JSngry

WHAT'S THAT ELECTRONIC KEYBOARD NEXT TO THE CHICK'S ASS???

LOVE the Lonshein!

For that matter, some think quite highly of MUSIQUE DUBOIS (Muse, 1974), but I think that the classic Byard/Davis/Dawson rhythm section more than steals the show from him on that one.

Speaking of Woods... http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=U...l=Akyaqoauayijv

And as surprising as it might come to some, including myself, who know of my overall ambivalence towards most of his work, pretty much anything that Phil Woods recorded w/The European Rhythm Machine (George Gruntz or Gordon Beck, Henri Texier, & the always inspiring Daniel Humair) is a satisfying listen. The repertoire is fully modern-for-te-time-and-players, no holds are barred, and Woods plays with a probing passion that seems to have left him totally not too long after he returned to the US and became the grumpy old man of bebop. Check it out!

You guys don't know about Grillin' & Chillin'? Oh boy, is my work NEVER finished? Two guys w/grills, totally unscripted. Bobby Flay's the city slicker w/the gas grill, Jack McDavid the good ol' boy with the Weber. A cult classic on the Food Network, ran for a few summers, but as Flay's star rose, they ditched it (and McDavid) REAL quick, which sucked, because Jack was the real deal as far as grilling goes ("Aw Bobby, your food don't have no FLAVOR 'cause you use that gas. GOTTA use the charcoal for it to taste good!"). But the show was a HOOT because both guys had great ideas and recipies, and I swear they were both half-loaded (Jack probably MORE than half...) while taping the show. VERY loose, and fun galore, even if Bobby was obviously outcooked by Jack. But now that Bobby flay's a "celebrety", they've TOTALLY lost the original show, and Jack McDavid is "relegated" to doing a tailgating show for Comcast SportsNet: http://www.thetailgateshow.com/show.htm , hardly the ticket to stardom. OTOH, his cohost Heather Mitts is a somewhat of a babe, so hey....

Nice to see Miller's tolerance (maybe even encouragement of?) dissonance noted by Giddins in an otherwise pretty meaningless piece, one that smacks of "doing a favor" for an RCA (or whatever they are these days) publicist to hype these "Centennial Editions". Stranger things have happened.... The Miller band had some pretty harmonically sophisticated charts in their book. Cats like Bill Finnegan & Jerry Gray could WRITE! Check out the intro to "Serenade In Blue" for a good example of dissonace waaaaay beyond what one would reflexively associate with Glenn Miller. There are plenty of other examples too. The band's "pure vanilla" reading of most everything it played shouldn't obstruct this fact. HOW they played and WHAT they were playing were often two different things!

Atlantic 1969/Label M 2001 You really need this one (Atlantic 1972, unissued/Rhino 1993)for the full picture, since it has five gorgeous cuts from a later session that haven't been issued anywhere else, but either one will do. This is as deep and daring as jazz singing gets. Try singing along. I dare you.

(Image size not relative to musical quality!) Charles Tolliver shines on SPIRIT OF THE NEW LAND, and the little known George Harper puts in some quietly understated work on INFANT EYES that seems "so what?" until you actually LISTEN to it. Drummers kick ass on both, Michael Carvin on the former, Alphone Mouzon on the latter. Good stuff, very much "for the people" in the way that that meant back when people were looking for guidance and moral uplifting in their music.

Sadao Watanabe - ROUND TRIP (Vanguard, 1974 (supposedly, but a few years earlier sounds more right to me). The justifiably mentioned Eric Kloss dates bring this, even more lesser-known, date to mind. Watanabe w/Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitous, and Jack DeJohette. The trio is firing on all cylinders, and is about as intensely in-synch and powerful as can be imagined. Watanabe often sounds like he's, at various points, in, almost in, or totally in, over his head, but BFD - the work of the trio is a total mindfuck, providing a different take on Corea's "out" playing since Vitous locks in differently w/him and Jack than Holland did in the Lost Quintet, and both Vitous & DeJohnette provide strong voices that contrast strongly but equally w/those of Holland & Altschul in Circle (yeah, it's "that" kind of a session for the most part). Not a "lost classic" when Watanabe plays, but definitely one when he doesn't, which is most of the time. Not for the faint of heart, but everybody else, jump in!

...and it's called AFRICAN COOKBOOK.

Oliver Nelson - BLACK BROWN AND BEAUTIFUL (Flying Dutchman, 1969) (not to be confused w/the totally unrelated Bluebird reissue of the same name) In some regards moreso than BLUES AND THE ABSTARCT TRUTH, this is the definitive Oliver Nelson album. One side "classical" oriented orchestral pieces (but 20th century classical, and definitely African-American in grounding), the other side some of Nelson's most probing, emotional, and challenging writing for conventional big band. A work of stunning complexity and depth, with more than a few chances taken, and more than successfully so. AMG's Douglas Payne calls it correctly, if briefly: A stirring tribute to Martin Luther King that is as searching and angry as it is contemplative and compassionate. Nelson mixes dissonant orchestral moments that nearly lapse into free zones with lovely, more familiar territory which celebrate a joy of love and life. Highly recommended but (as of yet) unissued on CD and very hard to find. Part of the difficulty in finding the LP might be due to the fact that there is a fully frontally nude photo of a woman who is black, brown, and VERY beautiful (at least from the neck down - her face is not shown), which probably cost sales originally, and which probably drives the album into the hands of a "different" type of collector these days. It's a pity, because this is music that NEEDS to be heard.

Hadley Calliman - IAPETUS (Mainstream, 197?). Hell yeah.

Bill Barron - MOTIVATION (Savoy, 1972), quirkily original and stunningly executed. And vice-versa.

Also by McLean, also on Steeplechase, but from 1974: AMG's Jim Todd calls it correctly: Jackie McLean's band on New York Calling, the Cosmic Brotherhood, plays with uncompromising passion, fury, and intelligence. The group, a generation younger than the leader, has a sound that is definitive '70s advanced hard bop. Although not as well-known as some of their contemporaries, by the time of this 1974 recording, the members of McLean's quintet had logged playing time with many of the leaders of the hard bop scene: McCoy Tyner, Gary Bartz, Sam Rivers, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, and others. In addition to exceptional chops, the band has strong writers in trumpeter Billy Skinner and pianist Billy Gault. Their tightly voiced arrangements, punctuated by roiling power surges from the rhythm section, call to mind the work of Woody Shaw, whose classic Moontrane was also recorded in 1974. However, where Shaw's music possesses an urbane, majestic poise, Skinner and Gault go for a skittering, street-level urgency. McLean, recognizing the powerful talents in his midst — including McLean's son, René, on tenor, alto, and soprano sax — comes across as one among equals. It's to McLean's credit that the date bears the stamp of his band's artistry as much as it does his own.

Live in Baltimore, 1966, w/Lamont Johnson, Scotty Holt, & Billy Higgins. Long, INTENSE jams, perhaps the longest and most intense Jackie on record, a perfect blend of "out" playing over "in" tunes. There's a companion volume, TUNE UP, also on Steeplechase, which I have yet to hear. I need to remedy that.

Underrated? How about virtually unknown? Don Friedman - METAMORPHOSIS (Prestige, 1966) Besides Friedman (playing a LOT more open here than on his Riverside dates, and definitely more open than his relative conservative work of today), you got your Atilla Zoller, your Richard Davis, and your Joe Chambers, and some open-ended explorations of some open-ended tunes by Friedman, Zollar, and Jimmy Giuffre's "Drive". If this had been on Blue Note, it would be regarded as "essential" today. But it was on Prestige, so I had to stumble across it in the cutout bin at Treasure City back in the day and never hear or see of it for another 25+ years until it got OJCed, and it's STILL unknown, or seems to be. That's just wrong.