JSngry

Dan Morgenstern's ***** review of TUNEUP!, Down Beat (or, as it was known then, down beat), 6-22-72, reviewed in conjunction with Deter Gordon's THE JUMPIN' BLUUES (which Morgenstern gave 4.5 stars). Morgenstern was then the magazine' editor. Two albums showcasing a pair of jazz' greatest saxophonists without frills or concessions to commercialism. The Stitt, recorded just a few months ago, is an instant classic. One of the most frequently recorded of all jazz artists (perhaps THE most frequently recorded), Stitt must have made close to 100 LPs. TUNE UP! belongs with his half-dozen all-time best, up there with BURNIN', PERSONAL APPEARANCE, and STITT PLAYS BIRD. No organs or Varitone devices get in the way here. It's just Sonny Stitt, in superb form, with a tailor-made rhythm section, playing a repertoire in which he is completely at home. Stitt is such a master of his instruments that he can outplay most saxophonists without challenging himself. And he's a sly fox who knows every trick avalable to simulate passion and excitement. Thus, he never gives a bad performance - but there are times when he just coasts on his expertise. When he's inspired, however - watch out! And here he surely is. "I Got Rhythm", the crowning glory of this LP, is not only a lesson in saxophone playing and ultimate swinging. but nearly 10 minutes of driving, emotion-filled, impassioned, and astonishingly inventive music-making. This is one for the desert-island collection. Stitt has been called a "cold" player. Don't you believe it. Check out any track on this great record - the lovely warm balladry of "I Can't Get Started", the hot drive of the title track (a gigantic display of tenor prowess and a lesson in swing), or the moving "Blues For Prez and Bird" (Stitt's twin points of departure). Such playing is an emotional experience as well as a staggering display of virtuoso skill. Stitt has a lightening mind, and the lightening fingers and steel chops to realize instantly what comes into it. The Messrs. Harris, Jones, and Dawson give Stitt whatever he could ask for in terms of support. They never let him down, not even for a split second, and when he changes gears, they are the perfect transmission. Harris also contributes some exceptional solo work (or rather, what would be exceptional from a less consistent player). An auspicious ace of trumps in Cobblestone's first deal of new releases, boding well for the future of a label that has had the good sense of hiring Don Schlitten to produce. ...Gordon review... These LPs are representations of men at work, something for the boys to listen to and learn from. Undiluted jazz music from mature masters who get better and better as time goees by. For twice, the real thing. Other items of interest in this one issue, just for perspective: News of Kenny Clarke coming home to set up a US tour for the Clarke-Boland Big band (this never happened, did it?) & the Jones/Lewis Soviet Union tour; Interviews with Cannonball Adderly, Houston Person, Al Belletto, and Dexter Gordon; Record Reviews of: the Ayler Shandars (by John Litweiler), a UA 2-fer repackaging of Miles' Blue Notes. Frank Foster's THE LOUD MINORITY, Mahavisnu's THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME (another ***** review, this time by Joe Klee), Edgar Winter's WHITE TRASH; the infamous BLindfold Test where Ernie Watts mistakes Coleman Hawkins for Lester Young; Live performance reviews of Cecil Taylor (NYC) & Elvin Jones (Baltimore); a full-page advertisement for Gerry Mulligan's AGE OF STEAM (hey - if you still want to sell it so damn bad, how about KEEPING IT IN PRINT FOR LONGER THAN 20 MINUTES, HMMM?); and in the classifieds, ads for Savoy ("Send $0.10 in coin..."), a free Benny Goodamn discography, a solicitation for students by George Russell, and a box ad for "Anita O'Day Records", promoting ANITA O'DAY 1972. I was 16, and it didn't get any cooler than this.

Phil's date is EX-cellent. Check it out!

Bertrand, I ordered thsi disc from Daedelus online, & I can say with almost absolute certainty that it's Jackie, but he only solos on "Confirmation". Who's the trumpet player? Sure sounds like Bill Hardman! Newborn is featured with a guitarist on "What Is This Thing Called Love", in what seems like a set arrangement. Sound quality on most of the broadacsts is quite good, and nothing is "rough". These are 50s broadcasts, and sound is just fine - not studio quality, but not the scratadat of earlier eras. Good stuff by all the other artists (the Jo Jones/Lucky Thompson band sounds especially fine), even if the segments are shorter than I'd prefer. The real news for me on this date is the tune "Just Bohemia". I'm a little shakey on my "transitional-era" Mingus, but I don't recall this thing having ever been recorded. There's no solos or anything, but the piece sounds very much like something written for the CHANGES albums, a jump ahead in time, but like I sai, there's no solos on it.

I bought one of those Elvin albums, got it home, opened it up, and it was a Nina Simone record instead. The catalog listing on the back of the albums seem pretty interesting, though. Seems like I remember a Dizzy Reece thing, among others.

Thanks, Stefan. Was this session made for Columbia, or for somebody else? Any info on what studio too? A demo session, maybe? Betty's first two albums were for the Just Sunshine label, and her third for Island, but her first one wasn't made (or at least released), until '73 or so, and it was very "San Francisco" heavy in terms of personnel. I thnk that her and Miles might have split by then, right? I'd LIKE to think that if it was made for Columbia and involved Miles that there would be a record of it in their files somewhere, but that's the idealist in me, no doubt. But 3 tracks sounds to me like either a demo session or else a trainwreck of some sort. But the presence of Mitchell hints at a Hendix-via-Mabry connection, so a demo seems plausible. Or maybe there was a party going on, and everybody just popped into an available studio and jammed. Stranger things have happened. No matter, Betty Davis' music is pretty intersting overall and on its own terms - heavy-metal-funk-amazon-nympho jams. Definitely not for everybody, but in no way does it lack in "personality". Cool covers, too.

We'd most likely not have the Internet as we know it today, either. I actually saw a book for sale in the remainder bins at a Borders here a few years ago that was a collection of Victorian era porn photograhy. A brief perusal convinced me of one thing - women back then were NOT paranoid about "body hair", if you get my drift...

That's not the only questionable thing Blue Note did in 2003...

Was this a Miles session or a Betty Davis session?

And howzabout Ray Manzarek's album with Tony Williams?

Time to reissue Robbie Krieger's Blue Note album! It's got Jimmy Smith on it!

Still workin' on that J&B I seel

I've got the Ember Bird/Open Door set, and can recommend it highly, with the stipulation that the sound is a bit on the "rough" side (but I've heard and enjoyed much worse), and there is a lot of editing out of the non-Bird playing, which makes for some jarring continutity the first few listens. But if you dig Bird enough that those matters can be overlooked, then it's music you'll definitely want to have. Bird is magnificent throughout, definitely in above-average, by his own standards, form.

Would the presence of West in those photos imply the possibility of a Bird/Diz/Garner collaboration, and would such an encounter help put the Bird/Garner Dial L.A. sides from later on in a better historical perspective? Just mental masturbation, but I'm worried about my mental prostate....

I was just about to post the same message and the same sentiments. Dude, if you're just lurking, you might want to know that "somebody" is kicking your ass in the post count race. Better come back soon or else you'll be toast! If those health matters are acting up, however, well, deepest regrets, and here's hoping for the speediest recovery, Either way, you're missed, man, you're missed.

One BRIEF excerpt: I Do is my boyfriend, Matt, and my song. We heard this the first time in North America, but made by CMA an Italian maker of commercial espresso machines. That's the reason for your being. Your biological system is ready to be colored with the eight pastel markers that are included in funny mode, and the game devised by award winner Reiner Knizia I was really pleased with the purchase. To my surprise it's like no other artist ever has in the history books -- a point which seems vital to the scene, and as good as they work. I just love Doug's guitar music. I listen to it. This is an album of Big Band Music. Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Rogers and Hart, Count Basie, Denzil Best and Tiny Kahn are but a few design flaws keep it from playing through the night. Huh?

http://moonshine.iwasateenagewolfman.com/m...erry-vale/arena Collectors of non-sequiteurs, welcome to Paradise.

Not really relevant to the topic, but here's a fabulous picture:

Aric, I'm not a hardcore film buff, but I've heard over the years that it varied from picture to picture. Sometimes there was real dialogue going on, and sometimes the actord were just B.S.ing. I've even heard in a few instances that if you read lips, you can pick up steady streams of profanity. Can't prove that by me, but that's what I've heard. I agree that silents are a most engaing medium in the right hands. A few years ago, I was involved in a project with a "new music" ensemble to improvise live soundtracks to films by Chaplin and Lloyd. We watched the movies several times beforehand so we could get an idea of the various character dynamics and plot curves, and I found myself totally digging how involving those movies were. You can say much the same about the old radio shows too - the listener was required to play an active, not passive, role in order to give the stories their full impact and meaning. It's a shame, I think, how we as a culture have steadily been evolving towards an ethos of total saturation in our mass entertainments. Oh sure, there's a lot to be said for the all-out sensory assults, they often provide a real and enjoyable rush, but when that gets to be the ONLY sensory input that many people have, I think that a part of the brain, the "critical discernment" part (if there is indeed such a thing...) tends to get beaten into submission and eventually ceases functioning. That CAN'T be a good thing. Just amature psychology on my part, but I know that when I come across a work in any medium that uses and delights in space, aural or visual, I enjoy it immensely, and the more I get of it, the less attraction I have for that which demands nothing more of me that I sit there and be a passive tool for manipulation. There's a place for both, I think, but it seems to be getting one-sided, and I don't dig that.

Clunky, it sounds like you've gotten your feet wet with the AEC & Co. (those two BYG/Actuel sides you have are "classics", as is SNURDY), so if you're digging the vibe and want more, the Box would probably give you a lot of pleasure.

Polishing the Brogan, are we?

Except when the horn player lays out!

MAJOR previously unreleased Charlie Parker material in my jazz-lifetime (1971 onward) include the Wichita broadcasts/Minton's "Cherokee" on Onyx, BIRTH OF THE BEBOP on Stash, the Bennedetti Mosaic, and that's about it. I'd add the various airshots, especially the Bird/Navarro & Bird/Diz/Bud Birdland dates, but those had all been circulating amongst serious collectors (one of which I've never had the resources to become, alas) before being released on various labels of various legitimacy. By "major", I'm talking about stuff that had only been rumored to exist or had never been known to exist. I think this recently discovered item definitely falls into the "major" category. Look at the chronology - this concert took place before ANY Parker Dial session and before any of his Savoy sessions except for the Tiny Grimes date, not exactly a bebop date. It's rougly contemporaneous with Dizzy & Bird's first Guild sides, the first "non-transitional", "pure" bebop records. But those are 78s, and this is a live concert recording, without the time constraints of studio 78-ery. This is about as REAL representation of "pure" bebop in it's earliest form that we're likely to get until/unless somebody brings out some recording(s) of the Dizzy/Byas group at the Onyx Club in 1944, and even those ain't likely to have Bird, so it'll have to be Marris-ized (have an asterisk placed beside it, for the non-sportsheads in the house). Think about it - we're going to be hearing unfettered examples of a still VERY underground music (Dizzy was the only player with even half a "name"). The "Bebop Revolution" was still in the future as far as all but the MOST clued-in "insiders" went. As the music surfaced further, it of course underwent some minor yet real evolution. But this recording is before any of that occured - this is almost like being present for the first public display (or reading, however they did it) of the Declaration Of Independence in 1776, before word of it got to the British. Think about THAT... Really, this is going to be a major release, a historically significant release, by any definition. Everybody performing at their very highest level, and the recordings sounding GOOD is almost too much to hope for, but dammit, it happens. Nothing short of miraculous if you ask me, nothing short of miraculous.

Well, it has been so far...

Which, considering the topic of this thread is entirely appropriate, I suppose...

Careful, you're dating yourself.