JSngry

you got a halfway decent team to go with it?

You know, I spelled it that way to begin with & then saw it spelled the other way online and, not trusting my age and/or memory, went with "Pakwana", which now looks so obviously wrong I can't believe I would even consider it.... I'm in the market for swampland if anybody's got any for sale...

Are we talking Xavier Cugat here?

TRACK 21 - Hugh Masakela, Dudu Pakwana, & Co. on Blue Thumb (later impulse!, later Verve). Masakela has always struck me as a limited but engaging player (which is better than the other way around), Pakwana as a total individual, Who else you got on here? Larry Willis, yeah. Fine player. Eddie Gomez...I've never really "got" Eddie Gomez..I forget who the drummer is... truthfully, I've always liked this album more than loved it, although there are plenty of people who will go to the mat for it. To my ears, it only really comes alive when Pakwana steps up. There was a guy who heard the alto unlike anybody else, and thank god for both that and him.

You mean to tell me the Christian Science Monitor is not a repository of accurate state-of-the-art musicological reporting? I'm shocked, I tell you. SHOCKED!

Coltrane, anybody? "Indian music" was in the air in the early 60s, no?

Condolences and sadness here.

Or, for that matter, the Shindig house band: Is there any way that this not not swing like hell? I think not!

TV taping? Mid-70s? What show? Was it this?

Jackie Wilson predated JB! But how many people today know Jackie Wilson? And is there any footage that wasn't made for White TV or motion pictures? To see that guy live, in his prime, on his home turf....the imagination reels! As it is, that clip of "Lonely Teardrops" has me mesmerized, just watching how in sync the entire body is...the whole "package" is "entertainment", sure, but beyond that, there's something quite serious going on... Or maybe it's just because that I can't dance at all, I'm taken aback by those who can do it really well.

That jump....softest landing ever? Incredible.

And I guess the main difference is that if you're somebody's "slave" in a relationship you do anything they want you to do, whereas if they dog you, treat you like a dog, you're expected to do everything they tell you to do. It's like the expression "talked to them like a dog"... a level of engagement below human-to-human, even at the level of "slave".

Substitute "bitch" for "dog"... Dogs, that's another "Southern thing" too...they're more than just pets to a lot of people, they're objects of utility...lots of dog-based expressions, one of my favorites being "broke dick dog" which I guess is all "urban" now & everything, but hell, I've heard that one since I was a kid, and I did not grow up in "the city"... I'd really recommend that anybody who hasn't spent enough time in the rural American South to get a feel for it to do so, but like the rest of America, it ain't nearly as provincial or un-self-conscious as it used to be.

FWIW, in certain "Southern dialects" it not at all uncommon to "ghost" the last consonant sound of a word to leave the emphasis on the vowel sound. This would be one example, "liar" coming out as "lye(h)". It gives the word more punch, urgency, whatever you want to call it.

No, not really. Sorry for the misunderstanding. the thread's title is very misleading, then. The thread's title is the title of the CSM article, nothing more. Again, sorry for the misunderstanding. Exactly.

Having quickly skimmed once before now, & with thanks & stipulations firmly in place, as well as a HAPPY BIRTHDAY AL!!! I'm gonna be early for once! TRACK ONE - Where the wagon? Or did somebody fall off one? The voice at the end reminds me of Stan Freberg, and not until the skim of the last cut did I find out who it really was! TRACK TWO - Ringo meets The Moms And Dads At Les Paul's house? TRACK THREE - Dizzy. Of course! Is this from the Gil Fuller/Monterrey PJ album? That 2nd trumpet is Sweets, right? What's the track called..."Be's That Way", yeah (had to get up & look at the album). That's a good album...I wanted more from it, bought it as a cutout in the old Treasure City days - high school - and revisit it every so often, but this sounds more like the CD than it does the LP, and I think it sounds better, more clarity out of the rhythm section (Earl Palmer on drums, right?) & that adds immeasurably to my enjoyment. Earl Palmer's backbeat is not something to trigle with! TRACK FOUR - Sounds like Rudy's piano sound, so...I don't know. Sounds vaguely familiar, but at this point in time, no idea. Trumpet is either Byrd or Blue, but really can't be sure right now...UNLESS this is one of those Duke Pearson bib band sides, which, yes, I think it is. Might even be one of the ones they left off the CD, one of the boogaloos...lemme check the LP..."ok, "Mississippi Dip", featuring a young Randy Brecker(!). for my money, the 2nd DPBB album was much better/consistent, but that's not how they saw it when it came time to reissue. Oh well! TRACK FIVE - You should hear Mondo Grosso cover "Laughter In te Rain". They take a total chesseball tune and make into a slinky/groovy muffapukker, no small thanks to some great bass playing by Shinichi Osawa and a good feel for tempo, not too on top, not too far back, just eight there, right in the in-between, right where you f*ck when you plan on hangin' in there for a good long while (and when i say "you", i mean that in the general sense, of course...). Here, hear for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhK_5ttJfbg It's actually longer than this, they come back for another chorus after the sax break, but hey, you know, You Tube... All of which is to say that this track ain't much on it's own accord, but it feels pretty damn good, and in the end, what do you want - good grammar or good taste? TRACK SIX - Oh Happy Day! (you say that now, wait until 40 turns into 50...). I am not 100% certain that this is from an actual "jazz" record...the organist does a few things that tip the hand that he/she has been in a church somewhere otehr than in a pew...and one lick sounds like James Brown, but that ain't JB playing organ, I know. Guitar slmost hits like Grant, but I think not. don't know this record, but I think I want to! TRACK SEVEN - Turrentine/Scott. I love those two together. Big time. that's all I need to say about that, becuase everything else about this one speaks for itself. TRACK EIGHT - Wow...that's like one of those "Lounge Classics" that ther's about 8 million blogs devoted to, only this one has jazz organ in it. And a really odd adding of extra reverb to the drum track at 3:35! It's not often that you a hear a cut that's equal parts "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", "Along comes Mary", and a Nelson Riddle MPS record (in fact, if I was going to guess anybody/anything here, it would be a Nelson Riddle MPS record), but here one is! TRACK NINE - I really like the tune here...sounds like really hip 60s B-Side of a pop record (or a failed A-Side) that somebody made an instrumental cover of for god knows what reason. Also sounds like one of those local Spiritual Jazz things that keep getting pleasantly rediscovered....it's not "great", but I like the spirit of it as if it were. This ain't Plunky by any chance, is it? Nah... TWO alto players? Fine drummer! TRACK TEN - Ed Thigpen on Verve. That album is one of the most surprising discoveries I've had in the last 10 years. The early-70s fusion album of his is every bit as surprising, just a little less pleasantly so. But I mean, in both cases, who knew? Not me, that's for sure. TRACK ELEVEN - pre-Castro Cuban hotel music? Now I better understand the Revolution....you know, me, I kid because I love, but...I ain't kidding here. TRACK TWELVE - oh my! "Poinciana", Disco, and The Ventures, all in one! Frankly, those are three things where any two of the three could potentially work well together. But this is all three together, innit... TRACK THIRTEEN - Almost Ellington in every way, but I don't hear Carney...where is Harry? Hmmm....slight as gar as Ellingtonia goes, but still pretty damn good, jsut listen to that sax section, with or without Carney. TRACK FOURTEEN - Alto flute? Once I Loved/O Amor Em Paz...when you're a kid you don't even know how records are made, but once you do...the flutist is so close-miked, quite possible even overdubbed or otherwise isolated from the backing track...but that's technicalities...it's just a good reading of the melody over a really tasty MOR-ish background. Tasty & professional on every level. I got no beef with any of that. TRACK FIFTEEN - Sounds like Herbie Mann in spots, but not in others (how's that for an authoritative analysis?). Ok, the longer it goes on, not. Once again, it sounds like Rudy, so that should narrow it down...I think that's Billy on drums, sounds like his tuning & his pocket...but ah, erah, i don't know. It's got a good beat and I can dance to it, if that helps! TRACK SIXTEEN - Lionel Hampton. Little Timmy can go fuck himself, but I like Lionel Hampton! Neat little tritone-sub thing the pianist does on the bridge too. That's "Fiddle Diddle", right? Now here's where it gets interesting...I thought that wa Roy eldridge, but no, it's Walter Fuller, aka Gil Fuller, so here it is in October 1938, here's Dizzy's future arranger on a Lionel Hampton date where there's that tritone sub thing going on...who put that in there? And almost a year later, Dizzy himself records with Hamp & throws in some flatted fiths (tritones)...so what does that mean? Maybe nothing, but you gotta love the evolutionary lineage that's hinted at there, maybe. TRACK SEVENTEEN - Damn, I really should know this tune...almost sounds like a TV theme or something...I really enjoyed that one, especially how the drums & bass were recorded (as well as what they were recorded playing. The whole thing is a little gem, really. Marvellous! TRACK EIGHTEEN - Joe, that much I know. All i need to know, really...don't know the album, want/need to. TRACK NINETEEN - Nice enough all around, but....then again...oh well, can't find anything wrong here except maybe too much cuteness, and that's subjective. TRACK TWENTY - You know that Castro guy from Track 11? Yeah, him. Tell him to book the next flight out of Havana and get here ASAP. I got a gig for him. TRACK TWENTY-ONE - Did not extract from the zip for me . But I bet it's worth hearing! TRACK TWENTY-TWO - I respect what I perceive to be the intended sincerity of this music to the degree that it is actually there. TRACK TWENTY-THREE - Same. TRACK TWENTY-FOUR - Submitted for your approval: ALL SEVEN of them: Gracias beaucoup, Mr. Rearick. Enjoyed it! And once again - HAPPY 40!

No, not really. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Hey, the reason I posted the thing in the first place was becuase I found the idea of a Christian Science Monitor article on the "African origins" of the blues" popping up on my corporate home page at work to be beyond surreal. I certainly didn't, and still fon't, take the article or any of the quotes therein as anything other than tourist-brochure fodder aimed at people who only feel safe getting into something once it no longer really exists. In other words, pretty much a freakin' joke, like everything else having to do with the "The water's safe now, finally! C'mon in!" Culture of Post-Big Chill American White Folk. But I guess there was fodder for serious consideration in the actual article after all. Sorry I missed it, I guess. As for the whole "1st Cousins" thing, yeah, sure, although maybe siblings separated by Satanic Soul Fuckers Of All Colors might be more to the point. But once again, semantics get in the way.

And our innate common sense is - or should - going to tell us where it's most likely to be found. I mean, I ain't going to Timbuktu to find the roots of George Jones or Ludwig Ruhlhoffer Von Freeman Beethoven. Then again, I ain't going to Timbuktu for anything, not that i know of..

I wonder what kind of a coach Sonny Stitt would have made.

it is possible to be both. Wiseman's ass: http://allwomenstalk.com/len-wiseman-is-a-grab-ass/

I've followed this thread and felt like I should stay out of it, but may I offer this: The music of Africa did not survive the Middle Passage, but African attitudes/approaches to making music did. I don't know (as in really don't know) if it's attitudes/approaches, which are more "conscious", as much as it is "instincts", which is more of a subconscious thing, and I'm pretty sure it's not just to making music but more about the individual's relation to time/space/community/self/all that, but any claim that it all came from Africa is no more far-fetched than any claim that we can't be sure that any of it really did, so BACK OFF MISTER AFRICAN AND ALL YOU AFRICAN APOLOGISTS and all that... And really, I don't know about anybody else, especially those Christian Science Monitor cats, but that's what I think the real issue is, or should be - acknowledging where the basic instincts come from. Not the "style" or anything micro like that, but the macro instinct itself, why the whole world uses pentatonics and a lot of the world uses swing and polyrhythms, and yeah, African-American music & African music aren't identical or even similar, but African-American music has (in the better part of the 20th Century, anyway) shown instincts that are not really like those of any other culture, yet they are closer to those African (and yeah, I know, Africa's a big place with a lot of people) than to anywhere else, and why the hell is that? Surely that's not coincidental, right? Shit's gotta come from somewhere, and if it was from America itself, then "Americans" would not have to go on Camel Caravan or American Bandstand/Idol to prove how well they've learned their lessons, right? If you know what i mean... I mean, this should not even be a point of even minor contention. Acknowledge it, hell, embrace it, because it is such a beautiful thing, and get about with the business of now. Because in all seriousness, I don't know that either African instincts or African-American culture (which i know, i non-monolithic in a big way) is going to be leading the way in the 21st century like it did in the 20th. It was a much bigger world then than it is now & there ain't all that many of the old secrets left, not really, not for those who need to know them...those who don't won't ever, but same as it ever was, right?

Listening to Sonny Cox (with the indeed uber-baaaaaad Robert Shy) play right now (Wayne's "Armageddon"), and am feeling that sound! As a response to Life In The Big City, it seems not only wholly appropriate in its individual necessity, but perhaps even noble in its lack of guile about its "limitations". I've no doubt whatsoever that the guy was cocky, or that he ran a corrupt high scholl b-ball program. Life In the Big City, after all. But he makes no claims otherwise, does he, at least not in his playing, which is all I have to go by. You go, Sonny Cox, you GO!

Yep. Pleasantly surprised! I think it's about as good a Dee Dee Bridgewater side as we're going to see in our lifetime.

Sure! Nor me, because I don't have a clue where they come from! But this ain't about "scales and tunings", which, since we agree on almost everything, I'm sure is already understood.