JSngry

Interesting, isn't it. How's the music? Haven't heard that one, but most of London's Libertys from this era (mid-50s-early 60s) are cool-jazzy/pop affairs. Nice, but nothing heavy (and vise versa) the covers, though are uniformly, uh, well, mmm, you know...

It ALMOST looks like one of those old turntable strobe discs you used to check the table's speed, but I don't think that's what it is.

You mean Rhino didn't reprint the original liner notes? THAT sucks!

Thank God Golden Pond's not in Vermont!

Yeah, I still need to post on SIGNIFYIN'. LOVE IT! But sometimes I get wrapped up other posts and time runs out. Damn reality!

Thanks, Big Wheel! Cachao has long been a favorite of mine.

Dr. Pepper @ 10, 2, & 4, Julie London at 10:10, 2:50, & 3:45!

Not familiar with Cachaito, but am quite familiar with Cachao. Are they related?

I was involved a few local projects w/John Purcell during the time he was recording for ECM w/DeJohnette, and if he was to be believed (certainly no reason for me NOT to), there was a DEFINITE ECM "sound" in those days as it pertained to EQ'ing, soundstaging, use of reverb, stuff like that. The sound of the record as opposed to the style of the music. I seem to remember George Adams expressing, if not exactly displeasure, at least a bit of frustration, that his sole ECM effort had been "flavored" by Eicher's musical "suggestions". Of course this is going to be true at most all labels, but I think if one doesn't go too overboard in defining it that it's safe to say that there is a general ECM "sound" (especially as it pertains to recording quality), and that there are those items in the catalogue that both define and defy that sound.

I've not heard SOUL COOKIN', but DIGGIN' THE CHICKS is a pretty interesting album for me. One or two people whose opinions I respect quite a bit don't dig it, but I hear a pretty personal story being told. Leslie plays on Larry Young's GROOVE STREET as well. Sorry to hear of his passing. Yet another unheralded "local" figure of the type whose place in the overall makeup of the jazz landscape often goes unfairly unnoticed. R.I.P.

It's not a question of enjoyment (or the lack thereof) that I was addressing. That is totally beside the point. A person's gut reaction to music (or pretty much anything else) needs no justification, nor can it be attacked - to be ultra-simplistic, it is as reflexive as breathing, and must be accepted as such. But I think you'll agree that there is a major difference in the opinions "I don't like this" and "Mr. X doesn't know what he's doing". The latter opinon presumes that the opinionholder knows both what Mr. X is trying to do, and more to the point, what he SHOULD be trying to do. And at least 50% of the time, I'll wager dollars to donuts that somebody who says this don't know jackschitte about either. Similarly there's a difference, although not quite a big, between "I don't see what all the fuss is about" and "this is over-rated". The first is again a totally personal expression of opinion, albeit one sprinkled with just a wisp of confrontationality. The latter is again based on a presupposition - that the holder of the opinon is the arbiter of what and how things should be rated in the first place. Now, that's a gig I'd like to have! There are no "right" or "wrong" opinions on matters of taste, on this I agree. But to apply this principle across the board to all manners of expression of all maners of opinions is requires a generosity and tolerance that I'm both afraid and glad that I don't have. All opinions are NOT equal! The further they stray from expressions of strictly personal, subjective reactions into objective statements of fact, the more they are open to challenge. Now, for the first time, it's time to get personal! You say that Sonny Rollins has basically been lost for the last 30 years. This is your opinion, so cool. And you have qualified that opinion by saying that it is based solely on recorded evidence (although I must ask what the most recent Rollins albums you've heard are. The last 3 (+3, GLOBAL WARMING, & THIS IS WHAT I DO are VERY good!)), which is a major qualification in the case of Rollins. But I would ask you to to expound on that opinion by answering the following questions. If Sonny has been "lost" for the last 30 years, what would/should he have been doing if he had been "found". Is the answer to the first question based on an intimate knowledge of the man's life, or is it an expression of what you personally would like to be getting from him? Have you heard the SILVER CITY set? Ok, the third question is easy, but the first two cut to the heart of the matter. If you say that Sonny has been lost for the last 30 years, then I'm going to ask you what qualifies you to make that assertion. "It's just my opinion" ain't gonna cut it, because unless you have the factual, firsthand information to back up such a statement, your opinion don't mean shit (animated, friendly barroom banter, not an expression of anger or challenge, btw) in this instance. "I don't like it", "I don't get it", "It sounds like crap to me", anything like that, THAT I have to accept, but I don't have to accept that you or anybody else knows what is "right" for Sonny better than he does without seriously challenging your qualifications to make that statement. Now, you may continue to hold on to the "it's my opinion and I'm entitled to it" position as a matter of principle or a matter of pride, but I'm not buying it. I've often questioned a lot of things Sonny's done over the years myself, and actually found a few things to be totaly meritless (when I heard THE WAY I FEEL, I wanted to send the cat a sympathy bouquet and a get-well card...), but I would never be so bold as to assume that I knew better than him what he should be doing. That's a whole 'nother trip than "I don't like it"! All I know is that Sonny Rollins is a notoriously "complicated" person whose massive achievements in the past have come at the cost of great personal struggle. That's not "tortured artist" hype, that's basically how it is, and there's numerous firsthand anecdotal evidence to back that up. So out of respect for both his historical accomplishments (of which I have much awareness) and what went into their creation (of which you and I alike probably have but an inkling), I'm going to hold off any grand pronouncements about how the cat has lost his way or any other such expressions of omniscience. #1, the live shows, both through recordings and reports I've heard, don't support it, and #2, the records are NOT uniformly bad and aimless. There are moments on most of them that are QUITE good in fact, at least in my opinon, and SILVER CITY collects some but not all of them. Why they aren't all mo'betta is a fair question, but "Sonny has lost his way" is an answer I'll only accept from somebody who knows him really, REALLY well, and even then that acceptance will not go unquestioned. It's not like we're talking about Phil D. Phenom here, you know, some kid who pops up, makes everybody cream their jeans for a few years, and then just can't do it anymore. And yeah, some guys do lose their way. Pharoah Sanders did in the mid-70s (again, firsthand anecdotal evidence), and he's not alone. Actually, some people were saying this about Sonny after EAST BROADWAY RUNDOWN. I think the Down Beat review of it found it a fascinating but ultimately disturbing album, and fwiw, Sonny took another sabbatical shortly thereafter, gave up music completely, went to India, and studied Yoga intensely. But he came back, and he's stayed back, longer than ever. If only for this reason, I'd have to question the "lost his way" position. but beyond that, again I ask - what SHOULD he be doing, and who are YOU (or anybody ele) to say what that is? Again - "that's just my opinon" ain't gonna cut it. You've gone beyond expressing a totally personal opinion into the realm of presupposing that you know what is best for somebody else. There are times and places for lettting anything that comes out of somebody's mouth go unchallenged, and there are people who are willing to do so. I'm oftimes one of those people, but not this time and not this place. It's your lucky day! (and besides, it'll be my turn someday, I'm sure!) Seriously, that's a pretty heavy thing to say about ANY human being, don't you think? Unless you believe that it's cool to say anything about anybody under any circumstance (and I don't think you do), then I'd ask you to perhaps consider refining your opinon and the expression of it. No, I'm not the "opinion police". I'm just a guy who thinks you can and should do better, and I do this kinda thing every so often just to keep in touch with my inner bitch.

It is indeed the latter. It's not just "creative" types for whom this is a problem either - the world is full of "FEED ME" type pigs who want only to thoughtlessly and/or selfishly consume, and I suspect most of us feel misunderstood to one extent or another, if only because mostof us have to answer to one or more of these types somewhere along the way. Even the most self-confident among us has to get bugged once in a while because somebody just doesn't "get it". When people expilcitly express up front that they only want to consume the results of a person's labor, and have no interest in or respect for its creation (which is quite different than expecting respect for its creator - the publicly pompous self-centered "artist" is a nuisance we can all live without; also - expecting a consumer to be interested IN the creative process is asking WAY too much, but having respect that extends beyond lip-service FOR it would seem to be a fundamental courtesy), an inevitable frustration results, especially when an attempt to correct fundamentally untrue assumptions is met with casual dismissal, as if anything that interferes with the unrestricted consumption of the results of a person's labor is self-indulgent whining or some other kind of "baggage". YIKES! How Colonial! Would the Colonel like another Mint Julep while he's waiting for Maizey behind the woodpile? To most of the world he's a lovable little fluffymuffin. But to the bees of the world... We got any bees in da'house?

Why they putting a Capitol logo on it when it was a Liberty side? And no. I haven't lost my perspective - it's just that Liberty was home to some of the most, uh... "ravishing" covers of all time, and I'd like to see them credited. I'd also like to see a book of lifesize reproductions of every Julie London album they ever released.

Yeah, it's funny how stuff like that can slip by unnoticed by most folks. But the folks who DO catch it... The Rollins thing was freaky indeed. It was in 82 in Albuquerque, and the firat set, under 45 minutes, had been pretty uninspired. Sonny took a looooonnnnggggggg break, and when he came back, he was THERE from note one. It kept getting deeper and heavier. It was one of "those" nights. Well, they were playing one of those loose, half-Latin/half-funk grooves that fell so flat on so many of the records but actually worked really nicely in person (that alone was a lesson right there - don't always judge something by the record. use your imagination to thearr what it COULD be, and maybe along the way you can hear what the intended message is, and relate to the "failed" performance a little more knowingly). Anyway. Sonny was getting into this flowing eighth note thing, and the rhythm and articulation gradually began to disolve into a land beyond any real notatable specificity. Cool, I'm thinking - teach me, Sonny. This is what I had hoped to hear, so I'm happy happy happy. But then, something quite unexpected happened. Sonny's time somwhow, someway, intersected with the band's time in such a way that all of a sudden WE WERE IN A DIFFERENT DIMENSION OF TIME AND SPACE. I do not say this casually or with even the slightest bit of hyperbole. This shit was REAL, Jack, as real as anything can be. I lasted for 3-4 bars at most, and then were were back in the world we had just left, only with the slight disorientation that anybody must feel when being temporarily displaced from their place in the time-space continuum. At first I thought it was just me, but I looked up on stage, and Bob Cranshaw was shaking his head and looking at Sonny with a look that told me all I needed to know - it wasn't just me. Looking around the audience, a crowd of about 5-600 in a civic auditorium, I noticed that nearly everybody was shifting a bit in their seats, as if to reorient themselves after having been plopped back into them just a faction or so off from where they had been before being taken on that little trip. This was not random butt-shiftiing either. This was a distinct, identifiable activity throughout the auditorium. I don't know if everybody in the house was COGNIZANT of it happening, but they were affected by it physically, cognizant or not. Damn, I thought to myself, we've just been levitated by Sonny Rollins. How often does THIS happen? How many times HAS this happened? What does it feel like to be able to do this? How do you get there? And - what do you do for an encore? An activity more suited for an ashram or a monestary or a mountain top was being presented as "entertainment", or missing the point even more, "art". How the hell do you go about exploring in this realm of metaphysics (Sonny's a extremely well-trained practitioneer of Yoga remember, and that's one of those things that starts simple, but can get as deep as you want it to) while functioning in a realm of record contracts, concert promoters, and having an audience laying down their money expecting to see The Greatest Living Improvisor play The Greatest Living Jazz, as if it was a set routine everytime out? My guess is that you take it way, WAY underground, pick your spots VERY carefully, and don't leave too much of a mylar/digital trail. He learned THAT lesson a long time ago... Now, not every jazz musician is going to go where Sonny goes, obviously. But I guarantee you that ANY player worth a damn gets as personal and as intimately connected with their music as Sonny did with his that night, to the best of their ability. Intimacy is all about finding yourself through losing yourself, and no two people are going to lose or find the same thing. Thus the diversity of compelling voices that tcontinue to enthrall us across the entire spectrum of this music. Is that something the average fan wants, or even NEEDS to know about? That's a question I can't answer, but I think that if it's a bit naive of a musician to expect to be fully understood by a "lay" public, when the only way to come close to fully understanding it is be involved in it yourself (and this is true of any occupation, activity, etc.), then I think that it's alos a bit arrogant of a fan to think that loving something, feeling it deeply, in a way that is sometimes beyond words, is the same as understanding it at the same level of those who actually do it. This doesn't mean that a musician's perception render's everybody else's invalid - once an idea is in the air, it's fair game for anybody to take it any way they see fit. That's just the way shit works, right? But it does mean that what seems like a good impression of what one is experiencing in music is by necessity limited to one's own world of experience, which may or may not be conguent to those of the people creating the music. Impressions thus formed are indeed valid as personal feelings, but may also in fact be a little (or more) out-of-sync with what it is that is creating those feelings, so a little, uh, "perspective" when making broad evaluations, etc. is in order, no? It's funny. Everybody loves music, but not too many want to dig too terribly deep into the "hows" and "whys" of it, and some (nobody on this board, thank god), actually think that they know MORE about such things than somebody who's actively and intimately involved in them. I'm sure that every doctor has had the patient who tells him how they should be treated, or that every lawyer has the client who knows best all the time. Society as a whole looks at these types and laughs, because society recognizes that doctors and lawyers are skilled, trained profesionals. But EVERYBODY loves music, EVERYBODY'S an expert, and EVERYBODY knows that musicians can't be objective about what it is that goes into their craft or what comes out of it as a result. Therefore, ANYBODY can say ANYTHING about music, and it's cool because that's their "opinion". Well hey - if you show me (or any self-respecting musician) that you even HALFWAY know what you're talking about, then your opinon carries the weight of whatever degree of knowledge you have, and if you're not a prick about it, it'll be cool enough. Just be honest with yourself. Or if you're somebody like C. Nessa, C. Albertson, Lon, Bill Fenhor, somebody who has been immersed, not just been a fan but has actually IMMERSED their life in the study, observation, and active participation, not just in the records, but the LIFE of the music, then your opinion definitely caries weight, more than a little, actually, and I find disagreements with people like this as unpleasant as I find the agreements joyful. But - JUST LIKING OR DISLIKING SOMETHING DOES NOT CONSTITUTE HAVING AN INFORMED OPINION!!! You get people who have a good record collection but have never heard the music anywhere besides coming out of their speakers, or cats who have just discovered jazz, like, 15 minutes ago, spouting off about who's great and who sucks, and they get offended if you tell them that they don't know what the fuck they're talking about. It ain't right, but musicians are somehow supposed to be polite and humble and patient in the face of such ignorance in a way and to a degree that few practitioneers of any craft/art are. It's bullshit of the HIGHEST degree if you ask me! Fortunately, I don't knowof any posters here at Organissimo that are so arrogant, but I seem them on other boards, and I read them in the press, and when a pretty hip cat like Tony Jerant says he thinks that Sonny Rollins has lost his way, I snap. Again, Tony - IT'S NOT YOU! It's stress, that's all it is. Pure stress. Come to think of it, we ALL have stresses in our lives, so what am I bitching about? Let's get back to discussing the Blackhawk set. Great band! Great solos! Snap your fingers! Pat your feet! It's Mellow Miles, Hip Hank, Wonderful Wynton, Prancing Paul, & Jamming Jimmy packing up all our cares and woes, swingin' low, there we go! Dig it, man. dig it!

Also from the Tampa Experience, An Anecdote About An Amphibian Ambush: My wife, the lovely and talented Brenda, quite reluctantly took a transfer/promotion to Tampa when her company closed up its Dallas offices in 1990. My mom and dad came out from Texas to help us get moved in since Brenda was pregnant at the time. One of the first things I did our first day in the house was, of course, to make a trip to the grocery store. I bought a head of lettuce, since a simple salad is seemingly mandatory at every meal my mom has anything to do with. She's got this whole lettuce preparation ritual that involves rinsing, coring, and wrapping the leaves in moist paper towels. WAAAYY to involved for me, but that's her thing, and she insisted on Brenda not cooking while she was there. Well, I got back from the grocery, unpacked the food, and went back to helping my dad unpack all the boxes that were everywhere and asking Brenda how she felt, seemingly at 5 minute intervals. A few mintes into this drill, the whole neighborhood was shattered by the kind of half-scream/half hoot/half howl that only a daughter of the American South could muster, and only when taken by surprise and scared totally out of her wits. I immediately ran to the kitchen. My dad kinda jogged (guess he'd heard that sound than a few times...). My mother was half-laughing and half-crying. When she finally got control of herself, she pointed to the lettuce in the sink and said, "There's a FROG in there!" Well, I looked into the sink, and sure enough, there was a tiny green frog, about the size of a quarter, swimming happily in the kitchen sink, using the lettuce leaves for a, I don't know, substitute lilly pads. Guess he had been hiding out in the head of lettuce in the grocery, a stowaway hoping to catch a ride to the nearest swimming hole. Gotta admire his plan - it worked! We put the little fella out in the back yard, had a good chuckle, wondered aloud just what the hell kind of place Tampa was that amphibians resided in grocery store produce, and soon sat down to one of the rare saladless meals my mom has ever served.

What is this Keystone Trio thing, and what era Rollins compositions do they cover? For that matter, WHO are the Keystone trio, and where have they been all my life? As for latter-day Rollins, we disagree profoundly and fundamentally, and that's cool. I personally think that he's "lost" in somewhat the same way that the 9-11 terrorists were "lost" in America prior to the attack - THEY know who they were and what they were up to, but if too many of the wrong people found out, all hell would break loose and they couldn't go about their business any longer. I've been to a Rollins show when he was "on", and trust me - it fucked me up a LOT more than 9-11 did. The WTC bombings were a horrible assault on our fundamental sense of security, but they did nothing to challenge my fundamental concept of reality and human potential. Sonny's performance did. Everything I thought I knew or felt about music and what a human could think, feel, know, and do was assaulted down all the way down to its core. It's a given to me that there will always be tragically destructive lunacy afoot in the world, (nothing can REALLY shock me in this regard - an adulthood of club dates has pretty much taken care of that. That's only partially a joke, btw...) but it's not a given that a man can somehow find a way to suspend/escape/levitate across/whatever time, leave the 3-dimensional reality that the rest of us inhabit, let us see and hear him do it, and come back to join the rest of us. Literally. To experience that in the flesh was a MAJOR mindfuck, moreso than evil inevitably coming to pass terrifyingly close to home. This comment might seem bizzare to many, but that's what I mean about different worlds and all that. I sincerely apologize to any who are offended by this, and I in NO way mean to minmize the horror for the residents of NYC and those who lost love ones in the attack. Indeed, I don't know if I could make such a statement had I been there when the bombings occured (but I can't say that I couldn't either. You never know for sure until you get there, But Sonny was there, for whatever, if anything, that's worth) "Playing it down" is not my intent AT ALL, nor is saying that I wasn't shook up by 9-11. I was. But Sonny that night shook me up MORE. Lots more. Such is my world, and I'm not alone. Trust me, I'm not alone - other residents have probably been inside your collective ears and brains within the last 24 hours. I'm violating the unofficial code of silence about things like this, but so be it. It needs to be said. Flame away, any and all. As for Sonny's stated ambivalence about his place in jazz, I understand exactly where he's coming from, and it ties into my earlier points. Suffice it to say that I find his ambivalence to be extremely knowing, totally humble, and mature in the extreme. He's been to the mountaintop the way few have, can go still go there, and no doubt finds the spectacle of being proclaimed "The World's Greatest Living Improvisor" quite at odds with the true nature/thrust of what any "questing" musician is all about. Failure comes with the territory, and it is about as miserably PERSONAL a failure as I suspect a human being can know. Triumph, when it occurs, is indeed a moment of rapture (in the Biblical sense) but it's inevitably tempered by the humiliating (in the sense of forceing humility on the individual) realization that it could very easily never happen again, and that no matter how hard you want to believe it, it wasn't "you", at least not the conscious "you" that got you there. The higher you go, the deeper you realize just how fragile you REALLY are. The marketplace images and hype begin to go beyond the ludicrous. Dude, I'm less than halfway up the ladder (although, how can you be halfway up something that has no end? ), I've had no more than 5 of those times when it's REALLY all there, and I know this to be true. Never mind somebody who's climbed higher on the ladder and/or had more of those moments (I do know some personally), they know about it a LOT better than I do. Again, this is not usually discussed publically, but since I've already broken the code... A lot of fans are turned of by latter-day Rollins, and just as many are ambivalent. I've noticed that there seems to be a nascient appreciation of the best of his recorded work from these days, and you'll find lots of people who swear by his live shows (as well as a few who swear AT them ). That's all the way it should be. But the LAST word that I would use to describe Sonny Rollins these days is "lost". Humble, insecure, inconsistent, somewhat indifferent/diffident, yeah, I could use those words. But they're not the results of being "lost", not by a long shot. Most musicians I know, jazz or otherwise, would give the body part of YOUR choice to be so lost! Again, apologies to all who read this for the 9-11 thing. I know it's going to be misinterpreted by many, and nothing I can do will be able to clarify it for those who don't "get it". But before anybody gets TOO worked up and comes to my crib with lit torches and a noose, ask yourself this - if music gives its makers and listeners alike the strength to overcome a profound human tragedy like 9-11, does it not follow that music is in the end STRONGER than such mindless terror, no matter how vile it may be? And if music is indeed stronger than evil, does it not then follow that music has the potential to fuck somebody up even MORE than evil does (getting one's mind fucked up is not necessarily a bad thing!)? And is it not a possibility that somebody/anybody who lives and breathes to make a/some music that is even slightly worthy of the being presented in ANY fashion could get fucked up by a musical experience just a bit more than somebody for whom music, no matter how personally felt, is not at the core of their reason for being? Not always, but at lest occasionally? Just think about it before opening up the heavy artillery, ok?

I saw bugs in my backyard in Tampa for the year-and-a-hald we lived there that defy description. Totally unique, at least to me. Harmless or not, an unfamiliar looking insect can be a terrifying thing.

Tony, I know that Chuck sold a big bunch of his LP collection to help finance this box, and that he's slowly but surely moving forward with other reissues from his catalog as finances permit. So when this one is gone, it'll probably stay gone. At least until those folks at Definitve/Jazz Factory (or whatever it is) decide that the AACM has a big enough market (and until the material goes into Public Domain over there) to warrant a copy under their own label. So act now if you (or anybody) even THINKS that they might want it. Chuck recently said how many copies are left, but I forget the number (not too far on either side of 100, I think, but don't hold me to that). Best to act sooner than later, just because. It really is beautiful music, and an OUTSTANDING package.

Cool, and I hope you enjoy it. Seems to be an album that people are incapable of indiference towards!

To compare Rollins and Mobley in any manner does a disservice to both men. Their means and ends are/were totally different, and to say that Rollins has been on a "descent" since the late 60s misses the point of what it is that he's all about as much as the criticisms of Mobley for not being a "first rank" improvisor (their are SO many different ways to be that!) or for being too predictable or however it's phrased. For people like this, there is no difference between what they play and who they are. NO difference. Sonny takes chances on a scale that Hank never did, and often those chances fall flat. But when they work, my God! But that's Sonny. Hank was very much about a stubborn insistence on staying within himself, especially as the 60s rolled on and he seemed to take a delight in displaying a passive-agressive approach to paring down his solos to as bare an essence as possible (passive) with JUST the occasional moment of "What The Fuck?!?!?!" harmonic/rhythmic jugglery (agressive) to let you know that he was still fighting. It's just a guess to say that the two men have/had TOTALLY different psychological makeups, but it's probably the safest guess you or I will make for quite a while. Totally different men, totally different stories, and totally different means to tell their stories. It might be true that Hank was more consistent than Sonny has been, but it's completely irrelevant to what music was and is to these two players (and all the others at their level). I could make the argument that if Hank had let himself loose (and not just musically, but personally. ESPECIALLY personally.) even half as much as Sonny has, for better and for worse, that he'd have lived a happier life and might still be alive today. But that's not who Hank Mobley was. Similarly, I could argue that if Sonny had reigned himself in half as much as Hank had, the last 30 years of his recordings wouldn't be the mess that they have been. But that's not who Sonny Rollins is. I don't mean this as an "attack" or an argument with you Tony, but the last few months have, for personal reasons, really brought me face to face with just how inseperable I am from music, not just my music, but the entire world of practicing, creating, performing, and all that. I'm having to live in the so-called "real world" a lot more directly now than I have for quite some time, and it's forcing me to confront who I REALLY am, since I don't seem to have more than a passing similarity with most of the people I'm dealing with regularly now. They have a concept of life, its goals, its rhythms, its textures, its priorities, its colors, pretty much EVERYTHING that is different than mine and the people I've been dealing with (mostly) for the last few decades - musicians and other "creative" types. I'm not in any way saying that one group is "better" than the other, because that's obviously just not so. But the differences are real, and birds of a feather flock together for good reason - life just seems to go smoother when everyone's, if not on the same page, at least reading the same book. And there's a LOT of good books, so we don't all need to read the same one. Saying, "I think Mobley was far more consistent throughout his sadly truncated career than Sonny has been" for you is no doubt a simple enough expression of opinion, and I gotta respect that. But in the touchy-feely-where-the-hell-is-my-life-going-to-go-NOW frame of mind I've been in lately, I feel compelled to tell you, and all the other posters who have made similar comments about other artists, that THAT'S NOT THE POINT OF MUSIC!!!! Not the ultimate point anyway, and ESPECIALLY not the point of either Sonny Rollins or Hank Mobley, individually or together. I mean, I'm a fan too, as well as a musician, so I know what y'all mean, and I can go there too, if only to a point. But qualitatively comparing Sonny Rollins and Hank Mobley, two of the few musicians whose work has been as close to my heart as any and have deeply helpde mold who I am as a person, well, you just got my goat and I'm snapping! Sorry, Tony, you're one of the more astute posters in the jazz cyberworld, so you probably shouldn't be the recipient of this ranting howl (or howling rant, as the case may be). But it's something that's been building up, and you just happend to be there when it came to a head. ABSOLUTELY nothing personal, and take it for the self-indulgent whine it no doubt is. No hard feelings, I hope.

I think the thing about Stitt that either attracts people or drives them nuts is that you pretty much know what he's going to play before he plays it. The guy didn't exactly have an unlimited vocabulary, nor was he prone to extensively variating (a Don Pullen verb) it, and that right there turns some people off. But not me, because even though the "what" is pretty much a forgone conclusion, there's a big, at times HUGE, difference from album to album in HOW he plays it. When he's really, REALLY on, it's a total gas, because the guy could just swing you into bad health, as the old folks say, and his technique and tone were superb. Besides, the guy had the insticts of a warrior, and it's not surprising the the faster the company he kept, the more likely he was to bare his teeth and REALLY blow and actually variate that vocabulary some/lots. When he's on but not REALLY on, in that "we both know I could kill you in the blink of an eye, but let's keep it nice, ok?" mode that he was probably the master of, it's still cool, and for those same reasons, but not exactly riveting forever and ever, at least not for me. The variating becomes less important, but the groove is still good enough. But when he's on autopilot, well, if he's going to take a nap, I think I will too. We all need our rest. I think most of the albums he made fall into that second category, but the ones that fall into the first (the various sessions w/Powell, the Dizzy/Rollins stuff, CONSTELLATION, etc) are as good as anything and better than most. Some of those in the second category (LIVE AT DJ LOUNGE, TUNE UP, a lot of the Verve stuff, etc.) have fond places in my collection. That shit swings, is soulful as you want it to be, and if no ground is broken, or even cracked, big whoop. There's a time and a place for everything. I do, however, find the "niceness" to be a facade a lot of times, and that only goes so far for my tastes. Still, it's a nice enough ride for a little while. But an autopilot Sonny Stitt record is something to avoid at all costs, for the same (hopefully obvious) reasons that anybody else's is. We ALL got better things to do with our life. And then there's JUST THE WAY IT WAS - "LIVE" AT LEFT BANK. WHOOEEEEEE!

I played contrabass clarinet for a year in college concert band. Didn't want to play tenor for that stuff, and they needed the chair filled, so I volunteered. It's a fun axe, and actually a lot more saxophonistical in how it blows than bass clarinet, which I always tended to overblow (a word to the young people of the world - the inspirations of Booker Ervin & Billy Harper do NOT translate to clarinets of ANY variety ). I couldn't ever see soloing on it, but it's a GREAT color that hasn't been used nearly enough, in my opinion.

I think it's a fine record, very interesting, and another fascinaing step in the continuing evolution of Wayne as player and composer. But if you don't dig FOOTPRINTS LIVE all that much and/or prefer the Wayne of the BN days, then this one might well not thrill you, at least immediately. OTOH, if you start getting comfortable with FL, then ALEGRIA, which was actually recorded first, will fall right into place. Or vice versa. ALEGRIA's compositional structures are much more "obvious" than those of FOOTPRINTS LIVE, so this might be the one that helps you "get" FL. Either way though, if you're looking for the Wayne "style" of 35-40 years ago, you'll not find it here. The essence remains, is even stronger, actually, but the style itself, in both playing and writing, has evolved quite a bit since then.

I'd not be at all surprised if Gil arranged that intro to "So What" (we ARE talking about the solo piano, right?). But I'd not be surprised if it was Bill who came up with it. Either way, it was an Evans! Either way, Gil orchestrated it for large ensemble, and beautifully so, for the 1961 Carnegie Hall concert. As beautiful as it sounded on piano, his orchestration really takes it somewhere else.

Actually, THE BRIDGE is my LEAST favorite Rollins RCA album (which is not to say that I don't like it). It's a "classic", sure, and it's very, very good, but I've always had the feeling that Sonny felt the pressure of making a "comeback" album and played it just a little safe, which is not something you can say about any of the other RCAs, or about Sonny in the 60s in general. There's much to admire in THE BRIDGE, but it's the least played Rollins RCA for me. Sonny's NEXT high profile comeback album, NEXT ALBUM, is another story altogether, but that was a different time and a different Rollins.