JSngry

http://gilevansproject.com/Projects/Experience?artistID=279&projectID=376&langID=1

Percy France Joe Brazil Little Egypt

David Bagsby Don Bagley Doc Bagby

Is it Ken McIntyre on #7? I swear I should know the name of that tune...

Not too late to the party, I hope? The usual thanks and disclaimers firmly in place, here we go... TRACK ONE - "Black & Tan Fantasy", not sure by who...very definite & sure-footed time & tone...a few embrocure wobbles here and there, sometimes sounds intentional, sometimes not...all things considered, I think they accomplished what they set out to do. TRACK TWO - Wow,,,this is kind of...OUT! Somewhere between, 1944-46, I'd imagine. somebody who had been hearing the early bebop, Dizzy especially...guitarist sounds the most fluent and independent...pianst had surely been exposed to at least a little Monk...no idea who this might be, or how it came to be recorded...no drummer, really casual playing, it's almost like a private recording...interesting... TRACK THREE - No drummer her,,,will this become a theme? Nice, lyrical playing, but I'd have preferred a little bit more, uh...injection of life. Good idea, and I'm all for "cool" & "melloe" ad all that, but this sounds either high, drunk, tired, or somehow otherwise not fully engaged, and not it a particularly good way. Just my opinion. TRACK FOUR - Drums! "Street of Dreams"! And Lee Willey. I've never been able to fully engage with her, but by the same token, I've never been able to walk away either. She's got something, I just can't put my finger on it. I've heard somewhere that this song was writtien in the context of being about an opium den, but have never bothered to confirm that. The thing about Lee Wiley had such nice phrasing...the timbre of her voice - and the vibrato that results - kinda creeps me out sometimes, but the phrasing fights back with some mighty power. TRACK FIVE - Teagarden. His horn phrasing was so fluid, his vocal phrasing often not so much..of course he was older here, but still...this is good for what it is, I'm just not sure why it gelt the need to be that. TRACK SIX - "I Cover The Waterfront", an audience recording. First impression is Moody, let's see how it develops...yeah, that's largely Moody tonally, but chops-wise....not sure... he might have been really old and tired on this one. Or else it might not be him at all! TRACK SEVEN - Oliver Lake? I like it. Sounds like his out-of-Dolphy curlicued phraseology on more than one occasion. He gains momentum as he goes along, even if the tempo slows down, that;s kinda weird. The bass solo keeps sounding like it's going to turn into "Bitches Brew" at any moment...Probably not the best that any of these guys have played, but everybody sounds really solid, the real deal, especially the bass player, and oh by the way...that head sounds REALLY familiar...is it a Dolphy tune? TRACK EIGHT - Nice ballad, nice tune, nicely played, nicely paced. TRACK NINE - Oh MY! I was NOT ready for this one! In a good way! That altoist plays like a tenor player! Lester Bowie? Probablyt not, but no Lester, no this... and the chart is SO straight...BIG fun here! TRACK TEN - Tape Hiss! Geez, I had forgotten what it sounded like! Clealy deliniated idea, nice use of space, good back and forth between the players. A very centered piece of music. I like it. TRACK ELEVEN - More alto! No faulting that bass/drunms tandem, but the altoist sounds a little...limited on this one. Very Ornette-ish tone and phrasing in spots. Maybe this ain't his bag. He's trying, though, and he can definitely play. Just sounds like he's not particularly motivated/able to get into the material too deeply. I hear lots of devices, not a lot of ideas being developed. Or maybe he's a total badass & I'm just not hearing him. It happens. TRACK TWELVE - Skills! Yeah! TRACK THIRTEEN - Interesting intonation choices...you know how some people live out from the rest of the town & they get some of the news but not all of it and then form their own story with some really "local" stuff in it that sounds pretty weird to everybody else but not to them because, hey, they've never hear otherwise? But they come into town and tell it as they know it and people just kinda look and say"o.....k....". That's what this sounds like to me. TRACK FOURTEEN - "Tennessee Waltz". Have you heard Sonny Rollins' version? It's a good tune to blow on, actually.It appears that his version can be found here: http://www.allmusic.com/album/keepin-out-of-mischief-now-r223931 TRACK FIFTEEN - No idea, but I'll drive home wide awake now! Thanks for an interesting runthrough of some wholly unfamiliar music. Enjoyed it!

Dude - they were HUGE from about 1969-1972.

I was there...never had a feel for them...in fact, when they became "the big thing" in my circle after The Beatles broke up, that hacked me off so much that I made a conscious attempt to find new music that didn't suck like GFR did...made a quick trip to The Mothers Of Invention, then found jazz. "Closer To My Home" did have appeal to me as a single, but it was too little too late by then.

If not us, then who? If not this, then what? If not now, then when? If not here, then where? They also serve who only sit and wait.

Don't know about that one, but Woody Herman had a chart where the head was pretty much the solo Lester played on "Pound Cake." "Cousins" by John Coppola.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbutyevLs8U

Is there any current compilation/collection of the material first issued on Charlie Parker records? That stuff is inconsistent, but when it is good, it is exquisite.

Didn't think that you did but just wanted to make sure.

http://www.ejazzlines.com/CONCEPTS-ERA-LIVE-p38710.html Significantly less expensive here, if they actually have it in stock. Looks like it might be pretty good...

Maybe I phrased it awkwardly, but am I supposed to have "sympathy" for people who couldn't tell the difference between Miles And Grand Funk? Please tell me I'm not! There, that's more sytaxtically to the point.

My Uncle Jake (RIP) bought a cab and flirted with the idea of becoming a driver. Didn't take him too long to become a dispatcher instead, but I did get to sit behind the wheel before he did. Even standing still and without a trailer attached it was easy to figure out that here was a whole 'nother world....

Yeah, I love it how the decisions get made that figure the best way to make money is to stop catering to people you know you can sell stuff to.

AND THE COMMODORES! I did not realize until just now that this song was a tribute to Lester's unique vocabulary!

They should have called it Death Of The Cool. That's what they should call any sort of a Lost Quintet box set they should ever come out with - Death Of The Cool. Because those were some BOISTEROUS motherfuckers! (and please tell me I'm not supposed to have any "understanding" in anything resembling a sympathetic matter anybody on either side who couldn't tell the difference between Miles & Grand Funk!)

Finished one listen of the disc today, and the thought that kept (and kept) going through my head was - how could anybody in their right mind call this music "commercial" and/or "rock"? There's waaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy too much breaking up of the beat and overall abstraction for it to even be semi-any of that...

I'm far from a Monday expert, but IMO there's a lot of pretty intense stuff happening there per unit of time. And she means it. And she's learned how to convey that she means it. When she was 26, I think she was still working as a secretary and was just trying to get her vocal thing underway. She had already been a really good classical flutist and such, but had never even considered doing pop music, much less doing what she finally ended up doing with it... You know, I really don't care about what happens to "jazz". I'd just like for more people to be less freaked out by a broader palate of options than is now the case.Anybody that can get that going is ok with me. If "jazz" can reach people on those grounds, so much the better. If not, hey.

I'll even say that it's not about making anything intrinsically "better" nearly as much as it is just increasing the number of "plausible options" that people are aware that they have & can consider with having reflexive conniption fits because all of a sudden there's this whole bunch of...STUFF that sounds like anti-music to them when it's really anything but. Options are good, ya' know?

If Monday simply did "smooth jazz", she'd be rich and famous and by now. She doesn't (not even close), and she's not. Anything but...

Yeah, she can play, and play well. I think her singing is a little "generic" in expressivity right now, but that may or may not evolve. Time will tell. My biggest bug with her whole thing is not the material (most of which is actually pretty nifty often enough) nearly as much as it is her presentation. The backup band is just not hitting it, they sound tame and reserved. Maybe that's by design, to put the entire spotlight on her, maybe it's just a bandleading sensibility that needs more growth, I don't know, but there's not enough OOMPH to her band. If Zawinul were alive today, he could fix all that. Not sure that Joe Lovano can... Monday has been a prophet without honor on her home planet. But anybody working the same basic ideas will get my attention and at least initial encouragement. The prophecy is sound. The planet has not been.