JSngry

"Madness"

Only 7 horns, but it's arranged & played like a big band, mostly.

Yeah, but this type of thing would almost certainly have the vocals added on top of the band tracks, unless it was a live recording. Brown was probably not a professional singer, so there'd have to be some "work" done on the vocals in terms of phrasing and stuff like that. Maybe even moreso if she mostly did recitations. They'd most likely want to work w/the phrasing of the speech. Jayne Cortez could do it live w/Richard Davis, but that's Jayne Cortez, dig? This was Vault, not a big label by any means, but not a DIY either. Some "professional" production was probably at play. But I could be wrong. I'm expecting a copy quite soon, and will report back. BTW - anybody ever hear that Flying Dutchman side of Pete Hamill's writings narrated by Roscoe, w/James Spaulding & Ron Carter playing in the background? That's definitely reading added on top of tracks, and that's what I'm expecting here, especially since it's a full ensemble playing, not 1 or 2 people.

The CDs or her playing?

There's a version of "Windows" from 1/05/66 that was recorded at a Mercer Ellington Septet session (w/Chick on piano), by a quartet of Paul Gonsalves, Corea, Aaron Bell, & Louis Bellson. It can be found (and retitled by somebody as "Ugh") on New Mood Indigo, a Doctor Jazz LP that's probably been out on CD somehow. Wasn't released until 1985, though. Chick seems like he never went to a session w/o a tune or two. Don't know if they'd been requested beforehand or not, but the cat seemed to be somebody who always had tunes ready for a session. That's smart.

All I can add is that when/if the Herman Phillips (you have heard of Herman Phillips, haven't you?) Mosaic comes out, there's gonna be a lot of happy campers, yours truly included.

Tom Slick Slick Rick Doug E. Fresh

"In Time" is just too damn funky!

I've got that side, and yeah, it's one of the best. From the airshots of this era I've heard, I'd say that it was indeed common practice for an announcer to introduce each tune. Sid was "looser" than most, but yeah, that was the deal.

But certainly not less necessary...

I'd be shocked if it was live.

Yeah, Bitches Brew got a lot of critical praise on release. The whole cranius-in-rectus Crouchalis revisionism bullshit was not even in the picture then, other than for the people for whom anything too much past New Orleans/Swing/bebop/take your pick was confusing. I'm even thinkng that Chris Albertson wrote a glowing, gushing even review of Jack Johnson in Stereo Review. Somebody did, if it wasn't him. Ascension got a dual-review in DB, Bill Mathieu (5 stars, iirc) & somebody else's (not 5 stars). So that might qualify. The first Bird/Diz 78s, definitely. Koko/Now's The Time got eitehr zero or one star. One of the more infamous reviews in the annals of jazz reviewism, actually, and one that probably played a part in critics not wanting to be too quick to dimsiss the next waves of progress, even if they themselves didn't necessarily feel it to be such. Kenton, definitely, although I don't know if it was any one single recording. By the time City Of Glass hit, the controversy was already going, and had been. Truthfully, I think maybe Black Byrd could qualify. Pretty much universally, if not particularly vehemently, trashed. Who knew that the cult of the Mizells would someday emerge. Not me!

I thank you, but this is soon going to become a "Most Overrated Organissmo Poster" thread... I guess in my mind, "eloquence" is a function of focus, and I'm in no way willing to claim that whatever focus I have is something that is something that not most everybody is capable of, if they had the time and energy to devote to it. I mean, I've onlyu had a full-time "straight job" for about three years now, and I'll soon be 51. So I've had a lot of time to think. That's a luxury most people don't have (and I can tell you that it's a luxury that not as many musicians take advantage of as probably should). So, as much as I sincerely appreciate all the kind words, really, I also feel that I've been a beneficiary of circumstances more than of any "gift" or "talent". There's a helluva lot of similar eloquence lurking in a lot of the people who post here. I mean that. It's just a matte of finding it inside, and that takes time (lots) and encouragement. I can't help anybody with time, but if it's encouragement anybody wants, here it is!

Since you asked, it's been Monday Michiru for me, pretty much all year. From her near-earliest work to her most recent. Apparently my enthusiasm is less-than-unanimously shared, but oh well. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and all that.

Nobody?

Thanks, but.... shut the fuck up. Seriously, all I'm saying is that all that anybody has to do is to feel first, then think/ask, and keep on doing that cycle. That's it. Damn near anybody can do it. That it seems that more people don't should not be taken to mean that they can't. We've all been indoctrinated, trained, and crustified by all sorts of forces, some intentional, some not, some benevolent in intent, some not. Comes a time to just let all that shit go and find out who we really are, who we would/could be if we didn't know who we thought we were supposed to be. Now, maybe not everybody can confront that notion comfortably (or even uncomfortably), but anybody can get on that road once they do. I'm not "eloquent", I just don't stop asking questions of myself, don't take the first easy answer that pops up and close the book on it. That's all. Again, anybody can do it. I've been told that curiosity is not an intrinsic human trait. I don't believe it. What's not an intrinsic human trait is setting self-imposed limits on how curious you're going to be. That's a learned behavior, and what is learned can most likely be unlearned, no?

P-Vine has also used other source material when it can't get its hands on the masters. Most of the blues and gospel releases don't come from vault sources. They usually do a good job with the sonics, however. Thanks for that info.

Got that one long before I found ITW, and as good as it is, there's a certain "holding back" quality to it (that I can't really put my finger on), that is totally absent from ITW, at least to me.

Still hate the song, but love the story. That's what pop music is supposed to be about in the end (until the end, though, is a different matter altogether....), and that's why pop, in its own non-musical/intellectual/whatever way, is capable of a simple yet undeniable profundity that too often escapes us "smart" people.

Well, there again, it's all in the title - Unit Structures. The whole thing (as is much of Cecil's music to this day) is really a long-form composition made of up "little" cells/units that are developed through improvisation before the next one comes along (the improvisations of late Trane go much the same route, actually). Once you glom that, I'll not say that it necessarily gets "easier", but it does at least start to fall into place.

Do you mean Stockholm? Indeed. My bad.

Well yeah, that's the way I feel. First it hits you, and then you make the effort to figure out what's going on. I'm not prone to expending effort figuring out something that I don't want to hear over and over again... I've at times been credited with being "eloquent" or some shit. No such thing. It's just that if something really gets to me, once I get over the intial buzz/repulsion/ehatever, I go about trying to figure out why I've had that reaction, and what specifically it is in the music that has produced that reaction. Now, yeah, I'm a musician, so I can go more "technically" into it than a lay listener (and that takes care of the "how), but still, I'd think that anybody could ask themselves "Why?" one way or the other, and come up with an answer, unless you just want to function entirely on gut reaction and keep moving on (which is certainly a lifestyle with immense appeal, but also one which I personally have found myself unable to sustain for any meaningful duration after numerous attemps. Personal wiring and such, I suppose...) For me and Unit Structures the why was really pretty simple, and contained in the album's title - the structure. I was shaken (and stirred!) by all this intellegent energy feeling like it had an overriding structure (a structure which became apparent over time, as I pursued the "how"). The notion that "structure" and "freedom" could exist on such equally large a scale had a very powerful primal impact & appeal to me, then and now. And besides, "Enter Evening" is just flat out beautiful, at least to me.

Doesn't that belong in the ECM thread?

Good question. Don't know. I think P-Vine uses master tapes, but am in no way certain.