JSngry

14 albums? Wow, I had no idea...

True. I wrote him a letter (this was pre-email) back in 1990 (hardly the beginning of the company, but around the time when it became obvious that they were going to be around for the long haul) asking him about this & he said that he needed some "distance from the experience" or something like that, but that that it was going to happen eventually. I get the impression that making all those "extended" (i.e. - non-quartet) albums for Arista required some gamesmanship and such and ended up being somewhat...stressful. But lately it's been licensing issues. And now they appear to be solved. Great news!

I bet they meant Ernie Freeman.

You mean it's not?

I bet they were talking about Bud Freeman.

Got to hear this last night and... has George had dental work? His attack sounds a little slack-jawed, which is totally out of character for him... And Gloria's vocals...how old is she now? The net result is kinda like Moms Mabley impersonating late-70s Big Joe Turner impersonating Little Jimmy Scott... Her playing, though, is fine indeed. I mean, I'm really glad that she got documented one more time, she's more than worthy, but I'm left with the uneasy feeling that this session should have been done 5-10 years ago or so to do everybody involved fuller justice.

"Cubano Chant" Japan, 1964, again w/Rich on drums: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah_qnY0hQxs I mean, shit, who was managing this band that they apparently worked steadily (mostly Vegas, as I understand it), but went virtually unheard on record or in the press?

Already posted elsewhere, but fully appropriate here, Perciful on electric piano w/Harry James in 1965: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFloJkNa-Rc

Check it out - their opener was some flagwaver based on the Rocky & Bullwinkle theme. I mean, this thing was way up. Well, Pat LaBarbera's mike had a short in it, so it sounded like he was double-tonguing these ridiculously fast 16th note lines. It was only into his 3rd or 4th chorus that I began to realize, that, no, no matter how fast the shit was, and no, no matter how hard Buddy was pushing everything, that nobody could do that. But it's a credit to the intensity of all concerned that it took me that long for reality to set in.

Great move.

This one seems to be a favorite among "those who were there", and god knows I understand why. Everything's perfect, and everybody's in their zones of the time about as well as anybody can be in any zone. However, it's a bittersweet perfection for me, listening to this one is, because Hank sounds so happy, so balanced, so at peace with his life and his music. And we all know that even if that was the case for that moment (or those moments, considering the other albums of this time that more or less run in the same current), it was not to last, that there were tensions both internal and external that upset the balance and triggered a whole 'nother set of reactions in and from Hank. To that end, as much as I love Soul Station (and that is a lot), I still reach for Dippin' far more often, probably because that's the album (along with Lee's Cornbread) which for me captures Hank as those transitions began to take root and at a time when he was still deciding to confront them aggressively rather than passive-aggressively (relatively speaking, passive-aggressiveness had always been a key factor to Mobley's approach, I think), and it's there that I feel I get more of the "totality" of what & who Hank Mobley was, instead of a glorious picture of a part of who he was.

Geez, a Rhodes and a mini-moog (right?), that was it. Damn, I see lounge players using more gear nowadays... Not bad, actually, although nowhere near Weather Report/Herbie level of substance. Bill Connors, yeah, good player, fine player. Al Screameola brought the show, but took away the fun. This stuff is fun, especially watching Lenny White & Stanley Clarke only a few years removed from their Joe Henderson gig. Far, far worse things could & would happen in the name of "fusion" before too much longer...

Gotta ask, Larry, how did this stuff strike you in "real time", late 60s/early 70s? I mean, in the midst of Trane, Miles, AACM, and all the other "forward" music being made (and all the "stationary" music still being made quite well), wasn't a Buddy Rich big band sort of..."besides the point" for somebody with your vantage point? And I mean no disrespect by that, because even though this was the time of my "awakening" to jazz, and all that/this plus more was already out there and it really did seem like "all the same music" then (and GOD what a beautifully messy crowded pool it was!), it didn't take too long to prioritize personally, and yeah, I too am being a little pleasantly surprised at how, now that the stadium is mostly deserted and the standings pretty much finalized, some of this stuff is still hanging on to play a few more innings before retiring to the clubhouse to empty out the locker and go home, even though its hard to say why.

Dave McRae organ. One of the comments says that he also played with Matching Mole, and how's that for contrasting gigs? Re: the "sweating brow syndrome jazz" thing, yeah, I heard that, and after time goes by and you hear/play/get propagandized by enough of tht stuff, it becomes less and less attractive. But in retrospect, it's hard for me to just flat-out deny the validity of it, at least as practiced here. I saw the Rich band once, somewhere in 1975-74, and the impression that they left and that still lingers is that these guys came to play hard. Not flashy or dramatic or anything, just hard. Now, me myself, hey, at least some lightness is essential, but all I'm saying is that Rich & Co. always (in those days anyway) seemed to play what/how they did out of principle, and out of belief, so far be it from me to deny that they should have.

Per page 5 of the comments: Personnel: Brian Grivna, Jimmy Mosher (alto sax), Pat LaBarbera, Don Englert (tenor), Joe Calo (bari.). Bruce Paulson, Tony DiMaggio, (trombone), John Leys (bass trombone). Jeff Stout, Lin Biviano, Wayne Naus, John DeFlon (trumpet). Paul Kondziela (bass). Bob Dogan (piano)..and uh..Buddy Rich (drums).

Well yeah, no doubt, but that's kinda both exactly the point and beside it... My long (and probably forevermore) ambiguity about the guy is based exactly on that - what he was vs what he wasn't. Either way, there's no doubt, and molto begrudginato Love Points for that...

Uh... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JbvAeDm000

WHOA WHOA! Buddy carries a B-3 to Oslo with the big band. DAMN!

WHOA! Here's a tune from The New One ("Machine") only from about a year later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJA1Ptr4s5Y&NR=1 You got yer Don Menza on yer tenor solo, ya' do. The video & audio are out of sync, but hey - pretty cool chart, and one helluva band.

This is not a dis, btw. I mean, I really dig Ken Nordine, but by and large, he's firmly "middlebrow" as well, and all the more better for it!

Wow, so he was musical director, eh? Probably his idea to bring in the electric piano, then... The more you find out, the more you realize just how deep the history of this music goes, how there's a bunch of people with names that hardly anybody's ever heard of who are not only excellent players, but who also sometimes do something really interesting, out of and/or ahead of the mainstream. I mean, would anybody expect to see an electric piano on a Harry James gig in 1965? Nah, no way. And yet...there it is. And being played quite nicely at that! RIP indeed, Mr. Perciful.

BIG thanks for that info. I've got a few of those Swingtime videos and have never been able to find any info until now. :tup :tup