JSngry

Then you've answered your own question.

Yep. A lot of us do.

I be talkin' about evolution in the wake of revolution. I'm all for both of 'em.

As Arthur Conley put it - do you like good music?

I knew a few cats who swore by this album back in the day. I wasn't one of them, mind you, but it sure seemed to have a cult following of sorts. Guess it still does!

Behind the curve, yeah, but in such a way that it showed others that, in case they were wondering, the door was open for them too. Change, good or bad, is only as lasting as how far down the line it goes, I think.

Yeah, Mose's piano playing is definitely "off kilter", as Chuck puts it. The guy's a freak!

It was love at first listen for me, that's for sure. And this was in the late 70s, when you could not find the record anywhere except collector's stores or dusty mom & pops. It was several years after first hearing it that I actuall found a copy of my own. Before then, I had a really musrky sounding reel-to-reel dub that I played over and over and over. To watch this album slowly but surely move over the years from obscure cult item to acknowledged classic has been very gratifying.

No, I haven't. As to whether or not it would/might change my opinion, it would depend on how he played if/when I did. I'm sure that some nioghts are beeter than others, same as with everybody else. But after 20+ years and countless recordings, I think that the "norm" has been well-established, unless he's like Sonny Rollins and there's a gap between live and recorded that is almost surreal. Wynton's die-hard fans, the "true believers", are always pulling something like this. If it's not "have you heard all of his records?", it's "have you heard him live?" or some such. The possibility that the guy has never really moved me just because he doesn't really move me is never allowed to be possible. It's always a case of "you just haven't heard the right stuff yet". Whatever... No disrespect meant, and I'm sure that you meant none yourself, but this tactic, if that's what it is, reminds be of cult religions and/or the worst telemarketing, both of which I'm more than a little burnt out on.

Sleep be damned - ONWARD!!!! TRACK ONE - "Even More Of The Things You Could Be If You Slowed down The Changes". Don't know. Bassist has very good chops, less than consistent pitch, to put it mildly, which makes me think of Rufus Reid, he of the shaky upper end pitch. Nice piano. Good playing, but it doesn't necessarily stick to my ribs. TRACK TWO - A cruelly titled piece if ever there was one... Classic stuff, Hard Bop in the process of shaking loose from BeBop. Not much more to add. TRACK THREE - Dexter on Dial from LA, w/Melba Liston. "Mischievous Lady" I think it is. Again, nothing to add. It'sDexter in prime early form. What more is there to say? TRACK FOUR - Mr. Ed's bassist of choice, one could say if one was aware. Jenkins & Griff are the horns, the latter in unmistakable form. Good side, but I sure wish that the leader had positioned himself better in the later years. Oh well, he was who he was, and he did what he did, and he's a serious favorite for life. TRACK FIVE - Ahmed Abdul-Malik, gotsta be. I only have his RCA side, and this ain't it. Been curious about his later stuff with Tommy Turrentine, of which I'm guessing that this is an example. If so, I'll be picking some up! I was in an "Arabic-jazz" band for a while back in the late 80s, and we did stuff like this, maybe a little harder core on the Arabic element. Had live belly dancers on some of the shows, too!. Actually did this tune, in fact, although I'm pretty sure it was thought of as a "traditional" thing. I like this, yeah. Not fully "organic" by any means, but for the time, there's no way it could've been. You gotta start somewhere, ya' know? TRACK SIX - Ok, I missed Cecil Payne on Marty's BFT, and, like Jug, I'm not missing him again! He sounds old but still spry. Good for him! When I heard the tenor, I figured it had to be Eric Alexander, nobody else sounds that much George coleman-derived, and found THIS ALBUM. If that's Alexander, and not the other tenorist which AMG lists as on the session, hey - he sounds pretty good here. Derivative, but not oppressively so, which is how I usually hear him. Actually, much the same could be said about the entire band, if you wanna be hardass about it. Didn't know that John Ore was still alive in 1996. Good for him too! Good for all of us, in fact, this is good harmless fun for everybody! YEA FUN! TRACK SEVEN - Not only can you hear the early Lee in Clifford's playing here, you can hear his composing style here. Lee wrote the same tune a lot of different ways, and a lot of them come from here. And I sure likes me some Harold Land! Yet again, not much to say about the classics. They're classics for good reason, and that's all anybody needs to know. If they don't know it, they'll figure it out. If they don't figure it out eventually, hey, fuck'em and move on. It's a big world. TRACK EIGHT - GREAT tune! Tells a story, both in the melody and with the changes, and that's what I look for in a tune above all else. Too bad the bass tone is so shitty. Sounds like Ron Carter on helium. And happy pills. I could almost go for late Blue Mitchell as the trumpeter. Almost. The tenorist has that Newark thing happening, splitting the difference between Wayne & Hank. No idea who any of these players are, and the bassist's pitch is almost as erratic as his tone is fucked up, but he grooves in spite of it al. More power to him! My guess is that these are players who I don't usually listen (and with good reason, probably) to who took a great tune, got into it, and made me listen to them with pleasure, with equally good reason. TRACK NINE - Thought it was going to be corny with the handclaps and all, but no, thankfully. Turned out to be a pretty interesting thing. Tenor is VERY familiar sounding, but no names jump out. It's not J.R., is it? Or Ira? Trumpet is intriguing, like he/she is more out-leaning than they're letting on. Drummer is like a sloppy Blakey & Philly combined, in a good way, more or less. Personality, that's what it is! Bassist has that Wilbur thing happening, if only in small doses. It's gonna drive me crazy until I find out who this is, and then it's gonna drive me crazy that I didn't get it. Oh well... TRACK TEN - "I Could Write A Book", obviously. Unobtrusive and pleasant, a deadly combination, sometimes. Nothing WRONG, though. It's just that life is short sometimes. I think that THIS is it. Pretty nice, actually, just nothing to build a lifestyle around, which is cool. TRACK ELEVEN - I hear Harold Land again. And not much else. After a while, all ii-V tunes kinda blend into a blur (or vice-versa), and the patterns become too evident. That's where I'm at now, after listening to both discs "analytically" back-to-back straight through. My problem to be sure. Is this a Counce thing w/Frank butler? I keep meaning to get into that group, and I will, I promise. Trumpeter was having a rough day, eh? Oh well, it happens. TRACK TWELVE - Hey, no ii-V redundancy here! But patterns still...Could be a late 70s McCoy Milestone. Or not. Altoist sounds a little rigid rhythmically, sopranoist less so. Something of that ilk, though, if not of that time exactly. No doubt better than I'm in the mood for right now. TRACK THIRTEEN - Oh shit. I've heard this, or something very much like it, might even own it, but hell if I can remember who/what it is. All I can say about this is - why not? Still not sleepy, but very tired anyways. The music's better than some of what I said might imply. Thanks for sharing!

Insomnia strikes, so it's time to post, I guess. Would've liked a chance to listen a time or two w/o distractions, but carpe diem and all that. The usual thanks and disclaimers are firmly in place as well. TRACK ONE - Trumpet puts me in mind of Joe Oliver, but I'm nowheres near sharp enough on this era to make even a semi-educated guess. Pianist has a tempo of his own, eh? I dig the clarinetist, good spirit. Good stuff, and the bass was recorded really well. TRACK TWO - Almost sounds like cartoon music, literally, not in the associative way. Some pretty funny stuff, in a good way, and not too far removed from a Spike Jones type of surrealism, especially in the breaks. Don't know how well a whole lot of this would go with me, but this one cut was good for some unforced grins. TRACK THREE - John Kirby? Think that's Procope on alto. His sound never changed over the years. Shavers & Buster Bailey? Billy Kyle? Yeah, these cats could play. Very musical group, slick in the very best way. TRACK FOUR - Hey. What is there to say? It don't get no better. TRACK FIVE - "Peg O' My Heart". Some problems here...If it's some old folks, their better days were behind them. If it's some younger cats doing a revival thing, well, other than the trumpet, they get enough of it right to make it sound almost all right. But almost ain't good enough. Tenor player...more problems...I almost think that this is a put-on. I hope so. TRACK SIX - Tatum & Slam, right? Don't know the particular title, but waht difference does it make? That's some serious playing by, jack, and by all concerned! Who's the drummer? The way he solos almost sounds like Max via Big Sid. YEAH! TRACK SEVEN - A question we all ask ourselves at one time or another... Seems to be fromTHIS. The miking/recording is a little problematic for me, it magnifies some of the tone but not all of it, and geez, with cats like this, I wanna hear the WHOLE sound. Plus, it makes little pitch irregularities jump out more than they really should. But hey, it's The Judge, a Beautiful Soul if ever there was one, so no problems in the end. TRACK EIGHT - The archetype. The bowing ain't "perfect", but good lord, who else was playing the instrument like this back then? And the pizzacato! That's still the tone I like to hear out of a jazz bass no matter what the "style". So full, so soulful, so BASS. His life was short on this plane, but he's still alive and somewhat well wherever there's a good bass player. TRACK NINE - I missed Jug on Marty's BFT, damned if I'll do it on this one! Father & Son. Da' bomb! Works for me! Just AMGed enough to find the title (and to make the bomb joke), so I don't know who the rest of the broup is, but they be in the pocket. TRACK TEN - Pettiford featured w/a Hampton group? No idea. But no problems. Facile enough to be early Mingus, but I don't hear his tone, which he had from the git-go. Nice charting on the intro and outro. Curious to find out what this one is. TRACK ELEVEN - No curiosity here! As Perry Como used to say, "Magic Momnets"! The longer I listen to these sides, the deeper into Horace's comp I get, especially for his own solos. And dig Dillon! Just laying it down right where it needs to be, the wheels of the car, to borrow a Willie Mitchell expression. Probably the last thing a listener would get to, but the first thing a player will feel whilst in the act. TRACK TWELVE - I dunno, I been trying and still ain't got much of it...Another classic. I like Monk's trio sides on BN more than the ones w/horns, usually. A clearer expression, all things considered. And more of a chance to hear the interior details, of which there are many here, all delightful and long-lasting. TRACK THIRTEEN - Blue. Not green, and definitely not purple. And not Isaac either. Not anybody's best work by any stretch of the imagination, but I believe I've heard that this is the one that started the vogue for having slow(er) blues begin w/unaccompanied walking bass. So there's some lasting value right there. That and the fact that's it's just plain good, even if it's not great. And as a document of the evolution of Miles Davis, as well as a warm-up for the blunter bluesiness of about 6 weeks later, it's invaluable. TRACK FOURTEEN - No idea. Nice enough tune, but... If we're playing geographic tag, I could maybe hear Clark Terry in there. The solos reach me a helluva lot more than does the arrangement, which is just too cute for me. TRACK FIFTEEN - Sounds like an offshoot of the Herd. Chubby Jackson on bass, I think. Gibbs? It's got kinda a Columbia studio sound to it. Candoli? No idea on tenor, he's kinda scuffling, but just kinda. This kind of thing came through loud and clear at the time, I'm sure. TRACK SIXTEEN - "Whirlybird"? Very Peterson-esque. Well played, but not the kind of thing that reaches me. The work/reward ratio is unfavorable, at least for me. TRACK SEVENTEEN - No idea. Mulligan-esque composing meets Tristano-esque rhythm section. Pianist is VERY subtly off-center. One tune of this is ok, but...No idea. TRACK EIGHTEEN - Well, that's Elvin. Hell yeah. Tenor is very Dexterish, at least on the various headphones/speakers I've listened on (none of which are reliable...). Bass is bowed PC, I think. Pitch issues, yes, but they got better over time. Wait a minute...I have this side, a BN Conn. That's Clifford on tenor. Wow. Never heard that much Dexter in him before. Haven't listened to it much, though. Guess I should. TRACK NINETEEN - The tune's kinda Dolphy-esque, but the flautist makes me think of Yusef. Vibes are curious. That's Thad, I'm pretty sure. He had his own thing big time. Mal Waldron on piano, almost has to be. THIS one I gotta get, very much digging it! As for the theme, there's definitely some sort of "tag" going on between cuts, be it geographical, familial, or employmnetal. Can't put it all together... Anyway, pretty groovy stuff for the most part. Thanks, Bill, and on to Disc Two!

Listened to this a few times last night (through "the courtesy of a stranger"...), and it's not bad at all. First Wynton I've heard in decades (literally) that didn't send the Pissedoff-O-Meter into uncharted territory. There's absolutely nothing here that makes me feel as if The Vilest Of Evil is being spread across the Realm. In a way, this is the "perfect" Wynton album, because it shows him to be exactly what he is - a supremely gifted technical player with some interesting ideas, but also one who just doesn't (can't?) dig in. On every tune except "What Is This Thing Called Love", the music doesn't really get dug in until Wynton stops playing. It's not that he doesn't swing, it's that he doesn't not swing, a syndrome that defies easy castigation, but also one that at the end of the day still leaves one feeling incomplete. Here, without any grand concepts attempting to obstruct this reality, it becomes apparent once and for all that Wynton Marsalis is an excellent trumpeter and a good jazz trumpeter. Nothing more, and nothing less. For most people, that would be enough. But for a man who has, in my opinion, destroyed jazz by "saving" it, it's the final piece of the puzzle, conclusive proof once and for all that he talks the talk much better than he walks the walk. I for one am not surprised. I guess if you're a "believer", as a lot of the audience seems to have been, then you don't feel that way. But for me, as a non-believer, it's nice to be able to be able to hear him at face value for once, and even nicer still to be non-plussed without being severly agitated. Now, having said that, I'd be lying if I said that this is a bad record. It's not, not at all. Wynton's playing is not without interest, even if the ancient back-handed compliment of "hey man, I dig what you're trying to do" applies more often than not. He plays some really good ideas, but he doesn't project the strength or character of personality, the "oomph" that a "real" jazz musician does in some form or fashion. His playing here is like a musical hologram - it looks real, but when you reach out to grab ahold of it, there's no "there" there". But he does make some attractive holograms here, and that's more than I've heard out of him in quite some time. The rest of the group does possess this "oomph" to varying degrees, Anderson in particular, and it is the rest of the group that got me deeper into the music. On their own, they all bump it up a notch, and the results are fine by me, at least within the parameters of intent, which is really the only way I can react to this, or any other, type of music. If said intent is not something to which I feel an overwhelmingly strong/deep bond, hey, different strokes and all that. Yeah buddy... Overall, this album sounds like a good Sharp Nine or some such label issue, trodding over previously trodden-over ground with enough new touches to make it casually attractive and to not make it totally regurgitative And like those labels' output, I'll say that I respect the musicianship involved, and find much to like on a "casual" level, even if there's nothing here to make me want to jump up and say god-DAMN! If the Marsalis Mafia has hopes that this will be the album that makes everybody slap their foreheads in astonishment and say "WHOA! I've been WRONG about Wynton all these years! This is the SHIT!", well, sorry, it ain't gonna happen., But if the Anti-Wynton Alliance is expecting the objective among us to slag this one off as yet another exercise in Fatuous Folly, well, that ain't gonna happen either. It is what it is, and what it is is a good album of modest intent, and one where the leader plays the role of the Pretty Girl and the band the role of the Hip Chicks. Would that its leader would make more like it and be satisfied with being the good-but-unspectacular talent that he really is instead of trying to fit Size 9 feet into Size 13 shoes by changing the labels on all the boxes. That would be better for all concerned, especially, most likely, himself.

There's a log-in page now, and each time I clicked in any of the links there. it showed me as logged in as somebody other than myself, somebody different each time. I finally got in as myself, but the old AMG home page still ain't up. What are they doing?

Picked up a used copy of the Count Basie Kansas City 7 disc the otehr day, mainly to see how a group consisting of Freddie Hubbard, Lockjaw Davis, JJ Johnson, Basie, Joe Pass, John Heard, and Jake Hanna would gel. On the up tunes, the answer is "oddly". But there's only two of those, and only one with Freddie (him & Hanna virtually eptimomize the phrase "irreconcilable differences"). Everything else is mid-tempo or slower, and the groove is on. Freddie plays very nicely, JJ sounds more relaxed and extroverted than I think I've ever heard him, and Jaws, well, let's just say that Jaws steals the show by delivering one blow after another to the emotional solar plexus. The rhythm section? Hell, ain't nobody in there who doesn't know the drill, nor who doesn't enjoy running it. NO problems! This is not a "classic" album by any stretch of the imagination. It's a jam session, pure and simple, with a minimum of arangements, casual or otherwise. The vibe is totally casual, and nobody's trying to make "statements" or anything like that. But as a document of what some fine players sounded like when they came together to play a few tunes on one day out of countless many, it's a helluva lot better than many formally-planned dates. And for Lockjaw fans, this one is a "must have". What a muthafookah this cat was!

Can't make either night, dammit.

Only if it's Rosie Perez who I get to make squeal like a pig...

Them cats can play, make no mistake!

Al Grey - Shades Of Grey (Tangerine)

Actually, I have been in one. A very bad, very low-budget, mostly improvised indie video that some friends made for entry in a video festival. I had a small role as a beer-drinking, cigarette smoking, flannel shirt, gimme cap-wearing redneck named Tick. Much like Dexter Gordon in "Round Midnight", the question of how much of it was really acting came up more than once...

An ingredient for fusion. among other things.

What else I remember about Butler at Columbia was that it was during his reign that Columbia signed a lot of the more commercially-oriented "refugees" from CTI and the "New Note" Blue Note - Bob James & Bobbi Humphrey spring to mind most readily. Bobby Hutcherson came, too, but that was a little different, at least as far as musical intent went, even if the records that he, Cedar Walton, and the Heath Brothers made for the label were still unapologetically slick. And McCoy made that Looking Out side in 1982, which at the time sent me into about as deep a depression as I've ever been in. Thanks, Executive Producer Doctor Death!

How much promo budget got spent on Woody Shaw as opposed to Davis or Marsalis? --eric ← I remember that Woody seemed to be getting a pretty good push for his first three Columbia sides - good ads, in-store displays, ample airplay, etc. And then it seemed as if it all stopped with 1980's For Sure. Why, I have no idea. Maybe sales weren't in line with outlay, maybe Woody's personal situation make him less attarctive as a long-term investment, I don't know. But for those first three albums, Woody was as "hot" as a property of his leanings could be.

Yeah, I always wondered about Columbia and the "next Miles" thing. They had Freddie for a while (mostly commercial work, sure, but was the music the point or was having a high-profile, iconic, African-American - as opposed to Maynard Ferguson - trumpet star?), then Woody, then, finally, Wynton. And then Miles again.