JSngry

Got the discs yesterday afternoon, listened to them each one time last night, and again as we speak, Have NOT looked at others comments beforehand this time. First of all, let me say what an outstanding compilation this is. Randy had mentioned previously that he has a background doing jazz raido, and I can hear it hear - both the individual cuts and the discs as a whole create a mood, an ambiance, that draws me in and keeps me in, even when I know full well what a selection is from having heard it umpteen times myself. Superb sequencing and seques, Randy. Come to think of it, all of the BFTs have had this element to one degree or another. We should start an Organissimo streaming jazz radio site. THEN there would be world peace! Also, I think Randy & I might be about the same age, becasue there is much here that reflects who and what was "in the air" the first ten or so years of my discovery of jazz, and listening to these discs brought back many warm feelings, both personal and musical, of a time when the rigid barriers and "definitions" of the last 20-something years had yet to be erected, or at least ATTEMPTED to be erected. The music was moving in may different directions simultaneously, and if those different directions ahd nothing else in common, it was that they were all moving AHEAD in some form or fashion, a sure sign of life and health. That's what I hear throughout this disc - healthy music from healthy times. Enough Old Fart-isms, on with the guesses, such as they are. DISC ONE Track 1 - Crazy! Be-Bop & R&B peacefully coexisting, belieing the myth that Bop was an inpenetrable "cult" music. This is "for the people" all the way. Sounds like one of those medium-size groups that Jug led, w/Jerry Valentine arrangements, but I don't think it's him. Tom Archia, maybe? I dig the drummer muchly - he's got that bebop "float" going bigtime in his solo. Sounds like something a DJ would use as an opening for a night's show. I'd be tuned in! Track 2 - Oh yeah, LOVE this tune. First heard it by this leader w/a bigger group, and it stuck w/me immediately. One of the great underplayed songs of recent time. WACK seque too! The alto player is strongly reminiscent of his old man, but has a thing of his own happening underneath all that. This is how I have it. Great, GREAT stuff. Track 3 - Well, yeah. HELL yeah. Have a smoke, a drink, and a snuggle. Life is good, in spite of itself. Essential listening. Track 4 - Take off your clothes, go out into the early summer sun, and DANCE! I've done that at least once to this one. Trust me, it's good fer what ails yah. An oft-overlooked gem, from an oft-overlooked period of this man's career. Also recommended. Track 5 - Don't know if I have this one or not. If I do, it's something I recently obtained and have only listened to a few times, not nearly enough to internalize. I'd be shocked if it's not Mal Waldron. BLACK GLORY, maybe? Picked that one up last year, and this "feels" like it might be that, from what I can remember after 2-3 listens. Great stuff - full of energy & tension, but CONTROLLED energy and tension used to create an unavoidable impact. This tyep of Waldron playing reminds me of a man who's about to snap, but never will because he KNOWS he's about to, and refuses to out of principle - CAN'T let the bastards win! Absorbing music. Track 6 - Beautiful. Two of the most distinctive and evocative voices of our time. This used to get airplay on KNTU back before the jazzskool pigs started tightening the reigns. Have yet to hear the entire album yet, and there's no good excuse for that. At all. Track 7 - Another great one! Don't miss it! Track 8 - Still another essential disc! Don't miss it either, if you can find it. Track 9 - Rabbit & Juliet. Which version, I'm not sure, but judging from the introductory applause (and the ultra-quick cutoff ), I'd say Paris (on Atlantic), although my LP version has Gonsalves up higher in the mix when he plays lead there in the middle. But I've yet to play this disc on my "real" system, so that means nothing. If somebody tries to tell you that there is no true beauty in this world, nothing that deifies all attempts to suck us into a cesspool of negativity and hopelessness, play them this cut. If they still don't get it, leave them alone. Vampires of the soul we can all do without. Track 10 - different cut than above, but other than that, the comments stay the same. It's easy to overlook how genuinely BLESSED in the deepest and truest sense we are to have music like this at our disposal. We need to train our bodies and our souls to be receptive to those blessings, and live life accordingly. Track 11 - One of my mostest favorite-est singers ever, and another criminally neglected tune by Dave Burrell. Never heard this version, or the lyric (Burrell's?), always heard it done instumentally, mostly by Shepp, but also in a wholly nice version by David Murray. This singer has gotten a scintilla of the attention that Leon Thomas has, although they've been on the scene roughly the same amount of time, I think, and for my moey, as much as I dig Leon, THIS guy has ot goin' on even taht much more. Livin' high on nickles & dimes indeed! This guy w/Shepp on a French album nearly made my BFT (and most likely WILL make the next one, so competitive types take note ), but I couldn't find the "spot" for them. Randy did (for him, anyway), and my hat's off to him for that! This one has been on my radar for a while now, and it just got bumped up several notches. Excuse the mixed metaphor. A killer set! DISC 2 Track 1 - Gigantic hairy spiders moving in slow motion while I take another sip of cough syrup. No, wait, that's "The Barbara Song". But this one comes close. God, what gorgeous writing and playing, there's enough going on in the bottom for an ocean in which to go down and never surface (but not drown), but there's just as much happening in the middle and on the top too. Wish there was a live version of this from this era, w/o the splices, which are the only drawback to the CD issue over the Lp - you can hear EVERYTHING 100% clearer including the splices. Oh well, fuck it. Music to die for, and possibly with. You never know. PUT THIS MOTHERFUCKER BACK IN PRINT NOW!!! Track 2 - ANYBODY WHO DIGS SINGERS THIS MUCH IS ALRIGHT BY ME!!! You jazz fans who don't like the singers, no disrespect, but... Y'ALL AIN'T GOT A FUCKING CLUE!!! Sorry. We can still be friends, though! Track 3 - Ok, this seals the deal. I AM buying this one. Everytime I hear a cut from it, I get totally knocked out. This stuff is deep. See above. And believe it or not, I hear a very slight influence of these guys in the vocal arrangements of Sly & The Family Stone. I would not be surprised to find out that Sly was a fan. Track 4 - Walt Dickerson. LIFE RAYS? No matter, this guy's the shit no matter what the album is. 'Nuff said. Track 5 - Nice change of pace, works in the "flow" of the disc, but not something I'd be likely to listen to outside of a mix like this or on the radio. Certainly high-quality playing, though. Track 6 - Music built from the bottom up. That and in the middle, w/the percussion, is where all the action is. I hear Benny Maupin & Bill Summers, I think, so my guess would be The Headhunters, but I don't recognize the cut, and I don't know Paul Jackson to have played upright. More here than might meet the ear if you listen to the "inside" of the music instead of the "top" or the "outside". I like it, I hear more with each listen (ok, so far only two, but hey...). Thre's some real group playing going on here. Just a guess. Track 7 - Masters at work. This guy... Miss him and it's your loss. And did the flautist here ever again record on the instrument? He's on this BFT 3 TIMES! Track 8 - One of the great bands of the 70s. I still dig this guy very much, think he's playing at a very high level now, better than back then, actually, but this BAND MATTERED in a way that perhaps you had to be there to fully appreciate. I have no idea what this kind of thing sounds like to younger, or "newer" ears than mine, and frankly, I don't care. I remember, and I hear. Yeah, I hear all the potential for excess just waiting to burst out, but it doesn't, and sometimes that self-restraint makes for the difference between genius and eccentricity. Besides, with that tenor player, that bassist, and that drummer (and, yeah, that percussionist) there's no room or time for self-indulgence and/or bullshit, legitimate or otherwise. Maybe that's why the band broke up... Track 9 - MORE music that matters. The trumpeter has always been the weak link in the various editions of this band, imo, but he's in top form here. The tenor, well, all I can say is . Same for the drummer, except add the highest personal respect for everything he's publicly stood for. One of my TRUE musical heroes. Track 10 - If this is what I think it is, then it's a lot more interesting than I have been thnking it would be all these years. Must hear more! Track 11 - Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen., closing time, drink up and get going. Ya'll be careful, watch out for them astroids and such. Happy New Light Year, and give us a ring (or three) next time you're in the area. ok? I have enjoyed myself! (edited becasue there are tracks 9,10, & 11; NOT tracks 9,9, & 10 )

Even better, post your BFT guesses over there and post a link to them here!

I'm sure you won't mind me pointing out that the irony of a Patriots fan finding baseball boring is darn near inescapable....

I remember when Rhino was doing way-cool stuff like putting out Wild Man Fischer albums, reissuing the G.T.O.'s album, and giving The Turtles the respect they deserved as eccentric Pop heavyweights. They're still doing cool stuff, but a lot of their early releases seem to be OOP now, which is a drag.

That's what it is all right, the MONK'S BLUES LP coupled with the original Lincoln Center LP, minus "Played Twice", which was quartet. Part of a little series of two-fers w/pencil sketch covers. Another was by the Donald Byrd-Gigi Gryce group. Don't know what else was in that series, if anything. Sorry - reissue, not original.

Hey there, Zoot. What prompted you to buy the album back in the day? You from Chicago?

Still in stock, I see... If you want to get into one of the best, freshest, and most innovative groups of the 70s, here you go. If you want to hear some prime Henry Threadgill, here you go. If you want to hear music that blurs the line between "free" and "inside" to the point where it practically ceases to exist, here you go. Not likely to be reissued on CD any time soon. If you don't have a turntable. stop living in the past!

I've been married for 20 years, have two teenagers, and still have to deal with the "you call that music?" syndrome pertneer every damn where I go. How do you THINK it was?

So do some ISP servers (or whatever they use) update (or whatever it is they do) a list of active domain names more regularly than others? Is that why some people could get on and some not, even though your domain name expired? Teach me, 'cause I don't know how this stuff works. Please! And you're lucky - I keep hearing about these predatory types who swoop in and snap up expired domain names in a flash and then "hold them hostage". Glad that all is well.

I had the same problem this morning from one of my computers, but not the other. Organissimo is back on both of them now.

Dude, a Red Sox Series triumph would be more than fine with me. After a Cubs one, of course... You think that we'll ever see either one, even if we live as long as both of us combined?

Oh wait, that's DAN, not Paul. Sorry, bad eyes right now. But if the Pats were your team too, Dan, same goes for you. Enjoy!

REALLY!

Well, sure, winning with faceless efficiancy beats the hell out of losing with personality, No bout a doubt it. It sure as hell beats LOSING with faceless efficiancy, ala the last few years of Landry's Cowboys. That run got even me, a devoted Landry hater, to feeling sorry for the poor saps - all of the stylelessness of their illustrious predecessors and none of the substance. Tough gig, that had to be. But hey - if I had my druthers, I'd take take 'em both - winning AND personality. That's the ultimate - chops and charisma. Kareem & Magic's Lakers, Jordan's Bulls, Ali's Ali, Madden's Raiders, Louis Armstrong. For two seasons, before Jerry Jones, the Dallas Police Department, and a few insatiable noses fouled it up, we had that here, and I tell you, it was glorious. Imaginations and championships both were captured. Top o'the world, Ma, top o'the world. Of course, if it was my team that was winning Super Bowls with all the flair and elan of a 1971 My Three Sons episode, I'd be satisfied. But it's not, so... Seriously, I'm glad you're enjoying your team's victory. Honestly, I am.

Heard this one last night. Produced & arranged by Bob Belden. A little different, not always a straight blowing date, but more Moody as featured soloist in a variety of settings, which at times are almost Shorter-ish it seemed to me. Moody sounds comfortable and engaged. No surprise there. I liked it. Don't know if it's necessarily a "classic" James Moody album, probably not, but I think it will reward repeated listenings. Certainly not a drag, that's for sure! Worth checking out unless you only want "a certain thing", I'd say.

The June broadacast seems to have been pitch-corrected from what was on the Fresh Sounds issue. Haven't A/b'ed them yet, but a casual listening seems to indicate that it has.

One of the two times I saw him live was w/his own group, in Chicago, at the "alternative" (Underground?) Chicago Jazz Festival in 1981. Forget who all was in the group, but I think Vandy Harris (or maybe Ari Brown) was on tenor, and there was an incredible singer, apparently lost to all since I've repeatedly tried to get info on her w/o success, names Ka'tetta Aton. A thoroughly amazing night of music. I'll remember for the rest of my life, I hope, several spots where the music got going REALLY good and Malachi was pulling the strings on his bass like an archer's bow, WAAAAYYYY past where any human being should be able to pull them. Yet his pitch remained perfect, and his tone true. You'd have to have seen it to believe it. This was a man who understood the bass, was all about being the instrument and knowing it more than intimately. This was not a man who played the bass, or who played music and just happened to use on the bass to do it. This was a man who dug as deeply as possible into his instrument (and I suspect his life, as well as those of others, from the ancient tot he future), and brought it all up and out through that instrument of his in a way that only his instrument could purvey. It takes wisdom to play any instrument with that much depth and command, but the bass may very well be the most demanding of al in those respects. Malachi had unsurpassed wisdom, depth, and command. In the deepest possible sense, he was a master. Their numbers have always been few, and they seem to be getting fewer. Pay attention to him and his peers, even if you don't understand them now. With any luck, someday you will.

No. He recorded it on his lazt Columbia album, the big band thing w/uncharacteristically horrible Oliver Nelson arrangements.

I'm all for teamwork and supreme intellegince, both of which the Pats have in spades, and rightfully deserve credit for. What I'm not for is winning without as much as a gnat pube's worth of personality, which is something else the Pats have in spades. Winning is winning, sure, but hay Zeus, freakin' Christo, when you have enough anti-charisma to make a last second win predictable and actually BORING, (did anybody seriously doubt that the game would end EXACTLY as it did, and find the FG anti-climactic?) I'd look in the front office and see if a guy named Faust has an office somewhere. This is America, not (fill in the blank with your favorite efficiency uber alles entity). If you want football as corporate entity, be my guest. I can do bad by myaelf... Quality of life, babe, quality of life.

Can your heart stand it?

Congrats tot he Pats for winnng, and for being the most exciting and charismatic team since the Cowboys of the 70s. If this is the future of the NFL, my Sundays will be forever changed!

Janet's the best thing about this one so far. Uh....cancel that. Carolina TD.

Paul Bley, maybe.

4th down spot TOTALLY BOGUS.