JSngry

Heinz Sauer Helen Hunt Sydney Delmonte

If you're a Dewey Redman fan and don't have this one, carpe diem. He's only got one solo on it IIRC, but it's one of his very best on record. $20 is cheap to get something this strong.

No, he's not. And that's kind of a drag. His work on that Geri Allen BN side is some of his best "recent" work imo. And this one is really fine too. I apprecite it's inclusion very much!

Here we go, fresh out the envelope! TRACK ONE - I like the lay of the beat. And the layering of the textures. The tune's out of the 60s Miles vibe, this is a nice way to recontextualize that thing. Good, not superb solos, definitely saying something. Interesting cut, older style trying, pretty much successfully, imo, to move ahead. Much love for the intent, and a strong like for the results. TRACK TWO - Don't care for the recording quality, but oh well... Some interesting alto playing mixed in with some not so interesting alto playing. Nice piano work. A ever-so-less-fast tempo migh have benefitted all concerned, including the listener. HA! Sounds like somebody missed a cue outta the piano solo! ColTRANE ColTRANE! TRACK THREE - Ah! DO like the recording quality, mix that Rhodes and bass into a nice dark, fat bottom, let the vibes waft in and out, and let it ride. Don't know the song, the artists, or even the "genre", but it sure SOUNDS good. The good lessons of CTI well-learned. That tenor player's a sneaky sonofabitch, like Harold Vick used to be sometimes. I like that! A very pleasant surprise, to be sure, this one. TRACK FOUR - Sounds kinda like a Dial side. Nat comes to mind, but no... Dodo? I'm clueless, obviously. Nice. TRACK FIVE - A study in overtone production turning into a mimimalist/repetition thing. Once you know how it's done, the mystery's gone and all that's left is the willingness to get into it for meditative purposes. Sometimes I feel it, sometimes, I don't. May or may not be one player overdubbed. Sounds like it probably is. TRACK SIX - I much prefer Jaki Byard, or Air Lore. But that's just me. TRACK SEVEN - Ok. But time has marched on. TRACK EIGHT - George Adams. Can't miss that phrasing, tone, and vibrato. George Adams was a beautiful player. Can't say that this is one of my favorite performances by him, but the spirit comes through nevertheless. It does seem to be a very nice tune, though, and one perhaps not fully grasped with one listen. I'll be coming back to it, that's for sure. Just because it's George Adams. TRACK NINE - Not quite in the pocket, and this kinda thing is about pocket first. A lesson for us all, no doubt. Other than that, nicely played, and James Spaulding might wanna check his mail to see if anybody's claiming to be his illegitimate son. Surely Dookie Coleman is not alone in this world. TRACK TEN - Hard to argue with that! Dewey/Blackwell in intent, Joe Farrell/Buddy Rich in execution. That might sound like a dis, but it's not. We are who we are. And besides, that's one helluva bass drum. BOOM! TRACK ELEVEN - Snappy! Taking those crazyass Bird head phrasings at face value. Gotta love that! The tenorist shows no small amount of seasoning in his phrasing, especially in how he ends his lines. Cat's a player for sure! Hell, the whole band is. They keep their focus while straying just a little bit "out". Not nearly as coomon as I'd like for it to be. And that drummer is holding it all together, keeping the groove while always adding commentary and color. The whole things a little "straight" for me in temrs of eighth note feel, but that's more a matter of personal "flavor" than anything else, I think, and wehn everything else is as together as this is, I'm more than willing to accept it as just that. We got us some players here! TRACK TWELVE - Very Monkish intro, then a not very Monkish tune. A very spirited romp. This sounds quite familiar...Abdullah Ibrahim w/Carlos Ward? Dudu Pukwana? Guess I'm hearing some kinda South African vibe to it... It's working for me! TRACK THIRTEEN - Sounds a little faux-old to me. But maybe I'm feeling a little faux-young right now. Either way, it's not working for me too well, except for the drummer, who is displaying some rather cool limbular independence behind the bass solo (and elsewhere). TRACK FOURTEEN - Shades of Shelly! Nice, playful head. I'm digging the drummer (again - Luca, you got good taste in drummers). Overall, nice, but not particularrly compelling. I'm cool with "small", but small and ultimately insignificant (to the big picture) are totally different things, and this one falls just slightly towards the latter end. TRACK FIFTEEN - The Microscopic Septet. There was a DJ on KNTU in the early 80s who played them constantly (yeah, times have changed...), and this was one of the cuts he featured most heavily. This is good stuff, the writings cool, the band's tight, everybody's on the same page in terms of vibe and interpretation, and if none of the soloists are particularly "strong", they paly quite effectively within the context of the band and the charts. Helluva nice group this was. Too many cats don't want to (or can't) devote themselves to playing in (and for) a band at the expense of their "personal identity". Well hell Roy, not everybody has that strong of a personal identity, so not everybody needs to be hanging out blowing shit just to be blowing shit. Sometimes it's nice to play charts that give you a chance to make a statement that's in line with your own identity. Don't everybody have to be a "soloist" to be a good/meaningful musician, dig? And not everybody is hip. You can be cool without necessarily being hip (or vice-versa...). These guys are all a little "corny" in fact (or so it seems), but they're still cool. It's that self-honesty, that lack of pretense, that appeals to me. "Good" is good enough if the spirit is true, and I hear absolutely nothing in this band to make me think that the spirit is not 100% true. Yeah, the Microscopic Septet was a pretty nifty little band. Well, that's it. Some more good stuff, and zero crap. Thanks, Luca, and thanks for the hookup Big Al. Enjoyed the ride!

I slept on the sign up for this one, but Big Al was nice enough to send me a copy. It was the intensity of his reactions, pro & con that piqued my interest. The discs arrived yesterday afternoon, and the following reactions are from a treu "blindfold test" situation - I'm hearing these cuts for the first time while posting. The usual thanks are firmly in place. TRACK ONE - Nice scoring, nice section playing. Tenor is sorta between Plas & Lockjaw, might even be Plasl. Pianist? Well, ok. This band sounds not unfamiliar w/more "pure" salsa, but I doubt that anybody here is directly from that genre. Maybe some jazz players who have worked some/a lot of those gigs. Pleasant enough, and I really enjoyed the ensemble blend + the painist's interaction with same, but that's as far as I can take it. TRACK TWO - Weird! Meditations on Hawk is what it sounds like. One guy gets into his own thing a little bit. There's four tenors, right? I guess it's cool, but damn is it insular. And if anybody of these tenorists were born after, say, 1960, I'm gonna puke. Why? Just because. TRACK THREE - First impression is of a 60s Creed Taylor produced Kenny Burrell Verve side recorded @ Rudy's, but the bass is recorded too directly. A Topsy type thing, but with a twist, what with that major thing snuck in. It's nice, good stuff, but the "hook" for me is the highly reverbed sound. The actual playing, fine as it is, could be anybody. TRACK FOUR - "Au Privave", of course. Sounds like they were pleased with the results. TRACK FIVE - The altoist sounds like Ernie Henry on acid. And I mean that in a good way. I've got no use for the pianist (at least on this cut), but that alto player, man! And everybody else! These cats can play their instruments exactly how they want them to be played, and they're not hung up on playing "jazz". Not everybody who plays "jazz" is a "jazz musician" (and that's a big part of the problem with jazz in general right there), if you know what I mean, and not every "jazz musician" plays "jazz" (and that's a big problem with the jazz audience in general right there), if you know what I mean as well. The whole thing is reminiscent of an early Muhal side (although I've never felt as unegaged with anything Muhal's played as I do with this pianist) on Delmark, and may well be one I've got but haven't listened to in ages. No matter, I very much enjoyed what I heard. TRACK SIX - O....k... Not at all relevant to my lifestyle, but... Let's just say that my interest in "ephemeral" pop music of the post-rock era better not be dissed by anybody who enjoys this. It is well-played though. But so is "Lightnin' Strikes". TRACK SEVEN - Oh HELL yeah! That melody is some old nursery rhyme or something, I can't remember. But - this band is right in this particular pocket. Call them Lint! Some very well-seasoned pros. Kids, students and wannabes can not make a big band sound like this. Just can't. And that sopranoist, hey, that's what I'm talking about. Play what you've live, play what you know, play what you don't know but want too, just whatever you play, keep it real. This sounds like the real deal, and I'm good for that. TRACK EIGHT - "San Antonio Rose". I hear this kind of stuff fairly regularly, so there's no sort of "exotic" element to it for me. This is good, nothing more, and nothing less. There's better, and there's definitely worse. I suspect it might be some old Bob Wills guys who've aged in body but not in spirit. TRACK NINE - Took me a chorus to glom on to it, but it's the changes to "What Is This Thing Called Love". Those changes lend themselves very well to inside-out blowing, and that seems to be what we have here. Not sure I'm really warming up to the "attitude" here, but that's my problem. Tenor player sounds like a nice enough person. I do wish the guitarist(?) would get laid though. The rhythm section is trying their best to substitute, but it ain't the same thing... TRACK TEN - Well, ok. Let's cruise! Almost Lockjaw in a few spots, but not quite. I'd really like to know who this is, for historical purposes. It's either immediately pre- or post- Jaws. Either way, I wanna know. TRACK ELEVEN - I guess it's hard to escape the shadow of Dolphy when playing bass clarinet. Not sure that's an excuse though... Hey - this cat can play the instrument, and that gets props right there. But skill alone does not make for a compelling musical experience. TRACK TWELVE - Sure sounds like early Houston Person. This is nice. TRACK THIRTEEN - Not my thing, but well-played and seemingly sincere. Playing on top of the beat, perhaps even rushing it in spots, but if that's where/how it's felt, then hey... TRACK FOURTEEN - Nice. Very lyrical. Not "song-like", but with attention paid to the contour and flow of the lines and the melodic content therein. Altoist is somebody I should know. Hell, it's Ornette! I was not aware of THIS ALBUM until now. BIG THANKS! TRACK FIFTEEN - It's good. The only problem I have with it is that there's been enough other things done in this vein that the "deifference" is no longer really different to me any more. My problem, that. But there's certainly nothing "wrong" with it, and in it's time (assuming that this is one of the earlier pieces of this type), it was probably gripping. To some extent, it still is, just not nearly as much as it once was. TRACK SIXTEEN - Phil Woods, suited for airplay. Hey, Phil Woods can play, might even be a "master". I'm just not too into him. TRACK SEVENTEEN - Thanks for a good ride. No crap involved, that's for sure, just some stuff I personally didn't connect with, as well as some I did (and an new Ornette discovery!). On to Disc Two!

No f---ing s--t. That bad boy is one of Rollins' most purely realised records. I'll say it again - Falling In Love With Jazz is worthy of repeated listening. Records are only part of the story...

Corky Corcoran Cordell Stewart Tom Carvel

As a professional musician, I can already do that. Sorry!

No thanks. I've already had enough sporadic work at non-sustaining wages for one lifetime.

I LOVED "Moritat". Not particularly "involved" from a "soloistic" standpoint other than the glory of that huge sound, but GOODLORDYMERCI, there's just so much unobliterated joy there. And to see/hear an unobliteratedly joyous Sonny Rollins is to ponder the possibility that no matter how interesting, involving, and invigorating the journey is, sometimes the hard-earned destination is its own unique reward.

Well, there's Washington's own playing, which is unique IMO -- soulful and in some ways quite "hip" but at times veering toward the Ayler-esque; nobody else had those things going AFAIK. Then there's his writing, which also is special and different. Everybody else on the date plays great, especially Woody Shaw and Joe Chambers. And, finally, the feel of the album is special, too -- kind of "within bounds" in terms of the shared/received musical language but with a sense that things are just about to explode, as they often do, especially during Washington's solos. Also, I'm sure that sound-wise there's a whole lot more to be gotten out of those tapes than made it on to the original LP, which is what I have. Put me down as being in agreement with this. Coincidentally or not, I think it's interesting that after Tyrone "vanished" that Heiner Stadler turned to George Adams as his tenorist. I hear a lot of similarities between Washington & Adams in terms of how they approached the instrument, although Adams' playing carries with it an air of fait accompli that is quite the opposite of Tyrone's, which may or may not "matter" as to how one does or does not feel about either man's playing.

People Who Sing Alouette People Who Drive A Buick Skylark Hoagy Carmichael

Coke Escovedo Sheila E Rachel Z

Perez Prado Shimon Peres Paris Hilton

Larry Darryl Darryl

It's a totally different Junior Parker. This is definitely not the guy who sang "Driving Wheel". How cool would that have been, to have had that Junior Parker singing "Getting To Know You" with this group? WAY cool, that's how cool! But this too is cool.

Myron Cohen Myron Floren Myron Kandel

Not exactly a cape, but it is Verdon...

Jaki Byard - Freedom Together. What a nifty little collection of pure, naturally idiosyncratic music with absolutely zero commercial potential, even by jazz standards. And Byard on tenor is icing on the naturally idiosyncratic cake. Although, it wasn't the Junior Parker I was expecting, but hey. Yet another surprise. Totally cool stuff probably doomed to be ignored forever, even for $3.00. C'est la fukkin' vie...

Hell if I know either. I'll take Planet Waves any day of the week, and twice on holidays.

Taps Miller The Miller, Who Told his Tale One Of 16 Vestal Virgins

Captain Kangaroo Dancing Bear Rafi Zabor