JSngry

Chuck can tell it better than me, for obvious reasons.

I'll leave the details about how and when to Chuck, but the story of how the acetates were found has to be heard to be believed.

When Chuck came to visit, he brought some tapes. They were all SERIOUSLY deep, but one is going to be issued on Uptown, and it's the kind of thing that defies adequate description, and believe me - no matter how hard I hype it, I'm understating the case. Believe me. What we're going to be getting is a just-discovered recording of a 1945 Town Hall performance of The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet with Charlie Parker, Al Haig, Curley Russell, & Max Roach (his VERY first recording with Bird!). Symphoiny Sid emcees. The recording was apparently done in-house at Town Hall, and the acetates were just recently stumbled across in one of those stories that is too damn wierd to be true, but nevertheless is. This is a document of many things, very early, fully-formed bebop finally and totally stripped of all residual Swing flavor being one of the most significant. Al Haig's comping throughout blew me away - some quite interesting chord choices he makes, and Bird & Dizz are on them like white on rice. Can't say that I've ever Haig accompany so boldly ever before. You get guest atars too - Don Byas (more about tthat later), and a rvelatory extended solo by Sid Catlett, who sits in on "Hot House" and offers final proof that yes, he IS Max Roach's daddy. Sid kicks the band off and accompanies the soloists in a thoughroughly boppish manner, but the real story here for me was his solo. I don't know if Catlett's been captured on record doing a long solo like this, but if he was, I'm unaware of it. This is one of the deepest drum solos I've ever heard - it goes through so many changes and is so perfectly MUSICAL, and in it I can hear Max, Chico, Blackwell, Sunny, Rashied, in short, EVERY drummer who came after who approached the drums as a wholistic musical instrument and not just a set of metronomes. This is truly a stunning performance. And then there's Bird. Of course . Part of jazz legend is how Bird would always be late for a gig and come in the door playing, much to the collectively rising rapture of those present. But for most of us, legend is all it is - we've never heard that on record. Until now. As the recording begins, we hear Symphony Sid rapping with the clearly restless crowd. The show appears to have be late starting, but it's now going to begin, and with Don Byas playing. Bird is not there, and you get the feeling that at least a few folks came to hear Bird, if yu get my drift. So anyway, they open with "Bebop", and Byas is fluffing the head pretty badly, but gets off a good solo. All of a sudden, you hear a ruckus coming from the crowd, a rumble that grows in intensity to a bit of a roar, and you know what happened - Bird just walked in, presumably right off the street. I say that because he begins to blow almost immediately, and his horn sounds just a little cold. But JUST a little, and he warms it up REAL quickly. By the time of the third tune, he's FULLY warmed up and blowing as good as anything I've everh heard by him, and better than most of it. Byas, mysteriously, vanishes, and doesn't even play the head out. The crowd goes wild, and frankly, it would have been impossible not to. So how's Diz? Well, put yourself in his shoes - he's the leader of a band playing what is still a new, basically underground music, he's got a booking at Town Hall, and his star soloist is late to the gig. How do you THINK he is? He's fired up and playing at that level that it seems like he hardly ever played at except when Bird was next to him. Diz in his youth had probably the most amazing chops inthe history of jazz trumpet, and most importantly, an imagination to go with it. He's at the VERY top of his game, and sparks DO fly. Jesus Christ God Almighty do they fly. I've made iit a point to track down and absorb all the Bird/Diz pairings I can find, live or otherwise, and I kid you not - this onehas a vibe to it that is unlike ANY of the others, even Carnegie Hall 1947, which for my money is at times some of the most frightening music ever captured on record, especially "Dizzy Atmopsphere". Massey Hall has always been a Sacred text for me, but that's a "mature" record. THIS shit is fire-eating, flame throwing early bebop in it's purest form and live, dammit, LIVE, not on a 3 minute 78. I only heard it once. If I'd have had even a lick of sense, zero integrety, and a shot or two less of Jack, I''d have had the sense to have surreptitously run a recorder of some typ to have someth9ing to tide me over until the real deal gets issued. But that's not me. Once, one time through, was enough to tell me that this is going to be one of those historic issues that becomes an instant histroical landmark and a reference point for generations to come. I almost wish I HADN'T heard it, because now I gotta wait, and I don't WANT to have to wait! I'll be blunt - if you dig bebop or beyond, have the money, and DON'T buy this when it comes out, you gotta be kidding me. Seriously. No shit. I kid you not - this is the REAL shit in a way of REAL that only gets caught on record, like, almost NEVER. You can cut my nuts off if I'm wrong. Get ready. It's coming.

They's both lyin' - I know for a fact that they both drink

which album ? never heard it THE TENDER STORM I got it on that 32Jazz (THOSE guys again!) 4-on-2 set GREATER THAN THE SUM OF HIS PARTS. WELL worth the hunt!

Anybody remember the Yamaha Electric Grand?

Well, no one "favorite" here, but anybody who hasn't heard Eddie Harris' version of "A Nightengale Sang In Berkely Square" is missing a real gem of a performance!

Oh, one more thing. Does Kynard look more than a little psycho on the cover photo? Talk about your scary mofos!

I dig this one too. The gospel stuff is cool with me becasue I've been investigating "real" Gospel music foe a few years now, and it makes perfect sense to me, musically and culturally. But it's NOT "real" Gospel - for one thing (and a crucial thing at that) real Gospel swings harder (and by that I don't mean that it swings MORE, just that the time is in a pocket that is very different and more physically forceful than most all jazz). But Kynard gets the flavor all right. and honestly too. The album in many ways flows like a church service, especially how the penultimate tune bust outs into a handclapping/footstomping. Get on up church, let's go home! I really like looping the CD and playing it sever times in succession, because the way the first track comes out of the last one really drives home the underlying Gospel flavor of not just this album, but so much of the entire genre. Clifford Scott, yeah! I've only recently become aware of his "pure" jazz stuff (thanks almost entirely to Dan ), having known him almost exclusively from his days with Bill Doggett (and not just that legendary solo on "Honky Tonk" either). The cat's in no way an "innovator", but that's not what this kind of music is about - it's about playing professionally and soulfully in a way that relates to people directly, no interpreter needed. Scott's R&B work w/Dogett was nearly an archetype in this regard, and his jazz stuff shows him playing with a bit of a larger vocabulary, but still delivering the goods emotionally. When the time comes that I can no longer appreciate that and groove on it it for what it is, somebody come and lock me up. I'll have gotten too uptight for my own good. So yeah, a very nice album indeed. Maybe not one that I'd automatically reach for without being reminded, but definitely one that gets played more than a few times once it's on. Gotta love THAT! (Oh, btw, Clifford Scott can be heard pre-Doggett on LIONEL HAMPTON IN PARIS, a BMG/RCA VICTOR/Vogue thing that hasn't been OOP all that long. Well worth looking for, and not just for Scott!)

Or one of her famous uncle, Pez Prado (no relation to Don (Juan) Pardo).

Sorry Chris, but archive ASAP. I figure it'll be at least a day or two before anybody from Krypton checks out the suggestions, if they even do (yeah, uh....), but if/when they do, "Bite Me, Corporate Pig-Dogs" is probably not too high on the list of things they''ll enjoy seeing.

Gary Payton - "Sure is a shame that Kobe gets into this jam in his free agent year."

Ok, I got 2 computers up and 1 shows the actual picture, but the other shows the creepy warning. How does THAT work?

WHOA!!! Where the fack did THAT come from????

Yep. It's possible.

Ok, folks, we got some SERIOUS misinterpretation going on here, and guess it's my fault. So Jackie McLean, kick my ass. The purpose of this thread was to try and get the Organissimo Board some play, some profile, some linkage. Nothing more. Apparently, BN still gets enough hits on their BB page that they felt compelled to offer two options for redirecting interested viewers. As somebody who thinks that this is at least as fine a board as the ones offered by the BN page, I think that a link here would be appropriate, as well as beneficial to the cats who run it. So I played "the agitator". Some of you got the hint and sent a note to BN, which was the object of the game. Like chicken soup, it can't hurt anything, can it? Some of you took it WAAAAY too seriously one way or the other. We've been through this before - BN IS a corporate entity now, has been, probably will be for QUITE some time. Life goes on. And like any corprate entity, you gotta get what you can out of them when you can get it, and that includes a chance for increased traffic to a VERY good site - the Organissimo Board. If I'd have said it like that straight from the gate, would ANYBODY have sent a note to BN? Nah - we're jazz fans, we LIKE being alone with ourselves! Forget about the "old" Blue Note (the board and the label alike), and focus on the "now", which is building THIS board into a quality jazz cybercommunity with a broader visibility so it can attract people that we can brainwas...er... ENLIGHTEN into the delights of the vast, bottomless, reservoir of jazz, past, present, and, hopefully, future. One thing this community has ALWAYS been good at, here and on Board Krypton, has been turning newbies on to a big variety of quality sounds that defies easy pigeonholing. THAT'S what has to be done to keep the music alive for the future, and the broader exposure we have in cyberspace, the better chance we have of doing that. We're on a mission from God, Jake. Ok, game over. Looks like I miscalcumalated a bit (but DAMN do I know who to play poker against now! ). Unless anybody seriously objects, this thread will self-destruct in 12 hours or less.

The AllStar Game's at the "new" Comiskey (sorry, can't call it "U.S. Cellular Field". Not now. Not ever.) this year, so howzabouta "RVG DEMOLITON NIGHT"?

Cool, but the game ain't fun when too many people fold after the first bluff.

Yeah, I can heartily recommend inviting the Nessas into your house. Ann's a TOTAL sweetheart, and contrary to what some might believe, Chuck doesn't bite. They're some damn fine folks themselves.

Poker, anybody?

It's on AND HIS MOTHER CALLED HIM BILL. Check it out. For me, it's nothing less than devastating to hear Hodges work his way through Strayhorn's deathbed portrayal of, in order, shock, defiance, and resignation at/to his fate, and finally, slowly but surely, the final slipping into the grips of death itself. At least that's what I hear in it. STILL can't listen to it without a shudder and a tear. Give it a shot and see what you think. Maybe it's just me!

I fear that this "voice of the fan" schtick will get old pretty quick for me. I don't watch pregame to hear "the voice of the fan", I watch pregame to get info. I don't even like it all that much when the regular sports guys do schtick. Rush says he knows football, but I remember a guest spot he did on MNF a few years ago, and he really seemed in over his head. He really DID seem like a fan, but again, who wants that on a sportscast? At least this will be pregame. Another thing about Limbaugh is that he seems to be most effective when operating solo, where he can do his "all-knowing" schtick (and schtick is definitely what it is) in complete control of his pacing and his timing. The few times I've seen him outside of that element, like on talkshows or the previously mentioned MNF bit, he seemed a bit at a loss, as if he was trying too hard NOT to be the know-it-all that his fans love. It's a fine line he walks, and if he doesn't bring enough of his trip to the show, he'll be toast. BOR-ing! But if he beings too much, he'll get shot down REAL quick by the pros who KNOW how to work a show like that, and he'll lose all credibility. By the same token, I think Rush "works" much better on radio than on tv. The few times I saw his syndicated TV show, I was struck by how senseless it was - he was pretty much doing his radio show, and the few visuals he put in really broke the vibe. So this is likely to be a BIG challenge for him - can he work in an ensemble effectively, and can he use more than his voice to do so? I detest the man's politics, but I'll be the first to admit that he is an EXTREMELY effective communicator in his own realm and to his own audience. This smacks to me a bit of the Dennis Miller thing that MNF tried. I LIKE Miller, and I enjoyed his quippage, but when he stepped outside of his niche as cynical wiseass and tried to talk football straightup with Fouts and Michaels, he floundered miserably and came off as a pitiful wannabe. Sports broadcasting is neither all about sports nor all about broadcasting, it's about both simultaneously, and a shortcoming in either area seems to prove fatal pretty darn quick. Miller knew the game as well as most any "fan", but who cared? Again, who wants to hear somebody tell them what they already know? Rush might prove to an expert about the game to a degree that surprises us all, but I'm inclined to doubt it, since his "voice of the fan" role seems to stipulate a lack of "deep" knowledge from the git-go. So what's he going to do. try and stir up some shit just to be "controversial"? I'm sure there are some who might go for that, but on gameday, I want straight talk about the games, not some contrived controversy. Will Rush prove to be the second coming of Howard Cossell and find a way to be controversial AND relevant? He might, but Cossell paid SOME dues in the sports broadcasting industry before gaining his high profile. The whole thing smacks of gimmickry to me. It might work, but I'm skeptical. It's got nothing to do with politics, either. I just don't dig the aspect of condescension implicit in hiring a "civilian" to appeal to other "civilians". Leave it to the pros, I say.

Hey - my wife's looking for a job, and she's REALLY good at chewing them up and spitting them out. I speak from experience! I've softened the tone of my opening post, btw.

I'm still naive enough to think that music, jazz music in particular, is still at some level for people to share and enjoy on a personal level, and is not just a commodity to be bought and sold like pork bellies or some such. Blue Note fostered a commumity for a while that kept that notion alive. I for one would like to see them at least acknowledge the existence of a community that still believes in that notion.