JSngry

Responses in blue.

sometimes people who have ambitions make them happen their own selves...

Interesting. Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smGSKAXhoAg...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq1OeibpuUw...feature=related

And I really don't think he was "blowing them off". "Few of these dates, however, are considered among Mobley's best" is a far cry from ""Few of these dates, however, are considered to be worth a shit" or something like that. I mean, "Someday My Prince Will Come" is a dandy Miles side, but how often do you see it "considered among his best"?

You found Japanese BNs for $10.99] in 1986? Oh yeah, Tower. Well, that explains that then! You, sir, were a very lucky man, at least relative to many!

Yeah, and I think that Red's guestimation that the record doesn't do the live band justice is probably right.

Here's the exact evaluation - "Few of these dates, however, are considered among Mobley's best." "Are considered", as in "you ask 10 people what the Hank Mobley records are and these are not likely to be among them" And from my experience, that would be accurate. Hell Marchel Ivery, who grew up in that era and dug the shit outta Hank, always talked about the Soul Station and beyond albums. Everybody I knew did. And truthfully, as great as those '50's sessions are, is anybody really going to seriously say that the '60's sessions, especially up to and including Dippin' aren't more refined in terms of both Hank's solo voice and his group concept? And Japanese LPs? In 1986? You're expecting a guy to locate a source (considerably easier now than then, believe me!) and spend big big bucks just to write an article the pay of which probably wouldn't cover the cost of those albums? Uh....yeah...sure. Just as we need to be able to listen "in context" of the times, so should we be able to read.

Again, until the Mosaic came out, that part of Hank's legacy was not generally known in 1986. You juust couldn't get the stuff. Hell, go back and read Litweiler's DB piece. See what he places the most emphasis on as far as "most personal statement" and such. And check out the Mosaic advertising from when the Mobley box first hit. There was an air of "everybody knows XYZ, now here's ABC." Not bad journalism at all - look at who was quoted saying what and how little of it had come to light before. Just a repetition of what was the "conventional wisdom" of the time. The article was written in 1986 - over 20 years ago, long before the reissue boom was in full swing. Things have changed a lot since then...

I was just in one this afternoon, for the first time in quite a while, and the CD selection was....pathetic. So I asked the lady what the deal was, and she said they're cutting back on in-store inventory, but that a lot of stores are going to offer download kiosks with access to something like 400,000 songs that will burn you albums or song collections of your choice and print out album artwork. All of which would have been pretty cool, like 10 years ago....

YEAH!

Definitely got that one. Beautiful cover, too, big head shot of Miles in bug-shades and all browns and oranges. It will be forthcoming.

Like I said, attention to detail....

Absolutely, but to put the quote in the context of 1986, the Mobley Mosaic had not yet been issued, and next to none of these albums were readily available. So the "conventional wisdom" of It All Really Began With Soul Station was still the norm. In fact, I doubt if the author had heard all (or possibly any) of these albums. I know I had a hard time getting hold of them, other than the All Stars date w/Bags, which for some reason was always easy to find in the 70s.

If you can get the download uploaded, I'll do ti that way. Save yourself some $$$ on postage.

So is the glass half full, half empty, or is it even a glass at all? Tell you what though, when Sonny hits that "zone" (and yeah, he still hits it), ain't nothing else like it. That much seems to me impossible to deny. And the same holds true for when he doesn't.

Share the history! Post some scans!

Did you ever get to hang w/The Lion? That's another cat who seemed sharp as a tack at all times...

I've had the scanner, just not the HD space & processing speed to go a little crazy like this. But now... :crazy: Besides, the few times I've "pulled out the archives" for people (and it's never easy to do that, since my closet is more like a train station during WWII than it is an organized place of storage...), entertainment & good discussion has ensued. That's my goal here, really. Because this stuff is a part of the history of the music (or at least of the business of this music), and because there's a lot of "quoting" and such and not very music straight up reproduction of original content/context. To me, original is always best! So fwiw, here it is.

Yeah, 1973. Eubie was still middle-aged...

Or maybe not. Perhaps it's best to just accept that Sonny is what/who he is, does what he does how he does it for god only knows what reason(s), quit trying to figure out the "what's and why's", and just take it in at face value, since that's what it/we end(s) up being anyway, trying to mold all these seemingly incongruent elements into something that we can make sense of in our minds, when in reality, it is what it is, nothing else. You got a still great mind still playing great, just in a context that defies all conventional "career logic" and quite a bit of "conventional wisdom" in terms of what you're supposed to have in order to play great. The ultimate explanation is that there is no other explanation other than it is what it is. If there was any other explanation, we'd have had it by now, no? Myself, I'd rather have Sonny Rollins playing how he plays, irregardless of "context" than not (and the time is not too far off when that will come to pass). "Genius" doesn't mean too much to me, but "spirit" does, and if the paradox of Sonny Rollins is that when that spirit comes through, it does so irregardless of "context", then that's just one more case of life doing it's own thing without a lot of regard for what I want.

Yeah, a few years ago, I finally got to hear that album of the Lion talking and discussing the early days of the Clef Club, etc, and it made me realize just how much into refined craftsmanship this whole school was. They really knew the details, down to the most seemingly insignificant, and not just about music, but also about attire, conduct, everything. It's no wonder that Ellington had as much of an omniverous palate as he did. He was trained to not miss anything!

To me, the interesting thing about this article is how it captures the vibe of at least a part of the "jazz landscape" in the early 1970s. Jazz, nearly way-laid by rock just a few years earlier, had begun to recover, although in some new ways. The whole "jazz-rock" thing was rapidly growing, although it had yet, despite the title of the article to coalesce into "Fusion" (but that was just around the corner), and between the "horn bands" of rock, the various/numerous bookings of jazz acts at the Fillmore & other places, the willingness of many jazz artists to "loosen up" in terms of attire, repertoire, & instrumentation, and, especially, the growing recognition of the "counterculture" that so much great jazz has always been "counterculture music", the music was beginning to reach out into some new areas of audience exposure & recognition. Of course, as the decade wore on, that played itself out in a lot of different ways, some better than others, and of course, we all know what ultimately happened once Columbia, who at this point was championing Ornette, Mingus, Jarrett, Bill Evans, alongside Mahavishnu, Weather Report, and, of course, Miles, threw in with the "Young Lion" movement. Not that it went from Point A to Point Z without anything in between, there was a lot in between, but here, in 1972, look at the vibe described here - young people actively hungry for all kinds of new, "different", quality musics, and at least some parts of the "jazz business" ready, willing, and able to service that hunger. Look at that and compare it to 1982, or, especially, now, when we have discussions about why young people aren't exposed to jazz, why don't more people like jazz, how come nobody buys music anymore, etc etc etc. In retrospect, this "window of hope" ultimately proved to be just a fleeting (relatively, the ghost didn't really totally give up until maybe the early 1990s, and we still have people who are still believeing that it can yet be done, god bless 'em) moment. But in real time, it looked like it was going to be a great time for a long time. And truth be told, this spirit of unabashed eclecticism among audiences and cautious openness amongst musicians might have been jazz' last, best hope to avoid becoming the "niche music" (of an increasingly shrinking niche) that it has ultimately become. Maybe. And maybe you had to be there for this to make sense. Maybe.