JSngry

Oooooh, nice call, Lon. Are you thinking that that would have gone great on one of those Verve sessions w/Ben & Sweets?

Does "CD" stand for "Cute Derriere"?

R.I.P., Walrus Of Love (to use Franklin Ajaye's classic sobriquet). Barry was good up until the end, and "Practice What You Preach" was the kind of "comeback" hit that proved that it was the audience who had gone away, not Barry's talent. Say what you will about disco, but the very best of it moved with a groove that was absurdly human in its irresistability. Barry White's best work had this groove to spare. And those raps on top - my God, you COULDN'T do that any better than Barry White did it (and only Issac Hayes did it AS good). You think it's simple? Try writing one yourself, one that's not a parody, and see how simple it is! So long, and thanks.

Just read in the new Jazz Times that Ms. Horn has had her right foot amputated due to complications from diabetes and is no longer playing piano, even though she is still singing and touring. Hadn't seen this info posted here, but if it's "common knowledge", I apologize. She's got a cat named George Mesterhazy accompanying her now on tour and on her new album (on which she's also accompanied by Ahmad Jamal for 2 cuts), and she states delight in his abilities, but if you're like me, it's a major drag to think that we'll never again hear Shirley's own magnificent accompaniments to her equally magnificent vocals. At least we'll still have the vocals...

Giddins wroter the 5-Star Down Beat review of CONSTELLATION. I think you'll appreciate what he had to say.

How much you pay for a gig like that?

FWIW, Norman Whitfield did the same thing to Marvin Gaye to accent the anguish in such songs as "I Heard It Through The Grapevine". Gaye claimed to have disliked the technique immensely, but the results speak for themselves, no?

I wanna know where that catcher's mitt came from... Happy-sad indeed - imaging having to run out a grounder in those heels!

This ought to be a fun, if meaningless, exercise. And since this is jazz, you can use dead guys too! I got the idea back on The Board That Time Is In The Process Of Forgetting when I asked if Johnny Griffin had ever recorded "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You". The answer came back negative, and I'm thinking to myself, "Well dammit, he SHOULD!" So that's one to get the ball rolling. Here's another - Hank Mobley, ca. '61-62, would have made a great take on "Come Fly With Me", I think. Those changes, especially on the bridge (ESPECIALLY on the bridge!) seem tailormade for the SOUL STATION-era Hankster. In fact, I've got the performance so etched into my brain that it pisses me off royally evey time I go to the shelves to pull it out and it's not there. Bad Blue Note, BAD! This kinda ties into Lawrence Kart's teenaged dream he had about hearing a record that didn't exist, so feel free to come up with all sorts of configurations. But the bottom line is this - nobody's recorded everything, so what tunes and what artists are (or in the case of the dead guys, were) a match waiting to happen? Anybody comes up w/an entire album by a single artist, replete w/appropriate backing, is elligible for a grant! (but not from me...) Ok, one more - The Dewey Redman/Keith Jarrett group doing "Jealous Guy". No doubt out of sync w/where their heads were at then, but in theory, it coulda made for a really good record, and if Dewey & Keith ever reunionize (imagine a day when Dewey tours with The Standards Trio ), it maybe still could. That's enuff from me for now. Your turn!

I dunno, SOME cheese has a lot of deceptively simple depth to it.... I've always dug GEMINI myself, especially "How High The Moon". Some totally wack (in the best possible way) stuff to be had on that little gem of an album.

It's good. Real good.

Everything old is new again...

Correct on all counts! CONSTELLATION tied w/McCoy's SAHARA in the Critics Poll. The Readers Poll winner that year was BIRDS OF FIRE, again by the Dave Pell Octet... The Muse CD of CRISSCRAFT included an alternate of "Blues In My Heart" as well as "All The Things you Are" from the OUT OF NOWHERE session. I've been seeing some Muse CDs beginning to pop up in various bargain bins lately, so keep your eyes open. There's no sense in these reissues offering less than full value!

So in summary - get all the Lester Young that is available. :D

Hmmm...another trip to the closet seems to be in order.... OK, neither one won either the Readers or Critics poll in 1972. THE YOU AND ME THAT USED TO BE by Jimmy Rushing won the Critics Poll, and THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME by The Dave Pell Octet ( ) won the Readers Poll. But I didn't get to the '73 polls. It's a really messy closet.

Believe me once, believe me again: (and what everybody else said too)

Oh, what about the MUSIC? Well, hey - it's an Aebersold playalong record, one of, maybe THE first in a loooonnnnggg series. I used it a bunch early in college. It is what it is. It doesn't NOT swing, and it can make for humorously innocuous background music (Hey, it's the perfect jazz record for people who don't like jazz - all groove and NO SOLOS!!!! :D: ), but other than that, I don't think it would be entertaining to a general jazz audience. But yeah, it's really good for playing along to, at least until the feeling of playing along with a record starts to become annoying, which it inevitable does.

You gotta remember that a key element of Dusty Groove's clientele is the DJ/sampling crowd, so those Aebersolds might have an appeal and usefulness for something besides what "we" can see. This was pointed out to me after I mad a similar "what the hell?" post a while ago on a bulletin board far far away. One thing's for sure though, anybody who samples Jamey's patented Mid-Western twang-heavy "One...Two...One, Two Three...(silence)" is somebody I'm going to be either very impressed or very frightened by!

Crouch's complaining about white guys elevating Douglas over Marsailis would carry a lot more credence with me if not for the fact that it was white guys who put Wynton "in charge" too. As usual, the guy has a valid point (anybody besides me remember how Larry Coryell seemed to systematically make the cover of Down Beat way, WAY past the time where he was of interest to ANYBODY?), but having a valid point means nothing if you don't apply it in a relevant manner. Somebody should tell Stanley about the Internet, hip him to the fact that for not very much money he can have a website where he can write whatever he wants anytime he wants and not have to be concerned with things like publication circulation, pesky editors, or even white folks wanting to be in charge. A supremely Garveyesque notion!

Lyricist(s), maybe?

Just got back from the closet, and I'll have the original 5-star Down Beat reviews for both albums ready to post when the time comes. Found a WHOLE buncha interesting stuff while looking for them, including a Grant Geen Blindfold Test!

For whatever it's worth, I got that date from the original LP, Cobblestone CST 9021. TUNE UP was also originally a Cobblestone release - CST 9013. Not that any of this means anything. It's just discographical triva. But I know for a fact that TUNE UP was RELEASED before CONSTELLATION. My memory ain't THAT bad yet! :D 32 Jazz seemed to be Muse-centric in matters Cobblestone. At least they did on BREAKTHROUGH - they reprinted that uglyass Muse cover instead of the MUCH better Cobblestone one. And you're telling me that they claim that TUNE UP was originally released on Muse? "T'AINT SO!!!!

JIMMY PONDER!!!! If so, that would make it the first GRASS ROOTS session, no?

LaMont Johnson?

If that's Joe kurking behind him, I'd guess UNITY. Can somebody digitally brighten the thing up to reveal who that is back there, all but invisible save the white shirt collar? I'm thinking I'm seeing Joe's black frame glasses, but maybe that's just wishful thinking...