JSngry

I still find it surprising that through the entire LP there would be hardly a trace of the blues sensibility that is at the core of his style. Don't forget Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson were his earliest inspirations. Well, yeah, but blues/boogie-woogie and modern jazz were still at odds with each other for a lot of people back then, and no matter where he was coming from, if he wanted to be a commercially viable "modern jazz" player, I can certainly see where he would try to play things that reflected Jamal, Shearing, Powell, Brubeck, etc. and downplay his more earthier roots, at least early on. This was still at a time when "cool" influences still held sway in the overall marketplace. Shearing was on Capitol, Brubeck had, I think, just signed to Columbia, and Horace Silver was still pretty much, in the eyes of the general marketplace, still a cult figure on a cult label. What a difference a few years would make, but this 1st Jubilee session was 1955, right? Hard Bop/Soul Jazz hadn't quite gained critical mass yet, although it was about to You used to see that a lot with players who has a good feel for more "earthy" musics but wanted to play something more "sophisticated". Seems silly now, but there was that divide that a lot of people put up, and one that still exists in some ways today. Gene was one of the lucky ones in that he got around to realizing that you don't have to be either/or. I would be just as unsurprised to find that this was "the" Gene Harris as I would be to find out that it wasn't. But the man himself claimed it. right? So then you gotta ask "how", and I think the answer is as simple as that he was still looking for his own identity at the time he made this record. Sounds like he was looking to fit in rather than making his own place. Mingus went through somewhat the same conflict/resolution, albeit on a much more "epic" scale. But the essence of it was the same - do I play the "low-down" or do I play the "nice". Eventually, the good ones find a wake to turn it all into one thing.

It was Diversity Day at the nursing home...

It's Ross Tompkins, and hey, I just thought the McLaughlin segment was unexpected fun when it popped up on my TV screen back in 1985. It's not like I thought he was the Second Coming! Yeah, that's right, Ross. I always thought of Russ Freeman when I saw him (for no good reason). And yeah, it is a fun clip, so many cultural crosscurrent there, almost all of them gone (or all but gone) today (and it wasn't all that long ago, either) , and it also, maybe, provides the ultimate Final Answer to the How Many Drummers Has John McLaughlin Appeared With Who Used Double Bass Drums trivia question that pops up in bars across America on a seemingly regularly basis.

I really don't want to see that Glen Campbell clip. The Rhinestone Cowboy and the Broadway Shuffler. Please let it be that it was on a MS that's been lost to posterity. Not that, but did find this...more "they can play anything" kind of TV schtick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4vOL_UQw6o

Jimmy Neutron Jimmy Noone No One In Particular

Pauline Frederick Nipper Jack

Oh, I like Roy Clark just fine. And McLaughlin even more. But as with McLaughlin here, I do remember Clark as being one of those guys who would from time to time "flex their versatility" by playing something not expected of them - and as cases, play their own "language" over a "jazz setting" to make it look like they could play "anything". Which, in a way, is exactly the point, and yeah, I suppose there is a point there. But so is the point that neither were really "jazz players" in the literal/linear sense nearly as much as they were just damn good players, period, and in McLaughlin's case, quite an innovative one who impacted a large segment of players and listeners who would at best "overlap" with "real jazz". That mattered to me a whole helluva lot more then than it does now, but I still prefer an awareness of the perception of the distinction than a denial of it, just because. But - hearing him play "Cherokee" while nonstop seeing Russ Tompkins (who I've sense heard was probably the exact opposite of a personality than his appearance would suggest..the perfect cover, perhaps!) in the the background really doesn't too anything for (or to) me, other than yet again show what an excellent musician John McLaughlin is, which I coulda told you anyway! Now if somebody can find a clip of the Midnight Special segment where Glen Campell quite possibly cut George Benson (or so it seemed when I was away from the set's picture) , then we'll have something!

I think "Old Devil Moon" might well be "the" Gene Harris while still putting his own voice together, still working through the popular piano influences of the day. I can hear that.

Calling Roy Clark?!?

Unless there's more composer credit history/controversy here than I'm aware of, Edison did not write this tune, and there shouldn't be any confusion. It's called "Blues In The Closet", written by Oscar Pettiford. If there IS some controversy over that, I'm all ears... aka "Collard Greens And Black-Eyed Peas" as recorded by Bud Powell.

Try this link instead: https://www.google.com/search?q=The+term+made+its+debut+exactly+a+century+ago%2C+but+even+jazz+musicians+long+avoided+using+it&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs then click the first result.

AH! #6 = "Blue Star" by Eddie Johnson w/John Young on piano. Indian Summer is the album, on Nessa. The tune I should have remembered from Carter's Further Definitions album. Good stuff!

Coming down with a cold...maybe have a few restive moments here to chime in, so with the usual thanks and disclaimers firmly in place... TRACK ONE - Neo/Retro Blakeyistic, all the "devices" rolled into one tune, very efficient! Trumpet's pitch is a little flat, like he's blowing harder than his embouchure can handle, but just ever so slightly. Alto is very Cannonball like, so I'll guess early Vincent Herring, maybe with Nat Adderley? I was about to get bored until the tenor started...he ends up trying too hard, but that was a fun entrance! Hell, I hear verbal encouragement, this might actually be one of those very last Blakey bands where he was hiring everybody jsut to get it all in while he could. Overall, it bugs me because there is this air of "trying" rather than "doing", but otoh, can you ever blame somebody for trying, at least at first? TRACK TWO - Well, that's just bizarre! Alto player seems to be heartfeltly halfway hearing Bird & Dolphy both (or if this is old enough, maybe just Sonny Criss, which gives you both at the same time), so I'd guess West Coast, maybe Earl Andreza from some broadcast, if such a thing exists? Definitely sounds like Teddy Edwards on tenor, though, although in an extremely casual mood. The whole thing is just weird, in a good way, all these...gestures coming out of nowhere and going back just as quickly, but in a good way, like everybody was really loaded and hyped at the same time. Crazy! TRACK THREE - I should know who this is by the tone...there's a bit of Turrentine in there, as well as David Murray/Benny Walace/Lew Tabackin/however that lineage goes, but the real personality comes out to me when the head starts getting played. Can't put a name on it right now, but how much I don't like "hearing the math" is usually relative to how generic the tone is, and this tone is not exactly generic. so I like it more than I might somebody else playing the same stuff with a less generic tone. Not busy enough to be Ernie Watts, but...maybe? No? TRACK FOUR - Collard Greens In The Closet! Sweets on trumpet, has to be. OP on piano (not OP the composer of the tune, HA!) rolling on rolling on rolling on.Put another nickel in, says Sweets! I'd call this one 7-Up because it's crisp and clean with no caffeine. Doesn't need any! Hey, this is what those guys did when they were doing it, and they did it for a long time. And prospered. So, yeah, good for them, very good for them! TRACK FIVE - No idea who or what, but if there is such a thing as a proper cup of tea (and why shouldn't there be?), then this is a proper alto blueseyjazzlament ballad. And the trumpet player kinda sounds like Lee. Kinda. TRACK SIX - I should know this tune...but don't. Something Ellingtonian? Very nice old-school, controlled concept of tone and vibrato...Buddy Tate? I admire anybody who can play the bottom end of the horn like that. Shit, I should know that piano player too...it's crazy enough to be Earl HineThis is enjoyable. TRACK SEVEN - Something Ellingtonian? A tone like BB's, but not fingers like his! This is good from every angle, arrangement, solos, ensemble, rhtythm section, tempo, pocket, you name it, it's all good...so this must be the Saul Goode All-Stars, right? I would very much like to know who the arranger is/was. TRACK EIGHT - That's an interesting combination of ingredients..the tenor player sounds old, but not as in feeble, more like in been-through-this-for-so-long-I-can't-count-the years-any-more type old. Same thing, sorta with the whole thing. There's a...patience in the tempo that younger folk just can't conceptualize. And there is a Ray Charles vibe tot the whole thing, so this might be Volume 3 of My Kind Of Jazz? TRACK NINE - Are those voices or a synth? Synth, I think? Electronics on a Dan Gould BFT, we are TRULY living in The Last Days! And holy bejeebers, is that a drum machine,at least at first? Why yes, I think it is! OMG! And yet, in spite of all the Electron-ic Evil, it's not at all a bad cut. Good jazzy-blusey guitar and changes that make the less-travelled pivots just often enough to keep from being too predictable. And the fade out/in...is this from a 45? The tune itself sounds like it would be fun to play live. TRACK TEN - And speaking of Unspeakable Evil, It's Quincy Jones' "Birth Of A Band"! Various version are out there, and this is as good as any I've heard. One of the tenor players sounds a bit like Fathead, though, so...not Quincy's band? TRACK ELEVEN - A lot of Stitt-isms, but not really Stitt's tone. Hmmm....Nice, very nice. I feel like I might recognize the player if a few more choruses were to have been played. TRACK TWELVE - I standby my original assessment! TRACK THIRTEEN - "Old Devil Moon"..and I should recognize this player...somewhat like Ahmad Jamal, but only somewhat, and not very much somewhat at that. Brubeck? There's a slight rushing to the pianist's time that suggests Brubeck, as do the little outbreak/spasms, which I like. But they are also at times very Bud-ish, so...Billy Taylor? Overall, it sounds like a set piece without any improvisation, and ok, nothing wrong with that. Oh, I see how it is: http://www.freshsoundrecords.com/our_love_is_here_to_stay-cd-3311.html TRACK FOURTEEN - She hada, she hada, she hada hada wooden leg...Zsa-Zsa, Zsa-Zsa-, went to jail for slappin' a cop...Gene Harris & Ray Brown, drummer unknown/irrelevant? I know people like to listen to the soloist, but jeezus, listen to that bass playing, the time & the tone...that's how you do this type of thing, period, and if it ain't Ray Brown, it's somebody who would be flattered by the comparison. TRACK FIFTEEN - "Lullaby Of The Leaves", I think it is. That tenor player is quirky with his/her tonguing. Puts me in mind of Vi Redd's alto playing somehow, and that's a good thing. I like Vi Redd. Also a little quirky with the push-pull nature of their time within a line. That's something not too many people really do, well or otherwise. Whoever it is, I'd like to hear at least a little more of them. TRACK SIXTEEN - NIGHTCLUB MUSIC!!!! Sure sounds like Cannonball, maybe from the Mercury era w/Junior Mance and them. That's some frisky shit right there, I know I'm ready to stick and stay and don't go away! Very enjoyable compulation, Dan. with some real mystery to go with the pleasure. And who doesn't like that?

Would that be enough for covering those albums? I see there have been no replies at all in the RCA reissues thread (see link in post #3)... The AMG review of the compilation (assuming this is the one) states that those weren't her best records: Now this review seems to imply the compilation contains many of those pop covers where she was "ill at ease"? The remix project that came out of this material is fairly splendid, at times brilliant. I've A-B-ed the remixes to the originals, and truthfully the remixes are just better music than the originals. Simone's vocals regain their sharp edge with the new contexts. A lot/many/most of these type things are at best "interesting", at worst just stupid. But this one works as a standalone new Nina Simone album. Note the title is Remixed & Reimagined. The emphasis is on the reimagining part, and nobody involved halfasses it.

Gomer Pyle Goober Pyle Denver Pyle

Lou Lew Liu

If there's an underlying assumption being made somewhere that "middle-class" and "ghetto" African-American peoples exist as two parallel cultures that never touched each other, especially when American Apartheid was in its fullest bloom, then excuse me while I LOL/ROTFLMFAO/Etc. Hard. It's only been in my kid's lifetime that such a thing even began to exist as a viable ongoing possibility. And don't think that a quandary of no small magnitude has been the result for all concerned, and even some who aren't. And if there's not an underlying assumption being made somewhere, then good, but, still.

Kit Carson Kitty Pride Alfred Lion

Red Barron Bob Thiele Teresa Brewer

They might have been somewhat depressing, maybe. Rollins Plays For Bird, recorded just a few months after the accident does not exactly suffer from an overabundance of joy...

You're only able to do this is you have the skills (i.e. - technique) that the labor market demands at any given time. The labor market doesn't put out a call for creative jazz players to play a Fruit Loops jingle, nor does it feel sorry when trombone sections of top-shelf jazz players are no longer needed for cigarete commercials that no longer get made. It only wants people who they know can deliver a desirable product as efficiently as possible.

Lisa Ono Mona Lisa Lisa Lisa