JSngry

The trio with Cleveland Eaton & Maurice White I very, very much like the way Cleveland Eaton played with Ramsey Lewis, and this is the only RLT album with Eaton (that I know about) where the program is all-acoustic, all "straight-ahead" material of one form or another. Eaton is spectacularly recorded here, and his playing rewards the attention. I do not say this lightly - fans of exceptional piano-trio bass playing will want to hear this album, even if, like me, Ramsey Lewis himself is a non-factor (almost or total) in their Personal Jazz Conversation. On this live album, you can focus on Cleveland Eatn, Maurice White, and Ramsey Lewis in that order and have a very pleasurable listening experience. Another live date with Eaton, this time w/Morris Jennings on drums and guest Phil Upchurch sitting in on guitar. I am coming to also appreciate the records that this trio made with Charles Stepney producing, but Charles Stepney was not aboard here, and nobody seems to be really hitting on anything too hard. There is a (probably unintentionally) funny lift of Miles' "Shhh/Peaceful" called here "See The End From The Beginning, Look Afar" that gets one more chord thrown in, but it's too late -Upchurch is aping McLaughlin's long bent notes, Lewis is tinkling on Rhodes, and Eaton is playing the bass part damn near verbatim. And the audience is clapping their hands like crazy, like they would probably not have done for the Miles side. Go figure. Charles Stepney probably could have taken this album's material and made a good (enough) Ramsey Lewis studio record out of it. As it stands, not even Cleveland Eaton can save it for me. But that Dancing In The Street album...that's one to pay attention to (if you're going to pay attention to any Ramsey Lewis record other than the hit ones). Trust me.

I've never heard "Save The Last Dance For Me" the same since learning that he wrote it about going out socially with his wife, with him being in a wheelchair. For me, that makes it one of the more poignant songs out there, countless shallow performances by countless others notwithstanding.

They don't do Girl From Ipana, unfortunately.

Not digging this one as much as The Legendary Profile, not by any means, the material's not nearly as much to my liking, but still... in any serious discussion of the MJQ, consideration must be given to the group's balance of ingredients and how well John Lewis continued to keep them in a near-constant state of perfectly balanced tension, a yin-yang wholeness of complimetary opposites that creates a unity instead of a duality, Jackson & Heath being the loose and earthy, Lewis & Kay being the taut and ethereal. And the older these guys got, the more they played together, the more their tendencies deepened, and the more the whole evolved likewise, to the point that, as tends to be the case, sometimes the yin and yang got so much so that they transform/morph into the other. Sometimes Lewis' comping, "prissy" and "rigid" as it might sound on the surface, is in a deep groove time-wise, which allows Jackson to just pick and choose where he will weave in and out...same thing with the Heath-Kay dynamic, who's really the yin and who's really the yang? Don't be so sure! All of which is just to say that with the MJQ, even when not much gets past the ear, there's still more to it than meets the ear.

Ok, Buddy & Richard Evans...worked ok enough w/Woody (Heavy Exposure is very good, at least when it is good, which is when it goes for the funk). These charts are very similar in formula to what Evans wrote for the Herman band, just with more contemporary rhythms, and a vocal group added. So we should be ok (enough) here. But we're not. We're not ok. Buddy playing rock/funk rhythms can be quite invigorating, but what's on this record sounds and feels like somebody/almost-anybody keeping time in a booth with headphones and a click track. This stuff doesn't have enough personality to it to work with Buddy Rich sounding like Generic Studio Drummer. Wayne Andre's fun to listen to, but everybody else...generic-ish role-playing. Which would be fine for a Wade Marcus record or something that was going for "that type thing", but not for a Buddy Rich Record. Whoever in this thought process thought it would be a good idea to de-Buddyify Buddy Rich was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.

And I missed the game, taking the family out for our son's 26th birthday dinner. Ordinarily I'd be a little miffed at missing something like this, but can't complain about it this time. Who would've known? Got 'em here, though:

And dancing in the dark is like not wearing shoes to the mall.

Of all the influences on the CTI sound, does anybody ever mention the MJQ? I don't go to cocktail parties, but if I did, I would prefer that the cocktails all taste like the MJQ sound like on this quietly badass jeaszy-listening beaut of a record - smooth, tasty, and substantial all at once. Can I get a ride home?

Significantly worse, imo.

Agreed that its one of Dexter's more uninspired albums, but if you can hear it through the dwarfing morass of the post-production reverb and the backasswrds mix, the brothers Jones make some very nice contributions, Thad in soloing (check him out on "Oh Karen Oh"!), & Hank with perhaps his most harmonically "stretched" comping on record. Meaning of the album title? http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/11/30/stories/2009113050270300.htm

Doing it is old-school. Blabbing about it to the press is pretty new-school/bush-league. It continues to be a world gone wrong, it does. Talking about Cole Hamels.

Vaslav Nijinsky Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Hare

Agreed that its one of Dexter's more uninspired albums, but if you can hear it through the dwarfing morass of the post-production reverb and the backasswrds mix, the brothers Jones make some very nice contributions, Thad in soloing (check him out on "Oh Karen Oh"!), & Hank with perhaps his most harmonically "stretched" comping on record.

Textbook example of everybody involved being challenged to the point of sparklingly average. Can't ignore either quality. I know plenty "society bands" whose books would be exponentially improved by having charts of this quality. Plus, early-ish stdio appearances by both Mel Lewis & Jim Hall, as well as tenorist Bob Hardaway. Also, Hana's "Bogata" has an opening phrase and harmonization that makes you think you're going to hear "Moon Rays". You don't, but I think Hanna got there first. But yeah, you can dance to it, and yeah, it is jazz. So...mission accomplished?

Kay Ballard Kai Winding Koo Stark

Robert Young Father Pete Best

I wonder was Joe Williams high or something on this one. He seems mighty....FRISKY! No matter, he does this mutliphonic high note thing on "It Don't Mean A thing" that I swear to god when it came out the speakers I swore it was Lockjaw. Talk about aural history...

People who eat mufalettas People who eat Greek food Gus Triandos (once an Astro, came over with Jim Gentile, iirc, so I should have known better!)

Gus Triondos Trini Lopez Trina Turk

Haven't heard the album, but the cover photo looks like Doctor Billy Taylor is being held inside a jail cell the door of which was designed by an orthodontist!

Foster Parent Wicked Stepmother Steps Ahead