JSngry

The original LP's not exactly a marvel of realism either.

Dude, I don't even have Photo Shop (way too expensive), just Paint Shop Pro (very affordable, bought it for my daughter), and I'd never messed with it until yesterday. If it's this easy for a total scrub like me to make some lame stuff that somehow looks like a real cover (no matter how bad a real cover it might be) just by cutting, pasting, and morphing, then professionals have NO excuse for turning out crappy covers!

Now if you'd have said PHILLIP Marlowe, I'd have believed you...

Not as hideous, but just as dumb...

Diggin' that Cowell, AB!

This is hideous!

More like one of those Japanese King Blue Note LP covers, but here's SORCERER as a quasi-BN, replete w/the same cover model.

Here's a twist - Larry Young's MOTHERSHIP as a CTI!

Thank you, RC. This is a true public service. Seriously.

Now it's time to start digging for live tapes, the final frontier of appreciation of an artist, or anal compulsion, depending on how you go about it (or maybe even a bit of both!). Unfortunately, the Hankster's bootleg reserve gives every indication of being a really shallow well. Either that , or else I just haven't met the right people yet. But there's still some "unheard" stuff from Left Bank that Label M was kicking around issuing before they went under, and I've been making casual inquiries, so far fruitless, about the existence of any live tapes from Hank's early 70s stay in Chicago, especially the band he had with Muhal. THAT I would like to hear, and surely SOMEBODY has some tapes, even crappy ones. Bottom line, though, when it comes to a favorite artist, having all there is is just the beginng to getting all there is, if you get my drift. The former can be accomplished, but the latter goes on forever, thank God.

"Hackensack" uses a different turnaround out of the bridge than "Lady Be Good", but otherwise the changes are roughly the same. Lots of players use passing chords in bars 3 & 4 of LBG's A-section, and the second half of LBG's bridge (which of course includes the aforementioned turnaraound) is not quite like that of "Hackensack", but the overall harmonic outlines of the two tunes are the same, these particular differnces notwithstanding.

24 bits is, what, $3.00?

James kept a good band together long after most of his peers had either disbanded or gone the nostalgia route. Think they worked almost exclusively in Vegas, and didn't record hardly any as the 60s wore on, but remember - Buddy Rich was in Harry's band jsut before he started his own. James gave him his initial financial backing, in fact. There's avideo of that mid-60s band in the old Swingtime series, and it's pretty interesting. Buddy's on drums, and Red Kelly (who looks like Uncle Fester) is on bass. They do "Walk On The Wild Side", a Thad Jones arrangement of "Tuxedo Junction", and some boogaloo number ("Teddy The Toad", I think) that features an ELECTRIC piano solo. Corky Corcoran does a short but sweet ballad feature, and the whole band is good - a little light from a hardcore jazz perspective, but still, in no way is it a nostalgia band. It's a good, slightly commercially oriented modern swing band that draws a lot of it's stylistic character from Basie's "New Testament" band. Not a bad way to make a living, all things considered, if you were realistic about what it was going to be. If there's such a thin as "hip straight", this is it. The higlight of the video, though, is the opening number, "Don't Be That Way". It's a slightly modernized version of the Goodman band's arrangement, and in the spot towards the end, in the drum fill (the space that Krupa used to get the stick out of everybody's asses at Carnegie Hall), Buddy Rich just goes into hyperspace, playing a 2 bar fill that is one of the most concentrared examples of pure manic intensity you'l ever want to hear. If Krupa's fill got the stick out of everybody's asses, Buddy's sets an atomic bomb off inside them, and without any warning either. It's a miracle that his head didn't just go explode and spew itself all over everybody, that's how intense it is. You definitely get the impression that Buddy was ready for something else. I'll tell you what - Harry James could PLAY! That cat had a thing of his own, and some really badass chops that, when not being used in the service of purveying so much schmaltz, could and did produce some very idiosyncratic jazz playing. He went for showbiz nearly and often, but, not unlike Robert Mitchum, I always felt like he knew he was playing a game, and that he knew what the real deal was every step of the way. Gotta respect that.

I remember that review, and I remember that letter. Szantor's criticism seemed a bit much, especially after I hear the record (and BTW, SOMEBODY needs to reissue those Cobblestone NEWPORT IN NEW YORK sides in a comprehensive set), and his response is just plain weak, Rahsaan's response might seem equally over the top today, but at the time, it seemed like darn near EVERY jazz musician who would speak openly about critics in the press made a variation of the same theme. The sixties carried a looong hangover with them, doncha' know. What's REALLY interesting to me is that somebody has the resources to scan and post old DB articles! Think we could get the Mobley article/interview by John Litweiler? That's one of the best pieces that magazine ever ran. March 29, 1973. And only 50 cents!

Simple and to the point.

This stuff is fun, even if I don't really know how to work it...

I don't like how this one turned out, but I spent too much time learning as I went along to trash it. Sorry.

Warp it a little too...

Aim for the crossover market, I say!

Mild Avis

To get to the other side?

Shirley Scott & Oliver Nelson. Jimmy Smith & Oliver Nelson. Two more excellent organ/big band pairings.

Another good one!

Joe's best official recording of "Invitation" was done on a Roy Haynes Galaxy album called VISTALITE. This is not my opinion, it is a fact. There's a really nice post-bop (whatever that means) Jimmy Heath version on THE GAP SEALER. What that album's called now on CD, I can't tell you. Any jazz musician who wants to take a look at the tune and take it apart for study would be well advised to check out Nelson Riddle's arrangement on Rosemary Clooney's LOVE album, readily available on Warner Brothers CD. Forget that it's Rosemary Clooney, forget that it's an "Easy Listening album" (allegedly...), forget that there's strings and stuff, forget all that crap and just listen to what Riddle wrote in terms of voicings, alterations and countermelodies. Listen and learn.

McDuff consistently led bands of the highest quality. The sidemen were never scrubs or utility players, they were always top-shelf players in their own right. Go to the Fantasy web site www.fantasyjazz.com and check out the McDuff catalog. You'll see names like George Benson, Red Holloway, Harold Vick, Pat Martino and, of course, the man who was arguably the archetypical organ drummer and was definitely ONE of them, Joe Dukes. These guys all had a sophisitcation and versatility that people who tend to turn up their noses at organ groups prefer to ignore. Sure, they could get as down and dirty as anybody, but they could also play some hip bop, some mellow swing, and some tender ballads. These guys were PROS, and McDuff never had a band that was less than excellent, at least not in his "glory days". Jump on in and check it out. Their ain't nothin' on them records except damn fine music.