JSngry

Yeah, Carnegie, my bad. Don't be surprised about Dara. The man has solid skills. I saw him in Chicago in 1980 at the debut(?) of the Henry Threadgill Sextet & the cat was a marvel, all over the horn. Particularly impressive were his mute skills. The guy worked those things to produce micro shadings of timbre of the type that you can hear in person but don't pick up so well on recordings (at least none that I've heard. Dara's current "image" as a roving, all-purpose Deltablues griot can't hide the fact that in the late 70s & early 80s, he was a pretty significant & unique voice on trumpet. Of course, most of the music he was making was in the so-called "loft scene" of the time, which was not particularly well-documented domestically, and which was the target of the Marsialisistic brand of Jazz Fascism. But yeah, don't be surprised by Olu Dara! As far as the mutiny thing...1974 was not particularly late for that sort of thing. The whole "spiritual jazz" movement was all about not looking backwards but forwards, and the Black Nationalist movement was still gaining momentum then. Hard Bop in general and "Blues March" in particular weren't necessarily going to be something that the younger-ish African-American players of the time would look forward to playing with gusto & relish, if you know what I mean. I seriously doubt that it was anything personal against Blakey, just...you know, when "revolution" is in the air (and it still was in the jazz community in 1974) people's views of "the tradition" are different than they are when "preservation & tribute" are the driving forces. And remember -Musical Director Cedric Lawson had come straight from Electric Miles. You know his POV was not going to be "YEAH!!! let's play this like they did 15-20 years ago"... None of this really drives the ultimate "value" of the performance under discussion, but I think some context is called for. Me myself, I always prefer heads to be played as clearly as possibly (unless specifically necessitated to not be), and then when the solos come, hey... So I was not impressed by the head fuckup on "Blues March". It just doesn't fit the gig. But once that gets out of the way, I do like the groove everybody hits and what they do with it. Certainly not anything "revelatory," but to hear Blakey tell it back in the day, he once had a band with an "avant-garde" trumpet player in it, and shit, this guy "couldn't even play the blues"! I think this recording proves otherwise, Dara & Co. don't be playing the Hard Bop Blues, to be sure, but they DO be playing their blues, and with that, it's fine by me, even though the bandleader ultimately wanted something else. Looks like Fitzgerald's Chronology is at odds with this date.. He has them at Radio City Music Hall the night after and with Eddie Henderson, Cedar Walton and Curtis Fuller in the band. It's possible I guess........ I think the Radio City date you cite is from 1973...this Carnegie gig is given as 7/3/74 & is not listed at all by Fitzgerald.

Things picked up in 1974, slightly, but still...not a lot going on there for a while. Interesting that Olu had a short stint in 1973 & then came back, with Eddie Henderson in between.

The Prestige sides are not consistent, but when they are good, they are pretty good, I think. Blakey was getting pushed by the band as much as he was pushing them, and that's an interesting (and unusual) dynamic to check out. By the time of this Newport gig, it really ssounds/feels as if he had had enough of being pushed, like hey, it's MY band, and what I do is I push YOU, not the other way around. And after all, that IS what Art Blakey ultimately "is", right? The guy who never let you get comfortable. T'was a good thing, it was. As far as playing live goes, everything I've come to know suggests that Blakey didn't really have a consistently active band in those days. A few gigs here and there, and he had a core of players he'd call for them. Not sure how either Cedric Lawson or Olu Dara came into the mix (Lawson is introduced as "musical director", whatever that would have meant at the time, but keep in mind that this guy was fresh off of working w/Miles in the On The Corner/In Concert days), but...there they are.

It's labeled @ 8:50.

Ok, I can certainly understand Blakey's...consternation with this band - Dara is not a player who ever was interested in eating up changes and spitting them out & Lawson seems to be ready to drop the backbeat schtick (as it must have seemed to him at the time, read his Down Beat interview & you'll know what I mean, that's all I'm sayin') before it starts, and in "Blues March, I can uncomfortably feel Blakey ready to fire the whole band on the spot, aplolgize the the "ladies and gentlemen", and walk out with everybody's money, but... I like this band. No, Dara doesn't play with anything resembling hard-bop fluency, but his tone is strong, as is his rhythm. It's sort of like hearing a younger Louis Armstrong in the Messengers. Sort of. Everybody else in the band is pretty much on the same page except Blakey, who was no doubt wondering what the hell was going on in jazz that he couldn't get guys to just play the fucking book and swing, fer crissakes! This set at Newport brings the new, opened-up Messengers sound of the three Prestige sides to a logical conclusion. I don't see how Blakey could have gone any further than this, or, really, why he should have, or even felt the need to have. Still, this is an interesting & energetic set, and it would have been alright with me if Blakey would have pulled things back just a little bit instead of a whole big lot like he ended up doing. But hell, Blakey was gonna be Blakey, so it's all good.

Gene Tennace Lucille Ball Eddie Shu

First doubleheader of the season tomorrow courtesy of the Baltimore weather. Is that some kind of a record for earliest doubleheader in a season?

Pudge has evolved as a catcher over the years...during his first stint as a Ranger, game-calling was not always his stong suit. But hell, the guy's benn playing for, what, 35 years now? Experience! One thing you never doubted with him, though, was his dedication to playing and to winning. The guy's a true champ in my book.

Still much love for Pudge here.

But it's always the season for root beer!

http://zorchv38.blogspot.com/2009/03/some-scarce-seven-inchers-reposted-24.html

So it was a UK only thing? That design looks pretty cheesy to be official, but hey, beauty's in the ye, and all that.

I like her root beer commercial.

I'd wager a fair amount that it's individual retail CDs with a homemade box.

Build a poll & I will come.

Getting your shit together vs. immortality...I know I'm an old guy, but there seems to be just a bit of difference there...

Yeah, well, good luck on that one... They could be as old as 20, 22, maybe (but unlikely) even 22.

GOOD LORDY MERCY! Beltre's bat is still sleeping (as is Hamilton's to a lesser extent), but the season's not even a week old yet & that glove is dazzling! And Wash's "everybody will play" system for the everyday lineup is so far working splendidly. Still a long way to go, obviously, but any concerns about team chemistry due to off-season moves are so far looking wholly unfounded. The Orioles are looking good so far, and they got Vlad now, so...look out.

I think it's rude to ridicule veteran listeners for whatever habits and preferences they have developed over the years regarding their personal collections.

He's on the Joe Daley RCA side as well. In fact, RCA appears to have done a series of Newport recordings one year. He might be on all of those?

The term itself, or music that actually is? Either way, I'd have to say no...

Cousin It Uncle Joe Aunt Minnie

Vic has been listening to & loving this music longer than I've been alive, so AFAIC he's more than earned the right to not care about covers, to put it mildly...

I Me We

Point taken, although I've been in situations where either I and/or the band performing did the opposite of all of those things and did get people moving in (and not from) their seats. Again, I think it has something to do with the particular audience you're catering to. There are a lot of people (not a giant number, but a significant one) who won't attend shows due to regular pulse, recognizable tunes, etc. And agazin, that's the point - don't waste time trying to get in where you know they don't want you. Go where they do want you and build there, wherever "there" may be". If/when you can get enough going on there, then it's only natural that curiosity seekers (ranging from sincerely curious to shallow trendmongers to truly destructive malevolent souls) start wandering in. Them, you welcome (warmly and sincerely), but to your world. You don't have to beg to be let into theirs, because hell, you've got your own world already, and even if it ain't all sparkly and stuff, it's still yours. But their always room for more, and a sincerely curious non-understanding soul is no threat to anybody, If anything, they're a virtue, because they come for all the right reasons, dig? This whole premise of "jazz populism" is based on the premise that jazz in general can be brought back into "the mainstream". Well, disabuse yourself of that notion ASAP, because unless you're Lincoln Center, McCoy Tyner, Joe Lovano, or a handful of other "big names", your music will be underground. Now, some of us have had experience living in an underground culture and some of us haven't, but all of us who want to live a normal-enough, healthy-enough, and happy-enough live with jazz as a key component need to stop thinking in terms of mainstream musical survival. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. And that's ok. Build with what you got, not what you don't got. Strengthen your own neighborhood, don't go looking to move into somebody else's unless you'd really rather live there. Visit freely, but always remember where home is. Don't be afraid, but don't be stupid either. Love everybody, but be very careful about who you like. An underground that has its shit together can outlive a nation of mainstreams that don't. It may never thrive, but it will always survive, and survival is the name of this game.