JSngry

When was the last time you came across one of those wartime steel pennies?

What I like about the ESP side is how it documents the process of a player "working it out" in a way that few srudio albums do. Pharoah plays long solos on this one, and there's moments when the inspiration lags. But he keeps playing through them until it returns. Then it leaves again and he goes through the same process, playing until it comes back. It's what goes on in casual jam sessions all the time, but seldom do you get to hear it on a record.

Other than the opening introduction, all those edited out announcements are by Daley his ownself.

The only American distribution outlet so far, and just for the newest stuff: http://www.artistshare.com/artist_project_...tID=20&langID=1

A little late to the party (misplaced mail - thanks kids! - and the week from hell), but the usual thanks and disclaimers are still firmly in place. TRACK ONE - Maybe it's all the Monday Michiru I've been listening to lately, but a cut like this is almost enough to make me wish that men should not be allowed to make music for public consumption w/o first receiving a permit from a certified board of really hip women. I mean, really, it's a slight (to be kind) melody in the first place, and everybody gangbangs it like it's some hot juicy trollop. Why? What's the point? Poor Ben. TRACK TWO - Ah, charanga! Love charanga! Bassist, pianist, and violinist kinda sound like ringers, especially the bassist, whos attacks/sustains his notes more like a jazz player, but it might be somebody like Andy Gonzalez or John Benitez, more "Americanized" players who are truly multi-culturally musically literate. No matter, the playing is fine. Like I said, I really dig the whole charanga bag, especially when it's more jam-oriented like this cut. The "society" style gets tired pretty quick, but this ain't that, and all is well. TRACK THREE - MULTIPLE CHOICE (25 Points) A. Sounds familiar, but I can't place the players. B. Are the sax players twins? C. Oh, little town of Bethlehem? D. With the benefit of hindsight, could anything be more ironic? Beautiful cut, man. Beautiful. TRACK FOUR - Exactly Like Who? Oscar, Red? Wynton (the good one)? Pretty sure that's Ray Brown with somebody. Pianist is derivitive, but is right where he/she wants to be, it sounds like, so hey. And Ray, well, this IS the Ray Brown bag, so extra hey! Sounds like everybody was doing pretty much exactly what they wanted to do, so supersize hey!!! That drummer's kinda corny on his fours, though, and otherwise generic to the point of being unfortunate. But hey. TRACK FIVE - Nice. Very nice. Bassist scuffles w/the tempo here and there, but not enough to notice. I really dig the altoist's lines, how he mostly stays away from licks and develops melodic ideas. At this tempo, that's a bitch. I should know this cat. Sonny Red? Not Ernie Henry, although both of those guys share someaht similar unique tones and phraseologies that are deeply rooted in Bird but still go off into something deeply personal. Everybody sounds familiar, but I can't really pinpoint anybody, much to my chagrin. But this is some happenin' shit. TRACK SIX - No idea. Kinda nice, kinda lightweight. Nice concept though. TRACK SEVEN - "Chega de Saudge" or however you spell it. No More Blues. Burton? And? Or? It's ok. TRACK EIGHT - Sounds like some neo-CaptiolCannonball, but not nearly as hot in temperature, although I hear the potential. Would like to hear this group live, in front of an into-it audience. Tenorist sounds like Harold Land if Harold was strokified like latter-day Floyd the Barber. Is that Michael Ray on trumpet? Incredible chops, he has, and an uninhibited spirit to go with it. NASTY splice just before the bass solo. Bassist is into it, though, big time. sounds great. Good players all, and probably not the best representation of what they could all do. TRACK NINE - Sure sounds like Jacquet. If it's not Jacquet, I'd go with Red Prysock or Rusty Bryant. Don't think it's Arnett. Sure sounds fine. Sure sounds live. In every way. Gotta love it. You can tell the guys that do this "honking" thing who can really play from the guys who are limited just by their tone. Hell, you can pretty much tell everyting by tone. But this guy can really, really play. Yeah, it's obvious here, but I bet he mighta made some records where it was less obvious. Sounds like Illinois' voice at the end. Yeah. Illinois Jacquet and his bad self getting over and not minding one bit. Much love. TRACK TEN - Being late to the party, I'm assuming that this tune's mis-titling on the album has already been noted. Didn't know this cut or album before, but a little AMG research pulled it up. You know, it's a great, great tune, really is, and totally underplayed even today, but after two classic, concise versions (the orinal by King Curtis and a remake by Willie Mitchell in the late 60s(, the bar's been set awfully high for what you need to do to put this tune over. I dig the way he played the head, but the solo just wasn't paced in enough of a "story-telling" manner to reach me. the sentences were all there, but they were kinda out of order and didn't necessarily have full overall coherence. But that's just me. And I don't dig the drummer on this. Sounds like a very fine player, but he also sounds like he's not taking the tune/groove seriously, treating it like a generic "soul" tune and not a specific story to be told. Same holds true for the rest of the group, although the pianist(!) gets a lot of slack form me just because he is who he is. But overall, there could have been more drama, more pacing, and less "playing". But again,.that's just me. I'm picky about this kind of thing and this kind of tune. On a last set in a club or at a really casual session, yeah, cool. but on a record? I dunno... TRACK ELEVEN - Bird & John Guerin. Only in America! Funny, if you didn't know any better, you'd think that this was some weird remix project w/a varitoned altoist and some musicque concrete looped all through it. Heard like that, it's really a trip! But Bird, man, Bird was as big of a trip as the world has the potential to offer. Not even Clint Eastwood and/or Lennie Niehaus can change that. Bird was the shit, and still is. Only a handfull have done as much (or even almost as much), and nobody's done more. Different, yes, but Bird... Bird is the shit. 'Nuff said. TRACK TWELVE - Well, yeah. If we can get two more people to do the otehr two tracks, this will be the first album completely covered by BFTS. GO FOR IT! Nothing but unconditional love here for George, Jimmy, & Dannie. Those cats... they lived it. And you can hear the life. You can feel the life. Nothing but life in this shit. Hell yeah, and Amen to and for George, Jimmy, & Dannie. TRACK THIRTEEN - Indeed! Much thanks for a BFT that touched a few nerves, pro and con, along the way. Gotta go read the other responses, because I know somebody's gotten some shit that I'm already kicking myself for not knowing!

That's Monday?

Seems like Black Lion the CD label is a catchall for all of Alan Bates' work over the years, thus the variable quality. Black Lion the LP label was indeed a very fine operation.

How's the sound on this one? Is it serviceable? I remember seeing a disclaimer on the packaging. Serviceable, yes. Bit of missing high-end, but you can still hear everything.

I played a week in Gillette back in 1981. It was then an oil "boom town" and the male/female ratio was (seriously) 7/1. I gotta wonder if this ain't an example of Darwinism at work...

I know that much, but what the hell is technoduffery?

And oh yeah - I don't have them, and it's been years since I've heard them, but from what I remember, the post-Columbia MPS sides, especially Haiku were much better than most of the Columbias.

Picked this one up a few weeks ago: A live date from 1967, it's a fascinating "in-between" type thing that goes back and forth between Ellis the intrepid explorer and Ellis the freakshow. If you're looking for clues as to, as Joe Milazzo likes to say about Don Ellis, "what happened?", you may or may not get some insight from this one. Either way, when it's good, it's damn good.

Here's the really funny thing - Monday is American by birth, and has lived (as I understand it) most of her life here. She lived in Japan from 1987 to 1999, and that's where and when she got into recording, DJ-ing and such. Her stardom & other ties in/to Japan are very real, but she sings all of her songs in English. You'd think that some American label would have gotten hip to her by now. But no... Here's an interesting tale she tells about that ( http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews...ay-021226.shtml ):

Hank Sauer Bob Lemon Arthur Lyman

I suspect they'd take it as a high compliment.

For BeBop per se, the two Gitlers that GOM recommended are darn fine.

...before she breaks out in America. 4 Seasons is one of the greatest, most musically interesting (and alive) pop albums I've ever heard. The "jazz sensibility" is high, as is the Brazillian quotient. It's still "just pop music", but this is the kind of pop music that accomplishes the rare feat of providing both Ear Candy & Mind Food of equally high order. When it's this good, it become "just music" afaic, no other adjectives needed. What's really cool about this album and Routes (a distincly more "club" type album, but certainly not a less interesting one) is that her husband (trumpeter Alex Sipiagin) often contributes arrangements that are chock full of full-bodied modern harmonies, dissonances, weird-ass melodic intervals, and all that hip shit. So you got this "sunshiny" voice (and a beautiful voice it is) singing these songs with chord changes that often go places where you'd not expect them to go mixed with melodies that follow the surprising chords yet remain emminently singable/hummable mixed with these arrangements that would not be out of place on a Maria Schnieder album played over grooves that you'd have to be damn near dead not to want to dance to. And then every so often, she throws in extended solos by cats like Dave Kikowski & Donny McCaslin (a.o.) that ain't just "pop record filler". The players get to play. I've carped earlier about her lyrics, but hell, after a few weeks of near total-immersion in this stuff, I don't care anymore. It's pop music at root, and pop music is supposed to have kinda goofy lyrics anyway. So forget I ever said anything bad. It all sounds like some kind of "fusion", and I guess maybe it is, but unlike earlier such attempts at such fusions, Monday's shit is built from the ground up, with the dance impulse driving everything else. You might not gotta love that, but I damn sure do. See? When she sings a ballad, it's usally with very sparse accompaniment, and the results are beautiful. On 4 Seasons, she does a version of Ivan Lins' "The Island" that sent me into fantasy land for...uh...what time is it now? Did I mention that she's also one of the most beautiful women alive today? Does that get your attention? It got mine, but not nearly as much as her music has. But I will say this - If I could die right now and be reincarnated instantly as Alex Sipiagin, I would seriously consider the offer... Don't believe me? Check it out: http://www.smartalecmusic.com/inner-viewsMICHIRU.htm I'm not talking "sexy" or "babe" or any of that hornyboy shit, I'm talking beautiful, dig? Not recommended for "jazz purists" or for cynical souls who don't never, ever, Believe In Magic, but everybody else, do what you gotta do to get some kind of copy of 4 Seasons and then take it from there. You are living a deprived life if you don't. Monday Michiru is a the real deal, and more. It's just a matter of time...

Steve Trout Sid Bream Ralph Bass

DeVeaux is highly recommended here. Don't be scared away, just don't take it as the whole picture, because it ain't. But what it does deal with (which is indeed relevant to your stated interest), it deals with quite well.

Allen's introductions have to be heard to be believed...

Dude, they fucked up when they stopped selling the original Pepsi Light back in the early 80s. RIP:

Time for a Joanie Sommers/Pepsi reunion! The world needs to know where Stacey Kent stole all her shit from!

I feel your pain, but as a fellow knucklehead, you know as well as I do that sometimes the truth is best expressed in summary form. Larry's comment was a brilliant summary, I think, and I took no offense at all. And I will rise to the challenge when I hear glib dismissals w/o any underlying validity, trust me. And either way, you gotta admit that that was a helluva line. That it rang true was just icing on the cake. Larry can "play" with words the way that some play with notes and instrument. I give him major props for that. AFAIC, he's a "word musician", and he can definitely play!

Caroline! and she did love playing it! Do you remember Larry Roark who did alternate nights with her? Caroline, yeah! What a sweetheart she was. Wonder what happened to her? Vaguely remember Larry. Sorry to hear of his unfortunate demise.

Jack Webb Julie London Babe Ruth