JSngry

I think he went there.

Electric pianos rule. In the right hands in the right place, of course. But whenever I hear somebody dismiss them out of hand, I get upset. Because that's just wrong. Selah.

Careful - splinters can blind!

Can't say that I see any need whatsoever for any sense of "diminuition". Life is what it ends up being, and it gets there how it gets there. Many detours and surprises accompany that, and that's not a "diminuition", that's just what it is. The only need for a sense of disappointment would be if we sensed that Shepp was trying to play something and not succeeding due to technical limitations that prevented him from saying what it was that he had to say. The only time I get even an inkling of that is on the Candid sides w/Cecil. But not too long after that, something else took over inside him, and he pursued it vigorouly, and usually most successfully. There was a fire in his belly that raged furiously for a little under 10 years, and he gave hiumself over to that fire unconditionally, which is how it usually should be. Some glorious triumphs there, so why they should be viewed as anything other than a man getting it out excatly as he meant/needed to escapes me. If it was not found along the path that he began on, or returned to. so be it. Life's like that. Now, as for what came after, hey - LOTS of things came after, not just inside Shepp, but inside America, and over the entire world. A fire need fuel, and the fuel for that particualr fire wasn't there like it had been, and not just inside Shepp. A lot of things changed, a lot of things stayed the same. Things will be things, ya'know? So yeah, the path changed. What would the alternative have been? Some cats die, some cats live. The ones who die get off easy because there's no more decisions left to be made. The rest of us take stock and go about the business of getting where and what we want/need by whatever way we think best. This is, I think, what Shepp has done, and it's all good imo, even when it's not so good.

All those possible responses , and not one I can use! How about - "If it's integral to the music, yes. If it's not, but it's good players, maybe. If it's just some wankerism, no. And if it's a Latin date, it damn well BETTER have congas, and preferably more!"

An interesting comment. Just wondering what the difference is when it comes to history & historical evaluation, which is what this is, and will become even more of as time passes. Is there really a difference, in historical terms (informed historical terms, that is), between "greatest" & "most influential"? How "great" is something going to be considered 250 years from now if it ends up being little more than a blip on the evolutionary radar? It's a serious question, and frankly, I don't know the answer.

This is the Trane I listen to more than any other over the long haul. Bar none, and it ain't even close.

Well, I can't argue with that seven, but there's any other sevens I couldn't argue with either, so...

Then again, there's always the possibility that Shepp in the 60s had "more pressing priorities" (as he, imo, should have) then getting his change playing together, and that once the smoke cleared, he took a very methodical approach to doing so. He certainly gained fluency as the decade progressed, which in turn would explain his increasingly "conservative" perspective - he now had the chops to tackle this type material with more than "mere" fire and "attitude". Besides - whatcha gonna do after you burn the house down? You can either live outside for the rest of your life, or you can go about building it back the way you want it. I don't think that Shepp was ever a hardcore "deconstructualist" or anything like that. I really think that he had every intention of being basically a "changes" type player from the git-go. But the passions of the time led him into other areas of more immediate necessities. I'm certainly glad that they did, but I'm equally glad that he went back and took up where he left off.

Shoulda clarified, my bad. And I'm not totally sure I got this story right, so don't take it as gospel, but it's something about Perkins getting called to sub for Gonzalves on an Ellington studio date, just to play parts, because Paul was too trashed to make it. Either Perkins took it and was totally freaked out, or else he turned the offer down because he didn't feel worthy. One or the other, and I'm pretty sure it was the latter. But either way, it's not the attitude of a typical "studio musician".

Correctamundo.

I'll disagree, but respectfully so. The editing and the mix/EQ-ing are piss-poor, however. It's interesting to catalogue the devolution of Shepp's revolutionary rhetoric at this juncture--the sentiments are the same, but the music is not. I've always semi-interpreted this as a silent assertion on Shepp's part that "the tradition" was always "revolutionary" at root, and that now that the fireworks were over and the sleepers awakened, it was safe to go back inside.

For all the talk/associtions of Perkins w/Prez & Rollins, he repeatedly told Pete that his favorite tenorist was Paul Gonsalvez.

Fearless Fosdick Mke Nomad Happy Rockefeller

Does the water level of the lake often rise to or over where these stumps are? Because water "erosion" will round 'em off like that. You see it all the time on the shores and banks of lakes and rivers around here, where spring rains often cause water leves to rise and then fall back to normal several times per season. Over the years, they get rounded off like that.

Herb Albert Dolores Erickson Rolf Ericsson

Why? Just keep playing Highway 61 Revisited.

So it would seem. Except... Somewhere in my stacks I've got a fairly recent unreleased session that Perkins did under the leadership of some Los Angeles drummer whose name I can't remember. Got it from Pete, who did a series of big band clinics with, I think, Mike Vax, who had Perkins along. Pete's got some good Perkins stories, btw. Quite a humble and unassuming man who seems to have often been one of those "I love this music too much to feel good about what I've done with it but I love it too much not to keep trying" kind of guys. We've all known at least one of them in our lives, I'm sure. Anyway... They're playing all Mingus material on this date, most of it of 60s & 70s vintage, and the group tales an almost Giuffre-ian (as in the Giuffre trio days) approach to the material. Lots of "stillness" in what is very "un-still" source material. It's as unusual as it sounds, but in that setting, on that day, with those people, Perkins got his zone back, only darker and deeper, and I tell you - it is something to hear.

I'm thinking they're tree stumps. You see them looking like that around water's edge, at least down here you do.

Lee Dorsey Ernie K-Doe Chris Kenner

Definitely.

There was a time, a relatively brief time, when Bill Perkins was in a zone that nobody's been in before or since.

I've heard something, but damned if I can remember where. But yeah, there's something out there.

Wow. That's one that has kinda slipped under my radar. Not exactly a "common" tune, but not exactly obsxure either.

Priceless!