JSngry

Haven't heard thos other sides, but I have heard other latter-day Menza, and although it's not nearly as pyrotechnical as his earlier work, there's still been a nervous edge to it that ultimately turns me off. That edge is not even slightly present on this album, but if y'all say it's not there on those others too, I'll take your word for it.

No shame there. Louis (I've also seen it spelled Lewis) was strictly "local" as far as jazz goes. He played w/BB King for years (on tenor and bari) and never did any jazz recordings. For years, playing parts on the road was what he did. But when he came off the road, ca. 1974-5, he settled in and decided to get his jazz playing together. And he did. As you might suspect, nobody could beat him on a medium blues. Nobody! Great guy to hang with, too. Some of us youngsters used to take him out for breakfast after the last set at The Recovery Room (where you'd often catch him sitting in w/Marchel) just to listen to his talk. Stories out the wazzoo, and one of the most genuinely warm cats I've ever known. He had a way of stirring sugar into his coffee that was one of the most elegant things I've ever seen in my life. Everything about him exuded style and true class. He passed away sometime in the early '80's, but his spirit still lives in those who knew him.

Buffalo Gal Buffalo Soldier Norton Buffalo

I'll be in touch later today.

Lucky Oceans Annie Gosfield Roger Kleier

As are Jerry & Gibby...

Let me get this right - the first volume is 9 CDs and it's only $50?

I've never dug Don Menza too much. The early solos w/Maynard's band were a gas (nitrous oxide, most likely), but after that, no. Full of sound and fury, etc., or so it felt to me. Great saxophonist, just not telling a story that was relevant to any part of my lifestyle, and life goes on anyway, don't it now. But this side is sweet. It's Menza with an organist I've never heard of (Bobby Jones) & a drummer I've never heard of either (John Bacon). The program is a few standards (two ballads - "Body & Soul" + "My Foolish Heart") a Mancini tune I've never heard of before - "Soldier In The Rain" - and some genuinely attractive mid-tempo originals by Bacon. It was recorded in Buffalo (and perhaps getting away from the West Coast scene is part of why Menza sounds so relaxed. Or not.) in 2003. Believe me when I tell you that Menza is absolutely mellow on this date. The problem I've always had with him was that he always seemed to have a chip on his shoulder that manifested itself musically as an agressive hyper-virtuosity that was just plain ugly to my ears. Not so here. He takes his time, caresses his lines, and by god, he breathes! The organ/drum backing gives him a nice cushion to ride on, and ride on it he does. His tone is drop-dead gorgeous (and nuanced) too, totally relaxed and in synch with his lines at all times. He also seems to be "reminiscing" in his playing here. There's lots of conjuring of other player's sounds and techniques, literal conjuring, not "allusions". But there's never an air of gimmickry about it, and it's always in passages of a solo. He doesn't do the trick bag of playing an entire solo "in the style of" somebody else. It's like he's saying, "Hey, I'm old now. Let me tell you about some of the things I've heard." It's almost like he's telling a story in his own voice and then he'll say, "And then Paul Gonsalves walked in the room and said...". That kind of thing. From a youngster who was proclaiming to be Upholding The Tradition, it would be bullshit, posing. But you know that Menza probably was in a room or two (or more) when Gonsalves or Stitt or Zoot or Ben or Hawk walked into the room and said... So it's real, not bullshit. Besides, when he speaks in his own voice, which is most of the time overall, Menza tells his stories masterfully, with a pacing and a sense of patience I've never heard from him before. There are moments of dazzle, but moments are all they are, and unlike what I've always heard from him, they're musically relevant. they advance the story along instead of being the whole story in and of themselves. I like to think that by this time, I know what to expect from "known quantities" like Menza. And most of the time I do. But every once in a while, a cat will step away from what he's been doing for a lifetime and, for whatever reason, show a whole 'nother side of him/her-self, a side that make you wonder where the hell they've been hiding it for all these years, or what has happened in their life to make THIS happen to them. Such is the case here. This is a truly masterful album of some truly masterful tenor playing. Not "Innovative" or "Brilliant", mind you, but masterful nevertheless. You can't tell stories like these (and you can't tell stories like these like this) w/o being a mature, master musician with a helluva lot of love in your soul. Whatever had been blocking it from coming out (just my opinion) all these years was definitely not in place in Buffalo on July 30, 2003. Available for $14.00 here: http://db.cadencebuilding.com/searchresult...&lastname=MENZA Hey, it's Don Menza. I'm not a Don Menza kind of guy. Not even slightly. I'd not be recommending a Don Menza album unless it was damn fine. Believe me, this one is.

Louis Hubert, RIP.

Julius Hemphill, when he played tenor.

Oh yeah - Shelley Carroll. Oh hell yeah!

If you run at all, you got me beat. I'm taking the lesson of The Old Bull to heart!

Billy Harper! Kirk Whalum. I kid you not.

Eternal Spirit was hyped pretty good and didn't sell well. The followup might have had a smaller pressing.

Butch Vig's got chops.

I've tried plugging in. But every time I put my finger in the socket, I get knocked right back out.

How about Keith on soprano & Jack on piano? Bring Chick in on drums, and keep Gary Peacock, just to be safe.

If you "act" like background, you're gonna be treated like background. And why shouldn't you be? "Presentation" isn't selling out, it's just plain common sense. It's got nothing to do with the music, but it's got everything to do with differentiating yourself from canned music. Hell, Quartet Out will often discuss, at times at length, the arrangement of a song after we've played it, right there in front of an audience, and it's at those times that I want to kill my brothers dead. The bloodier the better, actually. Maybe the attention that would draw would make my point about involving the audience at at least some level. But then we'd not get to play the next song, or the one after that. That would be an even bigger drag. Maybe... Nevertheless, these cats who just want to stand in a corner and play and expect perfect strangers to stop/drop everything they're doing just to listen to them are fucking morons when it comes to anything vaguely resembling reality as it pertains to human nature and interaction.

Rhythmatism is a lost gem AFAIC. Don't miss it!

Jim Henson Kermitt Driscoll Elmo Hope

Bruno Hauptmann Duane Burno Victor Buono

Looks like middle age is gonna be good to/for Prince.

Dodo Marmarosa Ray Charles Mia Farrow

Top Cat Deputy Dawg Huckleberry Hound

And introduced by, I believe, William B. Williams from, among other things, the old 'Lectric Shave commercials!