JSngry

Well, there's a fair amount of JATP stuff on the old box, but I think some new things got unearthed afterwards. The Jam Session is definitely on there - BETTER be, you can't have Bird on Verve w/o "Funky Blues"! The MAIN omission, now that I get the thing out and look at it, is the session w/Machito, and that's just wrong. Don't know how THAT happened. John, I got your PM, btw. Thanks!

1984. It was one of those Verve Japanese imports that might as well have been domestic because you could find'em damn near everywhere. 10 LPs.

Exactly, Some things I feel like I SHOULD know, just because. Others I feel like I should be able to make at least an educated guess on, and others, I have NO clue whatsoever. The thing for me is, I take a lot of personal pride in having my own distinct, personal sound on my instrument, one that I've spent a lot of time honing. And it's an ongoing process, too, noways near finished. Part of that honing involves hearing other players and knowing waht I like but can't use, what I like but WON'T use, what I flat out don't like, and most importantly, what I can steal. So it's a matter of personal pride and a self-testing of my own internal competence to have a fairly good grip on players that and genres I've already studied to some fairly thoughrough degree. If I missed, say, Dexter, or Ayler, or Konitz, that would be a sign that I've HEARD a lot, but absorbed nothing, and that just won't do, not for me. I'm aware that other people don't look at it that way, and that's cool. My quirks are totally mine, and if I inflict them on others in these tests, just say the word, and I'll keep it more to myself. I know I'm a geek. But yeah, something like that Wilen thing, where the guy sounds SO damn familiar, in a style that I'd like to think that I know pretty darn well, when I can't "get" it - IT DRIVES ME FUCKIN' NUTS!!!!!! Don't know why I'm saying all this, but I DON'T view these things as competitive like a Fantasy League, or anything like that. The object of testing is as much to learn what you DON'T know as much as what you do, and a test can often be a better lesson than a "real" lesson. I learned a few things this first go-round, and I'm looking forward to learning more in future tests. I dig learning more than almost anything else in life. Like I said, I'm a geek!

MICROGROOVE TECHNOLOGY!!!!

No, but I'd like to. I like Louiss, Gourley, and Klook (of course). Who's member #4, "Guy Pedersen"? NHOP's self-effacing brother?

Cool! Please do - I remember hearing/reading that the CD version had some stuff that was left off the (earlier) LP set, but don't know how much or what.

A heartwrenching tribute to Marty Feldman...

That not a particularly inspiring selection, imo, especiall from the "original" years. No Devo? Gimme a break! (and NO jazz, either? Screw'em) Somebody else who made a strong impression on SNL was Leon Redbone. Sure, he's pretty much a feelgood cliche self-parody these days, but when he did SNL the first time, he was all but unknown. Imagine seeing this guy you've never heard of before in a white suit, hat, and shades sitting on a stoll singing rather menacingly about how he'll go insane without his walking stick, accompanied only by his guitar and Howard Johnson's tuba. It was pretty intense at the time, I tell you.

Rumor has it that she & Jimmy Scott did a one chorus reading of "Begin The Beguine" that's yet to be released. It's a 5-CD set.

From the thread's later, post-Blue Note days. A more tightly produced, less spiritual sound, but still some good moments, and try finding the original! (Record has a few visible scuffs and teeth marks, but should make a good play copy. Cover has split seams, and slight ringworm wear) $14.95

Funny, I like much of Abercrombie as a sideman (ESPECIALLY w/DeJohnette), or even as a co-leader (hel-LO GFATEWAY 1 & 2), but the projects that are entirely his own invariably fall flat with me. The notable exception is the TIMELESS album. Might be one or two more along the way, but as a generality, that's how it works for me. Go figure.

Whatever they call the dates w/Byrd, Garland, George Joyner, & Taylor now (or since this is OJC, whatever they called them THEN), get'em. They might be Red sides, actually. but get'em. Along with the previous recs. And the Stardust sessions w/Wilbur Harden. Not TOO many ways to go wrong here, actually...

Well, the thing is, Tony actually studied composition pretty seriously sometime in the 70s from what I hear. He WANTED to become a writer of stuff like he wrote apparently. The pieces might not be the most adventurous music he ever did, but they ARE finely crafted, much more than just blowing vehicles. Might be kind of a consolation prize compared to what came before, but hey... I'm partial to FOREIGN INTRIGUE myself, Garrett & Hutcherson bring more spark to the show than the later, regular band usually did. But there's interesting material throughout that output. Grounds for a Mosaic Select someday, I'd hope.

Is this the wrong place to say yet another prayer that Fantasy SOMEDAY reissues Salim's AFRO-SOUL DRUM ORGY Prestige thing? You think you know A.K. Salim? Not until you've heard THIS one you don't!

Ok, I bought the Complete Verve LP set back when it was issued. Had to eat cheap tacos for a week, but what the hell. So, how much am I missing on the CD release?

But do stupid people try to put a fence post in it?

Perhaps something a little more, uh, "unexpected"? Like this" Perhaps not...

FWIW, back in the day, in the circles I was in, it was the other way around - lots of cats were down with SPRING but not so many w/LIFETIME. SPRING was always in the stores, LIFETIME wasn't. Don't know if that was a regional phenomenon, or if the Wayne factor swayed the local market, or just what it was. But like I said, SPRING was better known in my circle back in the 70s. And I used to walk 72 hours each way to the head shop in mile deep snow too... The thing I like about Tony's 80s BNs is you can really hear him develop as a writer. He wrote a LOT of good stuff for that band, and if it's in a much more conservative style than waht's on these 60s things, well, go figure. The cat did what he did, including MILLION DOLLAR LEGS (an album I STILL hate with a passion!). But good writing is good writing, and Tony turned into a VERY good writer of more traditional type pieces, so that's where the fun is in that stuff comes from for me. It sure ain't comin' from Billy Pierce...

Damn - I've actually got that Louiss disc, but have only listened to it once, about a month ago. Nowhere near sinking in. But I liked that cut more than some. Time to put it in rotation for a while. The Namyslowski cut indeed comes as a total surprise. I was hearing Brazillian and African overtones, not Eastern European. But the guy has a great tone, a good feel, and if his vocabulary isn't necessarily the most distinctive, what he does with it is personal enough that I'd like to hear more. Sounds like he can play! Can't stress enough how good Foster sounds to me on the Akiyoshi/Tabackin cut. Wish he played with that much "core" ALL the time. And what a chart! Indeed, I had heard that album back in the 70s, but don't remember anything about it, at least not consciously. Sometimes I thought the band played Toshiko's charts a little too "cleanly", at the expense of inflections and other things that give a big band personality, and that's kind of the case here, but this is one of her charts where the voicings give the music all the personality it needs. That punch/fall chord behind the soloists is just totally WACK - where you'd expect to hear a big brassy POWWWWwwwwwwwwww, instead there's this oblique sound that takes up space and time, but with what? SOME kinda sound, but certainly nothing either traditional or expected in terms of voicing, density, or color. Marvelously idiosyncratic writing, and executed to perfection - that music is NOT easy to play, and I speak from experience, having gotten a taste of a few of her things back at NT. Besides, all the doubling (not heard on this cut), the voicings are such that the blend has to be JUST so, or else you got a mess on your hands, like Thad's stuff, only even moreso. Maybe my gripe about the lack of inflections is missing the point, maybe the point of executing that music IS the voicings themselves, and maybe too much inflection would destroy the personality of the voicings. Never thought of it that way before... Anyway, this cut is more to my liking than I remember much of the band's output being. Don't know if hearing more of it would be similarly revelatory or not, 50/50 odds on that one, but THIS item sure was. Ah, the Legrand...extremely mixed feelings. OTOH, yeah, it IS a very creative reworking, but I don't know, there's something "cute" about it, and I DETEST "cute" in music. But hell, Trane, Miles, and some above average Woods, I'll wade through the foo-foo to get to the juju. Alleman (Spanish for "German" btw, good thing this wasn't post WWII, what with it being Argentina and all... ) sounds like he's playing stride piano on guitar (or Dobro as the case may be, or National metal-bodied guitar, or as Taj Majhal called it, "Miss National"). I was really struck by his facility and assurance. This guy might be going on my "to check out further" list, for sure. VERY nice work. Gotta get that Ponomarev side. He sounds fine enough, but Joe sounds like he was having a good day, and that's enough for me! Gaslini didn't do it for me. Maybe the larger context would help, but I dunno. For free-ish type mallets, I'm a Karl Berger/later Walt Dickerson man myself. The scalar motif they kept working with had the "cute" factor again, and that's just not for me. Good players, though, no question about that. Abercrombie, eh? Never been much of a fan of his work as a leader. Surman? Sometimes, YES!, sometimes, nooooooo... This one falls into the latter category, I'm afraid. I'll stand by my earlier comments re:the Svensson - too much whimsy, not enough meat. If you're going to do Monk, you got to have both, or at least I think you do. It ain't an easy game to play, but it ain't supposed to be. So lessee - DEFINITELY got to check out the JJ Mosaic, that Wilen disc (and others!), the Ponomarev thing, maybe some Alleman & some Namyslowski, and won't automatically pass over Akiyoshi/Tabaken in the used vinyl bins anymore. Damn fine learning experience in my book. Thanks, Tony!

Not that I'm aware of. You know, considering that this album is almost 40 years old now, and given how some people still argue against the intrinsic validity of music like this (which, to avoid being misunderstood, is an entirely different thing from any individual liking it or not) the old saw about an artist not being ahead of their time but most people being behind theirs still rings true. Beautiful music, that's whatcha' got here. Beautiful, beautiful music made by masters.

Same here, Chris. Sincerest condolences on the loss of your friend. If possible, please convey to the family what a huge debt so many of us feel toward Mr. Knudsen for his tireless efforts.

In what - their ass or that hole in the ground?

Hey, don't knock Zager & Evans = they went on to spearhead Ten Wheel Drive, which gave us Dave Liebman and Genya Ravan. Well, ok, a tap or two might be called for...

All right, then. The line starts here: