JSngry

There was, seven years ago. It passed me by unawares, and now appears to be all but unavailable. But don't let the "obscurity" factor throw you off. Unlike many such comps of obscure material, where playing the "imagaine the story behind this one" game is often more rewarding than the actual music, there's some solid shit on here, and lots of it. Trust me.

True TRUE TRUE & if anybody says otherwise, I got your back (to the extent that I'm here, which isn't much these days, but it's the thought that counts...). It's funny though - far more often than not (but by no means always), the tops of the mountains still end up being the tops of the mountains. What changes is that we come to see them as part of the mountains instead of these isolated peaks that pop up out of the clouds. Crucial, fundamental difference that is, even if it has more to do with what we see in the mountains than what the mountains themself are.

Yes. Not a "stone classic", but yes. Electric funk mixed in with some accoustic work mixed in with some soundtrack-y stuff. The best of it is fine, and the non-best of it don't suck.

Yeah, it's for real. http://www.amazon.com/This-Moment-Kenny-Do...073&sr=1-98

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sister-Funk-2-Vari...8356&sr=8-1 1. You're Doing it with Her (Rhetta Huhes) 2. Love Addict (Honey & Bees) 3. Sweet Sweet Baby (Dolly Gilmore) 4. What I did in the Street (Barbara King) 5. Follow the Wind (Coletta Woodson) 6. Watch the Dog (Sandy Gaye) 7. The Queen (Big Ella) 8. Baby You're a Jive Cat (Sheila Wilkerson) 9. A Woman was made for a Man (Richi Corbin Trio) 10. Heartbreak Hotel (Barbara Trent) 11. Take me Baby (Althea Spencer) 12. It's not too Late (Cheryl Johnson) 13. I Dont Want your Love (Barbara Howard) 14. Whatcha Need (Leon Mitchison) 15. If you Want your Man (Cheryl Dorsey) 16. Muddy Waters (Fabulettes) 17. The Dance Man (Keisa Brown) 18. You Better Stop It (Barbara Mason) 19. Since I was a Little Girl (Hard Drivers) 20. Love Came into my Life (Florence Trapp) Not one dog in the batch. Some serious soul/funk here. Miss this one at your own risk.

Total concuration on the McLean Left Bank Steeplechase material. Some of that stuff gets scary, in the best meaning of the word.

By "imprint", do you mean the writing on the vinyly itself, the so-called "dead wax"? That should have the # of what it really is on that side. I once bought an later pressing of Sun Ship that was Trane on one side, some Archie Shepp side on the other. Looking at the dead wax, I saw that the albums had similar catalog #s, just one digit was transposed. Don't now how many more of those made it to market,

In all seriousness, Grover could play. If his records (too) often were geared towards the "pop-jazz" market, so be it. It's a vacuum (make your own joke here) that has always been filled, and Grover filled it more tastefully & soulfully than many before or since. Unlike many before or since, his playing is rooted, rooted in the much rougher Soul Jazz of the time. He takes a guest spot on Randy Weston's CTI album and does not, even slightly, embarass himself. There's also a 2001 Prestige compilation of his pre-Kudo sideman work that's very nice. And all the Jazz Snobs carped about his latter-day BN side w/Kenny Burrell, but all things considered, it ain't at all bad. Again, it fits into a vaccum (and again, make your own joke here) that has always been filled, and others have done far worse filling it. LTB & I met when "Just The Two Of Us" was busy running up the charts (and we busy were were running up each other). The album version (on Winelight), hell that entire album, benefits greatly form the production of Ralph McDonald, one of those guys who knows (or at lest did here) how to find a way to combine taste & musicality with genuine sensuality & broad appeal. If it were really that easy, we'd have a plethora of music that tickles the bodies, soothes the souls, and doesn't insult the minds of both "common" & "other" people (Jazz Snobs don't count because all they want to do is bitch and moan, and they'd rather do that than relax and be normal every once in a while, if in fact they even could, which is something I'm none too sure about any more...). But we don't, do we... Grover's music didn't always achieve that synergy at that level, but it's very seldom that you can say that it was for a lack of trying to. He never was a "deep" player in any way except sincerity, and what he was being sincere about was nothing to shy away from as part of a well-balanced life diet. You'll hear a lot of negative whining about what him and his music were not, but not nearly as much positive appreciation of what it was. If you don't factor in both, it's your loss.

Yeah, but...

Ok, it's official. I no longer am of this world.

Who cares what games we choose?

The die has been cast.

Trust me.

...Your Land/Grossman experience is a wonderful example of the hall of mirrors that people of our vintage(s) can find ourselves in -- Dude, imagine a world where a younger guy sounds younger by playing older and an older guy sounds older by playing newer. That's some freaky shit, and, like a drive-by, it shouldn't be necessary. I seriously doubt that it really is, but it sure as hell exists. Time to everybody to just get over it and move the hell on, you know, a lot has happened in music and life since both 1956 and 1965 and how long can you live parallel/in avoidance of it before you become...unnecessary outside of the cave, but pre$$ure$ con$pire against that happening any time soon, at least not it the Organized JazzMafia World. Still, it's a fun swinging album, and recommended to all.

I'm going to WAR, be-atch!

Gas has been passed.

I suspect a lot of people here did. It'll be a fun listen.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...c=22813&hl=

If y'all got any number of L.A.-based studio sessions with anonymous backing "orchestra under the direction of XYZ" then you probably got a whole lot more Buddy Childress in your collection than you realize. He was somewhat the West's counterpart to somebody like Jimmy Maxwell in that regard. You can't have a career like that any more. You can't have a life like that any more. He did, and god bless him for it.

I hear ya' on all that, but at this point those are all strategic points for battle plans in a war that I just don't, really don't, care about any more. If it can ultimately be neither won nor lost (& I don't think it can, not at this micro of a level, macro, now that's a different story, but Gene Clark, Toshiko Akioshi, & Harold Land are not among the names that can be used as effective ammunition to win that one), I'd just as soon make it a personal journey and invite anybody along for any portion(s) of the ride that they're interested in for as long as they can behave themself, and drop 'em off at the corner when they can't.

Sometimes I thnk that's why all the dead guys are so loved (and probably will continue to be) by today's audiences. It's always easier to accept reality when it comes in the form of mythology than when it comes into your house & bleeds all over your new linens.

Maybe I've reached the point of just not giving a damn anymore, but the whole notion of "under-rated" & "under-appreciated" seems almost naive. The notion that there's enough people out there who could "get it" but for whatever reason don't -yet, but doggone it, we're gonna get them to - is pretty much laughable. People get/appreciate what they want to get, sooner or later, one way or another, and if somebody is "under-rated", etc. all it really means is that what that person is offering - as a total package of whatever size or lack thereof - is something that not as many people want as they do something else. That's it, period. It's got absolutely nothing to do with "intrinsic worth" or anything like that. It just comes down to with how many people does what you do strike the right chord? And to that there's no rhyme reason or logic. More people wanted what Michael Brecker was offering than what Billy Harper continues to offer. That doesn't particularly thrill me, but it doesn't really bother me too much anymore either. Those that want it/will come to want it will get to it, and those who don't never will. Life goes on, and considering the alternative to that, that ain't such a bad deal. No, all I can really be concerned with these days is whether I'm hearing what I think I'm hearing from whatever it is I am hearing. If so, am I sure? Ditto if I'm not, and either way, what else is there one way or the other. Too much more than that and I'm into the world of thinking that the world is full of people waiting to be "converted". It just ain't so.

And that might be part of why that was his last BN album.

Maybe freedom is not the goal. Some people are like that. Or maybe it's a type of freedom that neither you or I can really comprehend. Some people are like that too, and who's to say that they are wrong, at least as far as them knowing what it is they want/need for themself better than anybody else? All I can say is that I see both the mother and the anti-mother in the daughter, and that has me considering possibilities of "meaning" in the mother that I had not previously considered. Sometimes seeing what's being rebelled against by the child brings home why it mattered so much to the parent, and why neither was/is right or wrong to do it their way. Different circumstances, different means, & different methods can still lead to a broader commonality of purpose once it's all said, done, and stripped away to the basics. Hard for me these days to hear Toshiko through White Male American ears (think about it - she's none of those. Three strikes and maybe I'm out going up against this pitcher...) & think that I'm hearing it about the same way that she does. What she does or does not hear (and therefore what she means) is something about which I really can't say anymore other than that things like "overwritten" may at once be straight to the point from the WMA POV as well as totally besides it from hers. I no longer claim to know anything about her music betond the notes on the paper, and that extends to the need/desire to call unnecessary bullshit on some/a lot of it. All I can say is that maybe, maybe, what she's saying is something that I am at best only partially equipped to understand (and then only so far into it), and that is neither "good" nor "bad". It just is. Am I wrong to feel this way? Either way I lose. Go figure.