd rather live with an honest common man than an untruthful genius. I'm getting to the point where I'd just as soon kill a liar than to listen to one for even half a nevermind (metaphorically, of course). And Gary Chandler...his album on Eastbound does not suck, if you know what I mean. That vamp thing they get into...anybody ever hear that as working the same type of trance groove that Mal Waldron hit with Mingus & Max? Living Black indeed...(at least as far as I can tell, but far be it from me to disallow the claim just because of the claim itself). TRACK FIVE - I thought it was a wooden flute at the beginning, but it's an electric guitar, so hey, I'm lost. And there's an accordion. And now it's klezmer-ish. I can't even begin to think about doing anything like this myself, so many ways in which I do not hear/or feel any of these impeti, but...I can hear that they do and that they mean it. I can feel the love. And really, ok, what else do you want out of anybody hearing your music besides that they feel the love? What,, to BUY it? Well, ok if you're a businessperson (and SOMEBODY'S gotta be) but as a musician,a creator/channeler of sound? No, that is all you can hope to ask for. So whoever you are (Third World Afro?) please know that you did it. I do not have to "be" you in order to love you. If I do, then that is not love, that is a conditional like. TRACK FOUR - "Tin Roof Blues", that Jo Stafford song (JKLOLOETC). Very much liking the clarinetist's fluency in both the vocabulary and the instrument. That New Orleans sound...it's too often heard (by players and listeners alike) as "over blowing" to get a "primitive" sound. Bullshit. Listen to this guy - full sound in all registers, not timbral variations that aren't fully intentional, no off pitch, no nothing except full control of every aspect of his playing. And that second chorus, the way he hits the expected note and then kicks it up to the next partial, nothing awkward or haphazard or gauche/showy about it. So yeah, "primitive" my ass". Piano got a left hand like Earl Hines, almost, that "wandering eye" kind of thing. Not conversant enough in this idiom to hazard any specific guesses, but do know it well enough to know that this is playing, not "dixieland" Easy Answers To Questions That Were Never Asked. TRACK THREE - Is this an acoustic recording? Yes? Morton? No? As on Track 8, these are all pretty distinct voices that i can't identify...unless that's Bubber Miley? I find it fascinating to hear how varied so much of this music was in terms of who plays and who lays out, when and where...it's not just head-solos-head, not exactly. They variate the texture, and don't seem to have to think about it as being a problem, or even a challenge. Perhaps that's the benefit of hindsight speaking, but still. TRACK TWO - "Monk's Mood"..and then..either a tune I don't know or else it's Ran Blake variating. I hope it's Ran Blake variating, I love Ran Blake variating, he hears notes not unlike Gil Evans heard notes, he hears how they all fit together (and where they do so for maximum resonance) so that you can be anywhere at anytime as long as you know, you'll never leave, you'll just continue to expand, and what is that zooooom in sound at the very beginning? What kind of an extract is this, Adams? Not vanilla, though, that's for sure! TRACK ONE - That's Earl, Brother! That tune has always fascinated me. This version, less so. Very fluent trumpet playing, but not a particularly individual sound, unless it's Lee Morgan faking his death like Jim Morrison or Tupac...hey, wait, ok, that's Ira Sullivan, on the Flying Fish album that Chuck produced...never mind then. Ira Sullivan is a musical freak (in the good way, the best way, really...) and he was on the scene before Lee Morgan. So yeah, never mind. Great way to end a set, from the beginning. Nice move, Jeff, and thank you for a most certainly enjoyable program, irregardless of the running order!

Now that the infield/outfield shifts are getting all...scientific and stuff, how much longer before that becomes part of the statistical evaluation conversation?

My stereotypical image from back in the day is of a middle-aged always semi-drunk lonely guy with insomnia, living in some rat hole with nothing better to do and no better way to do it. But that was before you could mutlitask with this stuff. Now, it's very often good to have noise, and there's an infinite number of ways to get it.

I feel like I'm in an Adam 12 episode only without Jack Webb's stories. That sounds like I'm mocking, but I'm not. It's really pretty cool.

Streaming scanners are really cool. I never had the urge to buy one, but now that it's free, it's about the best source of distraction-blocking noise yet. Plus it actually gets interesting every once in a while, in which case, so much for distraction-blocking, but oh well about that. No such thing as a free lunch or a perfect world (as if there was a difference), right?

Yeah, I can let myself be killed - for a while.

"find what you love and let it kill you", eh? Hmmmm.....not sure if that's the best choice of things to do after finding what it is that you love...as metaphor, yeah, ok, but unfortunately, too often not just a metaphor...