JSngry

Sorry to be so late. My workputer is very freaky about CDRs, and this one REALLY freaked it out, which meant listening at home, which with the hollidays and stuff meant hardly at all. Anyway, better late than never, even if it means posting and getting my first full, uninterrupted listen at the same time, which is what's going to happen right now. The usual thanks and disclaimers apply. TRACK ONE - Thought it was a really wack Spike Jones cut until the dulcet ducktones entered... Gotta love the absurdist elements of the writing. Wonder what it was like to play that stuff at the time? Wonder what kind of a conductor Stallings was, how he gave instructions as to interpretation? The mind reels, it does... TRACK TWO - The whole cheerleader + vibes thing suggest Terry Gibbs' big band to me, which further suggests Joe Maini as the altoist. The chart started of really nice, if a bit forced, but it lost focus as it went through the different sections/themes. That's a real peeve of mine - big band charts that get too clever for thier own good, and this was one of them afaic. Bet it was fun to hear live, though. TRACK THREE - Everybody sounds familiar, but like I said I'm pretty unfocused right now, so I can't pin down the specifics. But that's a freakin' GORGEOUS piece of writing, especially in the bari part. Wish the drummer had have put some thought into the A-section instead of the kind of lame ching-ching-ching (a Latin-ish beat would have been cool, but not if that's not what was asked for). No matter, the writing os beautiful enough that it's ok, and once the solos get going, it's all good. Recording quality suggests early/mid-50s, so it's probably a bunch of name brands that I should guess immediately. No such luck this time. But I dug it muchly. Think I'll buy it eventually. Definitely will, in fact. TRACK FOUR - Didn't dig this one too much, however. Whatever truth there was to the cliche that the boppers got into wahtever they got into as a rebellion against the stifling confines of Swing Bands is borne out here. Too much writing, not enough action. Tenor player sounds familiar, but the track just doesn't give enough OOMPH to make a guess an engaing proposition. Recording quality suggests a Columbia date that's had some sort of digital-age noise reduction or whatever ran on it. Losing that might have put some edge back in the music, but I kinda doubt it. Oh well. TRACK FIVE - I do believe that that's the cleanest version of this I've ever heard. That band sounded SO good when they were tight like this (and SO good when they weren't!). God, I love Duke. Everything the previous track wasn't, this one is. Don't immediately recognize this version, but if I don't have it, I want it. A game I always play with this arrangement - WHAT chord WILL the band hit at what is here 5:03-5:04? You never know! Jeez this is the shit, right here. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Take me home, Jesus. TRACK SIX - Lady Q w/Basie is my guess. Not Prez, not enough subtext. But it's a good cut. Hard to argue with anything here. Everybody's got their groove on fine and true, and that's the object of the game. TRACK SEVEN - Concord? Sweets w/Scott Hamilton? I hear traces of Frank Wess, but not enough to convince me. I think it's Hamilton or some other some such. Nice and competent tenor, but not enough first-person quality to it for me, unless it's a really tired Frank Wess, and I don't think it is. Sweets, otoh, is totally first-person, and makes the cut for me. TRACK EIGHT - Guaraldi seems to be in vogue on the BFTs these days, so I'll go there on this one. Nice groove, tune's a little sappy, but not enough to be a problem. Wish it were longer, although it is complete in and of itself. TRACK NINE - Ah, music for jogging! I dig it for any number of reasons, not the least of which is the tune itself. The jogger kept stretching his tunes as he went on, and this one is no exception. The changes are SO fresh and non-cliched. VERY nice! TRACK TEN - Through the years, this has become one of my favorite tunes. Never had the band to play it myself (other agendas, doncha know...), but someday I'm goingto put together a jazz cover band that specialises in underplayed great tunes, and this one WILL be in the book, guaranteed. The whole album's a good'un, but this is the tune I've kept coming back to. It CRIES out for lyrics. Surely somebody's done that? Another beautiful one. TRACK ELEVEN - I'm wanting to say Moody. Kind of a cliched head, but they do good things with it. Moody rules in my book. Not alone, not by any means, but he does rule. Band's nice and tight (iffy inotnation in spots doesn't bother me, because it doesn't bother them, no "struggle" going on at all), and the scoring is cool. I might even have this. Yeah, I dig it. TRACK TWELVE - Might be one of those Riddle MPS sides, I dunno. No matter. "Easy Listening" music of a very high calliber. Plenty attention to detail in the scoring, and lots of little nuances that tell me that the writer was really approaching it as music and not just a paycheck. Really sweet lead trumpet playing, too. This cut is just plain good. I'll take it, thanks. TRACK THIRTEEN - "Whatsomever" is one of my favorite conversational words, especially in the middle of a "serious" conversation that you'd rather not be having. Love looking to see what, if any, reaction it gets. Ok, the tune - it gots that Van Gelder sound and everybody plays organically (no pun intended), and the guitar sounds like...HEY! I know what this is! Oh HELL yeah! The Love Bug & The Spark Plug! Whatever happened to John Manning? He sounds like he was headed in the right direction, which is what a lot of guys like him were doing in these types of groups, only they didn't get recorded. Rough, unpolished, "unsophisticated", but full of the Right Stuff, just needing an outlet to tighten it up. I hope that John Manning is still playing. TRACK FOURTEEN - Sounds like the Sparkplug again, he's pretty identifiable. DEFINITELY hear Red Holloway as tenor #2, can NOT mistake that tone. Lemme relisten...ok, Plas Johnson & Red Holloway on Milestone. These guys ARE this style. Hell yeah. TRACK FIFTEEN - SHAMELESSLY urban. Which is to its credit. SHAMELESSLY unsubtle. Which is also to its credit. SHAMELESSY hip changes. Which is DEFINITELY to its credit. I KNOW who that tenor player is, but damn if I can call his name right now. Which is definitely NOT to my credit...Tell you what, there's nights (and they HAVE to be nights) when, in the right club in the right neighborhood at the right hour amongst the right crowd, this is THE hippest kind of shit imaginable. Those are great times, great vibes, and this is a great slice of that thing, jazz snobbery be damned. That tenor player can PLAY his instrument, he knows how to work the thing to do what he wants it to. The horns have a Van Gelder-ish sound to them, so I'm guessing that this is some Kudu side I don't know. Seriuos listening? Hell no. Serious grooving? Hell yes. Indeed! SHAMELESSLY screaming organ, and SHAMELESSLY danceable. Which is to the credit of the human race. TRACK SIXTEEN - You play this groove right, you're freakin' GREAT. You play it anything, I mean ANYTHING, less than right you're a schmuck. No other options and zero rome for error. This IS right. I think I have this one, but damned if I know what it is. Lessee...Grant... oh shit, yeah I know what this is. God bless Harold Vick and the rest of these guys too. Lord knows they've blessed us. Spiffy Diffy indeed! TRACK SEVENTEEN - Took me no time to identify most of the players, but took me a little longer to figure out where they came toghether and why I didn't immediately recognize the tune. But it finally did, and that fdoes it - I'm buying this one ASAP. Geez, I could listen to Billy play like this for the rest of my life (and I probably will). so simple, yet so deep, so natural, so reflexive, so totally in the flow of life, so damn MUSICAL. God bless Billy Higgins. Interesting to hear Lee & JAckie play on this "happy" of a tune from a time when such sunniness was not necessarily the first ingredient on their respective recipies. Wilson gets a GOOD flow going. I've never heard this album, but that will soon be remedied... Good stuff, Al. Wish I'd had better opportunities to listen closer ond frequenter, but hey, several purchse will ensue, so it's all good. Thanks!

They have snow days in Michigan? I thought those were only for pussies like us here Down South. I thought you guys are supposed to laugh at snow. Another illusion shattered. Not much left to believe in anymore.

I enjoyed it, but it seems obvious that there was some "post-production" work done on Curtis to compensate for his sound. Listen to the difference in his sound and everybody else's. Glad to have him active and recording, but it's kind of depressing to think about why such "surgery" was necesary.

Anybody heard François Carrier yet? I got hipped to him last night, on a Justin Time album w/Uri Cane, and I must say I want to hear more.

http://www.jazzhouse.org/gone/lastpost2.ph...t=920652277#ob2

Oh, THAT kind of smack.

Exactly. Wes permeated "Pop Culture" by design (by whose design is open for debate) in a way that Grant never even attempted to. Another way to look at it - Wes had a bigass family to feed, Grant had a bigass habit to feed. Careers proceeded accordingly.

Yeah, I'm thinking Miles too. Guessing Warne was a joke of irony.

That would depend on what neighborhood you were in at the time... Which I think sums up the entire name-recognition thing. Wes' Verve & A&M albums were aimed at (and reached) the hipper portions of the "mainstream" (i.e. - white) audience in a way that Grant's albums ("regular" & "commercial") never attemped to or achieved. Residual cultural memory, that's all it is. As for the relative merits of each, apples and oranges, oild and vinegar, whatever, you got a salad. Bon apetit!

Sorry to be so late. Do I get double billed?

Hey, Larry! You hear a lot more in Chris Connor than I ever have, but you've no doubt heard a lot more of her than I have. What's the one album to have if you're only having one, the one that will give me the willies like you got, if I'm to get them at all? I have the Atlantic side w/Maynard, and found it quite pleasant (especially the arrangements), but nothing like you describe. Of course, that's to be expected, I suppose, what with Maynard and all.

Up, because this is real talent that I think deserves at least one look from people who appreciate same.

YOOP!

I right click on the blue bars, then on Prperties, but I don't get that much detail. And I can't right click on the rectangle because it disappears... I'm not even going to ask what "ADA-508 compliant" means...

Explain? A description of a hyperlink or image, put in by the author of a Web page, that pops up when you move the mouse pointer over the hyperlink or image. WHOA! How'd you get that? (Thanks, btw )

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Don't have the Allen, but do have the VGM sides, and Robinson didn't quite seem ready for prime time. But that was earlier than these other dates, and things do change, doncha' know.

I think it's the gumment.

The clip from the Conan show is pretty impressive, I think.

Explain?

Welluh, YEAH!

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah, well, that's the tension that I hear in Woods' pre-return music, like he's got all this...SHIT churning around in him, but he's got to be a good boy to keep his gigs and family. Those European Rhythm Machine records sound like a man possessed by all sorts of demons who's unable to decide whether to purge them or keep them bottled up. Darker than they might seem, I think... I like the comparison w/Monk too. I very much like Woods' work w/Monk. Indeed, much "lighter" than Monk himself, in all ways, but he still GETS the gist of the music in his own way. It's like he gets the "serious humor" aspect of it, but only has it in him to actively confront the lighter side. But he seems to do so with a full awareness of the darker stuff. It's just that he's not going to let himself go there, for what ever reason. Fear, maybe, but of what? And where? And who? That was all gone when he came back from Europe. The fear (or at the least, internal conflict) was gone, and so was the drama. The, uh... FLORIDITY of it all, untempered by any sense of internal reservation, was just too much for this simple country boy to take. As much as I hate to say it, some players are better off uncomfortable. Or at least their music is.