JSngry

The thing that gets me about Pepper is that he always sounds so damn TIGHT. Not in a "non-swinging" way, but just like he's got a LOT of stuff bottled up inside him that he can't and/or won't let go of for whatever reason. I've never heard ANYBODY hug the time as close as he does. It's like a 6 foot tall man doing an intenselyintricate dance in a room that's got a 6.01 foot high ceiling with a half inch on either side. Same thing with his tone - it's full but tight, like Jimmy Rushing's body packed inside Jimmy Scott's skin. You get the feeling like a really messy explosion could happen any second, but it never, NEVER does. A fascinating, extremely complex man and musician, and J1, if you've not yet read Straight Life, his autobiography, by all means do so. Just know that it is not for the squeamish. Have a plate of mashed potatoes around, too. I think Art would like that.

Reading the responses made me go back and listen to #5 again, and I do detect the little Bird-esque stutter thing that Jerome Richardson was so fond of in the 2nd tenor player, so the Wilkins guess seems sound to me. Not really familiar w/his playing all that much though. If it's him, he sure does a good Rabbit impersonation!

Think of the possibilities!!!

Got the test disc Monday afternoon, and listened to it last night. These responses are being made having not read any of this thread so far. TRACK 1 - Definitely "Drown In My Own Tears". Sounds like the 3 Sounds live (or simulated live". AMG shows that hey did this one on LIGHTHOUSE, but the CD must have a bunch of cuts the LP doesn't, and the LP is all I got, and it ain't on there. To be honest, the tune off that side I groove on and would immediately remember is "June Night", which is about as trioistical as you want it to be for this style. Piano's not necessarily in the best condition, but that often works for this style. It does here, for sure. TRACK 2 - Well, you can't mistake Mel Torme, can you! Seriously, obviously Joe Williams, and the bassist sure plays those skips like Ray Brown. At first I was thinking Jay McShann on paino, but I got over that pretty quick. So...I don't know. One of Ray Brown's trios? Only Joe Williams could sing a song like this, talk about a Gold Card, not so subtly chide the audience on their vanillaness, and not lose a speck of credibility. He was one of a kind, and this is a fun cut. TRACK 3 - Lou Donaldson. No mistaking that tone and phrasing. What album or who else, I haven't a clue. Probably an Argo album, casue the vinyl artifacts are delightfull in place. The tune's a "Stand By Me" cop, and the pianist sounds a bit generic, but pleasantly so. One thing's for sure, the drummer & bassist got it goin' in the pocket, just holding it right there, not puhing or pulling too much or not enough. THAT why a lot of people, including myself, groove on stuff like this - not because it's heavy in content, but just becasue the TIME feels so right, gets in just that right place and stays there. Lou could certainly play MORE alto than what he does here, but that's not his goal. His goal is to let the groove do the work and hum not fuck it up. An "artistic" cop out? Perhaps, but it's a good way to make a living, and besides, it's NOT as easy to do as you might think. More heralded players than Lou Donaldson have tried and failed to make simple, accesable music that's low in challenge yet high in sincerity. Can't say that this is the kind of thing I'd want too hear TOO often myself, but it's always welcome in my ears when it jumps up on me by surprise, like in a Blindfold Test. TRACK 4 - Yet another instantly recognizable voice, this time Red Holloway, one of the unheralded badasses of the tenor. Doesn't matter what "style" music you play, you either control your instrument or it controls you, no in between (unfortunately...). The more you control it, the more you can do EXACTLY what it is you want to do, the badder a badass you are. I've never heard Red Holloway play anything that soounds like he didn't mean it 100%, either technically or emotionally. So hell yeah - Red Holloway is a TRUE badass, and one with a bit broader scope than this cut might suggest. As for the band, I haven't a clue. Again, "generic" (to be anything else in this style and still retain all the style's flavor is something that only older cats can do, and these guys don't sound all that old to me) but damn fine players, even if the drummer gets a tad excited at the beginning of his solo and seems to want to rush. Maybe he was having a laugh! But no matter - Red Holloway! Track 5 - Mystery time! Sounds like a Vee-Jay side, possibly Argo, but more likely Vee-Jay. Is it the bass player's date? Firat tenor player sure sounds like Frank Wess to me. Altoist is heavily colored by Hodges, but not enough to fool me into thinking it's him. The little doubletime thing blows his cover totally! Second tenor gets into the Prez thing marvellously, then goes into his own zone even more marvellously. Budd Johnson? Anyway, I'm at a loss. My strongest lightbul comes on for who I think is Wess, but whoever it is, this is the real deal, stuff that's as natural for the players as breathing, and I LOVE it when that happens! TRACK 6 - Dammit, I know this tune, but can't tell you the name of it. Sounds like a Dameron thing fersure. Definitely a Van Gelder recording, and fairly recent. Jimmy Heath on tenor, it sounds like. Slide Hampton? Cedar? Billy Higgins? Good stuff, nobody's going all out, but it's got a good beat and I can dance to it. Curious what else is on the album, sounds like a good'un. TRACK 7 - "Billie's Bounce". The altoist sounds like either a Swing or Free or even R&B (splitting the difference) player for whom Bop is not their native tongue, but he's got soul and the message gets through loud and clear. Trumpet had me thinking Blue Mitchell, then Sweets Edison(!), then finally Howard McGhee. Rhythm section's got their groove on big time. Everybody sounds fine, like they're having a ball. It was fun listening to it, I can tell you that. TRACK 8 - This one I have. Granted, a person in Houston is more likely to turn green when travelling westbound, but that's life. TRACK 9 - Gorgeous tune, and a gorgeous tenor player. The tone reminds me of Teddy Edwards, as do those bent notes and the vocal intonation, but it's not QUITE as fluid in nature as Teddy's. Based on what little I've heard of Billy Mitchell, I could go that way. Other than that, I've not a clue. But DAMN what a great tune! I'm wanting this record NOW! Sounds like vets all around in every regard too. Piano solo is JUST Aa tad busy, but not seriously so. You GOT to be to do a tune like this like this. TRACK 10 Nice tune. Pianist is OK, but a little too eager to get "bluesy". Don't recognize the tenor player. Don't care that much for the overall charcter of his tone, but there are moments where I do. Wierd... Bob Berg? Damn bass sound, too thin. I bet the guy's really got a nice tone, but you'll not get it here. A piece that leaves a better aftertaste than the actual chewing does, and that's something to consider. I'd like more time, and more of the album. TRACK 11 - "Footprints", nicely colored by half-step harmonies. Nobody really distinctive jumps out after a few listens, it's kinda the new middle-of-the-road, but that's ok. No bullshit playing, everybody sounds real. Think I dug the drummer the most - he was really in the moment it seemed. TRACK 12 - At first I thought "Kansas City", but then "Move To The Outskirts Of Town". Nice arranging, very well done. The writing doesn't display the personality of any one cat, but again, that's ok - it does what it needs to do and does it hiply. As for the organist, I don't have a clue. Something says "Ray Charles", but maybe that's an old episode of Jeopardy lingering in my subconsciousnesticarity... TRACK 13- well, if that ain't "Lonely Avenue" (and it ain't), it's close enough to call a lawyer about! As on most all these cuts, the bassist and drummer stay in the poket in a way that renders what goes on on top a luxury that the piece can get by without well enough. This pianist sounds familiar, but I can't call a name right now. Tenor player is HEAVY into George Coleman, but sounds a bit liek he's speaking phonetically, getting all (well, most all) the words right, but missing the cadence and inflection that signify a native speaker. Eric Alexander? Or maybe George on a less than inspired day. But I don't think so. I'd like to hear the trio w/a different horn player in front. THEY got it goin' on! All told, another most enjoyable selection of selections, and a few things I definitely want to check out more in-depth. Wish I could have more time to listen and reflect, but the Post Office screwed up, and results are going up soon, so this is a one take affair, I'm afraid. Now, to gop back and read the thread from the beginning and see how badly I botched the thing!

Hey - every turntable my family ever owned, including the kiddie record players that we went through like cheap toilet paper had four speeds up to snf including the "real stereo" Sony set that I cajoled my Dad into buying in 1969 (getting the old man to buy a record player that was did not double as a piece of furniture was a REAL struggle, especially since the speakers weren't IN anything other than smallish free standing wooden cabinets). I played 33 1/3 albums at 16 2/3 all the time - at first to uncover clues in the "Paul is dead" affair, but later to transcribe solos - half-speed just slows it down an octave lower. I didn't need a reel-to-reel player or a two-speed casette deck until well into the 70s! That turntable is still functioning quite nicely, too, thank you! 78s were noi problem either, although other than the occasional nostalgic spin of my childhood Little Golden Records, the speed didn't get much use until I started going to flea markets and picking up jazz 78s for dirt cheap. Let me tell you - hearing Bird's break on "Sepia Bounce" for the first time, on an old 78, nearly made me pee my britches. Actual 16 2/3 records, though, I only saw once or twice, while rummaging in the darkest corners of my middle school library. The label was Caedmon, I believe, and it was all spoken word stuff. I actually checked one out for the weekend once - somebody reading The Great Gatsby. Let me tell you - one side of that sucker lasted a looooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggg time. Now, jazz reel-to-reels, I've actually got one. A Capitol RTR of Cannonball's 74 MILES HIGH/WALK TALL Don't remember how I picked it up, but my guess is that it was cheap and I was near-broke. Hell, that's how I've gotten MOST of my collection....

I don't own any. That's MY story. What's yours?

Steve Duke - MONK BY 2 (Columbia)

It's a live recording of a late 60s/early 70s club date w/Mickey Tucker, George Duvivier, & Al Harewood. Pretty good stuff. They don't burn down the house, but they do make plenty of sparks.

Thanks! Paintshop is VERY tedious (and limited) when it comes to text, unless there's some tricks there I haven't uncovered The letterg on my IASW cover had to be done letter by letter, manipulating the vectors of each one until it was just right. Then on to the NEXT one. Gotsta be a better way... And I REALLY want/need to learn fonts - which ones are which. I don't know Garamond from Jack Germond and THAT is a pain in the ass. I get one I like, try to come back to it another time, and don't remember what it was. That sucks.

The colors of the time (can you tell your babies what they mean?)...

He made a good Maytag Repairman too.

What if.......

Frank Gauna & Bob Venosa in a hurry to make deadline, with a cruel molestation of the logo due to file resizing in order to attatch the sucker...

Tucker diesplays some really hip organ chops on James Moody's NEVER AGAIN.

Sad news indeed. One of the music's true individuals, and a personal favorite. DECISION IN PARADISE, a 1985 Soul Note side w/Don Cherry, Grachan Moncur III, Geri Allen, and Moffetts Charnette & Charles is one of those albums that just gets better as time passes. But you could say that about most of Lowe's work. So much personality.... R.I.P.

I'd think that setting the type by hand would allow you a lot more freedom, unless you REALLY knew the software.

Don't know if I'm gonna make it to FILLES or not...

Yeah, Paris is one of those rare times when you get to literally hear the course of history being changed as it happens. A lot of what Trane's into here, especially in terms of intensity, doesn't surface on record again until the Impulse! years. You hear barriers being torn down right before your very ears. To call it a shattereing experience, both musically and emotionally, might seem like hyperbole to some, but that's how it gets me. But Paris was the first stop on that tour, and nothing else that's been captured from that tour quite reaches that level, although it's all still pretty intenese. I wonder if Trane, who was not happy about doing that gig, just got all his venting done up front, and went on from there, or if somebody told him that he was freaking people out (the Parisian audience, as Claude implied, was less than ready if their reaction is any indication) and him being the sensitive soul that he was, he pulled back the reigns for the rest of the tour. The stuff w/Stitt is all well and good, but it's a totally different dynamic w/oTrane. Whatever, everything from that Spring tour is priceless, and if you see the Dragon set, don't hesitate. And if you see the Paris stuff, grab it immediately and run for cover before you listen to it.

I feel your pain, but as Hank said...

Thanks to Joe, it's better!

Sorry, but the head stays. I like the shirt.

Could somebody take my NEFERTITI cover and resize the font on Miles' name? Is that possible? And maybe tweak the spacing on the rest of the text so it's better balanced? I'm REALLY digging the basic elements, but the specifics are driving me nuts. In other words, can we fix it in the mix?

Yeah, how about it? If it's REALLY that bad, it'll need some extra-special packaging to create a buzz, right? Sooooo....

Yeah, how about it? If it's REALLY that bad, it'll need some extra-special packaging to create a buzz, right?